HTWingNut's Sager NP9150 (Clevo P150EM) Review with LOTS of 680m benchmarks!

Sorry this review took so long to come to fruition but I have been extremely busy lately with a number of other things. Not to mention downloading, installing, and running a couple hundred GB of demos, games, and benchmarks. 10Mbps internet sounds great but when you need hundreds of GB's it's not as fast as you'd think... I still need to get some images uploaded and into this review. Consider this a work in progress review...

Note that you can click most images to enlarge them. Just hit your browser back button to get back to the review.

UPDATE: July 29, 2012: I updated benchmark results and removed the 650m comparisons and added overclock with a modded BIOS with voltage of 1.037V and clocks of GPU 1000MHz and vRAM 2400MHz. Note that this resulted in significantly higher GPU temps and in some instances caused the GPU to throttle, but mainly in benchmarks and high stress apps like MSI Kombustor.

top INDEX

Introduction and Specs
- Laptop Configuration

General Hardware Overview
- Exterior and Ports
- LCD Display
- Power Supply
- Speakers and Audio
- SSD Performance
- Keyboard
- Images of Laptop

CPU, GPU, and Cooling System
- CPU - Ivy Bridge i7-3610QM
- GPU - nVidia GTX 680m
- Cooling System

Performance and Benchmarking with Overclocks
- Settings

--> Benchmark Results <--

Power and Heat
- Peak Power Consumption
- Peak Temperatures of CPU and GPU
- Battery Life

Conclusion


intro INTRODUCTION AND SPECS (INDEX)

There are a plethora of laptops out there for gaming. But there are few that can manage to house the latest, fastest, most powerful GPU's on the market. The Clevo P150EM is one of those few. The NP9150 is Sager's branded Clevo P150EM 15.6" notebook that can be configured with the more powerful GPU's from nVidia's GTX line of 670m, 675m, and 680m as well as AMD's Radeon 7970m. I configured my laptop with the GTX 680m, which is based on nVidia's latest 28nm "Kepler" manufacturing process. There has been a lot of debate on price for performance between AMD's Radeon 7970m and nVidia's GTX 680m. I'm not here to contest, debate, or otherwise offer which is better, that's for you to decide. But what I hope to do is offer my view on the Sager NP9150 as a whole along with some CPU, system, and most importantly gaming benchmarks to hopefully offer you some insight in making your own decision on which GPU to configure in your laptop.

For those of you not familiar with Sager, they typically offer a performance series of laptops in 15.6" and 17" configurations with similar internals. There is the Clevo P151EM based NP9130 which has a grained plastic chassis, does not offer a backlit keyboard, and comes with a 120W power supply versus a 180W required to run the higher end GPU's. In any case it is more or less common with its more powerful brother the P150EM based NP9150 which has a rubberized chassis, offers a backlit keyboard, and a 180W power supply which allows it to run the latest most powerful CPU's and GPU's including the 7970m and 680m.

I worked with Larry at LPC-Digital to configure my laptop, as I did with my Sager NP6110 11.6" mini beast of a laptop. I can recommend him full heartedly as he offered me the best deal, and was very prompt and courteous in answering my questions and quoting a system. I set a budget for myself and was looking for the best bang for my buck configuration, and ended up with the following:

config CONFIGURATION
15.6" 1920x1080 Matte Display
Intel i7-3610QM Quad Core CPU
Standard Thermal Paste / added IC Diamond myself*
nVidia GTX 680m with 4GB GDDR5
Crucial M4 512GB SSD*
Crucial M4 256GB SSD in Optical Bay*
8GB Samsung DDR3-1600 RAM (2x4GB, 4 bays total for max 16GB)
Intel 6300 Wi-fi
Widnows 7 Ultimate x64*
(I bought 2nd year warranty too)

*Items that I installed myself

The cost of this system will typically run about $1900 with a traditional spinner HDD as opposed to the SSD, and without Windows 7. Most resellers, including LPC-Digital will configure a system for you without components like RAM or hard drive to save you a few bucks. The cost of the SSD's through a Sager reseller are typically more expensive than purchasing one yourself, although I've found them to be quite competitive with many models.


