dv6t-61XX / dv7t-61XX Switchable Graphics Discussion

Right. XoticPC just offers a 3% discount with cash, which is nice IMHO. Same way gas stations do it too.

 

yes, I just spoke with someone there. they seem really nice.

If I get an Nvidia card (such as the 560), is it FOR SURE, that there will zero issues with programs like FSX seeing the Nvidia card, so that I'll be able to get the DX10 option inside of FSX? ie, are all of the auto switching issues BEHIND Nvidia?

 

If you require OpenGL (and if you just play games the answer is probably no) I would recommend going elsewhere. This problem has no guarantee of being fixed.

 

There is no Optimus with the NP8130. Dedicated GTX 560m only!

 

as an aside, it's also illegal to ban the use of credit cards for purchases under X amount. so next time some jerk store doesn't let you use your credit card, you got some dirt against them.

 

I actually probably won't play many games on it at all. My main need, beyond normal use, would be for 3D modelling software like Google Sketchup, AutoCad, or Chief Architect. Maybe a little Photoshop, but probably nothing the IGP couldn't handle. Most of these require OpenGL and I don't think any support DirectX, so I would be out of luck right?

So, if you we going to go to a different laptop, although similarly priced and spec'd, what would you recommend? I'd look into the Envy line, but the heat issue really bothers me, although I wouldn't mind having a backlit keyboard again. Suggestions? XPS, Asus, other?

 

The first page of this thread lists some alternatives

 

Thanks. Didn't realize someone was still updating the first post. Appreciate it!

 

ah! that's perfect! I think you just helped me make up my mind to order the 8130 with wide gamut HD screen!

 

I will too, probably tomorrow or Thursday.

 

The more time I spend on muxless, the more I realize...that the design is much like years ago, when you had the Orchid Righteous 3D add on card...you would basically come out of your video card, into the Righteous, and it would feed your monitor. In 2D, your normal video card would feed through the passthrough of the Orchid to the monitor. When you fired up a, then Opengl or Direct 3D app...the righteous took control and "muted" the base card...there was a loud "click" when the Orchid took over.

Muxless is much like that...except AMD has mucked up the opengl drivers. Other than that...the system works pretty well. If you have any DX11 games like Dirt 2/3 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call if Pripyat...you can see how the AMD takes over. Once you open a game...the system enables the AMD card and "mutes" the Intel. That is how it's done on the Pavillion. On the Envy, you still have the "muxer" in play. Under normal circumstances, you choose the default card...example..plugged in...I run the AMD 6850M ALL the time. On battery, Intel. I can manually switch back and forth, and yes...there is a black screen in between the changeover...so the Envy is NOT muxless. I wish that all computer manufacturers would leave the muxed system in place...gives the purchaser more control over his system. I get the "smoother" transitions of the muxless system...but it causes issues with even Nvidia systems.

 

@ Dave1812 and HTWingNut

I also went through the DV6 6100 nightmare, you can find quite a few angry posts of mine on this thread. I have done a thorough research and concluded that a replacement laptop could be either the Sager NP 8130 or the Force16F2 (=Power Pro 11:36, from Powernotebooks)

In the end I went with the Force. For about $1200, you can get a powerful combo, with equivalent parts as our "bad-old" HP, but with the 560gfx. When I get it I'll let you guys know.

On other threads they mentioned that the sound quality and the webcam is better in the Force, but of course the Sager is bigger brand - which I don't care much about.

However, if you go with the Sager, check out Prostar as well: they have free shipping, and there is even a $30 discount coupon floating around (google).

 

thanks, Bret! I'm going to try to make a final decision tomorrow morning so that I can get something on order. I'm going a bit nuts with my old Toshiba laptop, as it can't really handle the programs i need to run for photo post processing. and of course, I can't use it for even the old version of Flight Simulator, so I'm cranky. LOL! j/k, but after having had the DV6-6000 run FSX so wonderfully, I'm having a bad case of FSX withdrawal.

 

Another interesting tidbit. Ran Heaven 2.5 DX11 benchmark tool, with Hwinfo64 open. Before running Heaven...the AMD GPU was not present in the scanned hardware sensors. Once I fired up Heaven...the AMD 6770 showed up funning at 700 MHZ. The Intel still showed...but the AMD took over. Got pretty warm, but nothing to fret about...Interesting how the muxing plays out...

