Update on Radeon 7970m (Sager/Resellers)

So, if I downgrade my Sager NP9170 to a 670m, will I be able to upgrade to the 7970m in the future? If so, how would I go about doing this? I have been unsuccessful in finding a place selling standalone gpus.

 

You would be able to get the GPU+heatsink from the Sager resellers, I believe, and then perform the upgrade yourself with a little online help.

 

Yes generally any card that will be offered by resellers for the EM (this EM revision) in the future you will be able to upgrade by yourself if you get the appropriate card and heatsink. Because generally the newer BIOS supporting the GPU's will be made available by the resellers/Sager. (if required)

Once the BIOS stops being updated, the newer GFX card models mostly don't work... as with the HM. (which is a bit of a shame since for desktops you can keep installing newer GFX cards for many many years without specific BIOS updates)

 

After asking XoticPC this question, they responded that "Sager has not sold individual GPU's in about two years so I would not bet on it happening any time soon." and that "You can get one from another soure and put it in there." Which is the same thing I keep finding online but no one seems to know where to find these gpus?

 

Weird, cuz they (Xotic) have made it sound before like they can get the GPUs. Try contacting Myth. They should be able to get them.

 

man that m18x R2 with dual 7970m's is looking pretty sweet, right about now...

 

Is that available to configure on their site?? Last time I checked (I think yesterday) you couldn't...only 675M x2.

EDIT: it is! WOW. Good prices too...DAMN.

 

Another reason why Apple rules. They "officially" announce a new
product and often it is available for sale right after the announcement.

Compare that to how much of Wintel tech works. Announce it to try
and get some extra PR or take away from a competitor who has
a current product for sale.

Meanwhile we wait months and months ( and sometimes months ).

 

No.

But I'm gonna call a rep from Dell to see if they can.

Alienware M18x R2 CrossFireX 2GB GDDR5 AMD 7970M Starter for $2,549.00

Is throwing them in, but their warranty seem sub-par.

 

They also never have the new CPU's and GPU's right when they hit the market. If they did, they'd have delays too. They have the luxury of being in a relatively niche market because they have their own OS. If PC suppliers waited 'til the new products were all squared away, they'd be way behind, because the rest of the companies would have already sold tons of them. I fail to see how that makes Apple better. I'll have a P170EM with a 7970m and Ivy Bridge next month. Some have them already. Does anybody have an MBP with the same yet? Will they next month?

 

One last comment so not to derail.

I am not suggesting they rule due to the technology ( although they do
with some things - new mbp 2880x1800 retina screen and thunderbolt
to name a couple offhand).

They do because they don't have to resort to the "look at me, look at me"
mentality. They deal with supply chains/vendors just like everyone else.

Yet unlike nvidia they wont be announcing vaporware to try and disrupt
a competitor's sales.

The consumer won't be aggravated after waiting for months after announcement
for it to actually materialize.

No, when they do announce it you will be able to buy it. What a novel
idea.

 

And lots of PC owners will already have it, like I said before.

 

Some of that is due to the competitive nature of the PC component realm, versus the closed off Mac realm. AMD can't afford to sit idle while gambling that NVIDIA doesn't upstage them because they want to be the responsible Samaritan. And vice versa. A few folks may recognize their noble sacrifice, but the moral victory doesn't help their pocketbook.

 

Lol, AMD is portrayed as this tragic underdog that makes killer products that only the hardcore truly appreciate while the sheep flock to nVidia. And then RAGE crashes immediately.

 

Actually you can configure it on their site. Just select the base option ($1999) and go from there.

 

I and three friends ordered our Clevo P150EM's from PowerNotebooks.com on May 9th, all at once, and opted for the 7970M: we got them yesterday, and I, at least, am completely overjoyed. As has likely been said dozens and dozens of times already, I've been blown away by the card's performance: I thought my desktop and it's GTX 560TI was powerful, but these laptops make it look like a toaster trying to run Crysis. I can't wait for Steam to finish downloading meatier games to test out, but I expect the performance'll be just as phenomenal.

I've gotta say, best part of the whole process (so far- I may have to change that after I get some serious gaming in on these machines) was working with Donald at PowerNotebooks.com: I've seen some spectacular customer service in my time, and he blew 'em all out of the water. I've never been more pleased to work with a company, and I heartily recommend PowerNotebooks.com.

One last note: my friends, who are less tech-savvy, all agreed that these laptops (and the 7979M) are worth every single penny!

 

You've never been in on Mac product launches eh? Apple is very much on the vapourware launch. They will announce a product and take orders, but then not ship anything for a month or more.

Heck it is so common, there's a very old joke about it The Apple Product Cycle from that page "Five minutes later, the new product appears on the online Apple store. Orders have an estimated ship date that is four weeks away."

It is something a lot of companies pull.

 

Oh I remember that hehe

 

Wishing I went with powernotebooks as well if all 4 of you received your laptops. That means myself and my two friends would have already had our laptops. Wonder if we switched over if we would receive our laptops earlier than if we stick it out with xotic.

 

Probably not at this point. I think the delay seems to effecting most sager/clevo resellers.

 

If anyone has a Clevo 7970M and a P150HM or P170HM, drop me a PM.

 

Yup, you're right. I didn't notice before. When I went strait to alienware.com I couldn't find it, browsing on my pc. When I checked on the browser on my phone, I see the option. Weird.

 

I bought mine a few minutes ago. See ya guys...I'm off to Alienware land.