hardware GENERAL HARDWARE OVERVIEW: CHASSIS, LCD, POWER SUPPLY, PSU, SSD, KEYBOARD (INDEX)

overview Overview
One of my personal favorite features about the Sager/Clevo laptops is the completely basic sleek look compared with other gaming laptops. It would not shift an eye or look out of place in any professional environment, yet under the hood it houses internals that only top end gaming machines like Alienware or MSI machines can compete with. You can even get one configured without a Sager logo on the lid, which I did. Granted this is obviously a personal preference since some users enjoy a more dramatic look and lots of lights like on an Alienware machine, but at least Sager gives us an alternate choice. There are a large number of ports on the laptop one would expect and then some like an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) mini port. Other connections include gigabit ethernet, three USB 3.0 with one of them an eSATA combo USB port, card reader, one USB 2.0 port, four audio ports: headphone, microphone, SPDIF, and input, along with plenty of video ports on the back: DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort. The system comes standard with a DVDRW drive, however I opted for an optional optical drive bay adapter for a second storage drive. The touchpad is of reasonable size and functional. I haven't spent much time with it since I typically use a mouse with my system, especially with a larger laptop like this one. However, with what limited time I have spent with it, it tracked well and had no issues with basic functions. The touchpad mouse buttons sit on a single toggle bar, but I have not found that problematic because the buttons are distinct and activating one side does not move the bar on the other. It's securely fixed in the middle where the fingerprint reader is located.

As is typical with most Clevo notebooks most of the replaceable components are in easy access compartments under the laptop. One cover for HDD, which also gives access to the single screw that holds the optical drive or hard drive adapter in place. The battery is located next to it under the left armrest, easily removable with two latches. Then the main compartment contains the rest of the guts. This means the CPU, GPU and respective heatsinks, wi-fi card, mSATA port, and two of the four RAM slots. Two of the RAM slots are under the keyboard, so not very easily accessible, but if you order the system with RAM they will be installed under the keyboard so if you decide to add more RAM later they are easily accessible by removing the bottom cover.

The LCD lid tilts back about 45 degrees from vertical, which is reasonable. It allows for direct viewing while standing. The hinge design is actually very nice and very sturdy. The rest of the machine is also well built, solid, with no noticeable soft spots, no obscure gaps or warps, just generally a solid machine.

Top lid with NO logo. Looks kinda plain, but I like it that way. Customize it to your heart's content I guess (click to enlarge):


Opened up (click to enlarge)


Ports all around (click to enlarge)





screen LCD Dispay
In my configuration, I opted for the 72% gamut matte screen. The stock screen is a 72% gamut glossy, but my personal preference is for matte. I can say that this screen is without a doubt one of the best screens I've used to date. For a TN panel it has excellent contrast, brightness, and great viewing angles. The matte definitely cuts down on glare and can be used outside for extended periods at only 30% brightness and is readable. Here area few images showing the screen at different angles:

(click images to enlarge)




psu Power Supply
The NP9150 comes with a beefy 180W power supply to manage all the components. Remarkably it is reasonably small for the power output it provides. I measured it at 169mm x 84mm x 40mm high and weighs 1lbs 10oz or 0.75kg.

(click image to enlarge)


speakers Speakers and Audio
As with most laptops, this machine uses Realtek HD Audio. The NP9150 contains two speakers and a subwoofer that are supposedly THX certified. While this seems impressive, it's not. I'm not much of an audiophile, but the speaker system is what I'd consider standard. A bit tinny actually when watching movies or playing games, but livable. There is a speaker bar above the keyboard where the main speakers are located. The subwoofer is underneath the laptop, below the number pad. There is a THX control panel but it doesn't offer much more than you traditional Windows sound options. With the older NP8662 and NP8150 you could use Fn+5 to activate THX audio, which basically would boost the volume, but at least it was loud and sounded clean. Perhaps fussing with these settings a bit I can improve on it a bit, but so far not so great.



ssd SSD Performance
No performance system is complete with out an SSD. I went a bit overboard I think, but I'll take it. I managed to pick up a 512GB Crucial M4 for cheap, and it made its way into my laptop as my main system drive. I also had a 256GB Crucial M4 that I threw in the optical drive. Even though the optical drive only offers SATA II speeds, still transfers from one drive to the next are stupidly fast. Overall system responsiveness is excellent because of them. The NP9150 offers a SATA III port in the main hard drive bay, SATA II port in the optical drive bay, and there is the option for an mSATA internally as well, but it is also limited to SATA II speeds. You can see the effects of the SATA II on the Crucial M4 in the Crystal Disk Mark runs below, but with regular use it really isn't noticeable. There is also an external eSATA / USB 3.0 combo port externally that is also limited to SATA II.

