*** Official X8100 (Sager 8120) Owners Thread ***

Im using Multi GPU yes, and I get both the monitor cards heat measurments.
I read somewhere that my cpu is causing this ? since I only got i7 720qm ? 1,6GHz turbo boost to 2,8GHz .. is this the case , I will contact the sellers of this machine....

In 3dmark 06 with test standard settings i score 11000 points too.. isnt this abit low.. havent run the test without sli activated yet.. will do so..

 

Ok now im realy confused.... This is what I have done.

Driver's 187.72 From sager's webpage.

Furmark 1.8.0 tests

Sli = 22 FPS

noSli = 50 FPS

3Dmark 06 tests

Sli = 11350 points

noSli = 11203 points


And when testing ingame I get more fps without SLI activated, then SLI activated....

So any input about how to go about this is helpful... Any other drivers ? And where to get em ?

 

Haha...erratic to say the least, especially as the furmark results more like they're the wrong way round!
I'd recommend trying the 186.81/82 and Dox's 195.62, or the 196.86. Be warned you will likely need to inf mod all of these except possibly Dox's (so try those first).

Once you've installed your driver of choice, download the latest EVGA SLI Enhancement pack, as this will update your SLI profiles to include some newer games [unless you go for 196.86 as this MIGHT contain newer profiles, not sure]

 

thanks for reply, can you please post where I can get those Dox's 196.86 ?

 

There's a link over on laptopvideo2go for the Dox 195.62s.

The 196.86 aren't Dox, they're the beta drivers released by Nvidia aimed primarily at DPC issues but if you dont have this issue, they're just another set of drivers to try.

Give the Dox a shot first, as they may support your cards out the box

 

TRied the Dox 195.62, but wouldnt install , so got the patch for update 5. Manually removed the ones I had 187.82, then updated manually with moddified ini file from the dox.. rebooted.. But it doesnt tell me I got 195.62, still 187.82..

Hmm test out some more... So anoying. get a new computer and driver troubles woot...

 

there.. tada 195.62 installed.. from Dox.
Now to update physx and EVGA SLI Enhancement pack , ( where to find this ? )PhysX I found on laptopvideo2go.. Looking for SLI enhance..

So after all this is updated, what program should I test with ? Sli on , and Sli off.. to see if its fixed ?

 

Excellent, thats a good start, what was wrong when you tried to install the Dox previously? Needed to mod in the device IDs or something?
The EVGA SLI Enhancement pack is available as a direct download from EVGA

Once you've done this, test with whatever you like, furmark is a fairly small and easy to download programme for example. Just compare framerates with the same settings, in full screen mode, with SLI on and then SLI off.

 

Well tested FurMark now.. and still the same results.. noSli 50FPS Sli 22FPS

3Dmark same results.. But read somewhere that its my cpu thats too slow to utilize 2 gpu's ?

Anyone else here that got twin gtx 285M and my cpu i7 720qm... ?

If this is the case I must contact my vendor, and demand either return of one gpu or discount on a 920qm extreme.. since other ppl here get 60 FPS with that cpu and same cards...

Or am I doing something totaly wrong here??

I got 195.62 drivers.. needed to patch some but they are installed now.. Updated to physX , and got SLI enhancment pack..

Still more FPS without SLI..

 

Awesome, I didn't know about the ability to change the FOV. Just switched to 90 and it makes a world of difference.

 

Found out that the FurMark test doesnt launch SLI mode fully, using show sli visual indicator is totaly blank in Furmark testings.. Even though I runned MultiGpu launcher or not.

3Dmarks got a boost after the new drivers 195.62 results there is 11902 Cpu score is draging it down in the total. But both SLI indicators run up and down through this testm and are almost still on the cpu tests.. Where the fps is stunning 2 haha ..

So my question is is there another benchmark program like FurMark that I can test ?

 

If your 3dmark Vantage GPU core is higher with SLI on than off, then generally you should be good to go.

 

even with the 196.21 drivers im still having some weirdness here. i installed Call Of Duty World of War last night and animation was so choppy. so i closed it out. ran furmark and sure enough frame rate was back to about 17fps grrrrrrrrrrr. a reboot resolved the issue. a minor annoyance. im off to melbourne for a few days and wont be taking the lappy with me. i'll install 3dmark vantage and post results here when i get back.

