ENVY 17-32XX Intel Ivy Bridge (AMD 7850M)

Envy 3D most definitely has 120Hz screen... maybe(?) not supported by the HD 4000

 

That could be, its the reason why the Alienware 3D laptops don't have switching. The old Envy 17 3D 2xxx had the 120Hz screen and graphic switching though. If this new one doesn't they probably should have indicated it. It could also be a software problem I guess. I wish there was a new regular Envy 17 owner out there who could verify whats in their device manager under graphic devices its driving me crazy.

Going to re-install from the backups just to be sure and kill some time lol.

 

yeah thats prolly a good idea. And I think alot of the alienware/sager comps dont have gfx switching . But I dont c intel going backwards in the 3d support department. Where there new drivers or something?

 

Did some research. PowerTune overclocks too

Sent from my SGH-i917 Windows Phone using Board Express

 

I stand corrected then

 

Its very conservative when it does though

Sent from my SGH-i917 Windows Phone using Board Express

 

Hi Everyone,

After getting the runaround from HP today, I just received an email, statiing my shipment will be delayed until 6/26. Kind of ridiculous, as that's within 2 days of the current ship date for new Envy orders on HP's website.

They also followed up, with a 15% coupon off my *next* purchase, which is pretty much worthless. Anyone had success in getting the 15% applied to the current order ?

I'm calling HP again tomorrow. I totally want the Envy, but I'm not sure if I can wait what seems another 2-3 weeks. My current laptop is in bad shape. I wonder if HP will offer anything further (or allow the 15% discount on this Envy) to keep the order.

Any advice is much appreciated. Thank You.

 

If you're ideal config happens to be the quick-ship model, demand to be sent one of those immediately.

 

I would do what the guy above me said if urs matches up. if not, keep the current order but demand to speak to a supervisor in a pissed off state... they should give u $50 off. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the 15% applied to it and I didnt wanna escalate it any further

 

Got mine a day early. The good it's new, the bad... well it's just same old Envy. I always wonder if Envy's are designed by left handed people. Otherwise, why on earth would you place a power plug and most other ports on the right hand side...

 

haha what were u expecting? we all know what the exterior is like

 

well, I didn't look at the exterior I just ordered it when i saw ENVY 17 refresh in the news. Anyway, we'll see how this plays out... Installing Battlefield 3. As long as I can play with good amount of eye candy I'll deal with the stupid design.

 

u should be able to pull decent framerates at near ultra settings (30+) and high should be like 40. U should oc the card

 

I'm a little worried and a tad disappointed.

Just installed SWTOR... was hoping that I could play the game at the "High" preset (there is no "Ultra" preset) @ 1080p (I don't want a lower rez than that). I am at the "home station" where the player population is very light... haven't tested it out actually combating NPCs or other players in PVP yet.

I'm getting a pretty abysmal framerate unfortunately. I had to lower the graphical settings to med-low and am not even sure what the framerate will be like when I am in battle. It's not that I'm worried about playing this game at low settings, it's just that with a game from late 2011, the GPU already seems to be struggling just a bit. I was honestly expecting to play this game at the highest settings and 1080p without a problem considering this game is an MMO and other people's experience with the similarly performing 660M seems to be good.

The thing is that I really really like this computer! It's so awesome looking and very clean+modern. You can't get this look with any other 17-incher... the Sager is so big and bulky while the Alienware m17x is so gaudy (not necessarily a bad thing but I'll be having this with me at school).

If anything, I will probably go for the Sager if push comes to shove.

What should I do???
--I don't plan on playing any other games except SWTOR, Supreme Commander, and Star Trek Online.

Edit: Does anyone think that a game like SWTOR/MMO will ever get to the point where the recommended requirements will exceed what I have in the next 2 years? Do MMO's ever do something like that at all where they increase the system requirements as they add to the game?

Edit 2: Just wanted to also add that I seem to be getting 28-60FPS at the "home station" on SWTOR. (Low player popluation, not in battle) I will do some more "real world" testing tomorrow as I continue to play the game.