Here's Crystal Disk Mark benchmark results. The 256GB one is in the optical drive bay on a SATA II lane and 512GB internally SATA III.




keyboard Keyboard
And lastly, the keyboard. Wow, the keyboard. Well, despite Sager notebooks typically being a non flashy performance machine, the lit keyboard is a nice addition. For me just a simple backlit keyboard would be enough, although Sager offers a keyboard that has programmable color options, even dynamic rolling colors. The software to configure it is not the most robust, it's simple, but it gets the job done. There are essentially three color segments, left, middle, right that can be configured for different colors, and as stated, these can be animated, dynamic shifting colors using different styles if desired.

The keyboard is nice and sturdy with no flex. Key travel is typical for a laptop keyboard, not real far, and it's reasonably quiet. There are several downfalls however. For one if you are a fast typist (like more than 80 wpm) some keys can be missed. At times keys don't register because they require an exact pressure in the center, but that hasn't been all that problematic, although the occasional missed key is more of an annoyance than anything. One of the biggest downfalls, especially for a strong gaming capable laptop are the limited number of simultaneous key presses under certain conditions, many of which affect gaming. For example pressing W and E key and then trying to press Z, X, C, or Space key it won't register. There are other combinations that exhibit this behavior as well.

Here's the Keyboard light app screen and a video showing how it works (click image to enlarge).


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cpugpu CPU AND GPU (INDEX)

cpu CPU - Ivy Bridge i7-3610QM
The new Sager laptops support Intel's new Ivy Bridge CPU's, which are based on 22nm manufacturing process and uses Intel's new "tri-gate" transistor technology which in a nutshell allows chips to process more efficiently using less power. One of the nice features this time around is that the chipset and socket are backwards compatible with Sandy Bridge CPU's. As mentioned I opted for the Ivy Bridge i7-3610QM and nVidia GTX 680m. The i7-3610QM despite being the "low end" quad core CPU is very powerful. If you are primarily doing basic tasks, gaming, and even some heavy loads on occasion like encoding video/audio, it is up to the task. With a four core active max boost of 3.1GHz, it hasn't shown any weakness in anything I've benchmarked, programs I've run, or games I've played yet.

CPU-Z Screenshots (click to enlarge)


gpu GPU - nVidia GTX 680m
Now on to the GTX 680m. To date this is the single most (debatable) powerful consumer mobile GPU you can own, a nudge above the AMD Radeon 7970m, albeit at a significant price hit. The NP9150 utilizes nVidia's Optimus technology to switch between the integrated GPU in the Intel CPU and the discrete GTX 680m. This software technology basically turns off the dedicated 680m GPU when not needed and uses the much less power hungry integrated HD 4000. This is particularly helpful when running on battery, as using the dedicated GPU even at its lowest speed would consume considerably more power than the HD 4000, which means longer run time unplugged. Optimus has matured over the years but still has some concerns. For one it still doesn't always detect 3D apps for using the dedicated GPU. Many games I had to manually select the exe file and set them to nVidia GPU, otherwise it defaulted to the integrated HD 4000.

Stock GPU-Z with 680m


GPU-Z using nVidia Inspector to Oveclock (click to enlarge)


cooling Cooling System
Sagers are known for excellent cooling and this time around it's no different. The CPU and GPU each have dedicated heatsinks and fans. Heck, the GPU GDDR5 video RAM has a monstrous heatsink itself, and separate heatpipe, although it does share the same cooler as the GPU. One item to make note of, the 680m in the NP9150 comes with 4GB GDDR5. 4GB!? I don't want to complain but it's awfully excessive considering no desktop cards of this performance level offer more than 2GB. But it is what it is. I'd personally rather have them knock $50 off the price tag and offer 2GB than throw away 4GB vRAM. But I digress. The GPU core runs at a stock 719MHz and GDDR5 at 1800MHz.

As far as fan sound, it's reasonably quiet. They vent to the back too which mitigates some sound as well. If you use the Fn+1 feature you can manually set the fans to full throttle, then the fan noise is clearly audible, but so far with the CPU and GPU running 75C or cooler it's not necessary to run full throttle. Peak temps for games and apps run are shown near the bottom of this review.

