whats going on with the 6970m

Feel free to PM me if I can help. I think I might know who you are since this does not happen frequently where UPS loses a package being sent to us. You are more then welcome to PM or email me. Obviously all shipments are insured and I assume, if I have identified you correctly, we are awaiting on UPS to complete the investigation.

I know it is frustrating and we will do our absolute best to get a new machine going for you.

 

True. How long did you have your np8150 for? what drivers are you using? Stock from sager or updated urself to whatever now

 

I have had my Sager for about a month now. Best computer I have ever owned.

I am using the 11.5 Catalyst Drivers (manually updated).

I haven't heard good things about 11.6 so I am waiting for them to work out the kinks before I update.

 

Dang I hope I get mine in good condition like yours

Yeah 11.6 keeps getting negative reviews and issues with the 6970m. What games do you play with your laptop? I plan to get metro 2033, bad company 2, civilization 5, mafia II, possible GTA IV, few others I forget to remember to share.

 

Xotic pc : '' Originally you had the matte screen then removed it because of the delay. Now the stock screen is also delayed, Sager says they will be arriving late this week or early next week. If you'd like you can get the matte screen back on there,both screens are on the same shipment and will arrive at the same time.''

Kinda weird that my machine isn't shipped like Hello!'s then

 

:/ well I don't know. I might were lucky or its because my laptop configuration came out at $3.1k

 

Wait wait wait I think I know why. 95% matte was delayed in late may-early june then stock matte was delayed in early june. I might of got the 95% matte display from the recent shipment to restock but I have no idea. So perhaps you chose upgraded matte while it was out of stock then you switched to stock right before the upgraded matte display came in stock?

 

maybe ya.. well I can't wait till I receive it! >.< All these games I'm gonna be able to play... My desktop is too old

 

It sounds like there may have just been a bad batch of 6970m's. I wonder if that's the case.

 

My... YES... I use desktop which is a Dell Dimension 8400. 1GB Ram at 800mhz, single core Pentium at 3.4ghz, single thread anyone? Hahaha. "shirtty" computer. np8150 is a LAPTOP with 8 times more RAM at TWICE the speed, FOUR core with new 8 thread tecnology clockable up to 3.3ghz! 2GB 'motherlobe' mobile GPU vs old 128mb video card! This thing can't run 2004 flight simulator at medium at 1280x1080. Let alone runescape which is an online game... at 15 FPS with some shuttering... Embarrassing computer to own, 7 years old.

 

Hmm. I ordered mine on the 7th, and it's still in Phase 2. Should I be worried? I haven't received an update from Xotic since it entered Phase 2. It'd be nice to know if it'll be delayed due to part shortages or whatever, because I'm getting impatient.

Hopefully there isn't a serious problem with the cards though. If the problem is severe or more widespread, I'm sure we'd have heard something official by now.

 

What specifications did you pick for the laptop?

 

P150HM
15" FHD 95% Gamut Matte Screen
i7-2630QM
8GB RAM @ 1333MHz
Radeon 6970M
6x Blu-ray Reader
Intel 6230 Wireless
+ Spare 8 cell battery

 

Mine is same as yours except mine is np8150-s1 so it already came with some but i upgraded it to i7-2720QM, 250GB ssd2 Sata III, 8gb ram AT 1600mhz not 1333mhz. Other than that, it's same as yours. I ordered it on 8th and it went into phase 2 on 10th.

 

I agree 100%. A little over a year ago I bought an Asus G73JH with the ATI 5870m. A lot of people wanted it and bought lappys with it. Quite a few were on the Asus boards here with BSOD/GSOD/PSOD issues. And a lot of us were on there without any issues.

And you are right in that those with issues are very much more likely to come on here, or any other board, because we look for information if we are having issues. My 5870m has always been very cool, fast and has never given me problems. So I do believe that it is a batch that has problems, not all, or even most cards.

It is strange that Sager is "phasing out" the card, since it is still fairly new. But they might be doing it because they are tired of listing it, and then having customers P.O.'ed because they have to backorder it. If you were a reseller, and your business was based on customer satisfaction, and then a supplier no longer could keep up with demand, it still makes you look bad with the long waits for parts.

 

I put a similar reply in another thread. Apparently the 6970 has been either backordered or discontinued entirely due to "stability issues. (so my supplier tells me) and as such my 8150-S1 is currrently cardless pending the launch of the 580M. (the 485 is also been removed from active shipping). This kinda sucks but at least I get the best of the best I guess.

 

Stability issues now? I know the 11.6 drivers are said to be buggy, but seems like people using 11.5 have been fine.

 

Aye. I'm aware of the 11.6 issue, I'm reasonably sure there's more of an issue than is publicly known though, they wouldn't yank a high seller like the 6970m without a REALLY good reason. Who knows, at best it's backordered, but a bird whispered that the cards have turned to dust pretty much overnight. This does not bode well for AMD......

 

People have been using the stock OEM drivers and getting BSODs and freezes playing games. Some get artifacts and in other cases windows simply fails to boot. It's in general a card more problematic than normal. It's probably costing them too much to keep replacing dead cards than it is to keep it on the market; there was a guy here who's RMA'd his laptop what, twice? He's waiting on his third 6970M.

AND it seems to be lacking in supplies. Whether that's for too large a demand, or it's from stability issues making AMD stop pushing out the card for sale, I don't know.

 

I will receive my np8150-s1 with the 6970m on Thursday. I will play games and etc on it for few hours then let you guys know if it is running without any issues. I also will let you guys know how it is doing after few days/a week of gaming with the stock drivers. I highly doubt I will ever update my drivers because stock is always good enough isn't it?

