I finally gave up on the DV6 after HP's official announcement about switchable graphics

So after today's official announcement by HP that basically says NO the dGPU will not support OpenGL (and reading in between the lines, they have no inclination to fix it) I decided to give my DV6 to my wife who doesnt really care if it supports OpenGL or not. As the FAQ thread starter I really had hoped that HP would work on a fix and properly support their customers. It seems like its not really their style so this will be my last ever HP purchase. Price has never been a factor in my tech purchases nowadays but rather something being fit for purpose is more important.

Soooo...I woke up bright and early today and began searching Taobao (China's ebay...I live in Shanghai for work) for laptops I could replace the dv6. I began to find Clevo based laptops at very reasonable prices from a Clevo reseller in Shanghai (the Clevo factory is actually only an hour away from Shanghai).

So I rang this guy up and went over to his store (which turned out to basically be an apartment converted into a tech geeks paradise). There were mobile GPU stacked to the ceiling and CPU trays full of i7s and i5s on tables covering all corners of his workshop. It was a sight to behold!

He basically asked me what setup I wanted, and made it right there for me. Literally took 15 mins. I am now a proud owner of a Clevo P151HM1/Sager NP8150 specd like this:

• i7 2720QM (ES - engineering sample - I wanted to try one and Ive read good feedback on these in forums. They are the pre-production chips and this 2720 came with 8MB cache rather than the normal 6MB retail version cache. So far performing well and cost half the price of the OEM chip. The dude that put together my computer said hes not had one fail on him yet and said if it did for me to take it back and swap one)
  
• Nvidia GTX 560M - 1.5GB GDDR5 (YAY OpenGL!)
  
• 1920x1080 matte LG screen (bright and sharp as hell)
  
• 8GB Samsung 1600Mhz ram
  
• Intel 6230 ABGN wireless + BT
  
• Seagate 500GB, 7200RPM (will upgrade later to SSD)
  
• 180W power brick

He even threw in a free laptop case, mouse, screen and keyboard protectors, and mousepad! Super nice guy

All together the machine came to just shy of USD $1100 (which is just ridiculous - its the same price as my DV6). I'm typing on it now and its a very well built machine. I'd suggest those frustrated with the DV6 to take a look at the Clevo/Sager. Weirdly enough, in China, Clevos are branded "Terrans Force" so thats what I have. As im a SC2 nut AND a Terran player it makes me smile

But I'm still going to push for a fix and complain as much as I have ever done about the DV6 on the HP forums, here, and whenever there's an article on a tech site talking about mobility graphics. I will also try and keep that sticky updated.

Now off to do some benchmarking

 

wow that price is pretty incredible

and im sc2 nut also

grats on the new laptop

 

But if i recall, youre a zerg

 

I which i had that lack of bureaucracy here in Europe.

 

Exactly the reason why I left London 6 years ago to live and work in Asia

 

I gave up a few days ago and a Sager is being built for me as we speak. Sure it cost more, but it's only money and I NEED a new PC ASAP. I'll never think of HP in the same way again, and I've been a customer since 1993. I've bought a total of nine HP products including desktops, a laptop, several scanners, laser and 3 inkjet printers. I doubt I'll be considering HP for future computers and may be not for printers either.

Congrats on the new laptop! I ordered my Sager with a 750 7200RPM drive, the 2720 CPU, 8GB mem, 95% matte HD screen, and the GTX 560M. that should be fast enough for my needs, as it's faster than the first DV6 that I bought/returned.

 

Same here Dave, I gave up on Hp.I don't really use opengl now so it doesn't mean much,but who knows if I will in the future.I know the Igpu supports opengl,but its pretty weak and I've been hearing about its dismal performance on certain opengl intesive programs.I've also heard a lot about the shotty craftsmanship of their product.I've compared theirs to the Dell xps and theirs seem to be a somewhat higher quality and greater customer satisfaction on their latest Xps models(at least the Xps 17)

Nvidia Optimus had the same exact problems as this AMd one,but they seems to have taken most ofthe kinks out,as well(correct me if I'm wrong) made a driver to manually switch the Gpu.Thats what I got from their support forum anyways.Don't know why Amd can't do the same?

Anyways its either the Toshiba Qosmio (16x900) 17" or the Sager for me. I'm typing on my Dell as we speak,but I promised myself I wouldn't buy from them again after they said they were out of replacement laptop models with my same graphics card(Nvidia card failed 6 months before 2 year warranty ended),so they sent me one with a completely gimped Gpu. 8600GTm to a 8400m GS.

 

Nvidia still uses muxless in most of their mid-ranges so they're vulnerable to the same issues. However, they do support their drivers a lot better.