Bottom of laptop opened showing easy access to everything (click to enlarge):


Close up of the beast components, GTX 680m on left, i7-3610QM on the right, all cleaned up ready to add some fresh IC Diamond thermal paste (click to enlarge):


Enough of that boring stuff let's move on to the performance of this beast of a machine.


benchmarks BENCHMARKS AND OVERCLOCKING (INDEX)

I've run a large number of game and synthetic benchmarks to measure performance of the GPU primarily and some for the CPU and overall system. For games that don't offer benchmarks, I've benchmarked themselves through gameplay and tracking FPS. Personally, I like pre-made benchmarks because they're repeatable and consistent. Running one game to the next, especially multiplayer can result in widely varied FPS. But I've done it nevertheless just to offer users a general idea of the general performance of this laptop in some of the more popular and graphically demanding games. Because most of us do, after all, buy these laptops to play games.

I ran all of the benchmarks twice, once at stock clocks and second with an overclock. The overclocking on this system has its caveats. nVidia allows for +135MHz on the GPU core (854MHz) but unlimited overclock on the GPU video RAM. Although this ends up having some questionable results. Technically, I was able to run my vRAM at 2400MHz, that's 600MHz more than stock speeds, and seems to perform fine without error or issue in syntehtic benchmarks like 3DMark11. However, there are diminishing returns above +400MHz for some reason, and haven't taken the time to dissect and figure out why yet. In some benchmarks +500MHz vRAM would cause crashes or other issues. So in the end I ran with +480MHz or 2280MHz GDDR5.

Additionally, I added results from benchmarks run on my Sager NP6110 11.6" with 650m GPU just for performance comparison. All NP9150 benchmarks were run at 1920x1080 except those that had standard or fixed resolutions like 3DMark06 and Vantage, and typically at maximum details. The NP6110 results were run at 720p and at high details. I will add screenshots and/or list the settings used in my benchmarks for you to compare if desired. You will notice in some cases the overclocked system performed worse than the stock clock system. In those instances, I reset the machine and ran the test again, but in a couple cases, for whatever reason, the overclocked system resulted in less performance. I'm sure there was some throttling or something happening, but I don't quite understand it yet, because temperatures are well under peak, typically less than 75C for CPU and GPU for stock and less than 80C in an overclocked system.

In any case, I added then NP6110 results to the benchmarks for a couple reasons. For one, it is a comparison with how well the much lesser powered GT 650m fares on a 1280x720p or 1366x768 screen versus the beastly 680m on a 1920x1080 screen. So if you're considering a lesser card, you can get similar performance for many games as the 680m if you just drop the resolution to 720p. Secondly, it's amazing to see how the 680m just devours framerates running at 1080p which is twice the number of pixels as 720p.

benchsettings Benchmark Settings

Game Settings:
All games were run at 1080p with max detail, except were otherwise noted. In other words I selected the game's maximum preset option. The NP6110 listed for comparison was at 720p and High detail presets.

System Settings for all tests were as follows:
- Power Options set to "High Performance"
- LCD at 100% brightness
- Keyboard backlight on and full brightness
- Wi-Fi ON
- Speakers at 50% volume
- nVidia beta drivers 304.79

Stock config:
- CPU untouched, auto boost on its own
- GPU untouched, 719MHz GPU core, 1800MHz GDDR5

Overclocked config:
- CPU locked at throttle state with ThrottleStop version 5.00 beta 3
- GPU set to 854 MHz GPU core, 2280 MHz GDDR5

vBIOS mod Overclock (added 7/29/2012):
- vBIOS by Saltius GPU voltage bump from 0.987 to 0.137V, and stock GPU speed set at 900MHz allowing for higher core clocks (up to 1035MHz)
- CPU locked at throttle state with ThrottleStop version 5.00 beta 3
- GPU set to 1000 MHz GPU core, 2400 MHz GDDR5

Software used:
- HWMonitor for CPU and GPU temperatures
- nVidiaInspector for modifying GPU speeds and verifying speeds
- ThrottleStop 5.00 beta 3 for fixed turbo mode
- MSI Kombustor for GPU stress testing
- Prime95 for CPU stress testing
- FRAPS for frame rate benchmarking
- Kill-A-Watt (hardware) watt meter for measuring power consumption
- Excel for compiling and creating data
- IrfanView for managing my image needs

So as not to clutter this review with tons of in-line images, Please click the links below to take you to the respective game benchmark results and information hotlinked to the specific game hotlinked in the post below.

benches EDIT: July 29, 2012: I updated results and removed the 650m comparisons and added overclock with a modded BIOS with voltage of 1.037V and clocks of GPU 1000MHz and vRAM 2400MHz. Note that this resulted in significantly higher GPU temps and in some instances caused the GPU to throttle, but mainly in benchmarks and high stress apps like MSI Kombustor.

