**M980NU (X1/Commanche SLI/NP9850) Owners Thread**

no one has seen it on the m980nu

i would put it down to the bios Sager have put on the M980Nu, but the problem is they are so tight chested we have no idea as they refuse to say anything

I have clocked mine as high as it will go and i havent noticed anything other then frame rate drops but over 25fps you dont notice anything.

If it was a generic problem with the Clevo machine the Kobalt/Novatech/Rock/Xotic would all have the problems and the only people that suposedly have them are the Sagers but we cant verify that as they havent sold a single unit.

Tbh it could just be an excuse as to why they havent shipped any units, if there was a real problem Clevo would have said something and they would stop taking pre-orders

 

If you want to try one hands on and can get to central london then by all means let me know and I will show you my power

 

Dude, would you really humour me with such an offer? Becaue Central London's my place. I mean, I'm close enough.

 

if you want to then i dont have a problem with that, i work in Canary Wharf during the week, willing to meet up with you one lunch time or after work and you can have a bash, sure we can find somewhere with a plug socket

 

Hahaha. I'll work something out, but with me, it's always contracted crap in outer parts of this gloomy city, usually the whole day.

I'm still in talks with Andrew, and still in the process of getting my refund from Dell. In the meantime, I might be able to take you up on that offer, although chances are slim. I do appreciate the gesture, mate - very ace of you. As I said in the Kobalt forums, your efforts are worthy of earning you commission.

Anyway, the theory on this being a 'Sager-only' issue, and Clevo playing along with this drama, it does--if accepted--hold some bad implications. I mean, ?! Why leak out something so vague, and implicate all other 'internationally distrubuted systems'. This kinda' stuff is not good.

All this crap always boils down to a marketing ploy, or the @$$-end of a marketing ploy.

 

it could be just that a marketting ploy and they havent been able to get the machines to market so make all the buyers nervous to stall sales until they have release a "fixed" machine

I would be VERY interested to see what actual "changes" they make, becuase if it isnt large they will get roasted

 

i don't know

 

That is exactly why I call it the @$$-end of a marketing ploy, because of what Clevo's done.

If Clevo's only trying to protect Sager's image, by announcing that all internationall distrubuted Clevos have a this vague hardware issue, as a means to take the heat off of Sager who aren't releasing their machine, then they are effectively holding up the @$$-end of Sager's marketting. It isn't positive, actual marketing, but it is taking the edge off from potentially negative press, which is the posterior, hidden side to marketing.

 

So much of what you say here is simply NOT TRUE sir!

1. Others have posted in this very thread that they certainly see the stutters.
2. The film linked to in my post shows it clearly.
3. Clevo has also duplicated the issue, and that is why they are working so hard with nVIDIA engineers and others to correct it.
4. Clevo is the only one that has the license to write the BIOS so it is not Sager that is putting any BIOS in it.
5. Clevo HAS said something...they have recognized the problem and have stated so. Sorry if they haven't posted here or sent you a letter.

Maybe you haven't seen it because you are either not playing games that require a fast enough frame rate, or you are just not able to play your games fast enough.

Now quit trying to blame Sager for apparently being the only one caring enough to protect their customers from being delivered a flawed product, and delaying shipment until it can be perfected by Clevo.

 

well i can only by my first hand experiance

of which i havent seen or heard of any problems from anyone who owns one

as for not playing games i have played pretty much every game out there and still no problems

again its only my first hand experiance

 

I don't think anyone in this thread that owns one has posted that they've seen the problem. I've tried numerous games so far on mine and haven't hit it yet. Yes, I saw the video. That's the only time I've seen it. *shrug* I hope it turns out to be small and easy to fix, but real world it hasn't bothered me in the slightest yet. If Clevo says it's a real issue, I believe it's a real issue. It's just not an issue in anything I've used it for.

 

@madpoet:

Yes, this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5233111#post5233111

and

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5237024#post5237024

Look, since some of you don't see it that is good for you...but Sager's engineers saw it and reported it to Clevo, Clevo's engineers were able to duplicate it, fatpanda has seen it...it does exist.

All I can say is that I am glad that those of you who DON'T see are not Quality Control engineers.

