New Sandy Bridge CPUs

Well, according to Sager's site, laptops such as the NP8150 and NP8170 have received the 2nd-phase of sandybridge CPUs. From what I can see, there's a 2760qm @ 2.4GHz, a 2860qm at 2.5ghz, and a 2960qm at 2.7ghz. I wonder though if these new cpus are more than just clockspeed upgrades.

Source: NP8150 Configurator

 

So the i7-2960XM runs on the 3D model, but i am not able to use XTU even on my brand new "OLD" i7-2920XM, because the hardware can´t handle it...

custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks

 

what's xtu? 10chars

and it seems the 3d model can only be had with a nvidia gtx 560m / 485m / 580m. no ati.

 

XTU is the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility program that is needed to be able to use the unlocked multipliers at all. It directly writes parameters into a part of the bios and thus bios support for XTU is mandatory to be able to use it...which is disabled on 3D model...so i can`t even undervolt it

YES on internal monitor 3D is Nvidia only...

 

aww man, just got my laptop finally with a 2820 and now its 200mhz x 4 behind already... I hate technology! haha it moves too damn fast. Wouldn't be as bad if I didnt get the first laptop in July only to wait until the last day of Aug to get it replaced due to doa. (Thanks Sager! ) I could have at least said I had it 2 months and was current. No, I had it 3 days now and its behind and I couldn't even return it because they wasted my return period.

Now got slower CPU and dead pixel on new screen lol

 

I gather it's a BIOS lock. The NP8170 and NP8150 share the same GPU / CPU configurations, and while it's great that Clevo produces a truly portable laptop that can keep up fps for fps with about 85% to 90% of available desktops on the market, even a ODM notorious for producing exceptional factory cooling designs has to draw a line to how much power a laptop should consume. Case in point: the NP7282 can be configured with two PSUs @ 300w per PSU for a total of 600w. The reason is that the i7-990x with SLi'd videocards would trip the single PSU under heavy benchmarking (ie: Furmark and wPrime at the same time); with enough complaints being recorded that Clevo / Sager were compelled to offer the 2nd PSU as a standardized option.

When we get to the NP8170 / NP8150s, we're no longer in the realm of a computer whose battery essentially functions as an uninterruptible power supply, but rather a computer that's expected to be stable day-to-day be it playing NFS: SHIFT 2, CRYSIS, DIRT 3, etc.; or sitting on an office desk being used to numbercrunch excel's calculaitons. With this comes portability. It's enough to tote a 180w or 220w PSU, but with each laptop PSU weighing anywhere from 2 to 3 lbs, if xtu were to be enabled, what's to say that overclockig wouldn't require the purchase of a splitter and a 2nd psu (another 3 lbs) to carry? If the presence of 1 PSU and XTU were to cause trips, and possibly component damage, then Sager / Clevo would have a great deal of liabilities unless every warranty explicitly exempted XTU use from warranty protection, and that would be tricky to prove (unless someone decided to ridiculously overclock the CPU).

So it's not that Sager doesn't want its clientele to overclock their rigs, but more that Sager has its own interests to protect, as well as trying to keep a wider customer-base happy. If you're truly craving oc'ability with an unlocked multiplier / XTU, the only laptop I can think of off-hand with that is the Alienware m18x, which has SLi, an i7-2920xm that can be OC'd to a 4GHz Turboboost, but has virtually no portability like the NP7282, but is still relegated to a mobile CPU rather than the desktop cpu's the NP7282 can possess. However, Alienware is a subsidiary of DELL, and even Alienware is MANY, MANY, times bigger than Sager and could write off the liability costs of OC'd 2920xm's as "comes with the territory". Everything is a give and take. Gain performance, lose some portability. Gain stability, lose ultimate speed. But even if one can't OC a NP8170 or NP8150... there is something to be said for having the plainest laptop in the game, but the one with the biggest teeth.

Jason

Update: the 2960xm, per LPC-Digital, seems to be unlocked... perhaps Sager is listening?

 

See if your vendor is willing to work with you on some sort of compromise. Argue that had the first unit not been DOA, the circumstance of receiving outdated tech would not have occurred.

 

Problem is though its not the vendor, its Sager!

Vendor had to fight to get them to do a whole laptop swap finally after a GPU and WiFi card swap failed.

It sucks, vendor is like me. Stuck in middle but in the end they are just a point of sale. They cant force Sager to accept a refund, though Sager delayed the process months and first one was DOA. Who the heck sends a DOA laptop and wants to just send me parts and not offer a full exchange? Sager! And now Sager has wasted so time shipping things back and forth and what not its not cost effective for them to take a return.

TBH the screen with 1 dead and 1 stuck pixel and still has minor red ghosting thing upsets me a bit more than anything. Last screen had no dead/stuck pixel. Funny thing is I bet had I gotten the no DOA pixel thing same crap would have happened. Would have said, well you are now outside 30 days or you have to purchase that again for the replacement.