GPU BENCHMARKS (INDEX)
3DMark06
3DMark Vantage
3DMark11
ArmA 2 Demo
Battlefield 3
Crysis
Crysis 2
DiRT 2 Demo
DiRT 3
Just Cause 2
Lost Planet 2
Max Payne 3
Metro 2033
Resident Evil 5
Skyrim
STALKER Pripyat
Starcraft 2
Street Fighter IV
Trackmania United
Unigine Heaven
Witcher 2
World in Conflict


SYSTEM AND CPU BENCHMARKS
Cinebench R10
Cinebench R11.5
PCMark05
PCMark Vantage
Prime95
x264

Here's results of an overclocked system comparison from stock 719MHz GPU / 1800MHz vRAM vs 1000MHz / 2400MHz.



So what do all these results mean? It means this is one monstrously powerful portable PC. If you compare results with your higher end desktop systems you will be hard pressed to find this Sager lags in any respect. I had actually considered updating my aging i5-2400 and GTX 460 desktop components, but with motherboard, CPU, and GPU it would have run me over $800. I know it sounds silly to spend $2000 instead of $800, but portability is a strong desire for me, and this machine can handle anything you throw at it.


powerheat POWER AND HEAT (INDEX)

As noted previously, the NP9150 offers separate heatsinks and fan modules for the CPU and GPU. In general I have been impressed with the low power consumption and how cool the system can run. I added IC Diamond thermal paste myself because even if I order from the factory, I feel thermal paste and application is a critical factor to ensuring a cool system and I have rarely seen it done optimally from the factory unless it's taken care of using some TLC. It takes all of 15 minutes if you're familiar with changing thermal paste, because the heatsinks are front and center and require removal of only four screws. A little 99.9% alcohol, static free q-tips, and some paper towel, and you're in business.

During benchmarking and gaming I took peak power draw measurements as well as CPU and GPU temperatures. Other than some artificial high stress benchmarks like Furmark or MSI Kombustor, temperatures for either CPU or GPU rarely ever exceeded 75C. There is also a feature using "Fn+1" key combination to activate fans at 100% if desired, but so far it has not been necessary. Even after marathon Battlefield 3 sessions the CPU and GPU ran at a cool 75C.

Power draw is the Wattage as measured from the wall. Also note that this is PEAK power draw. The average or sustained power draw was typically 5-10% less than the peak. The overall system power draw typically was less than 150W. That's pretty phenomenal considering a desktop system with similar components would easily draw twice that amount.

peakpower Peak Power Consumption:
(click to enlarge)

edit: updated peak power with 1000/2400 overclock:


peaktemps Peak Temperatures:
These temperatures are PEAK temperatures and not average temperatures as measured with HWMonitor. Ambient room temp was about 76F (24C)

Peak Temps at stock speeds (click to enlarge)

edit: added peak temps with 1000/2400 overclock:


battery Battery Life:
So far I haven't done any formal testing, but was able to use this laptop on balanced mode for over 3 hours with basic web browsing and text editing with LCD at 30% and keyoard light off. Will do some more formal testing soon. The system comes with an 8-cell 78WHr battery and typical draw with basic use is about 22-25W so 3 hours sounds about right.


conclusion CONCLUSION (INDEX)

