awakeN's P150EM/NP9150 Review

Took pictures of those colors for you so you can get a general idea of what they look like--

Photo Album - Imgur

Honestly, I think probably the brushed titanium or brushed steel would be your best bet. The matte black is nice, but isnt really any different from the current case the P150EM has--and it gets fingerprints on it really, really easily.

The dark gray--same thing as the matte black, black metallic I'm just not really a fan of.

*edit*
The brushed titanium looks gold in the photo--it definitely doesn't appear that way in person, maybe has a "slight" champagne color hue to it. The brushed steel looks truly like a piece of silver thats been scratched over and over--like a dirty MacBook or Asus Zenbook I guess is the best way to describe it.

 

Got the bezel off last night, a charm to take off with a non-marring tool and a screw driver (four corner screws). Now, I am pretty sure I will be doing a satin or flat black krylon fusion paint. If everything turns out right, I'll do a quick DIY.

 

Looking forward to the bezel mod and how it comes out.

I actually called 3m to order the samples of the wrap. What's the cost to do the whole computer? What size a s prices of 3m wrap are there? If its too costly I won't do it but a good thing to have around.

 

Hey i just got my laptop the other day. I been using the stock drivers it came with it. I haven't install or uninstall any drivers at all. All i've done is windows update. What do you think about these scores. It's not as high as yours.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P20033 3DMarks

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P5686 3DMarks

 

The first one is okay; try rerunning 3DMark 11, it's 100 3DMarks short

 

Can anyone comment on how loud the fans are on idle, i will be using this for school (if i get one) and i need it to be pretty quiet. Great review btw!!!

 

It's noticeable but decently quiet. tbh, how loud the fans are is subjective. It sounds different to everyone.

 

Thanks, one more quick question. Have you had any problems with enduro and your battery life/performance?

 

Enduro doesn't help too much with battery life; it's probably a maximum of 3-4 hrs on webbrowsing and word processing. Apparently it's affecting performance on most ppl's laptops, but we're just sitting waiting for drivers to fix it. For me, it's just affecting performance on Deus Ex and SC2, because GPU utilization isn't 100%.

 

Thanks you for this detailed guide. I'll be ordering one very soon~

 

Great review thank you soooooooooooooo much
XD

 

Hey great review! Thankyou!

I've just received my new Clevo P150EM - specs in my sig.

I've not used the Intel 4000/w AMD before...AMD7970M.

Anyway questions are:

1. Do you have to manually specify which apps should and shouldn't use the "performance" graphics in the switchable graphics section? I had to do it with Diablo 3 so it would use the 7970M (not the Intel 4000)

or do your games just "work" automagically with the 7970M (not the Intel 4000)
2. In the switchable graphics section is there a way to see all the apps and their associations? List of what is on Power Saver and what is not?
3. Is there a way to see which video card is "running" at any given time?

On my Dell there is a little Nvidia icon that displays either one little green bar or two little green bars.

On my other Acer when the laptop is on mains power it automagically uses the AMD CPU.

4. When I went to use the AMD Mobility Driver download checker it says

AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded to to incompatible hardware/software on your computer. The version of your graphics adapter is not supported. Please contact your notebook manufacturer for a graphics driver update.

I thought in this day and age that AMD would be smart enough to know it's coupled with an Intel 4000 and still be able to detect the 7970m sitting there even if it's not "running"...


How can I manually run my 7970M when on mains power...if I wanted to...?

How can I do driver upgrades?

I'm having to "tell" the drivers to use the 7970M for each game/.exe...

I didn't think it would be like that.

 

Well, it is like that. I don't believe you can see a full list, but it will still memorize every application you set to Power Saver or High Performance. It only allows one "other application" and a list of recent applications. Pretty dumb how it won't show the whole list.

Sometimes a message will popup when you start a game because it doesn't know what kind of application it is and it will ask you to specify. And there isn't exactly a way to see how which video card is running because HD 4000 is always running no matter what (it provides the display).

Don't use the download checker. You have to manually download drivers, right here.

I don't think you can manually turn on 7970M permanently...

If you want to upgrade to these drivers, I think you have to custom install nothing but the display drivers. It's not a significant boost in performance, so I would stick with the modded 12.5 drivers that came with your Clevo.

 

Thankyou!

Yeh it is a bit dumb.

I think I've got the hang of it now. Seems to know "some" games and apps automagically. For example 3DMark11 just went to High Performance in Switchable Graphics as did Modern Warfare 4 whereas Diablo 3 and Supreme Commander 2 didn't.

Seems that the popup always comes up when you exit the app or game if it wasn't "sure".

Yes it would be very excellent if there was a big full list of all the apps and games it had settings for. That would be helpful.

OK are you running those drivers? 12.7 Beta?

My only real issue with it is that crazy sharp edge on the front. Not sure what they were smoking when they designed that. My old Clevo M570TU was really nice and rounded. Still clean lines but just a bit more rounded.

 

I'm running on stock Clevo drivers. Haven't been able to install 12.7 beta successfully. Apparently, someone named something like hulawfu77 in the thread about AMD Drivers supporting 7xxxM has successfully installed it with switchable graphics, but I don't believe anyone else on these forums have done it.

Yeah, the sharp edge is pretty annoying, so I just place my wrists on the edge and try my best to type because it irritates my forearms.

 

Hey awaken this is my 3dmark 11 score

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P5675 3DMarks

Did you just update the driver? Also how did you know that it didn't install correctly?

 

i stuck with the stock drivers, and that score is a little low (about 100 too low). Rerun the test again with nothing open.

