Clevo P870DM-G Review

@Ted@HIDevolution @Mr. Fox @Ethrem @toughasnails

Here is my short review of the Clevo P870DM-G that I recently purchased from HIDevolution.

Specifications:

Intel Skylake i7-6700K | Samsung 64GB 2133MHz DDR4 RAM | 2x GeForce GTX 980M 8.0GB GDDR5 SLI | Sound Blaster 3D Audio | 2x Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe x4 SSD + 2x Samsung Spinpoint M9T ST2000LM003 5400 RPM 32MB Cache 2TB HDD | Intel Wireless-AC 8260 w/ Bluetooth 4.0 | LG LP173WF4-SPF1 17.3" IPS FHD Matte Screen (G-SYNC) | SteelSeries Sensei Wireless Laser Mouse | 660W AC Power Adapter | Windows 10 Pro

Price: $6,000 USD

System Builder's Name: Vivian (one of the best PC Tech people I have spoken to and she changed my mind about girls + PCs, it showed me that a girl can sometimes be more skilled than guys even , she did the whole build of the machine with my on Skype showing me pics of every step of the build and even let me login to my system remotely via TeamViewer to do all the customizations/settings that I want so that when I received the system, it was ready to use out of the box)

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For any of you who have the LG LP173WF4-SPF1 G-Sync screen, here is the Spyder5Pro calibrated Profile.

LG LP173WF4-SPF1 Spyder5Pro Calibration Profile



Here are how the Spyder5Pro App set the options in Control Panel / Color Management




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Everything is at stock speeds for both the CPU and GPU. V-Sync OFF and all other settings at default.

This review was done after I have installed all my software and NOD32 Antivirus so this would give you an idea how this laptop would perform in the real world.

Man this laptop has some serious lound sound and bass! If anyone had owned the Alienware 18 we all know how bass was close to non-existent on that laptop unless you disabled the Dolby Digital Plus audio enhancements, then only would the bass be heard, but then the sound quality gets really bad. This Clevo P870DM-G laptop with its 2 Onkyo speakers has the best sound I have ever heard on any laptop hands down. The bass is very rich especially when you look at the size of the tiny sub-woofer in it! Super happy with the sound quality.



Unigine Valley Benchmark Demo on my P870DM-G




Pics from the inside of the laptop while it was being assembled:

Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra:




Everything is neatly labeled so you know what goes where (ie. SSD 1/SSD 2, etc)





This is the dual 330x2 power adapter:




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Overclocking:

Clevo P870DM laptops that are configured with Dual 980M in SLI mode throttle because of the wrong voltage / current settings that CLEVO has in their stock BIOS, here are the settings that you need to do in XTU to fix this. My XTU Profiles are also available for download thanks to Mr. Fox who did all the magic.

Intel Skylake 6700K 42x4 OC Profile

Intel Skylake 6700K 43x4 OC Profile


42x4 Profile



43x4 Profile


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Benchmarks:






Temps of the Samsung 950 PRO 512GB Right after the SSD Benchmarks:









3DMark 11




3DMark

 

I'll watch the video later (I finally got TV today, haven't had it since the 28th of October so I'm binging) but nice other than the CPU temp. Tweak XTU and set a static voltage and see if it is still stable around 1.2 or so. From what I've seen of Skylake it isn't as voltage hungry as Haswell. Interesting that you find the machine to have incredible audio, that would be pretty amazing for Onkyo and Clevo...

 

I hope you give your comments after the review bro. The keyboard is the only bad thing about this laptop. Other than that, never had anything better in my life!

 

Nice review. It does have excellent audio, unlike the horrible quality audio on my Panther. The speakers and sub-woofer are larger than any laptop I have seen before, and I am sure that helps. The sub-woofer isn't large, but it is larger than any I have seen on a laptop before.

Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with the keyboard on this machine. It works well and is comfortable to type on.