 

Ok guys I think my problems are solved.. I downloaded 3dmark vantage..

Run a test.. and tada...
SLI = ( new test requierd.. noted down wrong numbers on paper )points
noSLI = 7039 points

 

SLi utilisation has improved over the last couple of years, usually improves perfoemance by about 40% min now

 

Am I missing something because them scores dont dont add up or make sense to me?

 

lol no they didnt.. haha.. I see it now.. must have typed something wrong :s

noSli = P7039

must redo the Sli test later today.. and now trial is out of the window.. get a new trial key.. Since I dont wanna buy the program just to clearify something.

 

I mistakenly posted CPU score i earlier post..

Final test 3Dmark vantage with this rig goes like this..
SLI = cpu 25282 Graphic 8309 Total = P9985

noSLI = cpu 25282 Graphic 5643 Total = P7039

So there is a diff of 2946 with and without Sli..

Again thanks for all help here Gonna stick around..

Upgrade of the cpu in future = no problem from vendor. They can ship me a cpu , or I can deliver my machine and they swap.. But wait until the price falls on the 920Qxm

 

So I've had my new 8120 for a full 24 hours now and am very happy so far. Set up was very easy and the only issue I had was Norton finding the gamekey program as foreign and having to teach it otherwise. Plays BluRays fine, played Witcher all the way turned up- (that isn't all that stressful to the unit- it's a 2007 game). I will throw Mirror's Edge at it this week and see how it handles PhysX! Fly's through loads and installations and has a read write index of 7.8 with a single 160G SSD, can't get that from my desktop P5K Deluxe with a 10,000 RPM Raptor (5.9 only). ONE, I repeat ONE dead pixel only. Movies don't play as loud as I would like but headphones fix that nicely.

Overall initial impression is good to great ~ 8-9 out of 10. Do not want to give a final impression until I've shaken it down a bit.
cjo

 

run vantage with physx off and post a screenshot. also your gpu score seems alittle low. what driver are you using???

 

Im using 195.62 drivers.. And this is my run without physX


I get lower CPU score without physX ( cpu with physX on = 25282 and total score with physX on = P9985 ). But GPU score is around the same with or without physX.

Is there anyone with same specs as me , that got any higher gpu score with other drivers? My rig is in the signature.

Or anyother drivers I might try out to boost my gpu ?

 

Just a couple of questions! I get my laptop on Monday and was wondering if you can use IDT audio drivers and control panel instead of the original ones? Also is there a fan speed control for this laptop like the one dell has (i8kfangui)?

 

yes you can change the fan speed. to slow or normal setting. I dont know about the audio drivers.

 

this is mine at stock for reference for you

looks like something wrong tho, this was on my old rig with 280's in it

285's should be faster not slower

 

Even though u got faster cpu ? Isnt the cpu suposed to draw more out of the gpu ?

What drivers are u running now ? I can try those, or what drivers where u using there ?

 

nope the cpu has very very little impact on the gpu score, the cpu scores are about the same.

i was using 195.62

 

How good is the HDMI input?

 

I haven't tried the HDMI input...but when I hooked my computer to my Sony TV they didn't get along.

I'm going to have to try on a different monitor make sure everything's going alright.

 

something is up with that. make sure your computer is set at high performance. that's to high to be a single card but way to low for sli.

 

ok im back home. i gave 3dmark vantage a go today with SLI enabled and PhysX set to OFF



And again with PhysX ON




And just because I could, i compared it with my desktop rig which is running a i7-860 CPU, 8 GB RAM, Crossfired Radeon 5850's and Win 7 Ultimate X 64. as ATi cards do not support PhysX. it is OFF for this test.




So im convinced the laptop's performance is now running normal. something interesting i found though. if the lappy is running off battery power and then i plug it back into AC mains 3D performance suffers horribly UNTIL i reboot. which doesnt seem right to me, anybody else here able to reproduce that?

 

physx just makes the gpu do the cpu work. only works with nvidia. that's why your cpu score is higher with physx....

 

Where do I set it to High performance ? The 3D settings ? from quality to performance? I tried that.. no work.. If there is something i need to do help please ?

 

your power settings in your OS.

i would personally reinstall your drivers and see what you get.

 

I now runned the test with High performance turned on. And got
GPU score 8376 only 66 points higher.

Trying to reinstall all the drivers and running over again.

