*** Official Clevo P65xSA/SE/SG / Sager NP8650/51/52 Owner´s Lounge ***

I'm not sure the response time of the TN panel but I did not notice any blurring at all in any games, nor do I notice it on the IPS either. The biggest difference is in terms of color reproduction and viewing angles. The colors are so much more vibrant on the IPS it's pretty ridiculous. There was just no contrast on the TN panel and everything just muddled together, whereas colors really pop on the IPS panel.

 

At max it's decently loud. But I'm not one to to overly care about fan noise. In fact I love hearing them if I know my laptops gonna stay cool. I would also like to say I have the P650SE but I don't think the fans are too much different. I would say it wouldn't be a good idea to have them at max if you don't want to disturb others too much. I don't own the P150 so I wouldn't be able to compare there sorry.

I'm sure there is a video about this somewhere. I think HTWingNut did it.

Edit: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jOpIydbaVxU

 

Clearly less louder than my older GT60 and older older P150EM. In idle it's super quiet in my opinion, you have sometimes the GPU fanS that ramp up for 3 seconds but i don't mind at all.

 

Hey guys;

If I choose to go with the LG IPS 1080p display - could I purchase a 4k display in the future may 3-4 years from now.. and change it as simple as that? Or will there be hardware implications to go with it?

Thank you!

 

Thanks for the quick response. I will go ahead and buy the one with IPS

 

No, 4K screens require a different cable than the one used with the 1080p screens. So if you want 4K, your laptop needs to come equipped with it from the get-go.

 

Ehm.. sir, it looks like you're saying the P670Sx has BOTH LVDS and eDP?
Is this certain? I was told it only accepts one panel based on which resistors there are on the motherboard and when it is in LVDS mode there is no way to enable eDP (short of scraping the right resistors off).

 

And we're back!

 

Is anyone else having issues with stuttering in games due to Low GPU utilization? I have been running some tests and I am getting some pretty dramatic drops in frame rate due to GPU utilization inconsistency. For instance, when playing Bioshock Infinite my framerate will be 100FPS+ then for a brief second or two it will drop to 30-40fps. I decided to install MSI Afterburner and I can confirm that my GPU Utilization drops to 0-40% when these spikes occur. This happens in almost every single game that I play.

Things I have tried and noticed:
-Set power profile to prefer max performance
-windows power settings set to max power and no power saving enabled
-Happens on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1
-Tried multiple driver versions including the latest
-CPU Usage is consistent and isn't coordinated with drop in GPU utilization
-Temps are normal (CPU around 60C, GPU no higher than 73C)
-Complete reinstall of OS

There is a thread about this issue affecting the 900 series on the Nvidia forums that has 100 pages and almost 1500 posts. Here is that thread.

Many people in that thread have gotten replacement cards via RMA and it hasn't fixed their issues so I am hesitant on going through the RMA process when it seems this is affecting a huge number of people. So far there has been no official acknowledgement of this issue from Nvidia but there is 100 pages of posts from people stating otherwise.

Anyone else here experiencing this?

 

The moment the forum got back online my NP8651 with Sharp's 4k got shipped at last! Based Gentech, hope it gets to the motherland safely. I'm not sure whether I did the right thing by not going for the 980M version, but I guess for now anything's a giant upgrade over my 425M and hopefully 1920x1080 in games won't look very blurry on that 4k screen. I'm not that much of a gamer but I certainly do like eye candy.

I love my F-series Vaio, it's just getting to the point where I'm not sure I can keep repairing it for much longer (it's been through a lot, a truly trusty comrade) because I'm not even sure what's wrong now and I hope with the demise of that line as we know it a modern Sager will be a good fit. I'll miss that "Display off" button though, it was a surprisingly convenient thing!

Already got an M.2 SSD for it and more RAM, customs and rouble fluctuations made it vastly cheaper to source those locally out of the remaining stock (or, rather, made the other options that much more expensive).

 

Has anyone tested a m.2 sata with a m.2 pcie ssd? It's supposed to be a no go, but yet haven't seen a confirmation.

 

I'm experiencing low clocks in the Intel Graphics when it's unplugged.

No matter if I use Max performance power plan or any kind of clevo power plan.

Does anyone figure out why my intel clock gets stuck at 399 MHz?

