*** Official Clevo P870DM/Sager NP9870-G Owner's Lounge - Phoenix has arisen! ***

It's true, it's true, both of them

That's the tough thing right now, both are great choices, and both do better than the other on some things, but not others.

The real answer is the 3rd option... which isn't out yet.

SLI 980 - which may never happen - where is/was the CES 2016 announcement for SLI 980 from Clevo/et al ?

Or SLI Pascal, which is a longer ways off than is worth waiting for.

So, it comes down to the 4th answer.

Buy all 4 and be happy

 

Yeah I see your point, the thing is tho, is the 980M SLI setup powerful enough for a good 4k experience?
Mind you there is no g sync and the cost between the graphic options is significant in my opinion. That's why i asked how they fair at 4k
To be honest, I might still go with the 4k display even if i got the 980 desktop one i think...

 

With tweaking the 980M SLI setup can handle 4k.

 

Meh. We all have buyer's regret at the time. I am regretting for not waiting until the new aorus x7 v5. It is literally exactly what I want for a gaming laptop but P870 was the closest compromise at the time. I would been ok with a slightly thinner/lighter laptop with way more throttling since I am planning for an egpu enclosure with GP100 anyways. In the end, is the extra 1.6kg really a deal breaker? Not really. Going with one option instead of the other one always have its pro and con. No need to brood on it. You made the best decision given the information provided and condition imposed on you at the time.

4k would be fine since you can lower AA/etc.

 

please help us get the BIOS 1.05.03 for the P870DM-G as CLEVO is shipping the current systems with that BIOS but is nowhere to be found to download on the web. It requires a resseller ID/Passs when I did finr that page but I can't find it anymore

 

If you exclude benchmarks, the performance boost of the SLI config over the desktop version is only significant IF the game supports SLI and is optimised. Then yes, you will see a difference. Now it is up to you whether or not that difference is worth it. I guess that's the difficult part for me or whoever is in the same boat.

I've had many people tell me SLI is a pain and would be much better off without it and have their mind at ease. I really don't know, the 200 version of the desktop 980 is supposed to be a beast with some decent OC and at that point I wanna know the real difference between them.

Also mind you, you would have needed an extra power adaptor if you had gone with the 980M's and were planning on doing even some light OC'ing..

 

We work with sager systems so our bios files come from them.

Speak to your reseller.

 

Look up the 980 kingpin air overclock for desktop, thats probably the absolute max OC for a 980 laptop 200w.
The 180w version is probably around a stock/ftw card depending on binning.

As for the second adapter, as I said before, you can get away with it if you had good asic cards. I was able to run +220/+400 on a single adapter. I would imagine most 980m can hit +100mhz on core without additional voltage.

 

Yeah thats true, but what does that translate to when gaming? Obviously benchmarks will be higher but does it deliver a better 4k experience per se?

 

Yea when you put it that way, that's pretty much in a nutshell why I chose what I did. I wanted the best possible gaming experience overall and with OC potential it seemed the 980 was the best way to go. I hope I'm not let down!


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In 4k? I say probably. If I am right now building a laptop for 4k, I wouldnt think even 980m SLI is enough since I have very high image quality standards which is one of the reason why I didnt go with the 4k AUO panel. I definitely will not use a single 980.

The lowest I probably will settle with is 980 SLI but for my original plan for a 4k/ultra wide system? I was planning 2/3 x 980 ti kingpin. I do believe MSI does have a 980 SLI laptop but it does have other issues. You can take a look yourself and see if thats what you want.

Ofcourse these are purely my personal preference.

 

Making some quick calculations, the 980 SLI model would be out of my budget at the moment. At best I might be able to shell out a nice 980M SLI config.
If i had to make a rough guess, does it manage like 30fps at 4k on most recent games? And if anyone has tried it, does it look decent on the 4k monitor?

 

How is your gaming experience up to this point?

 

I have an alienware now with a 980m and it's alright there's still some games I can't fully max out which I can't stand. My cpu also throttles but even before that I still expected certain games like metro, farcry 4, and witcher 3 to run way better.


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Wait I thought you had ordered the p870dm? or not yet?

 

Oh, just for your information, I based my calculation for 4k demandingness based all future games in the next year all maxed out with max AA and running at 60+fps at all times with no dipping.
You are probably fine on 4k on max with some AA off running the equivalent of 970 SLI at 60fps.
Just for information on 1080p monitor before you rush into the 4k, it is actually really nice and really cheaper if you ordering from eurocom. I manage to OC mine at 100hz and run it with G-Sync on games feels really smooth.

A 980M SLI setup should be fine in all regards. I just personally dont think 980 makes that much sense on a SLI notebook. Its perfect for p775DM, but feels weird to run it on a SLI beast like the phoenix.

 

980m SLI can handle fine at 4K. Like @Meaker said, you just need to tweak settings for each game to find the sweet spot. With 4K on this 17.3" display, Anti-Aliasing isn't really needed so you can turn it off in most games and doing that alone while keeping everything else maxed out gets you 60fps in most games.

 

I'd advise a 4k G-Sync display and at the very least clocking up the GPU memory to 1400mhz.

 

Oh yea it's been ordered with a desktop 980 card. Should be here in like 10 days.


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As far as I'm aware there is no reseller currently offering that right?

Nice! Where did you order from?

