**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

Can't seem to find a reseller that has the 8690 with the 470 anymore. Still the 460, though.

 

Which country?

 

Sadly my only source is Eurocom claiming that it will use the HD 6970M in its W860CU model and some benches of that model with the HD 6970M on notebookcheck.

If optimus is the reason then the P150HM shouldnt support the GTX 460M either.

 

According to this page and this, both the 460m and 470m have optimus technology. Am I missing something?

 

Thanks, I have seen that before, but the benchmarks are offline; have never seen them.
According to Eurocom, you could order the 6970M right now for 520USD althugh it is not available. Addition to the many experiences with this company: I have contacted them in interest of 470M/480M two months ago and I have been told 3 rates for each GPU in an unkindly way.

 

US

The Sager site itself doesn't have the 470 either.

 

Although I would strongly not recommand:
Eurocom

Sager NP8690 Clevo W860CU
contact "babyhemi" on this forum or at [email protected], I am sure he could help you.
If not, I would recommand waiting for the P150HM or importing the W860CU from Europe where it is available with 470M (I don't know your state import tax rate though)

 

Your first link didn't work. I've been keeping my eye on xoticpc and powernotebooks. I see the P150HM with the 485, maybe I'll shift to that. Thanks.

 

By all means: Go for the P150HM. With the same GPU, RAM, HDD, etc. and better CPU (i7-2630QM is better than the i7-940XM) it's cheaper than the W860CU.

 

I would recommand that as well.
But a maxed W860CU costs less than the P150HM as it is phased out.

 

Indeed, but that 485 staring at me raises the price a good amount. According to notebookcheck, the performance is equal to 2x 460.

 

Greets to the group!

I was trying to Bluetooth my 8690 to one of my Dells today and got what I thought was a strange result.

I ordered my 8690 with the BT 2.1 module but never turned it on until today.

The Dell has specific drivers loaded for the Wireless 375 module in it.

The 8690 is only using the Windows 7 (x64) default drivers.

Device manager says the BT module is a Cambridge Silicon radio (no idea which version though).

Sager's site doesn't even list a BT driver in the downloads section.

So the 8690 says there are two "Bluetooth Peripherals" it can't find drivers for. I'm betting that if the correct driver from Cambridge was loaded that this problem would go away.

Anybody know which BT driver from Cambridge is supposed to work with the 8690?

Thanks,

S.

 

Have you tried running windows update since turning on BT, ofter the drivers will come up under "optional updaes"

 

Theriko;

Don't get me wrong, the default Windows 7 BT driver did load.

But because it's a generic driver I suspect all the features of the 2.1 radio chipset are not enabled.

Sager apparently didn't want to spend the licensing money to provide the software that supported all the features.

I know that when I was just using the Windows 7 generic driver in my Dell E6410 (Bluetooth 375 module) that several features were not available until I loaded the Dell (WIDCOMM) driver package that is specifically intended to provide functionality beyond what the generic driver supports.

S

 

Next question....

Can I just directly replace a GTX 285m with a GTX 470m on the MXM of a NP8690?

Or is there something else I need to buy?

S.

 

^^yes so long as you have MXM 3.0b and an updated Bios. I replaced my 280m with a 460m and it works wonderfully!

 

you will also need to have the new heatsink that correlates with the 470m as well. If you buy from a dealer, they should send you the new heatsink with the card.

 

Bstaplay,

Hi from a fellow Utahan!

I see you have updated your system from a GTX280M to the GTX460M. I have been looking at upgrading my GTX285M, but from the benches that I have seen, the difference is really negligible. What have you observed that could sway me or convince me that it’s a worthwhile upgrade?
I mainly play SC2 and WOW and Flight Sim 9 (CPU bound so either card is more than fast enough, FSX would benefit, but I am not intending on changing to that any time soon.)

 

Sup Othonda!