 

It will not work

 

I have received my P650SG on Saturday with the Sharp 4K screen. I also have installed a matte screen cover for it so the reflection isn't as bad, yet still retain its great clarity.

Currently modded with Prema's BIOS and vBIOS for the P650SG and will be doing stress tests with it later. I have ran 3DMark and experienced ZERO crashes with this machine.

Things I have installed are listed in my signature. I also applied Liquid Ultra on both GPU and CPU. Idle temperatures are at 38-41C while on balanced power mode (with turboboost on) and plugged to outlet at stock clocks. GPU remains idle at 36C.

Will edit later when I'm not at work for additional info.

 

liquid ultra, nice also looking to use this bad boy on my upcoming rig. hows the application?
which method did u use?

 

Can you go into more detail on that screen protector. Who makes it, how did you install it (ie: removing the bezel), cost, did it turn out how you imagined, pics?

 

Just a small droplet about the size of the tip of the tube. Used the brush to flatten it out. I recommend using some painter's tape or something non-conductive around the CPU in the case you spill (as I heard the material is corossive on PCB). I also used clear conformal coating over the VID pins as a safety precaution prior to installation. Easy application compared to ICD as that one tends to get messy.

 

I've been busy the last days so I couldn't post anything for a while, but YAY! Today my SG arrived! Completely unbranded as requested the first impression is awesome, in the next days I'll post more!



The first thing you notice is the noise anyways. In idle is completely silent. Awesome

 

Especially when you dont even need stealth and it remains completely silent at roughly 40C.

 

Hi all, new NP8651 owner as of a few days ago, fantastic machine!

I have a question regarding temps. I ordered the laptop with IC Thermal paste, and have kept the card stock, no overclocking as of yet. In a well ventilated, 70F room I'm getting CPU temps of 83C in games like CS:GO, and GPU temps of 72C in Endless Legend. Going off other people's reviews these temps seem high. Is this anything to worry about or should I just enjoy the machine and stop worrying?

PS. Idle temps for both gpu and cpu hover around 30C.

Thanks

 

Go ahead and disable turboboost. The temps seem normal to me though, as thats roughly what I see when doing stress tests.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, that's good to hear. I'll disable turboboost. I'll edit my sig eventually but I also ordered the LG IPS display at 1920x1080, I'm sure that drains a bit more juice than the standard LCD.

 

Hey guys, received my P650SG a few days back and what a beast of a machine it is...also got the Sharp 4K screen which is brilliant
One issue I seem to be having thou is running games in 4K, whenever I do so the screen just goes black and freezes the system, until I CTRL ALT DEL and end the process in task manager...I can run them at any other resolution below that and it works fine, just 4k.
I did manage to get 4K working at the very beginning, then updated the VC drivers to 347.09, which Prema advised not to due to Nvidia locking the ability to OC the card, so dropped it back to 344.75...but as mentioned I now get a black screen when attempting to run 4K....possible driver issue?

 

Nice!

Just be careful and expect to change it in a few months' time, and be careful removing because it can dry out and literally cake on the surface making it near impossible to remove, and any on the motherboard can cause a short circuit. If you change it frequently it shouldn't become an issue.

 

Nothing wrong with your temps if those are the highest you've seen. Instead of disabling turboboost, why not try to undervolt?

 

It definitely sounds like a driver issue if you are able to play games fine at any other resolution. The 900 series have a large number of issues with the latest drivers, I made a post on the last page about my issue with low GPU utilization resulting in frame drops and stuttering. Check out the NVIDIA forums if you haven't already, you may be able to find a temporary fix to this until NVIDIA hopefully patches it in a future update.

 

Thanks bossbrew, I noticed with a particular driver that I was getting shocking frame rates as well, below that of my GTX680M machine (but can't recall the driver used), currently using 344.75 and everything is working (excellent frame rates and OC) apart from 4k...might leave it as it is for now until NVidia fixes the drivers issue...will read through the other forum in the meantime to be bough tup to speed...thxs!

 

I dont think there's a real need to change it... unless I royally mess up by causing the fans to shift positions to crack the liquid metal. Should not even dry up at all really. Its not like we're using Liquid Pro. As for changing it out, its why i have tape and conformal coating, prevents shortages when coated well. Cant show it now since I sealed the system shut.