For example, Heroes of Newerth wasn't working on Optimus recently.

 

Not sure who u are responding to, but my Sager has ONLY an Nvidia card--NO SWITCHING NEEDED, OR POSSIBLE.

 

I'd like to reiterate that the OpenGL issue driver-level and specific to Windows only.

It is incumbent on AMD to fix the issue, not HP and especially on all-AMD systems like the dv6z.

If they are having problems with OpenGL on Windows, but not Linux, they are clearly not ready to compete with Optimus in any level playing field.

http://www.cnet.com.au/alienware-m17x-r3-339318283.htm

 

!!!!! I saw this earlier and looked for the official news but couldn't find it. This is a disaster and I am glad that I returned my dv6 when I could. I had ordered another one with a 30% coupon to buy myself more time for a fix, but looks like HP is getting another one back as well.

Probably will just get a Sager NP5165 and overclock the GT555 to get it up to speed depending on the game.

HP also just got another nasty review with "OPENGL officially not supported. Photo/Video enthusiasts and future ID Tech gamers beware..." Gotta make it sound as bad as possible to drive away potential customers.

 

@LLStarks
Lol,
"The M17x is a glorious piece of kit" I think he meant to say it was a glorious piece of **** after trying out the Amd card it came with . It seems like nearly all Nvidia optimus users with problems similar to the AMD are using the 540m Optimus and below model.I remember seeing a nvidia listing in their forums that said an updated driver completely fix all issues with switching for the 555m,but for some reason I can' t find it now.I typed "switching problems with the Nvidia GTX560m Optimus" and I can't find any complaints,though the Toshiba Qosmio is the only laptop I've noticed that offers it.

Anyways,the point is Nvidia was facing the same problems as Amd,but since they developed this technology way ahead of AMD they have had time to fix the issues.They also, as mentioned earlier, have much better driver support than Amd.
Heres a Nvidia 555m user with Optimus who solved his problems with a single driver,though Nvidia's update system appears a little flawed.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=202840

 

'Toss anyone?

 

gtx mobile cards (gtx 460m/560m) support optimus but the laptops themselves currently don't

 

HP's answer has made up my mind for me.

I'm buying an NP5165.

It's only a question of how much I'm going to spend on it.

 

Congrats to the OP for the nice purchase Anyways I'm seeing several familiar faces writing about their "post-HP endeavors" so I guess I'll post mines too.

I decided to go with an XPS 15. Obviously the biggest drawback is going to be the weak graphics card. I realized, however, that so long as it works with the programs I use I don't need anything too powerful, considering I'm going off to college and all (goodbye pc gaming ).
Aside from that, though, it pretty much blows away the dv6t whatever way you look at it - better build quality, B+RGLED display, backlit keyboard, decent speakers, etc.

As for the official announcement, I've not been moved in either way. I made up my mind in early July and I intend to keep it that way. Even if I did care, though, I think the deceptive phrasing of the "acknowledgement" is a testament to how uncooperative HP can be with their customers. ("may not run certain Open GL software"? don't you mean ALL?).

 

since the DV7 have so many bad issues I decided to search some laptops. Now im planning to buy Asus G74SX-A1. It doesn't use Optimus, but in Nvidia site GTX560M support Optimus. What will be the consequence?? Can I use some OpenGL applications like Adobe Photoshop , Tina Pro etc in this laptop?

 

Only two machines support GTX Optimus.

* M17x with a 460M/560M and a non-3D screen
* The new Toshiba Qosmio with a 560M

Every other machine with a 560M is non-Optimus. Furthermore, no Optimus machine has OpenGL problems.

 

What laptop can you recommend to me. Use for Gaming (Most games can handle it) and for OpenGL application like Adobe and Tina Pro??

 

The Asus ROG laptops are huge. Much larger than other laptops of their class.

If you need a 17" laptop for OpenGL work, get the Sager NP5175 for light gaming or the NP8170 for heavy gaming.

 

The one disadvantage of the Sager / Clevo is battery life. Although users are reporting about 3 hours actually using the machine.

You can also go the cash only route to cut 3% off. XoticPC also has free 8GB now too, so even with stock machine and Windows 7 (i7-2630QM, GTX 560m, 8GB DDR3 1333, DVDRW) is about $1200 cash price shipped. It also has four RAM slots so you can add 8GB more later for 16GB total if desired. Their +$95 matte screen upgrade is supposed to be phenomenal. I'll find out when I get mine! In the end with the HP coupons, a similarly equipped machine will run you about $200 less then the Sager, but that $200 will buy you a 50% faster performing GPU, easily serviceable machine, future RAM upgrades, and a better built machine IMHO. You can also buy a larger PSU later and install a higher TDP GPU like the 580m or 6990m.

