*** Official Clevo P37xSM-A/Sager NP9377 owner's lounge ***

780M didn't suffer from it. It was probably a combination of svl7's vbios and drivers that triggered it with 880s. 980M uses an evolution of the power saver technology nVidia introduced in the 880M so it's possible it could happen again.

I will note that with all the issues I had with the 880M, that issue didn't happen but once and it was related to shadow play running in the background (not in use, just the driver) but it would crash whatever game I was in immediately even without shadow play or geforce experience installed. Others suffered the shutdown with no explanation as to why.

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Well, there's an easy way to check... load up a game and then pull your plug out and see if it shuts off or just lowers FPS.

 

I'm too lazy at the moment to get up and fuss with the computer. Otherwise I'd be trying the DSR patch.

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Yeah. This whole "let's downgrade laptop tech" trend has made me lazy with trying out new things.

 

Well humble sent me an email to get 80% off Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition soooooooooooo.... Computer is fired up. Loving my 105Mbps free upgrade that Comcast give us. 15MB/sec right now lol

Guess I'll test and see what's up with the DSR patch and the power disconnect.

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I'm not sure I'd advise doing that. I did that accidentally on an old Dell M1530 that had an 80% shader overclock - the battery drained from full to zero in about 10 seconds - after that the battery was almost completely wrecked and would hold hardly any charge.

 

I lose power here all the time while gaming (3rd world country and all). I guarantee you it doesn't instantly drain a battery. These things will throttle way way before any of that happens. I've had it happen no fewer than 20 times since owning this machine and my battery is still fine. Besides, he'd be doing it at stock; it's just to see if his PC would instantly turn off or not.

 

Don't you run stock vbios though? Modded vbios seeks to eliminate any throttle which is what caused the issue. I have no idea if 980M suffers from it. Since Prema made a vbios mod, I bet it works like it's supposed to.

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Guys i really hate to say this but for whatever reason i do not know why i think i am going to get the 4980HQ GT 80 Titan.

Is there any last minute things you can say that will sway me otherwise.

For some reason i have a secret passion for the Sager NP9377-S.

 

780Ms do not pull enough power for 120Hz on stock vBIOS in SLI. Under warranty, I am allowed to use svl7's modded vBIOS for my 780Ms, because the system does not work correctly otherwise, and I get artifacting. So I will never be on a stock vBIOS here.

4980HQ can't overclock worth a damn, can't hold more than 47W power under load after 2 minutes when its short power boost window expires, and is soldered to the board if you get a bad chip for undervolting.
Also, it's only 3.6GHz across 4 cores at stock.

 

So if you get the Sager one what is it at all 4 cores stock?

 

No but you can easily set that yourself with Intel's XTU. Shouldn't even need to raise the voltage.

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4710MQ = 3.3GHz at 4 cores stock. Max OC = 3.5GHz 4 cores
4810MQ = 3.6GHz at 4 cores stock. Max OC = 4GHz 4 cores.
4910MQ = 3.7GHz at 4 cores stock. Max OC = 4.3GHz 4 cores

You can adjust power draw values and they will hold indefinitely, unlike with MSI (or any HQ CPU on the market).

 

What about the 4940MX?

 

Unlocked multiplier, but you'll run into power/heat limitations way before you get that thing as high as it'd go in an alienware. Unless you're willing to do some serious elbow grease and heatsink replacing aftermarket.

 

Alienware has no 980M SLI.

What if I used two power supplies like you suggested earlier? I mean the thing comes with three separate fans. That is not enough to keep everything cool?

 

See this CPU heatsink? With the two sets of fins?

Spoiler

You'd need to buy that. And it would need the compatible slave GPU heatsink to go with it.
What you'd get is this:

Spoiler

See that tiny CPU heatsink? Not good enough for the MX chip to run free.

 

So if you get the right fan and heat sink and the MX chip. What could you run on all 4 cores consistently with two power supplies?