 

XoticPC is offering free shipping to NBR users. But each reseller seems to have their promotions. XoticPC has the free RAM, so basically $60 off your order and free shipping. LPC-Digital.com is a great place too. The user "babyhemi" is the rep here at NBR.

 

Where can I find these offers?

 

The only trouble with my Nvidia Optimus with creating new app profile for each game that fails to get detected.

I gotten more hassle and annoying problems with the manual switching of my AMD systems. And my huge peeve with the lack of real driver support that came with it. I really like AMD hardware but their driver support for switchable is appalling. I hope it would be changed before I get interested in AMD switchable again.

Price Premium on direct and long driver support appeals to me more than much cheaper, faster hardware with limited support.

 

Just go to Xoticpc.com, when you configure the machine select the xoticPC RAM promo button in the RAM section. Then PM usernames Justin@XoticPC or Hutsady@XoticPC here at NBR about it.

 

Dynamic switching will work even if you upgrade the CCC. As for using 6000 drivers, I think the last time I tried it didn't work. Says that I didn't have the required hardware on my 6100 or something. Sure DirectX works fine on the 6100 but that has never been our problem.

 

there's no promo button for any laptop

just a +$70 radio button for a special.

 

Sager NP8130 (Built on Clevo P151HM1) XOTIC PC

 

why would i want anything more powerful than a np5165 to get that deal?

 

That's up to you, but the discussion was on the NP8130. The whole point is that you can buy a machine with a much more powerful GPU and overall better build quality for not much more than the DV6t. The NP5165 has worse GPU performance than the 6770m, albeit, can be overclocked and has somewhat matured drivers including OpenGL support.

If you look at a 5165 similar to the DV6t QE with i7-2630qm and 6770m with 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, and Intel Advanced N Wi-fi, the 5165 is only about $100 less than a comparably equipped NP8130 with a GTX 560m, not to mention the NP5165 comes with a glossy screen and is +$95 for the matte.

So you can go DV6te for ~ $1000, NP5165 ~ $1100, or NP8130 for ~$1200.

Personally being a Sager owner for my last two laptops, and owning two HP's in the past, including an Envy 14, I can say that the Sager is far and above a better built machine.

The one big advantage of the HP is battery life. With the 9-cell you can achieve 6+ hours. On the NP8130, it's only about 3 with the 8-cell.

 

Big advantage of the dv6tqe is probably the portability. It's thinner than I anticipated, and the steel gray looks even thinner because it's not rectangular but trapezoidal. It's only 5 lbs too.

But that's a lot of performance for only 1200. If you're getting a desktop replacement, it's a much better option (the sager).

 

I agree, portability and battery life. If you're not going to game with it much, it's a good alternative too. Even though I won't game with it much I know I'll kick myself for not having something decently powerful enough for Battlefield 3. Probably the sole game I'll play on it. In any case, the NP8130 isn't that much bigger or heavier.

DV6T : 14.9" x 9.7" x 1.3" (avg) / 5.8 lbs
NP8130: 14.8" x 10.1" x 1.5" (avg) / 6.8 lbs

HP just put out a 30% off coupon:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...com-30-off-customized-hp-laptop-999-more.html

 

1200 before windows 7, dont forget that

and i agree, i was very surprised how thin my dv7qe was

 

True, but you can get Windows for about $30 if you're a student, or through other means for cheap (legally). Or worse case < $1300. Of course you can find a similar equipped DV6tqe for about $1000 usually with coupons. So I guess user has to decide of it's worth $300 or not to have 50% more GPU power but slightly bigger and heavier and less battery life.

 

Don't forget it also weighs a pound more.

 

A pound is nothing really. Sure holding a 5.8 lbs object in one hand and a 6.8 lbs object in the other you'd notice. But give it to someone at two different times and ask them how they weighed, they'd probably say about the same. I've played that game before. I've gone through probably a half dozen notebook PC's in the last few years thinking a pound would matter, but it usually ends up being it is less powerful to do what I want it to.

 

still, its like 30% more expensive

but yeah, for a desktop replacement its probably worth it to get the sager but just get a desktop to replace a desktop imo

 

And 30 cents is 30% more than $1.00. It is not a desktop replacement. It's one pound heavier, and still portable.

