joytech22 :
Laststop311, driver issues are basically a thing from 2006..
I own an Alienware M17X with a Radeon 7970M and drivers are absolutely fine.
Except that I sometimes get confused with whether or not I need Enduro drivers or not.
As the other guy noted, AMD has problems with drivers. I'll go further and say both on desktop & mobile:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Update-Radeon-HD-7970M-vs-GeForce-GTX-680M.87744.0.html
"Nearly 60,000 hits and more than 1,200 comments on 80+ pages: Our forum thread »Radeon HD 7970M problems« proves that AMD's mobile high-end graphics card was even months after its launch anything but mature."
80 pages of complaints doesn't lie and this is still having issues with their rehash. They even note some crap STILL is the same from the first time they did the review a year earlier.
"Although AMD promised optimizations, the improvements were only small. Despite several performance gains and bug fixes, the graphics card never worked completely as it was advertised. Only since Catalyst 12.11 Beta, which brought some innovations, did it begin to function reasonably well, but still not without its problems."
His point is valid. You may have had a great experience, but TONS of people would beg to differ. Maybe they'll get it right with the rebadge eventually. It's just beginning to function well?
"Although Nvidia's Optimus technology still performs better (Optimus is more reliable and features more visual notifications and comfortable functions), Enduro is now fairly useful."
Well, at least they are FAIRLY useful now. See the point? Just fairly useful though.
"Overall, the driver development is decent, but still requires improvements in some aspects. The following table lists the major fixes and what still needs more attention:"
I'll refrain from posting the table but you see where I'm going here...
"However, Enduro is still inferior to Optimus on almost all levels despite the small optimizations."
"The GeForce GTX 680M can only justify its higher price to some extent. The reader has to decide whether the superior energy efficiency, bigger feature set (3D Vision, PhysX etc.), and better driver support are worth the surcharge."
The surcharge means nothing if I don't have to live with problems for over a year that still are not fixed as shown. Features are just a bonus. As a gamer it's Drivers, Drivers, Drivers, just like in business it's location, location, location
Glad you don't depend on enduro, or you'd be in their forum making comments too
I love AMD, but wouldn't currently buy their laptop stuff or desktop until I see prototype, and will likely go NV for maxwell due to this last year alone. I require a product that works correctly, and don't want to wait a year for the beta testing to be over.