I thought the difference would be minimal as well, but I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket so I decided to take the plunge and buy a 460m. I ended up selling my 280m for about $280 so it only cost me about $70 bucks for the upgrade. Anyway...long story short.....I was honestly not expecting the difference it made. After running a bunch of benchmarks before and after, I was able to boot my 3dmark vantage GPU score by just under 2000. My 3dmark 06 score by about the same as well. It runs cooler than my 280m, and has the ability to run DirectX 11. Gaming is much more smooth as well. Most games gained about a 10-20 FPS increase (when the 460m is overclocked compared to my 280m overclocked). So, am I happy that I spent a total of $70 for a significant increase? YES!

How's that for a convincing statement? ha ha....right.....

 

@bstapley

you're right, my new installed gtx 460m works perfect!! playing games in DirectX 11 really wonderful!! once you play in DX11 you never go back in DX10/DX9. sad to say only few games DX11 ready.We hope more DX11 coming these year of the rabbit.. lol Cheers!

 

@bstapley

What current GPU clocks you have right now? Maximum stable overclock you have for GTX 460m? now i am running 800/1400/1600. Can i go further with those clocks? my idle temp is 42, max(full load) 75.

Yours?

 

The only logical upgrade coming from a GTX 285M would be the GTX 470M. The GTX 460M is said to perform about the same as the GTX 285M. Bare in mind that Sager and some resellers suggest that the GTX 470M will not work to its full potential or even correctly in the W860CU chassis.

In my opinion, the only true worth while upgrade would be a new laptop with a GTX 485M which will be a huge performance increase over the GTX 285M and is said to perform at the same level as the GTX 460M in an SLI configuration

 

I currently game at:
core: 825
Shader: 1650
Memory: 1450

without any problems at all. My card tops out at 78C on Furmark extreme burning max everything and idles at 44C. When gaming it will only go as high as 75C (same as yours). I'm currently running the nvidia beta drivers 266.35 if that helps at all.

How do you like the 920xm? I want one!! BUT their too expensive for my cheap a$$.

 

I agree with you LaptopNut. The 470m is a very worth while upgrade if he wants to max out his current setup. However, I have to disagree about the 460m and how it is said to perform about the same as a 285m (read my experience at the top of this page).

The only problem with the 470m is that you will have to literally pay double for about a 20% performance increase over a 460m. That's one of the reasons that I went with the 460m. With my overclock, it performs at basically the same level as a stock 470m for 1/2 the price. (That plus the 470m wasn't out when i bought mine ha ha). So...my recommendation would be that if you have money to spare, go with the 470m, but if not the 460m is still (in my experience) a worthwhile upgrade coming from a 280 / 285m.

Just my two cents.

Edit: and yes....I freaking want a new laptop with a GTX 485M too! Hmmm....sandy bridge......

 

@bstapley

I agree with you, moving from gtx 285m to 460m is worth upgrades.. 10-15fps increase, thats really amazing!! i used my sager as htpc, even 3d vision enable at my H5360 no lag at all playing 3d.

every notebook enthusiast really wanted to have latest hi-end laptop.. newest.. bear in mind if we are always waiting for upcoming, you end up nothing at all because technology moving fast, sandy is here,in matter of few months ivy bridge will came and so on.. so if you want to play, play now as you want! there is no such enjoyment in waiting rather than playing!!

 

Each GPU will have different overclock potential. You might get excellent results with one GTX 460M but another may yield hardly anything at all. It is possible that you could only manage a small overclock with some cards so the question is whether this will still be enough.

 

Just found that test at notebookjournal.de - W860CU with the new ATI 6970m...
Tests - Eurocom W860CU Cougar - AMD Radeon HD 6970M im Test auf notebookjournal.de

It´s tested with the I7 740QM, so it´s not a fair test against new SB Books, but at least you got a clue of what the card might by capable...

Basically it´s said that the 6970m has a 20-25% advantage against the 5870m and about 10% against the GTX 480m, but it seems to be a bit lower than the GTX 485m.