 

Until it effects my system its not a problem, I have played so many games and not noticed anything, even when heavily overclocked i havent nothing anything on my system

for Sager or Clevo to say the problem is wide spread is rubbish. Only systems that have issues are Sagers from ALL available sources and i am sorry for a retailer to come on here and say its widespread when they only sell Sager's version of the M980 is again rubbish

No proof no problem

 

Sorry, I don't play Crysis. And it hasn't happened in any of the 10 other games I've tried (everything from MMOs like Aion and Champions to the Batman Arknam Asylum demo). I run everything on max settings at max resolution. You're right, I'm not a QC engineer. Just an end user. And so far, a very happy one. I'm not denying it's a problem. I'm just saying it's obviously a small problem relevant only to specific circumstances. Whether it matters to a prospective buyer or not is up to them. I do find it curious that Clevo continues to sell the units if this is really any kind of a big deal.

 

I believe there's a racing game. . . Grid?

They say it should be run in SLi and then one should observe the performance when it drops below 60 FPS? I don't know of the exact specifics, but I believe I read something about that many-pages-earlier. If others could benchmark that, I think part of the argument could be settled.

As far as FatPanda's experience goes, he's referring to level 3 of Crysis. I believe this level is called 'Relic'. Others that have played Crysis with the same setup haven't reported such a problem. The only other stuttering I heard of was with GTA IV in Notebookcheck.net's review of the Clevo M980, and in this review, the stuttering was attributed to the weaker, dual-core CPU solution. Even M17x users using just dual-cores could duplicate this issue.

 

i almost played through crysis on this machine

I am still continuing to look at the issue and finding out what i can where i can, but at the moment, only Sager reporting the issue. No one else who has sold them.

Which leads to believe its something Sager has done to the setup, else we would all be habing it, or at least people from other vendors

 

may be fatpanda's problem can be solved by update vga drivers or SLI enchancemnet patch from EVGA...

 

idd, the systems are physically the same, which means if we are not suffering then must be software related

 

SLI enhancement patch? What's that?

 

my machine was from novatech in the uk - not a sager.

crysis started stuttering only on the very high graphics settings with no AA. i've since set it to high instead with no repeat so far

although it does still freeze every now and then, and it has also crashed a few times, (always when i pick up a soilder to throw him). But i suspect this is due to software rather than anything else.

i am running all original drivers for the m980, and have upgraded crysis with latest patch.

but at £3000 a system, it damn well should play any game i throw at it with zero stutter /freezes/ or any other problem i throw at it out of the box or at the very least with a driver update all thats needed

pman our systems cannot be exactly the same as you seem to be able to oc both your gpu and cpu more than me - in fact i cannot seem to get mine stable at any overclock at all.

regarding the hd problem i'm having. i took out the optical disk drive - and it still happened. so i'm 99% certain i have a dodgy hd. hopefully it'll last till windows 7 comes out officially as the raid means i'll lose everything before the reinstall

 

what did novatech say bout the issue?

 

IMO seems like Panda's got a bad machine of which he got from novatech.
I'm not knocking them as it could be anyone. The shipper could of dropped the box for all we know which is causing his issues.
A potential bad hard drive making clicking / popin sounds and has issues with Crysis stuttering and/or crashing (especially when he's a man and throws a soldier) jk. lol.

What I'd like to know specifically is what are the graphics settings to try and make this thing go awry.
Max settings with 8xAA, and some advanced option settings? What specifically?
I don't have one to say what the settings should be but those with them should be able to tell specifically how to "max" everything out. Also is it an in-game setting as well that needs to be changed? SLI enabled games only? Then we, okay those with a M980NU, can try different games and report back. If you want to know or care (of course) if this issue affects you or not.

 

Simple way to duplicate Panda's issue. Play the game on stock 'very high', maximum resolution--I assume--and run the third level titled 'relic', or use the console command and enter 'map rescue'.

If everyone has the same problem then I think we got a problem, but I already know of people that have gotten past this stage. By the way, keep all settings active, even motion blur, because Crysis uses badly optimised DX10 motion blur under very high, which can tax the system in its own twisted way.

As for a 3000 pound laptop running 'anything'. Dude, I wouldn't totally buy into that idea. I'm currently getting a refund for the M1730, which can still run a majority of games maxed out, but some games are still too demanding at their stock settings for even the 'best' of laptops. We have a fellow member, Magnus72, who created special configs for Crysis, GTA 4 and ARMA 2, and now we can enjoy these very CPU and GPU intensive games just fine, but this couldn't have been possible with the aforementioned configs that tweak and compromise some of the settings to scale better on the hardware. Stock settings can sometimes be too much for a variety of reasons.

