Just Ordered A Sager NP8265-S - Can't wait till it arrives!

Here are the specs:

Display: 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display featuring 95% NTSC Color Gamut in Matte Finished Surface
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU with 4GB GDDR5 Video Memory
CPU Processor: i7-4700MQ Processor
Memory: 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 8GB
Hard Disk Drive 1: 750GB 7200rpm SATA2 Hard Drive
CD/DVD: 6X Blu-ray Reader/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive
Wireless Network Card: Killer™ Wireless-N 1202 802.11 A/B/G/N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Module

I've been looking for something mobile to run my three monitors and I don't think this system will have a problem with that at all.

 

lol did you create an account just to say this?
Anyway, good for you..

 

lol, I sure did! But hopefully I'll make some more posts in the future once she arrives. My current laptop has a T6500 processor with 3 GB of ram and my desktop isn't much better. So this is a big improvement.

 

I can relate I used to try to game w/o discrete graphic too and it sucked.
I've been eyeing this model too
Welcome to NBR and keep posting

 

Who did you order from? I am eyeing the NP8255-S....

 

I've also been eyeing this baby for a while. I can definitely relate to having a pretty crappy system and wanting to upgrade.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts when you get it!

 

Congrats on the order and welcome to NBR, very appropriate name considering

 

I ordered it directly from Sager. They were offering a pretty good deal on this model a few weeks ago. There is a good chance the offer is still valid.

 

So far so good. I've had a fairly busy week so I haven't been able to play around with her as much as I would have liked. But I can tell you I love the fingerprint reader and back lit keyboard. Also the computer is very quite and feels solid.

 

My 8265-S is now basically a brick because of power issues waiting on the RMA but no gaming for this labor day weekend

 

Thats a bummer , well since Labor day is known as the unofficial end of Summer you might as well get outside and enjoy it, there's gonna be snow on the ground before we know it.

 

oh noooo I'll have to go outside???

 

yes, time to go outside.

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I don't like to be a party pooper, but you might go anhero on the very first driver update or when running your first game on your new laptop.
If I were you I would rather go with 770m that just works, rather than 8970m that just doesn't.
770M being maybe not the fastest in synthetic benchmarks, but probably you would have ended up having much better product overall.
Speaking of which, I've just ordered NP9390 (Clevo P375SM) with single 780m.

This is to replace my NP9170 (P170EM) laptop with 7970M, which turned out extremely disappointing and I gave up on it sometime ago whilst battling through endless b/s in and outside games.
Of course it's all about money and you get what you pay for.
However, if you want The Fastest, but still The Cheapest then you need to ask yourself "where's the catch?". - The catch might be Enduro, AMDs attitude, GCN as a platform, drivers, latency, lack of games compatibility with AMD's GPU or who knows.
What I know is the fact that all those "catches" AMD could easily alter, but they chose not to for whatever reason.

Or maybe you have already asked yourself and the answer is still AMD. - Then the only thing I can say is GOOD LUCK TO YOU!

 

What made you choose this model (same I am looking at) over any others you were looking at? I am looking at a MSI barebones MS 16F4 -018 which is basically the same. What were the alternatives you were viewing and what pushed you to your final decision?

 

The 7970M is not a case of just not working, some titles can have performance issues but it should still keep ahead of the 770M.

 

In its peak performance probably your right. But as a whole unit, 770M is a better choice.

I am guessing OP did not have a chance to try neither 770M nor 7/8970M (correct me if I am wrong). In this case then, same as OP I would have gone with 8970M basis purely on synthetic reviews, benchmarks or measured FPS/utilization % (which I am so sick of anyway).
All this data is completely irrelevant if you have bought the GPU to play games and not benchmarks.
The best example: after few tweaks I can get average of 35fps on my 7970M in Far Cry3 in dx11. This seems to be great until you (manage) switch the game on and see how unplayable it is - black-boxes, lags, latency, textures all over the place ... and Fraps showing ~35fps.
Speaking o which, you can go to e.g. notebookcheck and search for 7970M (or 8970M as well) review where you will read "For example, the Radeon HD 7970M performs more smoothly in Far Cry 3 (+15 %)"! And right next to - "Far Cry 3 - 1920x1080 DX11 Ultra Preset - 27.1 fps"!
Come on... really?

BTW how many weeks (months) we had to wait until AMD or the biggest tech-sites even acknowledged Enduro/latency issues, still claiming superiority of 7970M over 680M?

After the experience I had with 7970M the choice was quite simple for me and I've gone green this time (though paying extra £200 for 780M without hesitation)
Here worth considering also the following:
- less power consumption of 770M = less heat = less noise = less failure rate = less RMAs = better longevity = better balanced product overall
- 770M is £30/$45 cheaper which you can spend on games or vodka

 

I wanted a card that could handle multiple monitors. Right now I have four monitors, but I believe the card handles up to six where as from what I read the 770m can only handle three. I work a lot with spreadsheets so the more monitors the better. I know the 770 is a great card. It just wasn't the one for me in this case.

 

I was looking at alienware, asus and msi. There were a few reasons I went with Sager. The reviews were fantastic and all the components they use are all quality. Also in my case the particular build I was looking for happened to be on sale. In my opinion you just get more for what you pay through Sager.

 

You are correct. I didn't get to try either cards. I was leaning towards the 770m for a while, but it was not being offered with the build I wanted (which was on sale). Furthermore I believe the max monitors on the 770m are three which also helped push me to the 7970m. I haven't really pushed the card, but so far no complaints.

 

I haven't done any reading on how many monitors mGPU can handle, but I remember reading somewhere here that integrated-GPU (intel) handles all video outputs anyway. If this is true (I know it is with 7970M!) then it shouldn't matter if you have GF or AMD.
Is my thinking correct? - Please let me know what you think/know.

 

Yes on the optimus machines the intel handles the display outputs and are bound to it's limits.

In a non optimus machine (like the 9380/9390) kepler can technically handle 4 outputs and AMD chips 6 but you will be bound by the ports more than anything.