The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Advice on Sager Notebook

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by Arnbine, Apr 9, 2010.

  1. Arnbine

    Arnbine Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi im thinking of buying a Sager NP8690.

    Are they any good?
    Is there any other laptop as good as this one for the price?
    What graphics card do i go fo if i buy it?

    ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 5870 Graphics with 1GB GDDR5 Memory
    Or
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M Graphics with 1GB GDDR3 Video Memory
    Or
    Nvidia Quadro FX 2800M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 Video Memory

    I use my notebook for gaming and work.
    I would appreciate some advice thanks
     
    Arnbine, Apr 9, 2010
    #1
  2. ski_power

    ski_power Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    47
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I would like to go for 5870 since its got DX11(kinda future-proofing), and probably it saves power as compared to the nVidia.
    Quadro is only be useful if you use autocad, solidworks, ansys and stuff which are optimized for the quadro driver set.

    Probably the only thing you need to remember is that you should throw battery life out of the window. Anandtech states an idle (remember, IDLE) battery life of around 90 minutes.
     
    ski_power, Apr 9, 2010
    #2
  3. Mark121

    Mark121 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    77
    Messages:
    238
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yes sagers are great laptops if I had more money I would buy the NP8760
    with the ATI 5870.

    Also buy chance did you post something similar in guru3d
     
    Mark121, Apr 9, 2010
    #3
  4. fzhfzh

    fzhfzh Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    289
    Messages:
    1,588
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    For 15", the only competitor to 8690 is the upcoming GX640, which is cheaper, but with a weaker graphics card, and run around 10C higher in GPU temperature compared to the 8690 due to the single fan cooling.

    For graphics card choice:

    MR 5870 - highest raw performance with DX 11, if you don't have any special requirements get this.

    GTX 285M - lower performance than 5870, but has CUDA and PhysX, so if you need those or if you are a Nvidia fan get this.

    Quadro FX 2800M - basically a GT 9800M with quadro driver, lowest raw performance, but if you are doing a lot of 3D modeling etc work that runs on software that is highly dependent on OpenGL, and you know that it won't work on a consumer card, then get this.
     
    fzhfzh, Apr 9, 2010
    #4
  5. othonda

    othonda Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    717
    Messages:
    798
    Likes Received:
    15
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I chose the GTX285 for one reason and one reason only, It runs my flightsim much better than the ATI due to driver issues, if it wasn't for that I would choose the ATI 5870.
     
    othonda, Apr 9, 2010
    #5
  6. Arnbine

    Arnbine Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thanks for the help, yeah i did post something similar on Guru3d. I'm just wanting to make sure i make the right decision because i wont be buying a new laptop for a few years and i want it to last.
     
    Arnbine, Apr 10, 2010
    #6
  7. LaptopNut

    LaptopNut Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,610
    Messages:
    3,745
    Likes Received:
    92
    Trophy Points:
    116
    Not only will it last more than a few years, you will also be able to upgrade the CPU and GPU if you wanted to in the future as well.
     
    LaptopNut, Apr 10, 2010
    #7
  8. IKAS V

    IKAS V Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    1,073
    Messages:
    6,171
    Likes Received:
    535
    Trophy Points:
    281
    1) Yes
    2) No
    3) MR 5870, easy choice.
     
    IKAS V, Apr 10, 2010
    #8