whats going on with the 6970m

Ok, I ordered sager np8150-S1 on june 8th with radeon 6970m loaded and phase 2 started on 10th and it has been that way ever since. Today I checked sager's website, the 6970m isn't even there as option, only 560m or 485m. I'm sure it might be a recall/back order/discontinued, whichever it is. Am I still getting 6970m that I chose?

 

Weird I don't know. I'm actually RMA'ing my laptop with 6970m because I've been getting GSOD/Vertical lines after a few hours of gameplay.

 

6970M is on backorder due to extreme shortage of cards. You should contact your seller to see if they actually has a 6970M in stock.

 

Well it's only been 6 working days so maybe tomorrow or this week you'll get an update that it's finished.

 

I hope I will get my first-ever laptop in a working condition. I don't want any other GPU's except for 6970m...

 

Wow really? is it Sager NP8150? how old is your laptop?

 

I am actually RMA'ing my 8150-S1 /w 6970m too. Was playing video games for about 45 minute and it gives me the BSOD all the time. Won't even boot up Windows. I've had mine for exactly one week before it failed. Now I'm waiting for the shipping label so I can mail it in.

 

Might be that the 6970M is giving problems. Maybe AMD isn't ready to step up to nVidia's 485M/580M class of mobile GPUs.
Hope they give you a 485M or a 580M instead, OP. You won't be disappointed.

 

or it could just be the drivers causing the bsod's. ive seen some threads/posts complaining about instability/bsod's with amd's latest drivers.

you could try reverting to earlier drivers before sending your laptops in.

 

If they had the cards for a period of time without problems then problems suddenly arose, they should be able to remember if they did driver updates prior to these occurrences though. I wonder, both of you who had it and it failed or is giving errors, any of you used the stock drivers from the reseller? Those should be tested tried and true. That's why most of them are out of date; they're just guaranteed to work, rather than test all the new ones.

 

Mine were stock drivers from my reseller. Did not update it to the latest drivers. the only thing I updated was Windows 7.

 

Any idea how hot it was running & what surface were you using the laptop on?

Did you use a cooling pad/mat (not that they should be required, just wondering)?

I'm really bummed out to find that a lot of people have issues with the 6970M running too hot as getting the 485M is not advisable from the re-seller I have been looking at (it's around $700 on top of the 560M as opposed to $100 for the 6970M).

 

Yes the 6970m as well as the 6870m are both in short supply. I have been searching for them all morning for an order I need to fulfill. Just when I find a great order I can not fill it due to these shortages.

 

No idea how hot it was running, but the game i was running, Heroes of Newerth, is not graphic intensive at all. I would not expect it to be very hot when comparing it to graphic intensive games like Crysis 2 or Witcher 2, etc.

I did not use a cooling mat. It was on a desk that had this thin piece of leather, but I wouldn't imagine that leather piece could get it hot.

If it was an issue with it getting hot, wouldn't I be able to start up my computer back up when the GPU cools down? This was not the case in my situation.

 

Woohoo I am happy not that I found the quantity that I need. These are harder to find than the GTX280's were.

 

According to what mythlogic said in the 8150 thread, it appears the shortage is causing clevo to phase the 6970m out. This is why they are no longer an option on xoticpc, etc. I'm actually pretty pissed if this is true because I planned on ordering an 8170 with the 6970m soon and really don't wanna pay the premium price for the 485m/580m.

 

If they are phasing the 6970m out, they should at least give a good reason for doing that.

 

Yea,

But as I said as an addon to those threads, we have LOTS of stock of the 6970m's still remaining, so we have no issues still selling them right now, as either standalone or with a laptop. We won't probably run out for a little bit, but what we have once its gone its all gone =)

 

From what we have been told supply is just short and they can't obtain allocation. Unfortunately we have not been told exactly why the supply is short. If we get more info we will be sure to pass it on.

 

Just fyi, the 11.6 driver caused me a few GSODs. Going back to 11.5b fixed the issue.

 

Sager says there is a shortage and don't anticipate getting more, so they're phasing it out.

I haven't seen any indication anywhere that the new 6990m is coming anytime soon.
I would have hoped that would be the reason.

 

This is really weird. Fortunately my 6970m has been awesome so far, but this early phasing out going on really worries me

 

Again guys,

Don't panic, this isn't an issue phase out this is a supply phase out at least from Clevo directly. As I said me and other resellers who deal direct still have backstock of these cards for the forseeable future. So they aren't just going to be gone as in *poof* =)

 

It is disconcerting. I don't get it. Seems they'd want to announce the new thing about same time as they ship out the last of the "old" parts.

 

For those customers who have asked us, we still have a few of the 6970m left in stock, but they will be gone very soon.

 

Yeah, I got it last month. I've been having GSOD' since day one but haven't been complaining because I get enough game time before it happens. When it does I have to force reboot and everything is fine again. However these GSOD's can't be normal or healthy for the card? Might be a heat issue as I last longer when full fan speed is on and sometimes I don't get GSOD the first time playing through but eventually it will happen during the day if I play more than once. My temps aren't out of the normal as well. Other than this issue I like the card's performance on games.

I have tried using stock drivers already but I will try again.

