Sager NP9377 / Clevo P377SM-A Review by HTWingNut

Not necessarily a bad thing with the 120Hz screen option though, I would think.

 

For 120hz it's great.

 

I'd take 120hz over 2K/4K 60hz any day I think. I guess I'd have to see them side by side but I am of the camp that thinks 2K/4K in a smaller screen is pointless. Then again that's what they used to say about 1080p in TVs smaller than 32" and yet its now the standard for our 5" smartphone screens so I'd love to be proven wrong.

 

Just got my nexus 5 and there really is something about high resolution on small screens that just feels really nice

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Big fan of the Nexus 5 right here!

I personally think 3k or 4k on a 17" would be ok. Have yet to try it out in depth but could see it being fine. 15" is too small for me without proper scaling going on.

 

Yeah I have the HTC m8 and before that had the m7... I could never go back to lower resolution screens.

I think the graphical performance hit would be hard to overcome though, look how many games already don't work well on the highest end single GPU solutions on a laptop. Too big of a trade off. Mobile devices get away with it because 60FPS isn't mandated for a smooth experience with how most people use them but gamers won't be happy seeing 10-15FPS in games they used to see 30+ in!

 

I'm not talking about gameplay, pure usage. I see no need to go over a 1920 resolution for current games.

 

Going to have to disagree. That is not what's wrong with the 880M SLI.

 

Okay so what is it?

 

I am going to let everyone explain it since that is what usually happens, but doesn't mean that is what is going on.

 

Okay so what do you believe is going on? Making a statement that "that is not what's wrong with the 880M SLI" is not very useful for those of us looking for concrete answers, especially those like me who already ordered the machine with this configuration. If there is something else going on, I'd like to know what it is and if it can be remedied or if its even really that big of an issue.

 

I already did a review on the 880M, so im going to say that is a bit more than being helpful.

 

I wasn't saying in general. I'm saying that your comment was entirely out of place in this thread - it didn't even make sense where it was left since nothing was quoting and it was just dropped in by itself - there was a whole semi off-topic convo in the middle. I would think that you would have known that posting that was going to cause inquiries so I don't see the point in posting it if you didn't plan on sharing with the rest of us.

Oh well, I'll be happy with it either way. Going from my HD 3000 to even a single 880M is a monstrous jump and even if I was using my M17x as my daily PC, it would still be a ridiculous jump from the 260M SLI in that machine.

 

Google does wonders.

 

What johnksss is saying is the 880m sli is limited by the vbios not the cpu

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I figured that is what he was talking about but he could have just said that. nVidia vbios has been the limiting factor in nVidia's mobile GPU performance since the GTX branding started back in what, 2005? 2006?

 

Regardless of the cards TDP etc, if both cards are throttling the same it would not impact SLI scaling.

 

Honestly, I don't even know why we are arguing about this. If you buy a new config, you don't have a choice. Its 870M, 880M, or R9 290X. The 9377-S doesn't even have an 860M Maxwell chip option and the 780M is EOL at this point. Its kind of moot for any new purchase. Upon going back and reviewing my options and seeing that it only cost me 600 bucks to add a second 880M to my build that already included one, I'm not even remotely upset about it. My machine needs to get here so I can stop posting on the forums

 

^that depends on how much gaming you end up doing. I gamed for probably 20 hours/week for the first month I got my machine, then ennui kicked in and I'm back on the forums. Oh well

 

Yeah I will probably end up sticking with my tablet for most of my gaming... To be honest, PC gaming isn't what I want it for... I'm an emulator buff and my M17x is a bit long in the tooth for PSP and certain PS2 titles (Suikoden III is a prime example of a game that will bring any modern PC to its knees with any significant tweaks to increase graphic quality) plus the fan for one of the graphics cards is squealing and I have the money for an upgrade now so might as well.

The 32GB of RAM and 4940MX will be put to work with virtualization for sure though, especially since I'm sure that OS X would not be too fond of the components in there for a native install and Linux is like an on and off again passion

 

[Review] Nvidia GTX 880m
Another review gets me really worried

 

You're worried about a review that outright admits that the card will be limited by the thermal design of the laptop? The M15x is not rated for the power that the 880M pulls. Very few systems are. Of course it will throttle. It's not getting enough power. That whole review is one of the most biased reviews I've ever seen.