 

I am talking external, gaming at 4k on the internal panel does not make a whole lot of sense as 1080p with AA on that size of screen should do the job, better to clock a 1080p panel and get a high refresh rate.

 

I went with Mythlogic as they seem to be best overall quality and performance if not one of the best. They use their bios in combination with prema so win win


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So you're suggesting the 1080P screen with SLI 980M's?

Are you in europe by any chance?
If so, did you calculate the import charges and all that stuff? I just tried to get a quote from them and their shipping with UPS says 500$ :O

 

I am in the US :/ so unfortunately I can't help you with that. My whole build with shipping came to 4500. That's some serious shipping cost wow.


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Yeah xD I'm most likely going to stick with mysn I think.. Now the real decision lies within 980 or 980M SLI. It shall forever haunt me.

 

I'm just making peace with 980.. Mythlogic actually suggested that to me over sli for gaming performance. So I'll just forget that 980m sli exists, haha.


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haha thats a good way of dealing with it I'm kinda leaning towards that too tbh, the only thing that holds me back a bit might be the chance to output 4k on an external monitor.

People here keep saying it could get 60fps with AA off but all I see from youtube and benchmarks are 30fps here and there. Which if its so, it doesn't really justify the extra cost of them to me personally.

 

How much was shipping? What are the rest of the specs of your system?

 

Yeah, my 980m SLI build came to around 2700 USD. 4500 USD for a 980 desktop system seems to be a little too much.

 

What's your system exactly?

 

6700k
8gb 2133mhz micron ram
980m SLI
256GB SSD
1080p G-Sync screen
Single 330w Adapter.

I ordered from eurocom in CAD since I am canadian and I got 10% student discount from them since I am a student. Came out to around 3600 CAD.

 

I spent extra in hard drives. Yes overkill but I wanted to future proof everything. That's the bulk of my extra cost. 80 dollars for 3 day shipping.


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Hmm just the 256GB SSD right? I'm assuming you can always add more yourself if needed.

 

I suggest buying your own hardrive and upgrading when needed. It is much cheaper then ordering it with the system. It seems like the majority of markup is on that.

Buying your own drive seems to be the cheap option.

 

Hmm I'll see what kind of offer they make me and decide about the hard drives then
Do you think I'd be better off without the 4k screen? What could justify not just buying an external 4k g sync monitor?

 

As far as I know, I am the only P870DM owner with the 4K display. Everyone else opted for the 1080p display.

Also another thing to note, if you buy the 4K display, I believe you cannot to use G-SYNC even with an external monitor because the graphics card they send you will be the non G-SYNC version.

You get the G-SYNC version of the GPU if your display is the G-SYNC model. You can always try asking your reseller/retailer if they are willing to give you the G-SYNC GPU but there's no guarantee.

Just thought I'd put that out there.

 

Hmm If i get the 980M in SLI with G sync enabled 1080p monitor, will i be able to hook it up to an external 4k g sync monitor?

 

I have the 4k p870dm , and briefly had an external 1440 Asus g-sync external monitor. As far as I could see g-sync was working fine. It was brought up in a question by myself earlier in the thread and I was told the GPUs only need to be enabled for the laptop monitor. All 980m and 980 will be able to utilise g-sync with an external monitor. So I was told. It seemed to work fine for me anyway

 

Yes then you can use G-SYNC externally for sure.

Okay cool, so the G-SYNC version of the GPU is only needed for internal G-SYNC then.

So external G-SYNC will work regardless of the GPU you have and internal panel.

 

Actually the prices for the M.2 850 500/256/128GB SSD's are all lower than I can get them. Same goes for the memory.

The siliconlottery.com binned CPU + delid is something that I am contemplating. The CPU from Mythlogic is cheaper...

I would price out each piece individually and if it is a tad more for the vendor offering, take into account that that device will be covered by your warranty.

Plus, with Mythlogic, they burn-in the system after the build and that is worth something right there, catching the infant mortality failures in system, and then it gets found and fixed before you get it.

And, don't forget to select the option to buy them a 6/12 pack when configuring your order

 

That was actually the monitor I had in mind. How was the experience for you? I'm assuming you have the 980m SLI setup. What performance do you get on that resolution and how did it looked on the monitor?

 

No harm in double checking with the vendor tho, they definitely should know, it's pretty critical if you plan to game on monitors considering the investment. I'm definitely no authority on the issue

 

No I think it's 100% correct. I had remembered @Meaker was using an external G-SYNC display with his P570WM as well.

 

Colours were really washed out, that's why it was returned, tho it was from Amazon warehouse. I have done no oc and on one power adapter, got about 95 fps on ultra on bf4. It is an impressive set up

 

So it was a defective unit?
Do you mind telling me your exact setup?

 

If you're in the EU I'm actually selling the p870dm for financial reasons, on a very well known auction site, same user name. I've come to realise my love of high end gear is not matched by ability (gaming or technical) or by my free time

 

Sure, i7-6700k, 32gb Samsung 2133, 980m sli, m.2 Samsung 950 256gb etc

 

That's a nice setup!
Did you by any chance have the NVMe disk as an OS disk, if so did you notice it being as good as they say?
Thinking whether or not I should go for an 256GB NVMe and another 1TB 7200RPM for storage..

 

Here comes my lack of technical ability... What?
Have to go to bed, wife's giving off

 

Will reply more tomorrow...