Moral being that your machine will ace most games, but exclusive and very hardware intensive games might still burden your system, and you'll have to find a workaround. Expecting 3000 pounds to answer everything, is going to lead to disappointment. However, I do agree that it is a lot of money, for this money, the commpany should at least have hardware that functions properly.

 

Can we get over Crysis? Really now. It's beautiful in DX10 very high, yes, but is that really worth 3000 pounds? I mean, take a step outside, there you go, Crysis... haha.

I can play it just fine on High settings, and it's enough for me to get the idea it's a good looking game. It's pretty fun too, but not so fun I should spend thousands of dollars just to max it out. I'm not quite that obsessed.

With the same money, you could build an i7 Sli desktop around a 30" 2560 x 1600 monitor and 5.1 System, and really experience Crysis. That's what it's all about, the way I see it.

 

That is very true, but then, it's the same argument anti-gaming laptop people use to deem high-end laptops redundant. Why even spend more than 1000 pounds? Most of the new games are console ports, and run fluently on one decent GFX card at basic HD-resoltion.

What I am trying to say is that people shouldn't spend 3000 pounds on a laptop, banking on it to do everything, because it won't. Things are being scaled with far more advanced and cheaper desktop hardware in mind. I'd say for 3000 quid, he's got a great machine that should run a lot of games that I'd rate above Crysis.

I still see a point in getting such a laptop, but my reasons aren't for running this or that - I just want stability and hardware that'll last both in terms of performance and build quality. Managing a whole desktop will be problematic, but that i7 concept of yours sounds dandy.

Edit:
Crap I forgot to say another thing about Crysis. Sorry, had to pick this point up because it needs to be mentioned. I think Crysis is now old and boring, but as a game that pushes hardware so hard, regardless of DX10, it is the perfect benchmark tool. FarCry 2, GTA IV, World in Conflict (For CPU) and Crysis - any day over all this Vantage and 3dMark06 B.S./pi**ing contest. I'm bored to death of Crysis, but it'll be the first benchmark I'll run in stock settings on my new machine, because then I'll know just how much my hardware weeps under the stress of nearly 2GBs of consistent level-data, massive-draw distance, and ultra high-resolution textures and post-process effects. It gives one a vague but significant idea of how well their machine will perform and tackle games over the coming years.

 

ok i tried relic every thing on max (bar AA) and i was fine, i didnt have any problems

so not a inheriant problems, i would suggest panda got a bad unit

 

Yeah, seems to be the case.

 

lots of guys really passionate about this i see

1st - i did not say i bought this laptop to max out crysis, but its a game i enjoy, despite being old. After reading there were 'issues' when playing some games, and saw the video posted earlier, I noticed i had the same issue (not on the 1st two levels though), so i thought i'd add to this forum by reporting it. I also did not expect to run any/all games on max settings on a system that cost £3000, but i don't expect stuttering etc

If there is an issue that the manufacturers, resellers, developers, etc etc have acknowledged and are trying to rectify that i too have seen with my own eyes on my own system - i tend to believe there is some mass fault, and not simply a one off dodgy/faulty system. (of course every unit sager received could also be faulty ).

yes it seems like i have a faulty hd - which could and does happen to people all the time. i'm not slating this machine over it.

for the record i think this is a great machine, but it is not perfect. If you guys are all having no issues at all i'm happy for you and a little envious, but the mass blanket refusals to accept there is an issue when officials involved in its manufacture and design have, stinks of fanboyism

maybe its just a driver issue, as pman is using different drivers - this may also account for my machines refusal to be oc'd.

would someone like to run crysis with original drivers to compare?

has anyone else had stuttering issues with crysis on the m980?

 

this is the point panda its only you that has problems that we know of

I am no ones fanboi just check out the AW forums, if the equipment does what it is suposed to do then i will praise it, if it doesnt i will condem it just as fast

but at the moment we have only your system that says there is a problem, and we know you have other issues so in the interests in fairness until you have a system with no known hardware issues is it fair to say there is a widespread problem....seeing as you are the only one

as for sager they have proved nothing we dont know what the issue is as they havent told anyone

there fore thier story has no credit

 

I didn't wish to come off strong, Panda. However, I do understand that by expecting quality for 3000, you're not necessarily expecting ace-performance for all games, but you'd expect a certain consistency from the product itself. Hell, given that most people have not experienced this issue, it should strengthen your case. Maybe you've genuinely got a slightly faulty unit? Or perhaps it's just a driver issue. Others aren't denying this because they're fanbois, they're denying this because they haven't had this problem - plain and simple. I don't think--generally speaking--one would buy something that is screwy and then hide the fact that it's screwy when they could get full refunds or replacements for the item being screwy.