 

Well isn't it the same audio as the X9?? How would you compare it to the garbage susbwoofer on the Alienware 18? To me it's like a night and day difference.

Also, what speakers does the Panther have? Is it also based on CLEVOs with Onkyo speakers?

 

Tried to give rep rep for your review, but I have to give it to others before I can give you more. Will be back later.

Yeah, sound quality and volume are both fantastic on the X9. Alienware M18xR1/R2/18 all have better than average laptop audio, but average really sucks so that's not saying too much.

The Panther has 5.1 (yes, 4 + center + sub-woofer, LOL) and still sucks. The speakers are teeny-weensy worthless noise-makers and the audio seems muffled. Input/recording is also poor, even using an external mic. It has RealTek audio, but still seems worse than other systems that use RealTek for some reason.

 

Can you confirm that the cpu sees current throttle in XTU when running a graphics benchmark in SLI?

With one or both Ac bricks being used to see if the stock bios acts the same. Thx

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

 

If you disable the Dolby Digital Plus app on the Alienware 18, the bass becomes perfect, rich and deep. The problem with doing that is the crispness of the audio is compromised so it's either good sound with no bass or good bass with crappy sound.

Mind you this P870DM-G also has a realtek chipset, the magic I think comes from the SoundBlaster X-Fi MB5 app


PS: Thanks for trying to rep me bro. I appreciate it.

 

I don't know how to do that, can you login to my system using TeamViewer to run the test?

 

Panther has Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3, which is equally nice, just an older version. But, it's nowhere near enough to make up for the inadequacies of its baby smartphone speakers. I'm not an audiophile so it's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. It would be nice if it were better, but the hexacore CPU performance offsets the lame audio.

 

Matrix was kind enough to allow a test on his machine and unfortunately the dual adapter did not change the power limit on the system. Thankfully @Mr. Fox @Prema custom firmware solutions are on the horizon to correct this issue with CPU Current throttling.

Throttling during firestrike down to mid 30s TDP but still pressing a score of almost 14k

 

I thought I had already mentioned this. Stock voltage is WAY TOO HIGH. Try taking the voltage off "Default" and manually set it. Also, enable Turbo Boost Short Power Max and set long and short to 150.00W. Change Processor Core IccMax to 140.00A. For the stock core ratios, you should be able to set the voltage in the range of 1.1650-1.1700V. The actual voltage will always be a little bit higher than the setting in XTU. Don't worry about that. Just use the XTU voltage as a point of reference.

 

Yes this test was to confirm findings and see if multiple power bricks attached acted in the same manner as it does.

The voltage can't be set to static as it's disabled "Greyed out" but a negative offset can be ran and offers a little improvement. Enabling short boost or changing power setting has no affect at all as the system acts as it targets 35w tdp when sli is in use.

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

 

@Matrix Leader Could You run Cinebench R15 a second time? I see that Schenker XMG U706 (Clevo P771DM) scored 875 in R15 while your score was 861 (all stock clock). Tested in Notebook Review. Perhaps because of the faster memory (16Gb DDR4-2400Mhz 2 Slots filled vs your 4x16GB 2133Mhz).Test also Cinebench 11.5 in the same process. Test before you start to tweake your processor power settings in Xtu. I thought this was a too large deviation. The laptop reviewed was tested with Win 10 Pro and use of single Gtx980m.
Your 3DMark Fire Strike physics score is 12730 + 3DMark 11 Physics score 10314. Lower physics score especially in 3Dmark11 must be due to Sli setup on your laptop or the other physics score in 3Dmark11 is wrong. You cold test 3DMark 11 with a single graphics card (All stock speed) and see if physics score change.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-XMG-U706-Clevo-P771DM-Notebook-Review.150989.0.html
Edit: Forgot to say; Congratulations A wonderful monster you purchased. Soon the same monster also for me .

