Initial Impressions on Sager NP8170

I have played Bad Company 2 online for a few hours already with it and I just have to say ... wow.

50-70FPS on average at 1080p with max detail. Unbelievable. It's an entirely new game to me. It took me a bit to get used to it too, still not quite used to it lol.

 

You're making the wait unbearable, dude. >_>

 

I think I may take some videos of gameplays. Although it'd be off my digital camera and the video isn't all that great, but at least it'd be something I guess.

 

Answered my own question...

 

Does max details include 4xAA and 8xAF? : p

 

Thats great to hear! My p150hm is finally in my country! Will be picking it up tomorrow and BC2 is the first game I am going to run on it.

 

2xAA and 4xAF. I don't do any more than that because at native res it really doesn't improve visuals much at all but cuts down performance.

edit: I stand corrected. It's 4xMSAA and 4xAF.

 

Insane settings.. Wow!

I know that's not going to happen on my 460m..

 

Always use 16xAF. The performance hit is negligible, even on a weaker chip than the 485M.

 

IC Diamond has a cure time of a few hours if maintained under a pressure of 50psi or better. The laptop definitely isn't near that. It can take a week or more to fully cure.

Innovation Cooling

Quote: " Note* Cure Time Assumes an optimized pressure of 50 PSI. Lighter load pressures will increase cure times to a week or more."

I dunno, I've always used 4x and have seen little to no difference in image. So figured I'd free up as many resources as possible.

 

i agree! this waiting is very unbearable lol

 

As stated, you'll see almost no performance hit using 16xaf vs. 4x. If you want to see a difference, run Unengine Heaven with and without af. Pay attention to the sequences with the cobblestone streets. Without af the streets will look blurrier the farther away in perspective you go; with 16xaf they'll be virtually no blurring.

 

I know with an without, but 16x vs 4x is like 20/20 vision vs 20/25 vision. No noticeable difference.

 

I have the 8760 aka w870cu with the 460m an able to play BFBC2 with 1920x1080
with settings on all high a playable online an this is with a i5-430m with 8GB of ram.

 

Not too shabby at all! I respectfully remain a bit jealous...

 

Here's the CPU heatsink removed. Very easy to do. Just the four screws that clamp it over the cpu is required. With my NP8662 you have to disassemble the entire fan assembly.

Spoiler

 

Wow I thought the cpu heatsink would be more beefier.

 

Well, all it has to do is pipe the heat from the CPU and be dissipated by the fan. It's the surface area of the fins that matter most, and airflow over them.

 

Speak in terms of average frames per second.

 

When are you going to benchmark fsx

 

Doing it right now. I pulled a benchmark from flightsimworld that I outlined here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/5319520-post108.html

and results from Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad are here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...er-np8662-comparision-core-2-duo-vs-quad.html

Here's the results I got from the benchmark. I plan on actually screwing around with it a bit, I prefer to fly the small planes or fighter jets, and fly to local airports, but this is a big commercial airliner and view from the cockpit only.

But here's results with Core 2 and GTX 260m run at 1680x1050 for comparison. My NP8170 is run at 1920x1080:

Settings:
Graphics: Custom (click customize at bottom):
Target Frame rate: Unlimited (slider all the way to right)
Full Screen Resolution: 1680x1050x32
Filtering: Anisotropic
Anti-Aliasing: ON
Global Texture Resolution: High
Lens Flare: ON
Light Bloom: OFF
Advanced Animations: ON
Aircraft: Medium High
Scenery: Medium High
Weather: Medium High
Traffic: Medium High

P9700: Min: 28, Max: 66, Avg: 45
Q9000: Min: 21, Max: 56, Avg: 37
i7-2720 (1080p): Min: 32, Max: 63, Avg: 59
i7-2720 (1080p) - Max detail and traffic: Min: 17, Max: 55, Avg: 33

The minimum scores seem to come from fps "spikes" that I noticed for a split second. But avg is pretty smooth.

 

Thanks for that

Have you ever used REX?

 

Looks nice. Unfortunately I don't fly that much any more since I had kids, oldest now 3 years old. And actually am still a bit disappointed in Flight Simulator X, I still prefer FS2004. It runs very fluid and you can add most of the stuff to it that you get in FSX and it still runs like a dream.

 

htwingnut,
Do you have a shot of the bottom, with heatpipes on, but just the motherboard part visible? I'd like an idea of the space inside.

And thanks for putting up the picture regarding the heatpipe coming off.

 

Check out this post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...levo-p170hm-owners-lounge-80.html#post7141774

 

I prefer FS9 as well; I have a lot of money invested in add-on’s that would have to be replaced If I was to get into FSX. With FSX now getting older and there are some potential new Sims in the next year or two, upgrading to FSX does not make sense at this point.

+Rep! Thanks for the benchmarks, I always like to see how well the latest hardware would run Flight Sims.

 

I really want to fly DCS A-10 though. But not sure I can find the time or get my HOTAS setup appropriately so my kids don't destroy it.

 

hey wingnut, are you using any cooling pad for the 8170?
the vent locations seem well suited for the nzxt cryo or the sf19 storm.
anyone has temp results with any of these coolers?
also did you get your refund for the alleged icd?

 

No cooling pad, don't like them, nor have a spot for it really. My machine sits on my kitchen counter 90% of the time (I have a big kitchen).

I did request for ICD refund but Sager denied it but XoticPC wanted to make good with it, but since my machine has to go for repair anyhow, I'm going to just let them put ICD on it the second time around and see how it fares.