Is this laptop worth $2000 to me? Absolutely! General computing power and gaming performance is spectacular. Thanks to Optimus it's possible to get well over 3 hours of general use and web browsing. But plugged in you have desktop level performance only bested by $500 desktop video cards. The overall build quality of the machine is excellent, LCD is bright with great contrast and viewing angles, and offers easy access to components for cleaning, repasting, or swapping components. What would I personally like to see added or changed? Truthfully it's hard to complain much. But I do have a few gripes. The keyboard needs to be improved, period. Missed keystrokes is not acceptable, nor is ghosting. The keyboard is nice and solid, but if it has issues with typing or gaming it needs to be fixed. The other thing that would be nice is the video card not muxed through the intgrated GPU, HD 4000. It should have the option of manual switching and turn off Optimus if desired. It has been shown in other systems that running in a fixed GPU mode offers improved performance, and eliminates any possible headaches with software switching. Speaker system could use a little improvement, but they're actually better than most other gaming laptop speakers, so I guess it's hard to complain. But that's all I have on my gripe list. I can easily recommend this laptop to anyone looking for a powerful gaming laptop that doesn't draw attention, but manages to push out framerates in all the latest games at 1080p

 

GPU / GAME BENCHMARKS INDEX

3dm063DMark06 INDEX

Spoiler

Stock Results: http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16762334


Overclock Results: http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16770574

3dmarkv3DMark Vantage INDEX

Spoiler

Stock: http://3dmark.com/3dmv/4178652


Overclock:

3dmark113DMark11 INDEX

Spoiler

Stock: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3840226


Overclock: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3870121




Stock: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3840294


Overclock: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3870152

arma2ArmA 2 Demo INDEX

Spoiler

Settings High:


Settings Very High:

bf3Battlefield 3 INDEX

Spoiler

BF3 Stock Clocks High Settings FPS Graph


BF3 Overclock High Settings FPS Graph


BF3 Stock Clocks Ultra Settings FPS Graph


BF3 Overclock Ultra Settings FPS Graph


BF3 Settings High (Default High):


BF3 Settings Ultra (Default Ultra):

crysisCrysis INDEX

Spoiler

Crysis settings and results:

crysis2Crysis 2 INDEX

Spoiler

Crysis 2 Stock Settings and Results:


Crysis 2 Overclock Settings and Results:

dirt2DiRT 2 Demo INDEX

Spoiler

DiRT 2 Stock Results


DiRT 2 Overclock Results

dirt3DiRT 3 INDEX

Spoiler

DiRT 3 Stock Results:


DiRT 3 Overclock Results:


DiRT 3 Settings:

justcause2Just Cause 2 INDEX

Spoiler

Stock Dark Tower


Stock Desert Sunrise


Stock Concrete Jungle


OC Dark Tower


OC Desert Sunrise


OC Concrete Jungle

lostplanet2Lost Planet 2 INDEX

Spoiler

Lost Planet 2 Settings


Lost Planet 2 Stock Test A DirectX 9


Lost Planet 2 Stock Test B DirectX 9


Lost Planet 2 Stock Test A DirectX 11


Lost Planet 2 Stock Test B DirectX 11


Lost Planet 2 Overclock Test A DirectX 9


Lost Planet 2 Overclock Test B DirectX 9


Lost Planet 2 Overclock Test A DirectX 11


Lost Planet 2 Overclock Test B DirectX 11

maxpayne3Max Payne 3 INDEX

Spoiler

These are the results of playing through the first act in story mode after the cutscenes (which ran at 500+ fps lol)

Game Detail settings, using default "very high":


Max Payne 3 Stock clocks with Max Detail (very high) settings:


Max Payne 3 Overclock with Max Detail (Very High) settings:

metro2033Metro 2033 INDEX

Spoiler

re5Resident Evil 5 INDEX

Spoiler

System Settings


Stock Settings Variable Benchamark DirectX 9


Stock Settings Fixed Benchmark DirectX 9


Stock Setting Variable Benchmark DirectX 10


Stock Settings Fixed Benchmark DirectX 10


Overclocked Settings Variable Benchmark DirectX 9


Overclocked Settings Fixed Benchmark DirectX 10


Overclocked Settings Variable Benchmark DirectX 10


Overclocked Settings Fixed Benchmark DirectX 10

skyrimThe Elder Scrolls V: SKYRIM INDEX

Spoiler

Skyrim Stock FPS


Skyrim Overclocked FPS

pripyatS.T.A.L.K.E.R. Pripyat Benchmark INDEX

Spoiler

STALKER Pripyat Settings


STALKER Pripyat Stock Clocks


STALKER Pripyat Overclock

sc2Starcraft 2 INDEX

Spoiler

Here's a plot of that replay (well original one at least)