None of these bench results from now three tested laptops with i7-6700K (stock clock/voltage) are comparable with each other. Varying results.
@Mr. Fox tested Clevo P870 (stock bios/clock/voltage)

3DMark 11 Physics: Mr. Fox 11505 vs 11554 XMG U706 vs 10314 Matrix .
3DMark Firestrike Physics: Mr. Fox 12278 vs 12895 XMG U706 vs 12730 Matrix
Cinebench R11,5: Mr.Fox 9.42 vs 9.60 XMG U706
Cinebench R15: Mr. Fox 855 vs 875 XMG U706 vs 861 Matrix
wPrime 32M: 5.685 vs 5.281 Matrix
wPrime 1024M: Mr. Fox 174.26 vs 162.446 Matrix + Clu maybe made the big difference ?

 

XTU is bloatware. Really growing not to like it at all. Hoping TS can take care of everything with Prema's magic.

 

It's a 15" keyboard in a massive, ultra-performance 17" laptop.

It isn't bad per se, it's the same keyboard on your Panther and the Batman series and this P870DM and the upcoming P775 and basically all other "high-end" Clevo laptops.

The problem is that they got lazy and put their standard 15" keyboard in this type of machine. I mean, even the new Alienware laptops (sorry, BGA turdbooks ) have their own keyboards specially designed for each model.

When you're spending $6K on a machine, you'd probably expect a keyboard to match that price. Even the new Alienware 13 has a better keyboard, and that machine costs 1/6 of the price. If you're making a 17" machine that uses a desktop CPU, and a desktop 980/SLI 980M, have the decency to create a keyboard specifically for it - use the whole chassis, space out the keys and num pad more, move the directional arrows, add some macro keys, etc. For all its faults, at least Alienware makes good keyboards (or at least better than the competition).

But you're right, it's a decent keyboard and works relatively well.

 

Yes, all the reports I've seen of people using the 6700K have them getting undervolts of at least -100, some up to -200Mv.

Which means Intel set the default voltages much higher than needed.

 

Good review.

I also agree. This keyboard size is terrible. When I first used the P9150EM that introduced this keyboard, typing on it for a month was hell, the keys are extraordinarily narrow and was fumbling on keys. Takes a while to get used to.

Unfortunately this will likely never be rectified. For decade Clevo has been told their keyboard on 17" laptop are atrocious, not just from users, but every review of a 17" has mentioned this. It's just logical to expect a keyboard made for 17" laptop on a 17" laptop, and not some subpar, narrow 15" laptop.

 

@Matrix Leader - I watched the first few minutes of your video - and I really like your deep voice. Likewise for @HTWingNut - how come you guys have such deep, melodic voices?

Also - all hail the P870DM-G, King of notebooks and power users. My lowly, mid-range, laggy, 30 FPS W230SS defers to the sheer power and size and muscle of the Phoenix/Batman.

I like to use my aviation/aerospace analogies - it's like pitting an F16 (my laptop) against an ICBM (P650Sx) against Saturn V (P870DM). There's no competition.

 

@SRSR333

No need to defer to us my good sir - come join us!

 

Well...

I don't think so. My budget for a new laptop is ~ S$2200, which is about US$1540. The best I can get is the P640RE. Although I'll probably hold out for Pascal. The GTX 860M is a very capable card, and it'll last me 1-2 years more.

 

Ty for a great review! Is there any chance of seeing this beast in live action? As in you gaming something, and the differences in noise (auto/manual speeds)...

 

um, ure aware that 875 vs 861 is 1.6% difference and thus negligible, right? anything in the realm of 1-2% aint worth looking at, really so that would cover all data except wprime and 3dmark11 physics... those are more in the range of 10% difference.

whats true though is that cinebench is able to profit from higher ram speeds in general.

@Matrix Leader: enjoy ur new beast bro

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

The P870DM-G is a very solid machine and everything that has been described I feel great to validate and really a great achievement that this 17 package has so much potential. The build sturdiness, sharp bright vivid screen, nice feeling touchpad and socketed options are what everyone has asked for and being honest the Keyboard didn't bother me at all when I was using it, I didn't even notice it being a smaller size. The key strokes actually felt well so I really have nothing to complain about for an average build person. Get the bios and power delivery fixed and

I would account the physics issue due to the CPU current throttling, he could run a test with XTU up and tell for sure.