EDIT: I also wont be overly stressing laptop, so removal should be quite easy on yearly basis.

 

You can alternatively try modified drivers and driver INF from LaptopVideo2Go after performing a clean install.

 

Hey Guys,
So I've returned home and the wifi issue seems to have died down. I still see ping spikes while running the command, but it doesn't actually affect any of my gameplay which is nice! Loving this laptop.

There are a few niggles I've run into so far which I was hoping you all could help me out with. I just was curious to know what sort of drivers I needed to download in order to get my PrintScreen button to actually work, I've tried pressing it on its own, and pressing it with the fn or control key, but none of these work. It's not a major issue, I just was curious to see if there was anything to be done about it.

Another issue is my fans. Not that theres anything physically wrong with them, its just they dont seem to run as I would like. It's come to my attention that the Managing software Hotkey gives you slight control over the fan speeds, however seems to only relate the temperatures to the gpu and or the overall laptop temperature. I'm not sure which one exactly, but its definitely not the cpu temperature. I was downloading a few games and had set my custom fan profile so that everything was at it lowest. I thought this would do the trick. But while I was away, I read that my maximum cpu temp got all the way up to 98 degrees! I was extremely worried, but I had hoped it wasn't for too long as the maximum time I was away was an hour. The maximum temperature of the gpu was 35 so I was sure that was why the fans hadnt really kicked in.

Is there any software that I can use to make a fan profile so that when the gpu and or cpu gets to certain temps, the max fans kicks in?

Cheers,

 

Progress, issue with the 4k black screen seems to be related to the Intel HD graphics drivers...installed the stock drivers from the CD that came with the system and 4k works at full screen now at about 35-60fps, weird thing is drop the resolution back down to 1080p and frame rate stays the same 35-60fps...update the Intel HD Graphics drivers, no 4K but the 1080p frame rate goes to 120fps. Game being tested is Sniper Elite V2 on Ultra.

 

Decided to run Unigine Heaven and take a screenshot of my extremely inconsistent GPU utilization after benchmarking.



This is the exact behavior I am seeing in all games which is leading to some insane stuttering and FPS drops. This stuttering has made all of my games unplayable to be honest, it's an aggravating issue that I have never experienced and I have tried every driver, setting, and OS under the sun.

Can someone else post a picture of their GPU utilization after running Unigine Heaven? My research has lead me to the conclusion of this being a driver issue but if others are having different results with the same setup this could be a hardware issue.

 

One test is featuring undervolting, but instead of decreasing temperatures over time, it decided to increase its dang clockspeed. Stable 3.2 GHz at 91-93C as shown in image.

Second image is for @bossbrew while I was using a newer Intel Driver. The drop for my test was only during transition between tests I believe. I have yet to do any gaming but will be testing a few later. Give me a few titles that you have that I should check with via PM or quote me here.

EDIT: Forgot to add that I was using the latest modified NVidia drivers, the one that everyone says was notorious for performance issues on 900 series. For the Prime95 test, that was tested for 1 hour while fiddling with voltage settings to see behavior. Without undervolt, the Clockspeed will cap at 2.9. at Around -40 to -55mV, it goes up to 3.09-3.11 GHz. The image I uploaded shows the MAX POSSIBLE UNDERVOLT keeping stable clockspeed. After that, any more will drop the clockspeed to 2.8GHz.

EDIT2: For those that are wondering about the temperature of GPU during the test. It read 79C on mine as well.

 

Couldnt add more images... so here @bossbrew

http://puu.sh/es9s9/9a85bb2ead.jpg

http://puu.sh/es9sz/743d6ae014.jpg

 

nice, if the application is actually easier than ICD i should be good to go and yep, have conformal coating on my shopping list already btw, the corrosive part isnt the worrying one, but rather the conductive part!

iirc the hotkey driver custom fan profile is actually ONLY dependent on the CPU temp and leaves out the gpu completely. are u sure uve set the correct settings in hotkey? maybe by dialing everything down uve actually slowed the fans to a minimum and thus allowed the CPU to get extremely hot?