I really am disappointed in sager.

 

I don't want to go OT, but if your 95% gamut has red ghosting, it's DOA. I asked xoticpc about that and was told as such. Who'd you buy from (and then I wanna keep this on topic).

 

This sucks, I ordered an NP8150 a week ago with the 2820qm ... Now I am thinking of returning it before I even got it.

Should I return it if the reseller wont change it to the 2860qm?

 

Are You sure that the P170HM 3D model does not support Intel XTU?

 

just contact your reseller and tell them you want to change your cpu to the new one. If they have the new cpu in stock, they'll definitely swap it.

 

YES, i was unable to get it for a Clevo machine.

 

My first one had the ghost screen, but also had a dud GPU when it came and bad wifi card. They mailed me GPU and wifi card after waiting 2 weeks (saying was out of stock and didn't want to take from another laptop) and before could even do that swap laptop wouldn't post anymore.

They had me finally send back laptop back and just wanted to random part swap but after fighting my reseller was able to at last min to get them to do a swap.

Reseller is Xotic also but like I said, they have been great, its Sager who is issue. A reseller can only do so much. In the end its ALWAYS Sagers call.

Two screens in a row with Ghosting issue make me wonder if all the 95% have it and just some people dont catch it as its not the whole screen that does it. Mine does it in a 2" wide gap straight down the middle of the screen if I move mouse slow on a black background.


Anyway on the CPU topic.

I don't think these CPU are in stock at anyone JUST yet as Intel just released to market now (sept). They will prob be getting them in the next week or two thus why they didn't say laptops are delayed. Also shocked none on eBay yet, haha

 

yeah, for the 3D screen models XTU is disabled.

 

Thank You gentlemen.
F...!

 

YES, it`s a shame as the Alienware, the Asus and even the XPS can all use the unlocked multiplier of the 2920XM and offer the same 3D screen.

 

these new cpu's have unlocked multipliers? the 2920xm has unlocked multi as default, but 2760/2860 have unlocked multi via XTU? and a later revision motherboard? i presume 2960xm is unlocked by default.

 

And when will this new processors be available? Because German resellers still don't offer them.

 

I'm waiting to hear back from Eric at Mythlogic to see when they might be coming in. My current build is packaged and ready to ship on Tuesday. If they are getting them in fairly shortly, would it be worth the upgrade from 2.2 to 2.4 to wait? Mainly gaming right now is my purpose for it.

 

My guess: no discernable differences between the generations, even with the slightly faster processor.

I'm more interested in temps, i feel my 2630qm is plenty fast

Mr. Mysterious

 

So, is the speed boost of 0.20GHz increase worth it from the prior batch?

Edit: ^ ok, you answered my question.

 

default stock speeds, only in cpu limited games and the performance wont be that much, what i'm interested in is XTU, overclocking.

are you saying that as of now there is no sandy bridge on a clevo latpop that can be overclocked?

i'm guessing 3rd party software like throttlestop or something else. and which of these new sandy bridges support xtu only the 2960xm right

 

Only sager/clevos with a HM67 chipset can overclock.

Mr. Mysterious

 

but not natively through bios right, they need 3rd party software. and as for XTU only 2960xm is supported? i'm trying to figure out processors XTU works with.

 

I guess you can either google it or wait for new info to come in. Theses are brand new processors, after all.

Mr. Mysterious

 

XTU bios is available for P170HM, but not for the 3D model.
According to Clevo resellers a design flaw kills the motherboard on those machines.
Softwares like Throttlestop also only work with bios support, so there is no way to use the unlocked multis of the 2920xm and 2960xm on the 3d.
No XTU also means no XMS RAM, no undervolting, no change of timings etc...it pretty much leaves you with the ON/OFF button.

 

For XTU only the procs ending in XM are OC'able.

You have to do it (OC'ing on Clevo's) via the XTU utility in windows. Other motherboard makers may enable it in the BIOS but Clevo has chose not to.

This is simply a stepping respin that adds a bit of clock. There should be no major temp changes or anything else, just a little process improvement to makes things cheaper on their end. Think 485m->580m same thing just a little faster for the same heat.

We will be getting in the processors in about two weeks as Intel has "released" the processors, but there is still some lag before we get them, should be about two weeks.

But as we said, its 200Mhz our ES testing stated that its pretty much only to be seen in benchmarks and doesn't really translate to any type of major real world performance.

 

Thanks myth!

Mr. Mysterious

 

Cheers Myth. Looking forward to having mine shipped on Tuesday then and hopefully having it before the weekend.

 

so 3d laptops have different motherboard bios or enhancements on them? that's weird, i thought you just hook up a 120hz lcd and the display takes care of the rest.