 

7850m vs 670m?

 

uhh just a quick question... are u sure ur using the 7850m? the performance is very similar to the 660m (as shown by benchmarks by others) so if tehy can play it on high u should be able to also. If u havent done it already, I would recommend u go into the bios and change graphic switching to "fixed" and then when u are about to start the game, make sure u switch it to the 7850m

with a good OC it comes very close to the 3dmark11 score of the 670m (like 100 pnts difference)

 

How good is the build on this?

What does the radiance display compare to? How good is the display? Is it glossy?

Any reviews?

 

How exactly do I "switch" to the 7850m? Is there a way to just disable Integrated Graphics entirely? When in class, I will always have my plug with me.

 

i would recommend u read the previous posts in this thread haha.. the people who have gotten the 17 have shared some insight on it. The build quality is generally good with some misshaps. The radiance display is supposedly one of the best displays out there (I think) and yes its glossy. no legit reviews but small tidbits of info from new owners in previous posts

 

Also, I don't see an option in BIOS where I can do what you are saying.

 

uhh its kinda hard for me to tell u but if u load it up it should be right there somewhere.. from the previous model its default is "dynamic" but you change that to "fixed"... if u could give me a pic ur bios it would be helpful or of the catylst center

as for ur previous question, when u change it to fixed. u can right click on the desktop and choose which card u wanna use (integrated hd 4000 or 7850m) and as for keeping it at 7850m, u can choose to have it switch when u plug in charger or keep it always on one or the toher

 

Thanks for your help! I think they must have changed the BIOS since the last system then because that option is not in there at all. I will attach a pic shortly.

 

b4 u go through the hassle of attaching apic, just right click on desktop and c if that option is there for choosing what card.. and browse through ur AMD CCC and c if the option is there haha

 

Well ok, was able to sort of figure it out and now I am uber happy!

The option was not available, unless I was totally blind, in the BIOS to change the graphics to "fixed."

But in the Catalyst Control center, there is an option to select which graphics option to use (for each specific application) in the "Switchable Graphics" section.

"High Performance" = 7850M
"Power Saving" = Integrated 4000

Apparently, my system was using the Integrated 4000 for the game while plugged in so I had to exit the game then switch the setting to "High Performance."

While I am still not getting over 30FPS in "High Mode" in SWTOR, the frame rate is averaging 25FPS, which is good enough for me. Now that will probably change when I get into more action, but I'll be okay lowering the settings just a bit.

SUPER HAPPY NOW!!!

 

Well, I finished recording a comparison between the Envy 17 and DV7. It's my first video ever, so I'm not sure if I did a great job, but hopefully it'll be helpful. It's currently rendering in Windows Movie Maker, so once it's done I'll get it uploaded to Youtube.

 

hmm that still dosent really seem right... the 560m (similar to 650m) gets 32+ fps on ultra which according to notebook check is "1080p highAf high AA"

ur 7850m should do better... maybe needs driver updates? :S

can't wait haha... ill stay up and wait for it . I just hope ur internet is fast enough to upload it without taking a couple of hrs

 

I look forward to watching your video!!!

 

Would me playing in Windowed mode make a difference? It's the windowed mode where I still have access to the Windows bar at the bottom if I have to switch between apps.

And as for driver updates... I mentioned earlier about having some confusion on what I need to do to update graphics drivers. I couldn't find anything on the AMD website re: the 7850M. I think someone mentioned me going to a website for beta drivers or something but I didn't know how to navigate that website.

I'm pretty dumb when it comes to this stuff and sort of scared too cuz I don't want to mess anything up.

Edit: The user gave me the link for the beta drivers: guru3d.com

 

Ive heard many issues with radeon graphics and SWTOR. I would defiantly check/re-install drivers.

 

well in that case, I would recommend you enjoy ur envy 17 as it is right now as drivers start rolling out and windowed mode might make a diff im not sure.. i would prolly try full screen mode

 

Thanks again for helping me out, I really appreciate it!