 

Well yes, if you get the correct heatsink setup, sure. But @Ethrem has had problems getting over 4.3GHz on his; something about voltage running out... so I don't know. It's possible the board cannot supply enough voltage to the chip, and that the volt limit is below 1.3v, and the Alienwares had a higher board voltage allowance. I could not say, really. You'd have to use trial and error. But generally speaking, two PSUs would let you run free with 980Ms and any CPU you put in there. It's why I suggested the 4910MQ though; because 4.3GHz on 4 cores *IS* attainable on it, and the 4930MX I cannot promise will maintain over that speed.

 

Why can the 4910MQ run better than the 4940MX?

Also if you get the right heat sink and fan. It would run at 4.3 ghz on all 4 cores at the same time consistently without dropping?

Too bad Alienware is not doing a 980M SLI with a higher voltage motherboard.

 

Yes, it's too bad about alienware.

My 4800MQ sits at 3.9GHz 24/7 and doesn't drop under load with my settings, so I see no reason why yours would do differently. The MQ chips use less voltage than the MX chips. Probably being binned for higher efficiency. The MX chips are basically the silicon quality used in the unlocked desktop chips, and use higher voltage/current limits by default.

 

Where do you buy the better fan and heat sink?

 

Oh you don't need a better fan. You just need the heatsinks. The heatsinks you're looking for are the P370EM CPU heatsink and P370EM slave GPU (2nd GPU) heatsink. You can get them on RJTech; unsure where else.

 

So if I get the 4910MQ and the better heat heat sinks what kind of clocks do you think I could safely maintain on all four clocks. What is the max you think I could hold for hours?

 

EM heatsinks and 4910MQ? Definitely easily 4.3GHz 24/7

 

Well the exact speeds depend on the chip and margins on the heatsink.

 

That is crazy.

That would blow away the Titan.

How much percentage gain would I get playing BF4 for four hours verse the 4980HQ?

 

That's only if it doesn't hit the voltage wall.

Honestly for gaming, there's no point in most games of running such a high CPU overclock and the 980M does get hot when it's loaded, I wouldn't dump that ~10C from the CPU to the GPU, especially since it's the slave which is the hotter of the two. This stock heatsink is much better than my original one, I'm running 4.2GHz core and I lock it to 70W, I couldn't even run 67W at stock clocks with that old heatsink. Does it drop? When I'm doing something artificial it tanks fast but it's rock solid stable for all the games I have, sometimes I have to bump it to 80W or it will hover between 4 and 4.1GHz. Still, it's not necessary. Sometimes when the system crashes I forget to go put my settings back in and don't notice for days.

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Right.

But what is the performance increase you think in FPS at a locked 4.2 GHZ on all 4 clocks continuously vs 4980HQ which will have like 3.7 or 3.8 locked clock on all four cores?

 

Negligible in 95% of games. Biggest gains in games unless they are CPU heavy like real-time strategy almost always come from GPU and RAM tweaking.

And the HQ does not lock frequencies... It will turbo until it's TDP is hit and that's locked. You'll probably average 3.4-3.7GHz with an HQ unless Intel pulled some serious magic.

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vSynced to 60fps? No change. The HQ will likely even hold its clocks if you OC at that lock.
Unlocked FPS of any kind? The HQ will throttle to about 3.4GHz. Tested from GT80 Titan owner in the MSI subforums right here on NBR.
It's up to you in the end, but it's undeniable that the CPU performance and clock holding is better on the P377SM-A.

If you don't care about gaming above 60fps at any time, OR you don't need high clocks on your CPU (for things like rendering, streaming, etc), then you won't notice much difference between the P377SM-A and a GT80.

 

That is exactly my question.

How much gain in percentage or in FPS will I get in unlocked FPS via 4910MQ or 4940MX playing BF4 for hours compared to 4980HQ?

If the HQ will throttle around 3.4 GHZ what will the 4910MQ or 4940MX throttle at on unlocked FPS over 60 FPS?