 

I recorded a gameplay video of stuttering while playing Bioshock Infinite. Notice the low temperatures and CPU utilization (definitely not a CPU Bottleneck or thermal throttling). GPU utilization plummets on numerous occasions in the video resulting in stutters and huge frame drops. This happens to me in every game I play, some worse than others but this is an example of how frustrating this issue is for gaming. Maybe I have spent too much time gaming on my 120hz gaming desktop but this amount of stuttering makes games unplayable for me.

Please watch in 60FPS if you can!

 

what are your gpu/cpu temps during those throttling situations? im assuming u were plugged into the power socket the whole time, clocks and performance on battery is a different story. might be mundane, but still: make sure to set both windows and hotkey settings to high performance mode and also define bioshock infinite to be used by dGPU in optimus settings.

 

Little issue here. I can't get the 980m to work under Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64. The latest official driver doesn't support the 980m and the beta drivers result in a black screen. Any suggestion?

 

Hi, I'm looking for serious help!!
I am still on the fence about ordering this laptop due to warranty policies, I will have to pay essentially an extra £400 if i want a 4 year warranty with XMG, is this worth it?

with PC specialist i can get this with a 980m, 16gb, 1tb hdd, 250ssd, IPS , for £1450 with 2 year warranty, 3 years labour.

OR do i go with XMG/mySN with a 970m, 16gb, 750gb hhd, 250ssd, IPS, for £1539 with 4 year all inclusive warranty?

Because the GPU AND CPU are both souldered i'm just worried I wont get much more than 2 years out of this, how do you feel about this laptop going for 4+ years without serious hardware problems? is the extra warranty worth it?

Any advice? help!

 

The microstutters seem like the typical driver issues that everyone else is reporting for 900 series. The GPU temps seem stable during those drops. You can try modding the vBIOS (see Prema's thread for Clevo BIOS for P6XXSG at TechInferno) and see if increasing the clockspeed in different power states help mitigate the issue as I am assuming its a power saving feature of the new cards for mobile PC's.

EDIT: Temperatures are improving over time... I guess my paste is still settling in.

 

If you want beefy long term investment, go P750ZM with user upgradeable and replaceable parts. I personally use the P650SG for its portability and utility. It shouldnt cause any issues under normal gaming situations. Extra warranty is your call, but it does help in case of hardware failure after the initial 1-2years.

 

especially with these models i can only recommend the all-inclusive warranty if youre planning to keep this machine for 3-4 or even more years then such a warranty is a MUST! why? uve already said it urself: since all important components are soldered, ull have to exchange the whole mainboard once a fault pops up, and thatll easily outweigh the cost of the warranty! so its enough for you to have ONE fault in those 4 years and u got the money back twofold

@lonesyndal: doesnt one have to burn-in the liquid ultra? id recommend several hours of system stress to properly settle it besides, load temps would be far more interesting than idle temps

 

Quick question for anyone with hotkey edits. Is it possible to manually set the fan speeds at specific temperatures? Seems insufficient when benching as the fan refused to go all out...

 

@LoneSyndal. Not sure if I missed your reply, but what were the details on your matte screen protector. I am interested in ordering one but could not find any remarks on using them with hidpi screens.

 

The MSI screen protector I ordered from Amazon has very little grain and retains high clarity. About 60-70% matte. Only issue is installation so you will need a nice humid environment to install the film. Worked fine on my screen and worked for many MSI Ghost Pros using high res displays.

 

Thanks, I will go check those out. The gloss is the only thing I dread about the sharp screen, still waiting for my order to come in.

 

Hmmm... I'm not seeing a screen protector on amazon manufactured by MSI. Was that the brand? Or did you just pick one out for hidpi screens that was compatible with 15.6" MSI laptops.

 

Slightly bigger by 0.1. (345x194.5 mm)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00J7SDNIM/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?qid=1421165418&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

Slightly smaller by 0.4 (345x194 mm ; this is what I opted for)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JD4QMRY/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?qid=1421165625&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

Sharp panel is 345 x 194.4 mm)

 

P651SG should arrive soon but a quick question, whats the main differense on P6x1Sx and P6x0Sx ?

 

Chassis finish and fingerprint scanner. Mines the P650SG as it has fingerprint scanner and the brushed finish. P651SG is sandblasted and does not have fingerprint scanner.