I don't know what you're worried about, any issues that are present now will be fixed later either through vbios mods or through drivers. I guarantee you that you will not find a single mobile GPU launch in the last 10 years or so that went off as planned. Clevo actually sends enough power to the GPUs, unlike Alienware, so any throttling issues can be remedied either directly by them or by the modding community.

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nexus 5 krew

 

And this is one of the many reason why there is no 880M vbios at this time. Because of comments like this.
So lets us know when your re seller fixes this issue for you.

 

Your making more sense that's anyone here Ethrem .
Did some googling although I don't know much about components but I see
That the alienware 15x has a 150w adapter . The CPU reviewed uses 55w and the 880m is 122w .... Again no idea if when benchmarked they would use all the power they have but could it no be that the 150w adapter causing the throttling ?
I would never try doing a bios update as I have no clue on how and read that it's risky.

EDIT: just noticed that a 330w psu was used in the review.

 

Okay, I just went and thoroughly read all three reviews. As I expected, it sounds like driver issues coupled with a crippled vbios.

It doesn't matter all that much though. If you aren't pushing the limits of the system like they are, trying to squeeze out every last drop of performance that you possibly can and then fussing because it doesn't go as far as they want it to, you won't have an issue. If you look at HTWingNut's review on the first post in this very thread and compare to the TI review.. something was obviously not right with the M15x in that review, my guess is drivers. If you compare his review to the review that johnksss did, you can see that the performance between the card in the M18xR2 and the card in the NP9377 is roughly equivalent (with the NP9377 being a little bit faster stock but within a very small margin that could be accounted for in ways other than the graphics card). This means that 880M is disappointing as a refresh of the 780M but its performance clock for clock is about the same as a 780M which is to say that with stable drivers, the higher clocked stock 880M will still be faster than the 780M (at worst, it will have the same performance as the 780M), it just isn't anywhere near as fast as it should be thanks to a crippled vbios and drivers.

Once again, the 780s are being phased out so at the end of the day, the option of having the 780 is going to be gone (and indeed is already gone from most reseller pages although if you contact them, maybe they can find them, never know). If you are looking for the fastest stock experience, your only option right now will be the 880M.

Yet another botched GPU launch. It is what it is. I personally think it should be illegal what AMD and nVidia do with rebadging the same silicon with a new name, faster clocks, and higher heat and charging a premium as if it was entirely new tech but hey, that's what happens when there's no competition.

 

The 880M in my NP8278 throttles when the GPU hits 70c.

I have a 230w power supply and have never seen more than 210w at the wall outlet.

The problem is the vbios. No reseller is going to fix that.

Bear in mind that the 780M has similar issues.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

*sigh*

I give up. I've been trying to fight it right and left but you all have officially made me think that I will regret my machine purchase. Positivity is out the window. We'll see how it performs when it gets here... It may end up going back. I'm not dealing with M17x crap all over again. That machine never reached its full potential. Thanks guys! -_-

 

I would change what I have. Even gimped, it still kicks butt in games.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

The 880m is being intentionally crippled by nvidia to make Maxwell look better when it comes out

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I could buy another cheap laptop and spend the money I spent on my 9377-S for SLI GTX 780M Ti Superclocked w/ACX cards and an i7-4770k machine and absolutely smoke everything with some cash left over though. I'll reserve my final judgment for when I get it but everyone has finally managed to break me down.

 

Then there needs to be a class action lawsuit filed over it to let them know this practice is not acceptable.

 

From the way the bios modders talk there seems to be some politics involved here

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How so? Admittedly until I started shopping for this machine, I hadn't been keeping up on mobile tech - I didn't have the money for it so I would just prefer not to read about it.

 

Well politics in their own community for other people taking credit for their work as well

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They don't want to release it partly because they don't want their work to be stolen

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So make it donate only. People who donate are much less likely to distribute the work to those who won't donate. 5 dollar donation gets the mod. Problem solved.

 

I would tend to agree there should be some type of system in place to prevent this

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Easier said than done though I suppose lol

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Regardless the 880m is the most powerful laptop GPU available and even with a stock bios it will do fantastically

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Not if its throttling for no reason.