 

there could be numerous issues causing the stuttering, and the reason you are not having it - driver versions, what version of windows are you using, if you are loading the 32bit game or the 64bit game.

others without the qx9300, and 280m in sli have had issus with crysis and stuttering, so i personally don't think its a particular model issue:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=243948

also if you and other owners are having no issues then it makes me happy as i believe it is simply a windows/driver issue.

i wonder if all sager models are having the same issues though i.e. core duo's etc 260m sli etc or just the quad core 280 sli's

 

Yeah, it's just weird. What OS are you using again Panda?

 

I can tell you--I still have my M1730--I used to get a similar issue with the 180.40 drivers, which was a mixed bag of tricks for me - some games did real well, others did real bad.

Currently, I am using 190.40, which is okay for some things, but my FarCry 2 performance has dropped drastically. I used to get 34+ average under DX10 veryhigh-to-ultrahigh and 2xAA @ 1920x1200. Now, I get a much more horrible version of that stuttering. Of course, if I switch back to 186.03, the problem completely disappears and the game becomes stable.

I believe, from what you've described, the issue might be software-related. I hope it works out.

 

You'd think they could make video drivers that performed the same as their previous versions

 

i'm using vista ultimate and am running the 64bit version of the game.

thanks kade - i hope so too

on another note there is also stuttering during 3dmark - partcularly the jet ski scene at the start of the jane ? gpu test and that space one.

does anyone get this ?

 

Have you OC'd your GPUs or do you get the stutter @ stock?

 

whole system is at stock.

i tried to oc the gpu's, and no change would hold stable, any 3dmark run or game would freeze up and or give me a display driver error.

i also tried the cpu oc, i had it at 287mhz but it would crash after a while, so i kept them all at stock.

 

Time to download OCCT and run the CPU test and GPU test. See if they fail or get too hot.

 

This thread makes me smile.

 

Schadenfreude?

 

So it is odd that your machine won't OC at all. Now I thought Pman was running vista not sure x64 or x32 but seems like it's pointing towards drivers but again we are all speculating and we don't hear anything else other than Clevo's unit is selling and Sager is not. Another thought is there's a bad batch of 280M's.
As far as Crysis, Kade said it well, it's a game that can be used as a good benchmark tool that pushes machines to the limit that's it nothing more so people shouldn't get bent out of shape when it's mentioned.

 

just for record my record clocks are...

2.92ghz on cpu stable

and 685/1080/1710 on GPUS

im running vista 64

drivers dont really effect if a card will clock or not

p.s Drake...been to see Avenue Q recently?

 

Saw it last year. Very funny!

 

http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/products/prodinfo.asp?productid=177#

According to Clevo sites, overclocking feature may be released in the future...

 

right i've got occt, but i have noticed that my cpu frequency/core speed keeps jumping from 1600mhz to 2533mhz which occt shows is a -36.5% oc.

Is this a power saving/heat reducing issue or is this a faulty machine ?

i ran occt and got the temps below. the cpu seemed to stabilise after reaching a max of 78c in 1 core.

the gpu's were another matter and i cancelled the test at around 400 secs as the temps were 100c and 90c.

system was running fine though, but i didn't feel safe having the cards at those temps, especially since they kept going up slowly.

are these temps good/bad ? what is the safe temp range for the 280m's ? and the qx9300 ?

 

I get up to 81 Celsius on the GPUs. You are far from the danger zone.

 

i would recommend to get a notebook cooler.
I play fallout 3 at max setting, with my cryo LX on full i get max 60 degree on cpu and gpu. i did not put the fan on full on the laptop

 

Are you using a keyboard combination to control the fans or is it in the bios?

 

i get 100c on the gpu's

or did you mean cpu ?

what about this built in underclocking

 

the fan are set to automatic. fn+2 on the keyboard if I'm not mistaking will set it to norm. hit fn+2 again will make the fan run faster.