The graphics driver that I am using is (or should be) the latest "official" released driver for this system, at least according to HP's Support Website. Not too sure if I want to try beta drivers just yet.

 

no problem i really dont have anything better to do haha

 

don't have my envy 17 yet, but i can confirm that on a dell xps 17 with 3d 120hz screen, there is no switchable graphics. something about because of the screen, the discrete graphics card had to be directly connected.

and yes, that really kills battery life.

thus, the envy 17 i ordered is the 2d screen.

 

Don't wait up. I broke the video up into 6 parts since it's 25 minutes total. At the rate my 3mbps upload is going, it'll be a few hours before all 6 parts are uploaded.

I have them all queued up, so it should be done in the morning.

For a preview of things to come, here are the 6 parts:

Part 1 - Intro and Lid comparison
Part 2 - Screen Comparison
Part 3 - Keyboard Comparison
Part 4 - Port Selection
Part 5 - Sound Comparison
Part 6 - Heat and Noise Comparison

I did these all in one sitting since the DV7 is going back tomorrow. I might've left some stuff out, but it is what is is. I have a whole a new respect for people that do video comparisons and are able to keep it short and concise. It's harder than it looks even when you have notes.

 

oh god nvm then haha. i wish i could upload them for u. i guess ill c in th emorning be sure to post a link, ill watch it first thing haha

 

The screen is really nice on the 3d version and the slightly older Envy 17 3D with the AMD 6850M supported graphic switching is what makes this issue disappointing. It used to drop down to 60hz on Intel HD graphics and back up to 120hz on the 6850M. I'm going to call HP later today but I'm sure I already know the answer and I'm going to have to return it.

 

Ho does it compare to the 7690M (No XT), is it any good, how much score did u get with a 7690?, because i want to buy it too, but i dont know if there is a lot of difference between the best 7690 and that 7850
Thanks!
Max.-

 

The thing that is a bit strange is that in all the Intel PR about the HD graphics line (3000 & 4000), they tout 3D capabilities (at least for Blu Ray DVDs)... which, correct me if I am wrong, implies 120Hz operation.

 

Let us know what you find out. This would be very disappointing and I would also have to return for the 2D. Perhaps it's something that could be fixed with a bio update.

 

the 7690m scored less than 2000, with a small oc, the 7850m scored over 3000

 

My Envy 17 is arriving today. Can't wait!

For those of you who already have theirs, can you tell me how well the screen handles running at non-native resolutions? For some games, it looks like the Radeon 7850m won't be able to run at 1080p without some slowdown.

If I drop it down to 1600x900 or 1366x768, how does it look on screen? Does it look acceptable or not, in terms of aliasing, jaggies, blockyness, refresh rates, colors, etc?

Thanks.

 

I'm new to these 3dMark scores. What does 2000 vs 3000 translate to in terms of frames-per-second on most games?

 

That's an overall score. It includes the CPU and GPU scores. In terms of FPS, stock the 7850m should be at least 50% faster. NotebookCheck.net shows it at almost double in terms of 3dmark11 gpu scores. At 30fps a 50% increase would be 45 fps.

 

where are those videos maverick!

 

Does the Envy 17 3D support RAID in the BIOS ?

Are the SATA ports for the 1st and 2nd hard drive running at the same speed?

Huge gains for the 2 SSDs in RAID 0 and very much diminishing returns for 3+...:

Benchmarks SSD RAID 0 Charts 2011

 

Well, the first video failed to upload so the rest of of them didn't load either.

I'll try again during lunch.

 

:cry: Aw crap I really wanted to see those

 

damnit a day long wait

 

I have two noises that I don't like. Can someone confirm or deny if they have it with their envy's?

1. Light "rattling" static noise. Let the computer idle for a bit, open c drive and see if you can hear the difference. If you have this noise it should appear briefly for 10 seconds. If you continue browsing folders the noise will stay. This doesn't appear to be HD noise.
2. Power supply noise. I have PSU next to laptop and it has constant noise.

 

So how many of you are having their laptops ship on the 26th? Something tells me there is a going to be a plane with a lot of hardware on it