Here's the FPS plots of my 2v2 runs of actual gameplay:

sf4Street Fighter IV INDEX

Spoiler

trackmaniaTrackmania United INDEX

Spoiler

heavenUnigine Heaven INDEX

Spoiler

witcher2The Witcher 2 INDEX

Spoiler

wicWorld in Conflict INDEX

Spoiler

CPU / SYSTEM BENCHMARKS INDEX

cine10Cinebench R10 INDEX

Spoiler

cine115Cinebench R11.5 INDEX

Spoiler

CPU

GPU

pcmark05PCMark 05 INDEX

Spoiler

pcmarkvPCMark Vantage INDEX

Spoiler

x264X264 INDEX

Spoiler

power PEAK POWER CONSUMPTION INDEX

Spoiler

temp PEAK TEMPERATURES INDEX

Spoiler

CPU

GPU

 

beautyshotsLots of beauty shots below! INDEX

Spoiler

Top lid with NO logo. Looks kinda plain, but I like it that way. Customize it to your heart's content I guess.


Opened up


Ports all around




LCD angles




Height

 

one more reserved for future updates for good measure.

 

Wow, awesome review as always! Glad you're enjoying the machine +rep

 

+1

Haven't even read it all, but it looks AWESOME, I love pictures btw gj!

 

+rep x9999
Awesome review.
You should be a reviewer for notebookreview. They are many times better

 

Great job!

It takes time to compile such an elaborate review. We appreciate your effort!
+rep

 

Only 35FPS in Starcraft 2? That must be wrong

 

Might not be... SC2 is not GPU dependent as much as CPU. It only uses 2 cores.

 

^^^^This...

 

For Starcraft 2 I ran a 1v1 replay and recorded fps from 18 to 24 minute mark when there was a lot of battle going on. When I played a 2v2 myself I got like 50-75fps.

I'll take a video of the routine I ran so perhaps you can try to imitate it and give results. If there is something wrong I'd like to know.

 

Well thats strange. Notebookcheck got 86FPS in average, Computerbase got 78FPS in average.
Both of them used the same CPU as you (3610QM) which is more than capable of running a CPU intensive game

Edit: hm, ah a replay. Perhaps thats way more demanding? I have no idea

 

Here's video (no audio) of the run FRAPS in upper left:

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Here's a plot of that replay (well original one at least)




Here's the FPS plots of my 2v2 runs of actual gameplay:

 

Very strange. You get more FPS with more players loool.

Are you shure you didn`t have the CPU at battery mode or something with the 1vs1? 75FPS sounds about right.

Anyhow I don`t care. Great review HTWingnut. I would rep you again if I could

 

Maybe replays are just more intense with CPU, I don't know. To be fair my 2v2 runs weren't real intense. Lasted all of 15 minutes maybe with basic units and at best 60-80 units per player not 150+ advanced units like in the replay. I just wanted to do a replay to help keep some consistency but perhaps not the best way for realistic gameplay.

 

It does. There was a explanation somewhere on Blizzard's battle.net forum can't seem to find the source, sorry

 

Thanks to the mod that recovered my extra posts... I don't know what happened?

 

Amazing review, very informative! Could I make a request for you to run the FINAL FANTASY XIV Official Benchmark. Would be much appreciated.

 

I did run it but it had some issues, couldn't get it to not use the HD 4000. Will try again though. I know hackness was able to run it on his 680m

 

Very thorough review. Those numbers are SICK! Apparently, the 680m can run almost anything at ~60fps. I'm anxious to get my 9170 and compare numbers.

Thanks for the review!

 

Awesome review htwingnut!!! Very thorough and concise. +1 (when I can rep you again ).

 

Updated with images, corrected some grammar/added more info. Now just adding detail to all the benches. Whew. Too bad I'm not paid for this. I've probably put in over 40 hours of work on this so far.

 

Best reviewer on NBR, no disrespect to anyone else, strikes again. +rep

 

I will agree...

____

 

What an impressive machine. I still love my W110ER and I can still run everything I want on high settings, but the 680M blows it out of the water.

 

40 hours!

I would probably get this one only that it has poor onboard audio. Looking for decent sound quality. Don't want extra paraphernalia on my system.

Awesome review though...kudos to you!

 

Well between installing, configuring, and running benchmarks, taking and compiling images, uploading them, and actually writing an posting the review, yeah, pretty much probably 40 hours or so.