 

Just noticed this was one of the most viewed threads for June hahahah thanks guys for reading this xP

 

I just got my NP9150 and it has the same specs as yours, but I have a question about Shogun 2. In the Catalyst Control Center I set the game to High Performance, but in the video options it is saying that the integrated graphics are being used. I can tell that the 7970m is being used because of how it runs when everything is turned up. I was wondering if you have found a solution to this as it prevents some of the ultra graphical options from being turned on, like ultra unit sizes, or ultra unit detail?

 

There really isn't a solution to that. It does prevent ultra unit sizes and details? :/ i don't know a fix for that, perhaps a later driver update that would fix it. Knowing AMD, it won't be for a while.

But oh well, it's close enough to ultra anyway. There's probably a marginal difference anyway.

 

Alright thanks for the info, I might try to install DarthMod as that has a mod for even bigger units than vanilla ultra, and you are right high still does look pretty awesome. Especially compared to my old acer laptop with a GT 520m in it .

 

Are you getting full utilization in your games like BF3? I have been reading some people having issues with it.

 

People are being weird. Rarely will a game use full utilization of GPU, go google it. It's only because they are whining right now because they are obsessed with finding fault with Enduro. Oh no, I'm getting 45-60 FPS on Ultra but it's only 80% utilization. Whatever, some games have even less. It's just the way it is. Even on Nvidia I doubt BF3 has 99% utilization.

 

No, I'm not getting full utilization out of it, only for Crysis 2 at least. SC2 has only 40% usage, and LoL even less (obviously).

I haven't tested BF3 for utilization since I already uninstalled my "acquired" copy after benchmarking it for 3 hours.

 

What are you using to monitor your temperatures, I usually use MSI Afterburner but it will only let me monitor GPU Usage, Fan Speed, and Framerate?

 

I use MSI Afterburner as well, as it seem to be the only one which confirms it detects the 7970M.

 

Awesome review.

This is going to be my new laptop!

 

You really dont understand the utilization issue. I dont care if i get 80% in ultra. I want to be able to lower the setting and have a better fps, because right now, if i lower my setting my utilization get lower too, which is pretty lame. The 680M get the same 40 fps on ultra, but they can play on high and have 55-60 fps, i really want that too and the 7970M is strong enought to do it too.

And i'm sure AMD will find a way to fix this issue.

 

Don't hold your breath.

AMD isn't renowned for their fantastic scaling.

 

I just noticed this post. They don't offer that anymore. I asked like a year ago and said they don't do it anymore. Asked again recently and same response. Apparently with the new forum transition they are doing away with the reviewer title altogether unless you're an actual NBR reviewer.

 

The least they could do for your time spent writing the P150EM review.

Great reviews thus far.

 

I gave him a rep +1

 

o wow o.o well i didn't really care, I'm still fond of my Notebook deity title ^^

and thanks for all the comments guys, and yeah, hopefully AMD Drivers will somewhat help the GPU utilization issue. So far it isn't bothering me (since I don't play BF3, lucky me), but seeing all these threads on the forum about BF3 problems still makes me upset at AMD.

 

Great review though. 7970m seems like a winner. If AMD would support this card directly and quickly release an Enduro fix all would be good in the world.

 

Yup, I'm jelly of your SSDs tho D:

 

I have a 256GB Crucial M4 in my desktop PC (i7-2600k, 16GB RAM, Asus Direct CU II 7970) and it definitely boots faster than my Clevo P150EM with the 750GB Momentus XT with the 8GB of SSD cache...but not by much...

So just saying SSD's are great but I think the hybrid drives are a very good compromise...if that's what you have in yours awakeN.

 

+1 rep to both reviewers

 

Nope, I have regular 7200RPM, but it runs really hot tho -___- looking to hopefully pick up an SSD this summer though.

Now I just have to figure out how to get Windows on the SSD without having to reinstall everything.

 

My recommendation is to take the time to do the clean install.

 

Assuming you want to like, clone it over, you're going to have to shrink the main partition down to the capacity of your SSD (takes time to do that),
and then clone it over, and might not really be worth the hassle.
Though, if you really want to continue, perhaps you could use something like PartedMagic (on a live USB / CD), and the link is: start – Parted Magic

 

Eh, looks like I will be doing clean install. sounds much easier than what you have there xD thx for the link anyway.

 

LOL. That's what I tell everyone, just do the clean install. By the time you fuss around with trying to shuffle things around appropriately, set it up for proper alignment, set your prefetch and other settings, you could have had your data backed up and Windows 7 installed.

 

Yup, even though it is going to be a pain in the butt it is still somehow the easiest of them all

 

OK...will you keep the HDD and install the SSD into the Optical drive area?

I have the Optical drive still in place...could install an SSD there but I've used the Optical drive a few times.

Or will you remove the HDD and install an SSD instead?

 

I will be moving the HDD into the ODD (because it's only SATA II speeds) and the SSD into the SATA III main port.

but it won't be for a while though >.> in the meantime, Skyrim loading times still aren't as bad, morel like 10-25 seconds instead of being instant. The HDD just runs hot as hell, or at least that's what I feel from touching the underside of the compartment, no hard temperatures though.

 

Sounds great. SSDs are always so tempting but so expensive. Especially 256GB and above which is all I will consider now for a C:\/boot/system drive. 120GB is too small for me.

 

Yeah, SSD prices are expected to fall sharply over the summer to like $0.5/GB from what I've heard.

Hoping that it's true...

 

Decided to update this review, since it is pretty old and it's been 2 months since an update, so i rewrote most of the sections and updated most of my thoughts on the P150EM now.

 

OK I will go back and have a look...overall after 2 months...good, bad, ok or excellent?

EDIT: Nevermind! I read it. Conclusion: 8.8/10

 

oh no, i actually forgot to update that now(8.5 now). still excellent imo