 

I believe that they have an altogether different motherboard. Has to do with the amount of pins that the 120hz screen uses as compared to the normal 60hz. Something like 40 pins on the one connector and 50 pins on the other.

 

Yes the 3D version has a different motherboard as the 3D screen hooks up via eDP (Embedded displayport and NOT LVDS) so its not just as that easy to hook up a 3D screen

 

ok i got it now, so they use different pins and connectors the 120hz panels, and thus the motherboard difference, and only the 2920xm and 2960xm supports XTU, for multiplier bumping

just wondering has anybody used throttle stop or any other 3rd party software to overclock on hm67 chipsets non XM models? it existed before in the past, i believe it should today as well.

 

Throttlestop still exists, but remember the non-xm models are fully locked so it won't exactly work too well. The older stuff was partially unlocked so it was a bit more OC'able.

 

well damn I wish I could swap my 2820+moneys for 2860. New revisions are always awesome.

 

But buyer's remorse isnt >_>

Mr. Mysterious

 

Just for clarification for some, starting this Tuesday the 6th, we (Sager and Authorized Sager Resellers) will be shipping these new CPU's in the models.
These new CPU's are the same prices as before. See the quote below..

 

That's a good question indeed. It doesn't look like they are available in Europe yet.

I am about to buy the Clevo P180HM with an i7-2720QM. After reading this Intel announcement now I am wondering if I should wait a couple of weeks (or months?) and get a i7-2760QM for the same price

 

If you can wait, wait. Otherwise, there's not much difference between the two different kinds of processors....the original Sandy Bridge and the new ones.

Mr. Mysterious

 

So I'm not that great with tech stuff like these CPU's, but I was planning on buying a new laptop from Malibal(most likely) this week, possibly early next week. They still have the original CPU's, like the i7 2630QM, etc. So is it really not a big difference between the new ones and old? I just heard about the new ones so I was thinking of waiting, but I really need a new laptop lol.

Currently, I'm on a 5 year old business class laptop and now have a hard time to even get the laptop to charge up with the adapter(I've tried 2 of them)...

 

So what does this is the default 2360QM going to be redundant and be replaced with 2720QM now that new CPUs are released?

 

People! Read my lips!

There. Is. Not. Much. Difference. Between. These. Processors.

I really cannot get any clearer than that.

Mr. Mysterious

 

no, I doubt it. 26xxQM will still be default CPUs.

btw, seems like only a 200MHz difference. In terms of what I will be doing (gaming, some CAD, some PS) not oging to be a noticeable difference. If the archeticutre was different, that might be a different story. But 200Mhz+ for same price is nice though. I would say not worth it to wait if it's about a week longer, but worth the wait if it's like 2-3 days longer.

 

I Agree. However I am not sure where to put my personal 'waiting limit'. I think I would wait 2-4 weeks. If it takes longer than that I'll probably take the 'old' 2720QM.

BTW: Originally I was thinking whether to buy a 2720QM or a 2820QM. I eventually decided to go for the smaller one because the difference is only 100MHz but 200 USD. But now the new 2760QM costs the same as the 2720QM but has 200MHz more - this sounds like a very good deal to me

 

exactly, I dont remember the name of the new processor, but it will 2.2GHZ and turbo up to 3.X GHZ, its basically the clocks of the 2720qm

 

Keep in mind people when someone says only 200Mhz more, its really 800Mhz because its 200Mhz per core.

So thats almost 1Ghz more which if the apps support multi core and thread good is a decent increase in performance.

Even if it can only take advantage of 2 cores at a time that's 400Mhz better. So while 200 does not sound like much it is in the grand skeem of things because its multiples. Its about a 9% improvement overall though.

And we see what people pay for minor 10-15% GPU increases, so 9% on a cpu for same price is a good deal! Sucks I just got my replacement laptop last week, but what can ya do.

 

scheme

And we've seen in comparisons of processors that the CPU impacts on game framerates much less than the GPU does...

The 200MHz is not worth worrying about if you've got the previous one. It will quite literally be an insignificant gain in anything other than benchmarking.

 

I always like skeem better, sound more like a dirty word like getting scammed because in the end we all do by technology haha.

But anyway yea, for most games it wont do anything.

But those of us that don't just game it can make a different. I use this laptop for working from home and school also. I do everything from playing with large databases to code and running calculations. CPU means a lot to me, almost as much as GPU. I just couldn't justify taking the next step up on the CPU so took the one under it. The GPU I could because I need my fun time after all that hard work! haha

But when working, most often my CPU is 50% or hire, not to mention I have some VMs going on too.

 

But there is a difference! why would u not want to have the best of the best updated version of something that runs at the same price as the older one u got or just ordered?

I think you are talking about the 2670qm right?
Intel Core i7 2670QM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech

kinda miffed that this didnt get launched with the others at this time.

Edit: from what i could find around the net, this is rumored to also be launched this month