 

*Aw have their Own keyboards specially designed for each model* ... This is absolutely correct. But the keyboard is the only thing that is good with the latest Aw models. The rest is just grief.. Choosing rather good performance and socket hardware before I look at the keyboard quality/right size . What helps with the correct size of the keyboard when the actual hardware performance sucks? Is there anyone of performance enthusiasts who have heard about extremely good performance from A BGA processor?

Schenker XMG U726 (Clevo P870DM) Notebook Review.

All percentages of increased performance counts for me. 10.1 is much better than 9.96 or 9.99 in Cinebench 11.5 huh? Every percentage counts .

 

haha yes true, but only scores u cant reach just by running multiple instances of the same benchmark over and over are an actual difference in performance. u have to consider the standard deviation and best, calculate the statistical significance between two data sets to determine actual performance differences.

yea yea i know, mad scientist talkin here again, but it is what it is.... (secretly returning to multiple benchmark runs to brag with the highest scores)

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

It is always grayed out until you change it from "Default" to something else. It will looks like it is targeting 35W even if it is not when it throttles from excessive voltage because it only needs 35W at the time it is throttled. I had no trouble changing voltage with the stock BIOS, but it will stay grayed out until you move it off of "Default" voltage setting. That may have been a different stock BIOS version, but if you haven't tried to change it yet that might be what makes it appear to be locked. Just click the drop-down and set 1.175V and the "Static" button should become available unless that is a different stock BIOS.

Avoid using a negative offset if you can, especially if you are going to try higher clock speeds. This can lead to instability and random BSOD because the voltage can go too low. Best to find the right voltage and lock it down if you can. Then there is no fluctuation except under load. A few folks have made comments about me using high voltage, but they don't realize the idle voltage seen in screen shots is higher than load voltage. This make the machine stable without high temps at idle. I'm typically around 1.405V at idle and between 1.200V and 1.325V under 100% load (varies by core clock speed) and if I set a negative offset I get random BSOD when the voltage dips too low. Look at the minimum voltage column in HWiNFO64 screen shots and that is my full-tilt load voltage. It's only higher at idle, so don't focus much on the idle voltage because it can be misleading. Even with static voltage, the value is dynamic to an extent. With adaptive voltage, it's erratic rather than dynamic.

I am using ThrottleStop for profile switching with the Sky X9, but it won't allow access to change voltage. That also doesn't work on my Panther... won't touch the voltage, so I have to set that with the BIOS or XTU. With a stock BIOS and no other way to access it, you will have to use XTU for that. XTU is a useful tool that compliments ThrottleStop. I use both on all of my systems. XTU to find the settings that work best, then shut it off, leave it off, and implement them with ThrottleStop.

 

certainly, give me some time and I will do that

 

BTW bro, when I first install the nVIDIA Driver and enable SLI followed by a reboot, I noticed that it has set the PhysX engine to GPU 2 so I changed it to Automatic (Recommended) as that was the setting I've always used.

What do you think?

@Mr. Fox

 

Page 5 overclocking is live now. https://biosmods.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/sky-x9/5/

Prema added a new page for some crazy go nuts AC-cooled benching action. Will get to that as soon as I can.

 

I am not 100% happy now with this throttling and had I had known this before I would've bought the Single desktop 980 and be done with SLI and its headaches I really wish Prema can release this BIOS and end my misery

 

I always use automatic. In fact, selecting the GPU for PhysX can interfere with SLI operation and may impair performance in some things. Automatic is the best choice except when you are dealing with a game that is poorly coded.