 

Well guess what guys, I talked with Jeremy P. From xoticpc this morning to resolve my worries about the 6970m in np8150 that I ordered two weeks ago when the option for the 6970m gpu was available. Jeremy could confirm with Sager through emails/phone calls, verified that my laptop is built and asked him what card, he asked sager again and responded "6970". I jumped up in excitement knowing that I will get laptop with the 6970m and the laptop has been built! I can absolutely confirm that xoticpc has an amazing sick service and customer support, lol.

 

Nice for you Hello!

I ordered five weeks ago from xotic pc and mine isn't built yet... =.=!

It's taking long.. grrrr

 

Dang! five weeks! What model did you order? which did you pick for cpu, gpu, screen, etc?

 

I have the FirePro 8900 which is a rebranded 6970, I have no problems with 11.6.

What issues were you having? Specific games?

 

NP8150-S1

amd 6970m
2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 2.0-2.8GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache)
dvd burner instead of blue ray
stock screen
rest is stock too.

 

Ah, I ordered np8150-s1 with everything same as yours but with
2720QM
blue ray reader
matte 95% screen
250GB SSD

And I heard that stock matte screen is back ordered, so it could explain why your laptop is taking so long.

 

^^^^Those NP8150-S1 with that configuration is shipping in about 4 days after order unless it is with the stock screen...
_

 

I knew it!

 

This is ridiculous. I ordered a Sager 8170 with a 6970m and the rest stock over a month ago, and I still have not gotten a single straight answer from XoticPC about why my order has not even finished production. First I was told that UPS "lost" my package in the mail, and now every time I call they tell me that it's in this mysterious black hole of "I can't find out what is going on".

I'm 30 mins away from switching to someone else. Fed up with this, all I wanted was a confirmation that I would actually get what I paid for, and I can't even get that from them.

 

I apologize if my excitement is getting on your nerves... I did not mean it. UPS "lost" the package? It should be insured or else UPS should pay you the value of lost laptop.

 

This is really weird to me, have you tried messaging Justin from Xotic here on this site? He's usually quick to jump on issues with Xotic, and tries to clear everything up.

 

My status said it was still in production and my laptop arrived at my door step, the status update can be slow sometimes.

 

I worked with Brett initially. After 3 weeks of limbo, I got a response from JP on the forums that he wanted to look into it for me. All he did was give me back to Brett. Called again today and spoke with Hutsady, who just said "that's weird".

Everyone I've talked to at XoticPC has been super nice, but apparently there just isn't much I or they can do about it.

 

Maybe you're in a unique situation. My suggestion, if you really want to, is to try to cancel and get your money back, then buy from another reseller (if you feel burned by them), someone like Malibal or Mythlogic maybe?

 

How many of you that has 6970m, never experienced any issues with it? With which driver?

 

Not surprised they are phasing this thing out. My notebook is currently RMA'd about to receive it's THIRD 6970M. Definetely starting to regret getting this card.

 

Third one really? What if its related to motherboard connection with the gpu? Tell me what kind of issues that arose while using the 6970m. I really hope the issue with that card is rare. Don't want to get my brand new laptop in few days with bad card.

 

A few users are posting here that they're having BSODs/artifacts/crashes/etc with the 6970M. In general, I'd say it's advisable to avoid it. It seems to be fairly problematic. If yours shipped already, then just pray it's fine. If it isn't, RMA it and get another. If you can't get a good card, best you RMA it and pay the difference for a 485M/580M or something. I don't think you'd get money-back for downstepping to a 560M, but I could be mistaken.

 

I might wait to RMA it for other options and I'm also waiting for confirmation if there's even 6970m at sager to replace mine before I ship it out.

 

First RMA had to do with the HDMI port not working, at all. Just suddenly went dead one day. At first I thought it had something to do with the port or the motherboard itself, but Sager replaced the gpu and all was well. After only having the new card for a few days, the screen went haywire with a bunch of pretty colors while playing a game. I use ATI Tray Tools to monitor my temps in-game and it was only at 76C when the card went dead. Had trouble booting the laptop after that: sometimes I could get through the W7 boot logo and it would just freeze at the login screen, sometimes it would freeze at the BIOS, and sometimes it would turn on with just a completely blank screen. It's currently on it's way back to Sager for this issue. Hopefully the third time is the charm. This card has been more trouble than it's worth.

 

'RMA' is a word I hate now. When I get my laptop, I'm gonna keep you and guys posted if its working efficiently without any issues.

 

Well good luck. But Clevo wants to phase out the 6970M due to shortages in their supply. So Sager may just not have that many. I hope you went with a reseller.

EDIT: How the hell did you get a P150HM with 4GB of RAM???

 

Geez... from the excitement I had once I learned that my laptop got one of last 6970m (guessimate) during the build process and now shipping to worries I can't get over with "what if... what if it will have problems..." sigh. So basically you started getting these problems over the time instead of quickly? If the 6970m is working, I will have a sigh of relief but not completely because knowing that the issue might persist later on.

 

I'm sorry to hear about the problems some people have had with their AMD 6970m.

However, I just want to let the community know that not all 6970m cards are bunk. My card is working flawlessly and I couldn't be happier. Maxing out every game I throw at it. Keeping cool while idle, and not going higher than 82 degrees C on load. I have not tried overclocking it, but honestly, I do not feel the need to do so.

Remember that its mostly the people who are having problems with their hardware that tend to post here and thus a negative opinion can be formulated.