 

Could you provide me with the resellers contact details? I live in Beijing and I am looking for a gaming laptop. Seen some good deals on Taobao myself (too good to be true in some cases...) but heard some horror stories of people buying laptops from there also. Will be in China for the next few years so want to buy from here for warranty/techincal issues. Was looking at Alienware via Dell China, love the look of the M17x but its just too big while the M14x GPU doesn't cut it.

 

Hey, nice. I used to live in Beijing too.

The seller I used is this guy:
À¶ÌìCLEVO P150HM I7 2720QM GTX460MÉý¼¶ÎªGTX560M º¬3CÈÏÖ¤-ÌÔ±¦Íø

It's not going to work though if you dont speak Chinese. If you dont Id get a Chinese friend of yours to speak to him. If you look down the listing theres many variations in cost. Basically the cheapest are those with an ES CPU as they are engineering samples, then QS, qualification samples, then the retail ones. The warranty is basically from Clevo - for the chassis, screen and the video card - and from him for the CPU. But he said if there's anything wrong he'd just fix it himself. I actually had something wrong with my original CPU and I just took it back to him to swap. But I live in Shanghai now so its easy for me. In anycase, I dont think you can expect the kind of warranty/return policies as we have in the west. It's either you pay top dollar for an Alienware (completely overpriced here) or you go with something like this.

I've now added a SSD to the machine and it's screaming. Working really well and the screen is beautiful. With a stable OC i get over 2500 in 3DMark 11 and 10600 in 3DMark Vantage from the 560M. Your other choice is the DV6. Theyre on their way to fixing the switching problem now and the 6770M is just a little bit more powerful than the 555M in the M14x. Downside is, because we are in China, we cant get the FHD screen.

 

Like I've been saying, get the Envy 17 3D with a 30% coupon. It's an awesome deal.

It came out to about 1119 before tax.

 

Does this problem affect the quad edition as well?

 

what code? they say invalid for me

 

GEEKWEEK30 - and you have to configure it to above 1299 i believe

It may have expired don't know but there are also GEEKWEEK25 and GEEKWEEK20

There'll probably be deals in the future but they are far more rarer than the 30% coupons that come out every week for the dv6t.

 

Sorry, I had given up on this issue ever been fixed and hence I stopped coming to this forum, so I'm a little confused.

Doesn't the official announcement say that dGPU WILL support OpenGL if we change it to the fixed mode? in that sense, technically dGPU will support OpenGL, no? Please correct me if i am misunderstanding the announcement!

 

Yes.

But looking at your sig you have the 60xx version... So it doesn't even affect you.

 

it shouldn't, but my harddrive is failing. It's been making clicking noises at random since the day I bought it 1.5 months ago. The vendor through whom I bought knows that and as soon as the graphics issue will be settled, he would replace my dv6.

 

Forgive me for being nosy, but wouldn't it just be easier to just exchange the hard drive?

Also, the clicking noise might be because of some aggressive power management on the hard drive's part, I believe you can disable that feature.

 

haha no problem it's a valid question. I thought about that at first, but the vendor is just a reseller and all they can do is just replace the whole laptop. As for HP itself, they said I could bring it down to their building and that if it failed the hard disk test, they would replace the hard disk. I did that test myself and it actually passed so...all the more i am much more interested in your suggestion as to why it may be making the clicking noise. may i know how to disable that feature? also, i made a thread about the clicking noise and included a sound clip of it. you can check it out here if you wish to:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-pavilion-notebooks/586109-strange-clicking-noise.html

 

Here's a thread I found with a quick search. There are multiple links in it so one of them should help you.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...fficial-hard-drive-clicking-noise-thread.html

 

@kurosawa79
so you are happy with the one you bought via Taobao? Is that guy in SH or BJ? (i am in office, thus cannot check taobao ~)

I am desperate to buy some gear in China but it is quite difficult (read expensive) to do so as it appears...

 

Yep very happy with what I have. The guy is in Shanghai. See that your office bans Taobao too...haha you dont happen to work for one of the Big 4 do you????

 

WOw can you hook me up since you live like 1 hr away from the Clevo factory?!

 

Late reply on my end....

nope not Big4 but in the Big3 of marketing

I will check your guy, though I am currently more leaning towards an Alienware m14x .. ( i know the design is NSFW ... haha)

I'll be in the states soon, thus will buy there i think.

 

So how does everyone feel now that the Open GL issue has been fixed with Catalyst 11.8?