 

very nice and informative review, thanks

 

Just for reference : I play starcraft 2 all the time on my desktop which is 3 years old. Got i7 920 stock and xfx HD4870 stock. Completely maxed out, no matter how many units there are on screen i never lag. (playing 4v4 with friends) got always between 28-35, from the beginning to the end.... weird..

I was thinking like the GTX 680M should get about 90+ average....

 

The reason some of your overclocked scores are lower is because of the GDDR5. It has error correction, so if you overclock it too much it actually lowers performance as it will end up doing a lot of error correction. With GDDR5 the proper way to overclock is to increase the memory clock until the performance starts to decrease, and then bump the clock back a tad.

As mentioned, SC is much more CPU limited than GPU

 

+++++ rep, getting mine sometime today!! Ill end up posting some fraps but not gonna be as thorough as htwings lol.

 

well, my review is now dead.


awesome review, tho, HTWingnut I only just saw this today.

holy crap i remember watching that game

Polt<3


But somehow I got around 60 fps on 4v4 Ultra... so something isn't right. :/

 

Gameplay I get 75-100FPS. Only replays I'm getting 35-40FPS for whatever reason.

I checked into that with the GDDR5 error correction. However, even overclocking just +100MHz, it still ended up with a lesser score on RE5 for example. Kick it back to stock and it shoots back up to where it was. I don't get it. Other games it runs great with +480MHz, like Max Payne 3 or BF3.

Why is yours dead? More reviews the better. Yours is very well thought out and written and has the 7970m.

I'll look into SC2 a little more. But replays run about half the speed of actual in game FPS.

 

Hello HTWingNut, you should consider going professional review writer...+1 rep

 

I agree.

If I could I would kick all my rep onto you HTWingNut.

I simply cannot comprehend how much time and work you've put into this... amazing, simply amazing, well done

 

Hey HTwing have you found any way to go over the +135 core overclocking yet? I'm able to get mine +135 core and +500 memory without any issues so far, but blocked at 135 for the core

 

There's been some suggestions with locking the P5 state and overclocking using that. I don't have the link at the moment (at work and internet is SLLLOWWW), but definitely looks like an option. I don't know that I'm going to pursue that much further at the moment because the system is running excellent at stock speeds, plus this laptop I think is definitely a long time keeper (just upgraded to 2 yr warrant) so don't want to fuss with it too much unless I need the extra performance.

I may actually just try it to see how well it works and what my machine can do, but don't really care to run it overclocked for regular gaming because well, I don't need to.

 

Hi HTWingNut, i've been following your posts since the Bios Mod stuff you did on Prema's mod, good work man! I just wanted to ask, what equipment/method you used to measure the power draw from the wall?

 

hm the beta 304.79 driver gave me a bsod while playing bf3 last night. which driver are you currently using? I used the one from laptopvideo2go. I don't know if that was a good choice or not. But either way I rolled it back cause I didn't want to keep crashing. which driver are you currently using?

 

As it clearly says at Settings

Notice it says Kill-A-Watt (hardware) watt meter for measuring power consumption

Did you install the modded INF?

 

I downloaded directly from nVidia: Drivers | GeForce

 

Do you plan to use/test the OV/OC bios made by saltius and provided by cloudfire?

 

good question!

are you HT?

 

I'm asking about it. I want to make sure it's stable first, but looking like it is. Then I can do all my benchmark compares. Seems they got the issue sorted out with the memory controller and gpu core bouncing around due to some power parameter in the BIOS.

 

Indeed! svl7 used his magic tricks and voila

good luck when you get it, dont brick this machine too please

 

LOL. No hard mods on my NP9150. Not this baby.

 

Kill-A-Watt is literally just a meter you plug into an outlet, then you plug anything else into it, and as you use it, it measures your power draw from that outlet.

There are different ones depending on what features you need, here's one on amazon:

Amazon.com: P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor: Home Improvement

 

That's pretty much the Kill-A-Watt I have. Problem is there is no peak wattage feature so I have to monitor it through the benchmarks. I do make note of where the peak was in each benchmark and usually it's consistent whether I overclock or run on another machine, so at least I can monitor that part. But it would be nice to just run and walk away and get the data at the end of the run. I can't find anything that will give me peak watts though. Should be a simple feature to implement.

 

nice review.

i have a question on thx trustudio pro sound. i have a NP8130 but when i open it from the system tray, it is all grayed out and when i click audio selection... it says
"there is no supported audio device available." why does this happen?