The 6970m should be available in February according to notebookjournal.de - at least in Germany...

 

Bstapley, Laptopnut,

Thanks for the responses.

I figure my GTX285M is somewhere right between a 280 and 460 performance wise. None of the games I use support DX11 so having that really isn’t an issue right now. Also I can’t see spending the money for a 470 either. If I decide to keep my rig for a year or two longer it will have a more “current” GPU in it that can add a little bit more value if I upgrade to the 460, but that is about it.

The new 8170 with a 485 is very intriguing. I thought about putting a feeler out in the WTB forum to see what people would be willing to offer me for the rig as it is now. (Laptopnut I see your doing the same) Originally planned to keep my current laptop for quite a while, but SB turned out to be a higher performer than I thought it would be and a 485 sounds like a beast of a card that will last at long time. One thing I am looking for from some of the first reviews is if the sound has been improved. That could actually sway me into doing something.

Bstapley,

Where did you sell your GTX280, here on NBR or ebay? If I could get a similar deal it would be easier to spend less than 100 bucks to get a 5-10% improvement, and maybe keep my rig longer.

EDIT: Also can you tell me which month you got your original 8690 system? I would appreciate knowing.

As you guys can tell I am on the fence here, with an itch to upgrade. It’s something awful, I normally have kept my laptops for a long time and have been perfectly content.

Decisions, Decisions......

 

@ Othonda

I have ordered the 8170 with the GTX 485M, stock CPU and 2 HDD's. I am in the process of selling a few other things so that was not an issue.

Some resellers say the GTX 485M performs around 40% faster than the GTX 470M and the new CPU refresh has also yielded a lot more performance than I expected. I too was planning on keeping this laptop for a lot longer but I couldn't resist. I do think the GTX 485M is a GPU that I will be satisfied with for a very long time and I look forward to testing out GTA IV on that rig too.

 

Yes I sold my 280m here on NBR. I think I got mine in Dec. 2009 if I'm not mistaken.

 

i saw the comparison of the 485m vis a vis other gpu's on notebookcheck. although they are reporting substantial gains in benches, this could also be the effect of the snb architecture since all cards compared to it were paired with the previous generation of cpu's/archi.
they also posted some actual gameplay specs and although the 485m performed well here, i dont think the difference was as big as that found in the synthetic benches.
personally, i want to see more reviews first.

 

I took another look at the benchmarks yesterday and noticed they had a lot more gaming ones now. No doubt the new Sandybridge CPU architecture makes a difference but considering this is a mobile GPU, I think the results are impressive. Of course, I look forward to real reviews from people on this forum. I will surely do some real gaming benchmarks when mine arrives if nothing substantial and objective has been released yet.

I do have no doubts that the overall package and the GTX 485M will be a nice increase from the GTX 285M though.

 

bstapley

Thanks for the response. I can't go into it on the forum, but your answer lets me know I should be fine in updating to 460M if I so choose.

Laptopnut

When you get your machine let us know how the sound is. Also congratulations on the upgrade. I would really like to just get an updated machine, but the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF) is a problem. I just got done paying off the laptop I got and to sell it and come up with another 1500-1700 for a new one probably won't fly.

 

I thought the same... in actual gaming the real difference to the HD 6970M is sometimes just 1 fps Although there might be something wrong with those benches (I'm referring to their gaming benchmark list).

The price is the problem, I mean from what I read about HD 6850 crossfire, HD 6970M crossife will dominate a single GTX 485M (obviously), while being nearly as cheap (maybe 30% more than a single GTX 485M). That is just crazy.

I mean the GTX 485M is a hell of a card, but it's absurd that it costs almost as much as a crossifre setup that delivers much more power. I guess that's why Alienware skipped the GTX 485M.

 

I have barely paid of my current laptop either but I only have myself to answer to really. I always said to myself that I would never upgrade my current laptop unless the GPU had a big enough increase in performance. The GTX 485M is a real surprise in that respect and the CPU too. You should take a look at some of the new owner lounges because some have talked about sound, furmark, overclocking and performance.