 

The MQ can change its TDP more freely, so there is that. Have you looked up CPU scaling guides for the games you are interested in?

 

Ok. Unlocked FPS. I can say Crysis 3 and BF4 you'd definitely improve. Dying Light is heavy on the CPU load too. I can see ~5fps improvements between 3.5GHz and 3.8GHz; there'd be a large one between 3.7GHz and 4.3GHz.

In most other games, I could not say. I just know that some CPU heavy games will love the increased clock. I can't help more, because I neither have a 4910MQ nor do I have 980Ms.

So it honestly depends. But in unlocked FPS, especially targeting 120fps, better CPU clocks can mean good things. Some single-threaded games like Mass Effect 3 and Final Fantasy 13 would also benefit.

 

You are making it very hard for me to buy the GT80 Titan guilt free.

 

Because it's not the best machine on the market, and it's price as if it was.

 

Does the P377SM-A with say the 4810MQ and the sli 980m come with vBios? thanks guys I dunno what to do the 4790k and 1 980m or this ^^ :/

 

Its likely that any new cards will have the overclock block vBIOS and will have to be flashed to Prema's unlocked vbios.

As for your other question, if you're a gamer primarily, I'd get the SM-A with the 4910MQ and SLI 980M. If you do serious math and encoding and other CPU intensive tasks more, the 4790k will likely be a better choice if you overclock it. I haven't seen how good the cooling is in the new machines but my liquid cooled desktop 4790k runs 4.7GHz 24/7. I'm doubtful that the cooling can handle this kinds of clocks at stock though.

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You know that is a huge selling point to be able to have prema unlock your vbios or bios in Sager notebooks vs the MSI ones.

 

It really is. Prema is not just a modder, he actually does the system BIOS mods for some resellers so he knows what he's doing and he's a perfectionist from what I've seen so he makes sure everything is fully tested before public release.

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Well there is svet for MSI but you do have donate for that where as Svet is a voluntary system.

 

And Svet's unlocking barely does much, apparently. Power limits for their MQ chips etc are still there. Seems like stock MSI BIOSes have a good few options available as well.

 

Where is the absolute best place for me to order a Sager NP9377-S in the US? Also how do I remove the Sager brand and get the vents blacked out because I do not want them Chrome or red. I wish I could just get the whole laptop blacked out.

If I order one it will be with two power adapters and a converter. Plus I want to order the 120HZ screen.

With two power adapters what is a safe bet I can keep the turbo running at with unlocked bios and vbios with two adapters?

 

Someone really should go back and read as all of this was already explained multiple times now. FYI - I'm running my 4940MX @ 70W, 4.2GHz and both 980M on one adapter. The SM-A was never meant to run two adapters and you're wasting money. Dual adapters are needed for desktop chips, not mobile. Xotic is by far the best reseller in the US in my opinion. Exceptional customer service and they are able to make miracles happen to make their customers happy.

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The best place to get everything you asked for at point of sale would be Eurocom, as far as I know.

You can buy the 120Hz screen
You can buy the 2 x 330 PSU + converter box
You can buy a 4930MX for $400 less than a 4940MX for some weird reason ( though 4910MQ is still the better shot as far as I and Ethrem are concerned; you'll need to know if you find a )
You can remove branding as far as I know, but the vents will be chrome. You want em black that's a DIY mod you'll have to do.

With 980Ms you're unlikely to pass the need for a single adapter (which is why I want them now) but you can do as you please with them.

 

D2 Ultima - if you are unlikely to need more than 1 adapter then why do you want them now?

 

You'll wait a century if you order from Eurocom...

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Eurocom got my machine to me in 6 working days, and they threw in the dual 330W PSU and adapter "in case you want to overclock it" as a freebie, last month .

Very easy to deal with and fast communications. Recommended .

 

Obviously they take new computer sales more seriously than part orders. It took two weeks for me to get my GPU screws I ordered.

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Come on @Ethrem D=