Update on Radeon 7970m (Sager/Resellers)

thanks dude for reminding me ram is cheaper on newegg, now I just went out and bought 8 more gb and I totally don't have any real need for it other than you said it was cheaper there.

 

Hey guys!

My very first post. I've been following the Sager/Clevo and 7970m discussions since May.. So I was a bit of a lurker.. XD

Just wanted to share my details

06/01 - Ordered from Xotic an NP9150 7970m 750HDD and Windows 7 Home Premium

06/05 - Phase 1 But asked xotic rep to charge the card. Rep was very helpful

06/07 - Phase 2 and card has been charged

06/14 - Phase 2 still but there was an update on my account of SO#******

06/21 - Phase 2 and still waiting.. =)

I live in the Philippines and my window of free shipping to where I live is closing fast (friend is coming home and will take laptop with her).. Because if I have to pay for it, I would have to shell out another $250 on top of my already pricey laptop.. =( I already have set aside the money for shipment because I know I would need it.. But here I am still hoping wishing..

 

Just be aware that I do not think that the 150em has the Intel Virtualization enabled nor does it allow you to change it in the bios.

Not 100% sure, but pretty damn sure.

 

For sure its enabled on our laptops VT-d and VT-x we make sure of it every time. Can't speak for the other places however.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I had to deal with this in first semester so I would be prepared for it to happen again if it did.

 

mythlogic is correct, both VT-d and VT-x are enabled. Just be sure the CPU you select also supports Virtualization.

 

I think I have discerned which posts were not credible.

 

So my order is shipping to nebraska as of today....any idea of the turnaround time until it gets back to me in CA?

 

If your computer doesn't have any work that needs to be done to it here it's typically 4 business days here and 4 business days back.

 

Thanks H!

 

matagal pa yan pare hahahaa, konteng tiis na lang.

 

@hutsady xotic pc

can you check on my order
current status are still pending parts/arrival for a few weeks now. it was abit complicated iknow!

 

Best to PM that information rather than giving it out in public.

 

^ This. Justin and Hutsady both are willing to check for you, but through a PM, not public.

 

yey! It has shipped!! Thank you.. Loosing productivity because i'm always on here reading updates.. =) Will arrive today.. shipped overnight only.. =)

 

VMs are surprisingly memory efficient, you will likely find yourself wishing you had more cores. But you can never have too much RAM.

 

Just got an order update phase #4 from XoticPC before I even got phase 2 & 3... Weird... But it's been shipped and scheduled to arrive tomorrow Friday!
NP9150 with the 7970m

 

Thanks for keeping us updated on your orders guys, but could you please include the date you ordered? This helps those of us who ordered late from getting too anxious too early... sort of... OMG I NEED IT!

 

Yeah, list the order date and phase 2 date

 

Agreed, I put mine in my sig just to help people get an idea.

 

What if you had decided to cancel your order because they were taking too long to confirm it. Then you later found out that they've already charge you....

This also makes me think that they've already started building my laptop even before i went to phase 2.... ........but

 

Attached is a screen shot of FPS results using an Alienware M17X with an AMD HD 7970M using Fraps and running Battlefield 3 on High Settings through "Operation Swordbreaker" level.

To summarize:

WITH Enduro enabled - Average of 3 runs:

73711 Total Frames
Average FPS: 59
Minimum FPS: 28
Max FPS: 107

WITHOUT Enduro enabled - Average of 3 runs:

77404 Total Frames
Average FPS: 63 = 6.3% greater without Enduro enabled - Not enough to matter
Minimum FPS: 22 = 21.4% greater WITH Enduro enabled - Wow...Greater with Enduro enabled, not less!
Max FPS: 119 = 10% greater without Enduro enabled - But at over 100 FPS for both enabled and disabled with only a 10% difference...who cares?

 

For those asking for the exact time frame here you go

Edit: Laptop shipped from CA on the evening of June 20. Got it on the evening of the 21st in Nevada. I guess it wasn't three days because it didnt take long to travel that destination. I didnt order rush building and overnight shipment.

exactly 3 weeks from date of order.. =)

The only thing I changed in my order from the stock configuration was adding a 7970m, 750gb HDD, and Windows 7 Home premium

 

Donald, thank you for taking the time to answer my query.

They are certainly some great benchmarks. Would you be able to run through and provide the same info for the Ultra preset?

Also considering these benchmark results what are your thoughts on the low framerates many of us seem to be experiencing when compared to the AW 7970M and the MSI 7970M which seem to be pointing to an Enduro issue?

