Just upgraded P177SM-A from GTX 970m to 980m

The title of the thread is wrong: GTX 870m to 980m it has to be called!

For all who may find it helpful oder interesting:

Since we can officially upgrade to GTX 980m in our P17SM-A´s, I thought I just do it.
The fact that the new card should be equal or even better than my X7200-setup with 2x GTX 680m was another reason, too .

So, if you´d like to see some benches or details on my P177SM-A with GTX 870m, you can take a look at this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/750682-short-test-p177sm-gtx-870m.html
If you´d like to see the results of my X7200 with GTX 680m SLI for comparsion, there is a link in my signature!

Let´s take a look at the "old" GTX 870m to compare:

Spoiler

And now here it is, the new GTX 980m:
Comes with a new plate at the back, the pics are with and without it!

Spoiler

Before I installed the card, I upgraded to the latest BIOS, then I removed the GTX 870m, installed the new 980m, and booted - without any problems!
The card was detected by Windows as soon as the laptop finished booting.

This is what GPU-Z says:


First Benches, out of the "box", nothing overclocked (except my i7 4700mq, but just to 3.6 GHz)

3DMark11:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

3DMark Vantage:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

3DMark FireStrike:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

3DMark Sky Diver:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

And at last for today benchmark of GRID Autosport - EVERYTHING on very high, all AA etc., ambient occlusion on etc.:



I did see some first results from other people/ sites, and I think the 4700mq might be a little bit of the bottleneck for the GTX 980m.

Will test some more tomorrow.

Does anyone know something about first unlocked vBIOS etc.?

 

TIRENZ! YOU LIVE! I haven't seen you in I think years =O

 

I pop up whenever you wouldn´t believe it .

But you´re right, I was not that active here anymore, did a little here and there, but not quite as often as I did back when I got my X7200 . But as you said, I am still alive ...

 

Haha I remember back in the day with my D900F being jealous of your X7200 going from 580Ms to 680Ms, then poof. Glad to see you back at the least. Are you in the upgrade cycle again? . Gonna try to acquire the P570WM with two 980Ms and a 4930K? XD

 

Well, it´s boring after a while NOT to upgrade something .
First I thought of buying a P377SM-A with GTX 980m SLI, but then I thought I´d wait a little longer for next gen GPU (1080m) and next gen CPU. Maybe next summer. Since the P570WM is discontinued as far as I know, that is no option . So I will stay with my X7200 for a little longer, I got attached to it, too . I see you have some nice toy, too . Are you satisfied with your P370SM3?

 

Well its pretty much got the power of your X7200 now in a smaller package. Nice upgrade :thumbsup:

 

Hehe I know how you feel.

And I am and I'm not at the same time. I want to get it a lot cooler and OC my gear a bit, but it's currently not really possible to do that XD. Otherwise it pretty much runs everything better than I could have hoped, especially considering my D900F. I've yet to meet an optimized game where I need to turn down settings in to hit 60fps. On the contrary, 120FPS is often not too easily in question with newer titles XD.

The perfectionist, gamer and quality demander in me wants a 4930MX (or at least a 4910MQ) to keep at 4.5GHz (or at least 4.2GHz on the 4910) constantly with daily clocks, using the P370EM's improved CPU heatsink & worse slave GPU heatsink with two 980Ms (which the extra heat from the worse slave GPU heatsink will not bother) so that I never have to worry about a game for basically ever XD.

The rational part of me realizes that what I've got now is no slouch and will be viable for a couple years well, even at stock, and my temps and such are well under control to my liking right now (prop machine with folded toilet paper for the win =D) so I'm in no desire to actually sell my body on the street corner for new parts (as much as I say I will XD).

 

If you can beat the upgrade itch I applaud your willpower as you say your machine is very capable.

 

Toss $10,000 USD at me and see if I don't end up with a 4930MX, 32GB DDR3 2400MHz kingston hyper-X RAM, two 980Ms, 4TB Samsung SSDs, the best internet package in my country and an air conditioner for my room within 1 month

 

oooor a 2500 dollar laptop and a new 7500$ savings account

 

Nah, I wouldn't buy a new laptop while I have this.

 

Yeah, D2 Ultima, you have a hell of a machine, but if you would buy a new one and give me 10,000$ too, I guess we come out with the same system with identical hardware ...
Well, to say the truth, right now I wouldn´t know what to do - since the new P7x1ZM that will come out soon that could be an option in the future, but once you have a SLI notebook you can hardly imagine to go back .

Back to title:
So, I did some more testing and btw got a 4800mq, which I overclocked at 3.9 GHz before the testing. So the results now are same hardware as yesterday, but with 4800mq - as you can see, no significant upgrade I would say, but I got it cheap, so why not .

Benchmarks with 4800mq, 980m stock clocks:

3DMark11:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

3DMark Vantage:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

3DMark06 (yes, still have it :
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

3DMark Firestrike:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

3DMark11 with overclocked GTX 980 (+135mHZ and some on the RAM, more is not possible without unlocked vBios):
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

3DMark Firestrike with overclocked GTX 980 (+135mHZ and some on the RAM, more is not possible without unlocked vBios):
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Notebook P17SM-A

And two other tests,

Catzilla Tiger:

Spoiler

Heaven Benchmark Basic Preset:

Spoiler

Heaven Benchmark Extrem Preset:

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The temps of the GTX 980m seem to be good, when not overclocked it does not get hotter then 75°, most of the time it is about 66-69°.
The 4800mq is getting hotter than the 4700mq, sometimes 89°... maybe I have to repaste, maybe I was a little too fast with pasting .

 

The 4800MQ is running a full 400MHz faster than your 4700MQ, so it's natural it'd get hotter. I suggest propping up the back of your computer with folded toilet paper blocks under the laptop's feet or something. I found that using 4 blocks of 2-ply paper folded to the size of the rubber feet (4 blocks each, mind you) works best, and I use 3 blocks for the front feet too. Literal 15 degree drop in some instances (max fans). Rare I ever cross 82 degrees at stock now, even in my hot room.

So good luck!

Also, were those temps using max or auto fans? If auto, that's fantastic.

 

Yes, it's obvious that it's getting hotter... I tested it with auto Fans...you think it's all right then?

LOL to the toiletpaper blocks ... Will try that...

 

Yes, with auto fans that's amazing for 3.9GHz benchmarking. I hit 97 deg on core 1 at 3.8GHz WITH my machine raised on max fans when rendering a video in handbrake. That being said, my CPU cooling is inferior to yours by design, and my room is SIGNIFICANTLY hotter.

 

Sorry, my mistake.