Update :

Reinstalled my 195.62 drivers. Only thing i get with power turned to high performance is 1000 points more in CPU test. 26K there.. But still 8376 points on GPU test..

What physX drivers should I use ? I tested the ones recommended from Dox 195.62 drivers. And the newest one from nvidia, currently using 9.09.1112 and no difference there.

Installed nvidia Performance and this is my gtx 285M stock settings:

Core Clock 600MHz
Memory Clock 1000MHz
Shader Clock 1500MHz
Video BIOS version 62.92.ae.00.0c


haMz22 what rig you got ? Same as me ? cpu and ram ?

I'm kinda not figuring out what to do here.. 1

 

out the box my 280m gtx sli got 10,000 and tweaked i got 10,500 so something is a miss.

do a couple things.
try 186.24 and do it with and without sli and see what happens. are you stuttering in the gpu runs???

 

What u mean on stuttering ?

now I get lower score without sli activated.. well try and get 186.24 drivers up and running then.

 

The 186.24 drivers didnt install at all. Just gave me a black screen.

I got the 186.24 from laptopvide2go ..

So I converted to the stock 187.82 drivers and runned with and without sli test.

noSLI = GPU 5617
SLI = GPU 8461 ( 85 points higher then 195.62 drivers )

On another note, I get sometimes a "tick" sound from the speakers.. What is this ?

 

same as yours. it should be in my sig. if not here is a link: http://www.techsmart.net.au/Product/Product.asp?Notebook=N//X8100

 

Ok now I think what is causing my "problem" the scaling of my monitor..

I runned the test on more time with 187.82 drivers SLI activated.
But this time I alterd the resolution on the test from 1280*1024 ( 5:4 ) to 1280*720 ( 720p ) And my result was now 11 444 on GPU score.

And as I can see in the nvidia controll panel That I cannot choose SLI-focus screen.. and can't adjust the scaling.. It is automatic turned to scale up. so 1280*1024 goes full screen , while 1280*720p is a fullscreen friendly scaling to the monitor..

Please correct me if im wrong here. But that result in 720p made me kinda happy.. the FPS ticker in the test ticked up to max 52 fps while on 5:4 it maxed at 33fps..

Only thing im curious about now is the "ticking" sound that arrives in the speakers from time to time. Not in headset only in speakers.

 

It Looks like 2 GTX285M SLI = the power of 1 Desktop GTX-280

 

Does anyone know of a fan controller that will work with this laptop? Is there a program that will control the lights like the one dell has for the XPS M1730?

 

none that i know of

 

Hi,
Looking over this Laptop, any heat issues? I don't see much here complaining or any heat benchmarks. Don't suppose anybody has an IR Thermometer to shoot some temps? Notebook check does this, but has not reviewed this Laptop yet.

 

I have stress benched mine and my gpu not exceeced 65 at stock and cpu at 68 at stock if that helps

 

I was looking at getting the Asus G73, but it looks like they are having a lot of issues. I had a Clevo Laptop in the past that was their high end gaming Laptop and it had severe heat issues.

Any issues I should be concerned with here?

 

Doesnt sound like it. The X8100 chassis has decent cooling, and there are no issues with the chipset unlike the previous version.

 

One thing that suprised me about the X8100/Kobalt G890 is how cool it seems to be, with quite a lot of high powered notebooks you can feel heat on the palm rest or on the chassis, also the rear can feel like a warm hair dryer with the amount of heat that gets blown out.

This laptop must have some excellent internal cooling, my temps idled at around 34/35 degrees. You won`t be dissapointed if its performance and very good cooling that your looking for along with its excellent build quality.

 

Thanx for the info! This thread is kinda slow for some reason.

Can you disable one of the GPUs for non gaming to help out on the power consumption and heat? I wonder if I could pull a GPU out and box it up? I don't really have need for the 2nd GPU because I don't game.

 

So this laptop has an HDMI input, what exacly does this do, display video on the monitor, or is it just for sound?

 

^Both

nice, 3dmark06 benchmark with new driver gave me a markedly increased score.. the original, stock store was around 148XX.. so not bad at all! also, if you guys notice the temps, you can see that these gpu's -- with the new drivers are keeping themselves quite cool; as with the stock driver, the temps were around mid 50's C.

score was derived with unoverclocked gpu's... mainly because i can't seem to overclock these gtx 285m's.. if anybody knows how, please tell me!