I'm not convinced the problem is entirely SLI. It might be. Prema is looking at getting extra parts sent to me, so we may need to do some BIOS tweaking for SLI. But, still need to do what I suggested with the voltage and see if static works when you move it off of "Default" setting. If not, your stock BIOS is different than the one that came with this machine. Remember, not all OEMs necessarily get the same stock BIOS. There can be differences from what I understand as a noob newbie to Clevo variants of the same machine.

I'm serious though... Skylake is SUPER SENSITIVE and just a tiny bit too much voltage means the difference between running 4.5GHz and being throttled to 800MHz... it's that sensitive.

Trust me... I have 100+ hours into this BIOS testing and Sky X9 CPU overclocking, and Prema has at least that many, maybe more. I have had the BIOS chip off the board and manually programmed several times, too. Skylake is a horse of a different color in some ways. Remember what you know about overclocking, but understand it might behave differently than you might expect. It's much better than Haswell, but every bit as picky/finicky and if you don't stroke it the right direction it's going to pitch a fit. You just have to find out what it likes, and voltage is like a euphoric thing to Skylake. It loves the right amount but it O.D.s very easily. It doesn't hurt it as far as I can tell, it just runs like crap to protect itself if you give it the wrong amount.

 

I wish you have some free time later one some day to login to my system and do some Fox Magic.

PS: Here's my cat Foxy calling you, she's a 6 months old persian female

 

@ Matrix Leader:
I have the unit slso with 6700k snd 2 x 980m sli.
When benching for example with unigine heaven card one gets about 72 degrees and card 2 (located in the middle with the smaller fan) gets 88 when in sli. Asic is rather poor for both cards with 69 and 67.
Do you see the same temp difference with your cards? What is your asic?
By the way: I see no cpu throttling in sli.
Bernhard

Gesendet von meinem SM-G928F mit Tapatalk

 

I'll need to test, right now I have just installed Windows 10 Pro again in RAID mode so I need time to install everything

 

Matrix, I will be at my destination in a few hours if you want to run some more testing.

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

 

How can I resist a cute little kitty cat named Foxy, LOL? The pressure is more than I can bear.

Just sent you an IM on Skype.

 

Big thanks to @Mr. Fox who helped me fix my laptop's throttling issue. I am not the best person to talk about the technicality of what he did so I will let him do the talking, but meanwhile, I would like to share with you guys the XTU profiles for both a 42x4 and a 43x4 overclock that was stable during our testing.

Intel Skylake 6700K 42x4 OC Profile

Intel Skylake 6700K 43x4 OC Profile


42x4 Profile



43x4 Profile

 

^Question, what does turbo boost powertime window responsible for? The max duration turbo boost can be active?
If so, putting it at 1sec effectively means turbo boost is turned off right?

 

Thats great news, re-run firestrike so we can see the difference in score if you can.

 

Its the time required that the turbo boost power level must be under the PL1 power level to run full turbo power max.

 

Before: 13,883


After: 14,284

Max CPU Temp after FireStrike @ 4.3 GHz on all cores = 83C

 

What is this PL1 power level?

 

Thats what I am talking about right there! Great score for stock GPU speeds.

 

PL1 is the long time power level and PL2 is the short burst max power level.

 

All thanks to the legendary Mr. Fox and thank you for being with me on this all the time.

 

Anytime good things happen when people can communicate effectively and work together!

 

Ah ok. So it will essentially do nothing if PL1 = PL2.

 

Try doing another run with the GPUs overclocked to +135mhz on the core and +100mhz on the memory if possible and see what it scores.

What I always found interesting was, two 980Ms have 3072 total CUDA cores. They're clocked at 1128mhz boost I believe.

For some reason , if I were to clock my Titan X to the same clocks (also 3072 cores) , it actually scores lower. Funny thing is, the Titan X has much faster memory and a wider memory bus.

Never understood that. I can't wait to see what my dual 980Ms will score now.

Of course I also can't wait to see what my two 980 KINGPIN cards will score in my desktop, should have them in a couple of days.

 

^ROP count