This: Alienware M18x Gaming Laptop Details | Dell

and this: Sager NP7282 Custom Laptop (Built on the Clevo X7200)

are desktop replacements.

 

so yeah a 1300 dollar laptop is 30% more expensive than a 1000 laptop.

 

Let me think about this for a minute...I can get a DV6 that has major graphics issues (as many of you know I already have owned 2 DV6's and both were returned for refunds), for $1,200...or I can get a Sager for an additional (roughly) $400 and have a faster gpu (discrete ONLY--YES!) and be able to run ANY program I want? Hmmm...I think...drum roll please...I'll go with the Sager!

 

Wait, $400? $1300 gets you the basic NP8130 with Blu-ray with Win 7 Home Premium. $1000 or so for a similar equipped DV6tqe. Still $300 is nothing to sneeze at, but considering you get a much more powerful and well built system not to mention minimal driver issues, I'll choose the Sager.

 

yeah except this is 300$, not 30 cents

and you mentioned it as a desktop replacement, not me

also 30 cents is 30% of a dollar, not 30% more

 

Hypothetically speaking here. If/when HP/AMD release a fix for our little dilemma here won't you guys pretty much be out $400? Yes the GPU is better but is that honestly going to matter for you? I don't know about you all's but my DV6 has been able to handle the most graphic intensive programs that I have thrown at it superbly and I feel confident that it will last me years to come.

Also, am extra 1lb of added wait is a huge jump in terms of mobility. If you say otherwise, then you're either the hulk or very deranged or misinformed or just speaking out your butt.

 

in the case of the gtx 560m, they'd still have a better graphics card but at the cost of a thicker and heavier laptop

 

I'm not concerned about a few hundred dollars. I needed a replacement laptop two months ago. I can't wait forever for HP to MAYBE get their act together. Or AMD. If I order a Sager now, the build/ship time shouldn't be more than a week or so longer than if I could call HP tomorrow to order a "fixed" DV6. I'm done waiting. For those of you that have financial constraints I understand not wanting to spend more, but I can pretty much buy what I want, within reason of course. For example, I don't want to spend over $2000 for an even faster unit, as my needs aren't that stringent.

 

If you don't mind the extra cost and weight then I agree that you should get the Sager. Honestly probably should have gotten it first if money wasn't an issue. From what i'v been told on these forums, Sager makes very high quality laptops.

 

The dv6t is a great laptop if you're trying to stay around $1000 but if you've got a more flexible budget, Sager is definitely better considering the jump in GPU

 

I hadn't heard of Sager before I began posting on this forum, which occurred after I got my second DV6 (6100) which had the SG issue. It seems that folks are pretty happy with the Sager, so I'll give it a try.

 

just be sure you order it from a site like xoticpc and not directly from sager because apparently sager customer support is bad and you're better off letting the retailer you buy it from (such as xoticpc) deal with them if you have any problems

 

It also usually ends up being cheaper and it gives you better screen options

 

and all of that is pointless if i'm looking for a laptop that can hold its own in a work environment and play games if i want it to rather than a dedicated gaming laptop

 

hey Indy, mind giving the link to the AMD forums on the OpenGL fix issue? much appreciated, thanks

 

I'm not trying to convince anyone. It's not a "gaming" laptop per se. It has a simple and elegant look to it, that can easily "hold its own" in a work environment. I used mine, as an engineer, for a couple years. It's not like an Asus that looks like a stealth jet or an Alienware that looks like a light up toy. It's a basic looking laptop.

 

If you want a Sager, get a Sager. All other things equal, it's a better GPU and a heavier machine. A fine machine.

The HP is also a fine machine. No need for one-upsmanship.

 

Sager clearly has got better specs and if you can afford it and are a heavy gamer or whatever, it's definitely a better buy.

But the portability of the dv6t isn't so much the weight but the size.

This is definitely much bigger than the dv6

 

I do plan on ordering from xoticpc, actually. Getting ready in a few minutes to finalize the options and call them to order.

 

I just measured my current laptop's thickness--a Toshiba Satellite (roughly 5 years old IIRC). It's 1.5". the Sager is 1.69". Not much difference and the Toshiba's thickness hasn't been an issue for me, given how I use a laptop.