 

As long as you don't use the current 11.6 drivers you'll be ok. Let me know how it goes for you.

 

lololololololololololololol

No.

Stock is rarely ever good enough. Drivers squeeze so freaking much out of your video card in the early stages of release (within a year of it coming out or so) you'll curse the living daylights out of the stock drivers you used to call "good".

 

It's actually not unusual for 10-20% bumps in performance with a driver update on new cards. The Witcher 2 had a massive increase with the last Nvidia update, for one. (granted, the gains taper off over time as the drivers are more refined. Individual games are where you see the biggest improvement then)

 

I mean ones that Sager install (like 11.4 or 11.5) that actually works compared to a failed 11.6 lol

 

You really shouldn't spread that, unless your reseller is willing to be publicly named.

 

Well that's basically what I said, I remember upgrading from my stock driver with my 280M to 186.03 and basically going from medium in most games to max out in most games. Little performance bits came in later, until the 2xx.xx series where I rarely saw *that* much improvement.

Their 4xxM and 5xxM cards however, are still going through the Ringer.

 

Which drivers are Sager/Clevo's stock?

 

One from Sager's website (driver downloads) NOT from ATI themselves (newer version)

 

Software Upgrade

Here it is, link to sager's drivers

 

8.810.0.0 is... 11.1, correct?

11.5b, for comparison, is 8.850.6.0

 

I have no idea what these numbers means. (I know it's a version of drivers) But how do you decipher these numbers to 11.1, 11.4, blah blah etc you know. I could see that the '1' at 3rd number (8.81) can mean 11.1 and other one with '5' (8.85) means 11.5. How do I get 11.5 driver update to avoid 11.6?

 

Who cares what I spread? I just got this info today and TBH my supplier doesn't need to be named save the fact they're a reseller on this board.


What I wrote is far from hearsay. With the amount of speculative "stuff" that gets posted around here, what difference does it make if I can back it up with my suppliers name or news articles or whatever. The 6970m is done. End of story. The writing is pretty clearly on the wall.

*Edit: Removed Incorrect statement*

This is not meant to be a flame, just don't expect me to withhold something I stated was an oppinion based on a reasonable source, specifically the people who make a living off of these machines...

EDIT: Spelling

 

so can someone please clarify, the 6970m is out of sager due to card defects/inconsistencies? Or is it out because the new kid on the block is coming out very soon?

 

Based on what I've read around the net, the general consensus seems to be that AMD's next flagship (7000M series), won't be introduced until 1st quarter next year. There have been some rumors about a 6990M, but nothing substantial. I'm gonna have to say that the 6970M is being discontinued because it's a pos. I'll for sure be going with Nvidia next time.

 

Based on my discussion with my supplier this morning the 6970m (which I had ordered for my new lappy) is "gone, like dust in the wind". In addition the 485m has overnight gone from lots of stock to "backordered". My supplier stated the 6970m was most likely due to some reliability issues and the way his statement was phrased suggested it unlikely to return. Also, the 485m had conveniently been backordered 48 hours before the "expected" launch of the new card, suggesting the refresh is rather imminent.

 

How come there is no threads about it in the Alienware forum? They should have gone bananas by now

 

i have ordered an 6970m for my laptop..........

 

So did I. It's coming here on Thursday.

 

Good luck, hopefully it'll work perfectly fine and you won't have any problems.

 

Thank you, I'm hoping too (so much)

 

Mine just shipped yesterday. I hope I won't a bad one

 

in the alienware forum no one have probs with 6970m?

 

Don't worry, it'll probably just <s>burst into flames and make you buy a 580M</s> work normally. Upgrade to 11.5 catalyst drivers before you do use it is all.

 

Please note: The AMD 6970M is not phased out with Alienware or non Sager branded Clevo laptops.
If you would want a AMD 6970M GPU in a Brand New Clevo system, you are welcome to email me in my signature below.
_

 

lol Thank for the advice. I read that the 11.6 was really bad...

 

This is honestly being blown way out of proportion.

Again, to those who have had issues with the card, I am sorry and feel your pain. I've been there. I had the terrible experience of owning an Nvidia 8600m GT, which for those who may recall, were ALL defective (a statement made by Nvidia themselves, leading to a class-action lawsuit).

But you cannot take a few issues with cards that were likely 'lemons' and conclude that the entire 6970m line is garbage. Have you seen the reviews? Every respectable notebook/GPU review site has given the 6970m nothing but praise!

Why is Sager/Clevo no longer going to be supporting this card? No one knows. But until Sager/Clevo makes a statement, people shouldn't be screaming 'the sky is falling!'.

 

When I get my NP8150-S1 with the 6970M, assuming that Sager is installing their drivers (dated April 21, 2011) which is 11.1. Since there is 11.6 driver on ATI website, know any way to find 11.5 driver instead of 11.6 and update my driver to 11.5? Want to avoid the crappy 11.6 driver :c

 

All I can say is that I read 250+ pages of Sager 8170 owners thread before buying mine and there was no panic like in this thread, everyone had great card, everyone was recommending one and it was 6 months of posting.
All of a sudden the supply is gone and everyone is going crazy that we got lemons.
I gotta say that so far 2 weeks of owning mine it's eating games for breakfast.

 

no issues here... im also on 11.6 and cap 1 for 11.6 and there are 0 issues. they actually fixed crysis 2.

 

Mine is fine too. Fast and cool. Running on 11.6