 

just to spread the word lol
nvidia driver 266.58 got WHQL certified

 

bstapley,

I have a Sager NP8690 (Feb 10), without the new USB 3.0 version mainboard (GTX-285m).

1) Am I correct in assuming you also have this same W860CU 'Series 1' type system that you have upgraded with the 460m? Or do you have one of the newer mainboards (what I call the 'Series 2')?

2) I have just ordered a 470m and it's been shipped but isn't here yet. I did flash to the .16 bios already, and according to the Clevo bios thread the .16 update was to enable recognition of the 460m as a video option (470m as well?). I believe you stated earlier in this thread that there was a requirement to flash to the .18 bios in order to run the 460m (and maybe the 470m?). Is this the case or can I get away with running the .16 bios with a 470m card?

TIA

Schmagagled

 

I just updated my Sager NP8690 with this bios. System works fine but splash screen now indicates it's a "Style Note" with Intel logo in the lower right corner.

Anybody know what a 'Style Note" is? Is it a MSI model?

S.

 

And in the FWIW category...

Clevo W8xxCU video driver packages for the:

GTX-460m

Win7x32 ftp://usftp.clevo.com.tw/W8xxCU/VGA/GTX460M_32.zip

Win7x64 ftp://usftp.clevo.com.tw/W8xxCU/VGA/GTX460M_64.zip

GTX-470m

Win7x32 ftp://usftp.clevo.com.tw/W8xxCU/VGA/GTX470M_32.zip

Win7x64 ftp://usftp.clevo.com.tw/W8xxCU/VGA/GTX470M_64.zip

Yet strangely no bios files on the ftp site....Hmmmm

S.

 

That's a Clevo bios so it has a different splash screen of "Style Note'.

The Sager bios of course has the "Sager" splash screen.

No it is not an MSI model.

There is very little difference between them. I do know the latest sager does have the hyperthreading disable option. Not sure about Clevo's

 

Roger that. It does seem to work fine though. I have put in a request through Sager for their version of the .18 (.16s is on their site currently). They are slow over there about posting the latest updates.

Thanks for the response!

S.

 

Yes I believe that my laptop would be considered a "series 1." As for the .18 bios, I just updated to that before I installed my 460m. I honestly dont know what it does over the .16, but I thought it best to have the latest just in case. Refer to this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread.html. Let us know how it works out!

 

I just want to point out that for W860cu users with a ATI 5870m card that use Linux and the proprietary ATI drivers that there is a little application called AMDOverdriveCtrl that allows you to underclock your 5870m.
The application has allowed me to lower my core and memory speed to 350/500Mhz and my voltage to 0.850V. This has lowered my idle temperatures from 55C to 45C and has reduced fan noise considerably-it even runs quieter than under windows after underclocking with the AMD GPU Tool.
I'm so happy now
edit: ow yeah, I'm running ubuntu maverick(10.10, 2.6.35 kernel) with ATI catalyst 10.12 drivers

 

I upgraded the GPU from 285m to 460m but cannot find drivers that will work with 3dVision. Either get no 3dvision applet or get error message stating LCD is not 3d compatible. any ideas?

 

You need a display that is capable of running at 120Hz. Sagers all run at 60Hz. You are out of luck on this one.

 

no, it is an Origin laptop (Clevo-based) that is 3d.
ORIGIN Custom EON15-3D and GENESIS 3D PC with NVIDIA 3D Vision - EXPERIENCE

When I upgraded to the 460m 3d stopped working

 

I assume you did a clean driver install, using the 3D vision drivers?

 

yes, several times with different versions. With latest drivers is says This laptop's panel is not qualified for 3D Vision

 

@DarthBeavis

did you try setting your display to native resolution? (1280x768 @120hz i guess?)

 

yes, it a driver issue I think.