 

Thank a lot for these tests, it really cleared everything on my mind in terms of enduro on affecting performance in games. It's not enduro that keeps fps bouncing from very high fps to low since its the same when disabled, we just need to wait for official "stable" drivers from AMD.

 

@Paladin

Any speculation on why it is producing those results? Seems on average not to matter but at the extremes better with it on?

Anyone figured out yet how to disable enduro on clevo's?

 

Enduro = SuX4or....

 

See this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/671288-can-we-disable-enduro-clevo-7970-a.html

It's not possible to disable it. On the EM models, the iGPU runs the display, even when the dGPU is doing the rendering, like when gaming. So if you disable the iGPU (the goal of disabling Enduro), then you wouldn't have a display.

 

Alienware can switch due to mux's connecting either dgpu or igpu on boot.

 

Well see they already had charged me when it got into phase 1, which is what sets you in "the line". So either way, I'd be safe.

 

If you live in CA and you want to avoid tax do you go to Phase 3 when Sager ships to xotic or do you go to Phase 3 when Xotic ships to you?

 

I think I might just go die. I ordered from Malibal a p150em on May 1st with the 7970m and absolutely nothing else special. According to the Malibal rep I talked to today, it is rumored to go into production today and will ship out sometime next week. I'm going on vacation on Monday. If I would have cancelled my order at the beginning of June and bought from Xotic, I would have received my laptop by now. Shoot me.

The good news is malibal decided to spend this entire week building only satoris (17 inch version)! I think before the forum went down there was even someone from as late as June 14th who had received their laptop already. He received it on like Monday too lol, which means it must have been built like first thing on Friday (cards arrived last thursday).

 

Have anyone who ordered from Xoticpc after June the 6th received the laptop?

 

I ordered a 9150 May 2nd, then changed to a 9170 from Xotic on June 2nd and haven't got mine.

 

Ordered on May 8th, Burn-In and Test since Thursday. Looks like I'll receive it next week, pretty excited since my current laptop is quite old.

 

I ordered min on the 6th and just went into Phase 2 on the 20th.

 

I fear that those who are having trouble with Enduro don't understand how to use it. It is quite different from nVIDIA's Optimus.

With Optimus you start with a library of applications that nVIDIA has determined should use the discrete video card, and if your application is not in the library your laptop will use the integrated video. You can manually add any application you want to that library, and every time you go online it will search for new applications that have been added to the nVIDIA master library and add them to your library.

With Enduro it is much more manual. You have to go into your Catalyst Control Center and manually select high performance for each application that you want to run using the AMD video card. Or, you can right click on an application's icon and select which card you want to use. If the AMD 7970M is not selected it will use integrated video.

We do get lots of support calls complaining about low FPS or blotchy game play, but once they lock their game on to the AMD card instead of the integrated card they get the performance they were looking for.

 

That sounds great! Thanks for your explanation.
How about the issue that FPS drops suddenly during game? Seems some users facing this problem...I am waiting for my computer and really feeling frustrated...

 

Ordered a np9150 from xoticpc
order date: 20th may
wire transfer in full: 1 june

still in phase 1 haha

 

Maybe they don't know how to use their AMD 7970M.

 

Wow, I am in the exact same boat! I will NEVER purchase from Malibal again. I think I may just call in and cancel my order on Monday.

Heck I have waited soo long now I am basically numb. With all the problems with Clevo and the 7970m popping up, this may be a blessing in surpise.

 

Does that mean if they choose "high performance" in CCC to run those game, that would not be a problem. Am I right?

 

That should do it. Let us know what you find out.

 

Great post. Probably deserves it's own thread and a sticky.

 

Agreed. A lot of people would love to hear that suggestion if they are encountering any issues with their cards and performance on their system.

 

except its not really true for most games at the moment. i myself and many other users have tried absolutely everything possible and have had no luck getting P1x0EM 7970m card to match perfromance of alienware 7970m. There are several threads here about it here.

 

or maybe you havent read several threads discussing this. you are very welcome to input there, but all of the steps you mentioned have been tried many times.

 

In a few threads, people with problems have specifically mentioned the switchable graphics controls in CCC. We have even noticed the improved options in the leaked 9.00 drivers. The problem for several 7970m owners seems to be low GPU utilization. In my case, performance in some games and benchmarks is low by about 10-20%, which, IMHO, is not enough to suggest the iGPU is running.

 

Are you saying this does not need to be done or that it did not give you the performance you wanted?

 

sorry, I was referring to paladin44's full post where he dismissed current 7970m problems clevo users are having as configuration issues. His recommended steps only help if a user had selected Intel graphics card instead of AMD, but it does not apply to our issue as we already are using AMD cards.