help with sager and I7

is it possible to manually put an I7 processor into either the NP9850 or NP5797 models?

 

No, they both use a different socket, the only model you will be getting an i7 into is the D900F (NP9280).

 

grr, thx for the info tho!

 

No problem, glad I could help.

 

so just to clarify, there is NO way to jerry-rig this? also, are there processors faster than the I7 atm, or is that top dog now?

 

For mobile atleast, I7 is top dog now.

 

could i use multiple processors to do betteR?

 

Currently there are no laptops available for the mainstream consumer that offer a dual CPU solution.

 

how about with over-clocking, any other CPUs come close then?

also, i understand that its not just about raw speed, certain processors are better for gaming. If that is so, what is the fan favorite for processors atm, ignoring price. IS that subject to change within the next two months (anything earthshattering around the corner?)

 

Well there is the QX9300 mobile quad core processor, it is offered on the 5797 and the NP9850 and it can be over clocked, although not quite in the same league as i7, it is a very powerful CPU which when over clocked to 3.0ghz probably comes somewhat close to the baseline i7 920.

 

thx, if i was going for the 9850, is it worth it to go over 4gb ram or is that just wasted money if i go with the QX9300?

 

Nah most wont use the full 4gb, so it would be a waste of money at this point.

 

is the dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M Graphics worth it? or is that overkill?

 

if in the np9850 you got the SLI 280M's a 4 gig system would only leave 2 gig for the OS and whatever game or app as the video buffers for each card equal their memory size.
thou it is not entirely clear to me at least of whether the NP9850 has two 512mb 280M's or two 1gb 280M's, I would hope the later, but buyer beware.

 

It's two 1gb 280M's there are no 512mb models that I know of, but for the record you need to know that in SLI only the memory from the master card (first card) is used in total, so in SLI with two 1gb GTX 280M's only 1gb total is being used.

 

The GTX 280m is 1GB. 2xGTX 280m in SLi does NOT equal 2GB memory usage. Still only 1GB.

Use a 64-bit OS. No mem limitations. In 32-bit OS, you will be limited to 3GB for OS and apps.

 

On games that support SLI there will be a big performance increase using two 280M's as opposed to a single 280M, in games that don't support SLI however, there will be no benefit of having the second card as the games will only utilize one of them.

 

Are you saying the slave's memory is not used or that windows only buffers system ram for the first card?

 

Basically, the reason (as far as I can suss out) that the memory of only one GPU is used in SLi is because, once SLi is enabled, the two cards are supposed to appear to the system as a single card, which means that the OS can only address one of the PCI slots, not both. Since the only way for the OS to address the memory on a GPU is via the logical addresses that were assigned to the GPU's PCI slot, once the OS is "told" that it only has one card plugged in, it will only address the synthetic GPU through the PCI slot in which the parent/master card sits, meaning that the logical addresses that were assigned to the daughter/slave card are not used, and thus the memory on the daughter/slave card cannot be addressed by the system. Consequently, the OS sees a synthetic single GPU that has on-board memory equivalent to only the memory on the parent/master card. At least that's what I make of it.

 

Almost any game will benefit from SLi. The nVidia drivers take care of that. Games with built in support will benifit greater.

SLi uses half the memory for various reasons. Half the frame is split to one card, while half is split to another. The game sends the original frame utilizing the buffer space (1GB) and the nvidia drivers split than up. IMO, future drivers and OS support may allow for utilizing the full memory set of each card.