As for the BIOS mod... I don't think that implementing a donate system would be all that difficult. It takes a PayPal account, 5 minutes, and a post as to why it went to donate only. That way even if someone goes and distributes it, they still made money from the people who believed they deserved it for the work, got their recognition, etc. People who are going to steal are going to steal, that won't change. Why punish the community for the actions of a few individuals and leave them screwed for something that they didn't do? nVidia was wrong for crippling the cards and in my opinion, if you withhold the only way to fix the problem because you aren't getting all of the credit you believe you deserve for it, you're not any better than nVidia. When I was working on OS X, I released what I had then told others how to do what I did, they improved on it, the community grew, and now we went from getting stuck in VMWare to vanilla boots that OS X can't tell apart from a "real" Mac. I understand that these BIOS mods take time and obviously have a huge risk of bricking cards and other problems but punishing everyone for the actions of a few doesn't get anyone anywhere. *end rant*

Anyway, I'll give it a fair run through and weigh my options. Even with the performance issues the M17x had, I was still able to do the things I wanted to do with the machine. Even today, that machine will still run FFXIV:ARR on the maximum setting (meant for gaming desktops) at 1080p with 60FPS in most scenes with just a few dips below that in certain areas. I'll just have to evaluate everything and make a decision.

 

Agreed. I actually 100 percent agree with everything you just said.

 

Ethrem sorry if somehow I caused you disappointment mate ... I didn't want to end up with a crippled machine or regret my purchase already gave out a laptop
For my brother last year due to 7970m xfire heat issues and crippled drivers,gave me so much stress that I preferred to give it away with just 2-3 month of use.said I
Will never by AMD again , since then I make sure to check everything out before buying computers.
Am still gonna wait one more week ,as I said before your opinion will matter much for me and I hope u just don't disappear like most guys lol (when laptops received no more forum posts).
If it went great with you I'll stick with 880m sli , if for any reason it wasn't as expected the 870m sli will max any game ATM , I go for threm ... I even read its just like 10-15% at max away from 780m and in some titles it equal.

 

Yeah I'll definitely put it through its paces and report back with my findings. I already promised to do so and besides, I want to see for myself. I even bought a charger for the battery for my 505EXR camera so I have something better than my cell phone to take pictures with. I'll work on a nice review of the machine but its going to be my first and I don't have all the tools HTWingNut does so it won't be AS fancy but I'll be tweaking things a bit to see what kind of performance I can get out of the machine without any hard mods and putting it through its paces with benchmarks.

If it turns out poorly, I'll compare my numbers with the numbers for the 870s and maybe work with XOTIC to downgrade to 870s and refund the difference rather than returning the machine altogether. I would really prefer to continue to have a notebook than switch back to a desktop since I'm working with some pretty tight space constraints in this little bedroom I have.

 

I'm still rocking the stock vBIOS on my 780M SLI and it's been perfectly fine for gaming thus far. Haven't encountered any kind of throttling except when running Furmark. Of course it won't get anywhere near the big numbers those with a modded vBIOS are getting in benchmarks, but for gaming the stock vBIOS is more than adequate for the 780M SLI.

 

would this build support heavy AutoCAD and 3D modelling use? I know the nVidia GTX 880m is made for gaming and I was considering the nVidia K3100, but people say that the 880m is better to get. Help?

 

Outside of gaming the 880M is pretty much useless. If you're doing heavy AutoCAD then you should grab a Quadro instead. A top of the line K5100M will have about 90% of 780M's performance for gaming, but will cost big.

 

For super heavy workloads two quadro cards can support two rendering projects on the go at once.

 

I think you have missed the point.

Slv and John do this because they want to (in their spare time.) Sure they take donations, but money is not the primary goal. If they decided not to do it anymore you would be out of luck. Your post smells of an entitlement that you do not have.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

I haven't missed anything. I was responding to the post that was suggesting that their reasoning was political in nature, due to others taking credit for their work. If that is their only reasoning for not releasing it, my post is quite relevant. Considering that they already have the vbios mod and they are not releasing it, I would say that something other than not wanting to do it anymore is at play.