16% off plus free 2-day shipping and a 5% gift card. Going to use my parts that were intended for my Clevo (RAM, SSD, Hybrid SSD/HDD) on the M18x R2. ETA of June 11.

 

Congratulations! I'm thinking of defecting myself... However, I can't simultaneously claim those lovely Dell discounts and order from a reseller like PowerNotebooks simultaneously, since AW.com official site won't ship internationally and PNB would... :/

 

Powernotebooks just gave me an excellent deal with Alienware M17x. Good discounts + no sales tax. I really would have loved to at least tried a Sager laptop but the wait was too much.

One special note: I was surprised how easy it was for me to cancel my order from xoticpc. No hassles at all. I really appreciated it.

 

Saw your sig, amazing specs on that. Be sure to post some benchmarks of those 7970m's in crossfire.

 

Please read PM.

 

Powernotebooks doesn't charge you sales tax, so thats 6% saved right there. In addition they give you some other discounts as well I think. Not sure exactly what but I'm sure you can call and find out.

 

What kind of discounts are available? I don't live in the US... Don't they have a live chat system like XoticPC?

 

No, we don't do chat...we do email

 

Evidently enough, being on NBR, you also do PM. And I've sent you one...

 

Sure, will do! Lots of problems ATM with the drivers, but that'll smooth out. I have a lot of familiarity with early adopting SLI/CFX with my 680s and 7970s on the desktop side.

 

Seems like quite a few are considering other options due to this delay. Sad.
This must hurt a few resellers as customers go to other potential resellers looking for options because of a delay for which the resellers are not themselves to be blamed. But may be the resellers can throw in a few more goodies as a gesture of faith for those still faithfully and patiently waiting?

 

^yeah that Just to make the people who lost faith in clevo/sager regret their decisions. People who are sticking with their pre-orders should be rewarded.

 

Dang, you'll have to go back and edit your hundreds of posts in the "what notebook should I buy" forum pimping Sager and Xotic.

 

I just might!

See what you've done, Curs3 !?

 

Is it that obvious? May be I sould temporarily remove the Xoticpc banner

 

The delay is something I can deal with (Its not me who will be using it). The problem is the whole not being able to turn off Enduro feature with Clevo. I just don't like the idea of purchasing a system which I can't pull out the maximum potential. I hear people talking about possible driver update but I'm not sure how likely that will be. Maybe I'm being paranoid about nothing but its still kinda makes me worried.

 

Mythlogic stated that no driver or bios update can disable Enduro. Nothing short of a new motherboard would.

 

Maybe the Enduro issue is limited to Alienware. Our P150EM reached a score of 5940 in 3dMark11 with Enduro activated. But then again we tested it with i7-3920XM.

 

Need some clevo in game frame rates to compare with the alienware really. The problem isn't synthetic benchmarks but actual games apparently. Would have to test the games that have reported the most noticeable differences.

 

Yup exactly. The problem lies within gaming, not synthetic benchmarks. GTragnarock lost 11FPS with Crysis with Enduro on. Thats 29 percent less performance than the 7970M SHOULD perform

From this thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/665817-what-went-wrong-7970ms-5.html

 

^The problem is, this affects the EXACT reason most people are purchasing the 7970m - longevity. Right now, all are above 30fps, worst worst case. However, a year from now, when people would expect the 7970m to chew through every game, well, it won't.

 

I just called mythlogic and canceled my order.Eric was very helpful and understanding.He told at this time there is no eta for the 7970m cards(not sure about mid june also.it can be any day)and i may cancel the order.They will send me check for my purchase amount in 2 weeks.I just hope this gets sorted quickly.In the mean time i will check other options and hopefully reorder with myth soon

 

So we are stuck with Enduro whether we like it or not? No possible fix even in the future?

 

^I read something going around about it requiring a hardware change rather than a BIOS mod or something like that. So no, unless you get a new motherboard, you cannot disable Enduro. That is, of course, if what is going around about the hardware is to be believed. This whole thing is still in its infancy right now.

 

This doesn't mean that a driver/BIOS update can't fix whatever is causing the decreased performance when Enduro is on.

In fact, I'm willing to bet people are working on this issue as we speak. There are *always* issues like this when bleeding edge technology is released at the very beginning. If you think everything related to a brand-new high-end GPU utilizing very new technology is going to immediately function perfectly and with no flaws... well, I have an island to sell you.

And for what it's worth, in the testing I've done with my Clevo (with Enduro on) the GPU benchmarks have roundly beaten the ones posted by GTRagnarok (both with Enduro on *and* off), and the FPS rates I've been getting on the games I have tested are MUCH closer to the benchmarks posted by the M17x with Enduro off, than with Enduro on (based on the numbers notebookcheck put up). I don't know why this is, but it could perhaps just be that the Clevo systems runs the GPU or the Enduro technology better or more effectively than the Alienware system. Wouldn't surprise me in the least.

 

Sorry, I sold out as well. Getting my m17x with 1080p screen, 7970m, and 3rd gen i7. Got a hefty discount, free 2 day shipping, and a gift card. The sager resellers could not compete with this deal. And estimated delivery date is June 11th or sooner.

 

Well I did it; canceled my order with xoticpc. The dual 7970m's is just too alluring on the m18x r2. I wish xoticpc sold AW, totally would have liked to keep my money with them. It would've been my first Clevo & xoticpc purchase, and I've gotta say everyone I worked with were just awesome! Mary, Erin, Michael and Justin; feel like I've lost 4 friends... :-(

 

​

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNQRfBAzSzo