M14x GPU selection

Well here is the deal. My m15x that i put a good amount of work into got it's screen cracked and destroyed. I am going to sell it as parts on ebay and use that to help offset the cost of the new laptop.

I did a lot of upgrades myself so the parts are valuable. I put in the core i7-640m (2.8/3.4) 35w for less heat and only a small percentage of programs can use more then 2c/4t efficiently and I purposefully switched to the 35 watt processor to free up wattage for the m17xr3's version of the 6970m. This combo is even stable with the 55 watt extreme cpu but I went to the 35 watt dual core to really give the psu enough breathing room plus it's way cheaper and offers slightly better single thread performance. Of course Artic Silver 5 on all heatsink applications lowers temps by 3-5 degrees just doing that.

I upgraded the ram to 2x4GB 1333Mhz Samsung Low voltage ram to save on heat output and battery life anywhere I could. I am going to keep the 512GB Crucial M4 drive and keep the 500GB external drive I made from the original HDD cause storage is outrageously expensive. I'll probably sell the original i7 720m seperately. Basically I hope to at least get a semi decent chunk towards my next laptop and since I already got the large ssd I can use as just a single main drive that will save a lot on the final cost.


Anyways, I know the m14x is not going to compare to the 6970m gpu power but it also only has to push 1600x900 instead of 1920x1080 so I'm hoping that will help make the difference up a little. What I'm not so sure on though is the fact that dell wants 150 more dollars for the gt 555m over the gt550m. I'm seeing people say the gt 555m is about 10% better than the gt550m. 10% seems pretty small for 150 dollars. I don't want to mess with unsupported cards in this cause I want optimus functioning. I'm sick of only getting 90-120 minutes on battery.

So basically how much extra performance does the gt555m really get over the gt550m and is it worth the 150 dollar upgrade charge? Since it's my only option to keep everything nice and compatible and supported and get the fastest gpu i can get, considering I'm used to 6970m performance, it's making me more likely to spend the 150 as I'm hoping a gt 555m + 1600x900 will give me a fairly equal frame rate smoothness as 6970m + 1920x1080.

And yes I know Keplar around the corner and IVB but I dont think I can wait for dell to refresh the m14x cause it's not like the day they released the new alienwares will be there, so who knows how long it will be. Can't go without laptop that long.

Only real downside (other than cracked screen) is I'm stuck with a single drive configuration and I want SSD speed. So I'm stuck with only 512GB (shouldn't say "only", 512GB is big for SSD[and it "only" cost me 585 dollars]). I have plenty of external storage but I wish I could have at least 1TB internal space. I know intel has a 600GB intel 320 SSD but thats limited to sata II and has just about half the performance of the crucial drive and it cost a whopping 1000 dollars, so like +400 dollars for slower sata II interface and a whole 88GB extra space. Totally not worth it. Shame crucial doesn't have a 1024GB SSD I'd sell the 512 and grab it like that.

 

You will definitely get better battery life from the m14, it can go up to 5 hrs on power saving and more with wifi off. It also has a smaller frame which you may find more convenient for transporting.

In terms of performance it will definitely be a downgrade from you 6970 despite the 1600x900 res. It's able to run the recent titles maxed at ~30fps, better with a few tweeks and OC. The only GPU for the m14 is the gt555m the variation being the 1.5g and 3g versions, both of which perform relatively the same and not a necessary upgrade. A word of caution about the ssd, people are having issues with sata3 stability and for the latest bios the m14 is capped at sata2 speeds. Run a search on ssd m14x on the forum for reference.

I like my m14 and happy with it so far but I would suggest that you also take a look at the m17 because that we be a more appropriate comparison to your m15.

 

I was just on dell site and it comes with the 1.5GB GT550m +150 for 3GB GT555m.

With the m17x though is it even capable to switch from igpu to dgpu?

Disregard that first statement i was on the xps 17 page, man I'm too smoked up

 

I am not sure if I am following you, but this is from dell alienware customization site:

1.5GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology [Included in Price]
3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology [Add $100.00 or $3.00/month1]
Alienware Recommended

You dont need the 3.0gb for sure just stick with the normal one. GT555m is much better card from 550m and it is easily overclockable to get 10-15 fps more in gpu throttled games.

 

i don't know if you will be happy coming from a 6970m. you can't expect comparable performance (even on the 1600x900 display). 555m is near the bottom of what is still considered a class 1 graphics card. IE my sager with a 9800m gt had about the same performance in games. While the 6970m is a top tier card. IE the 6970 has 3dmark11s of around 2800, the 555m gets about 1700 with a substantial overclock.

 

Just to confirm, is it GT550M or is it GT555M? Because as I know Dell only offer 2 GPU selection which is 1.5GB GT555M & 3GB GT555M, but if it really GT550M, then I recommend you get the GT555M But if the 1.5GB version is available, then choose that one reason is explain below.

Short answer: Choose the 1.5GB version of the GT555M, the extra 1.5GB is useless unless you doing a dual monitor.

Long answer: I still recommend you choose the 1.5GB because the 3GB is useless unless you are to dual monitor all the time that you would need that much memory, I doubt any game in existed will use more than 1.5GB since most GPU memory are just 1GB even the GTX series also rarely offer more than 2GB. Plus There is one BIG problem with the newer 3GB which is the new 3GB will be ship as the GF116 chipset instead of the original GF106.

The reason I said it has problem is because of the chipset is not compatible with the older BIOS notably any version below A07, while A07 & 08 is the only version the GF116 compatible with, what the A07 do is it will limit you to SATA 2 instead of SATA 3, so it is not worth the money to spend on the extra 1.5GB with all sort of problem such as Driver unrecognisable when you trying to install new NVIDIA driver, you'll need a .inf file for that, while the GF106 version does not need one.

For the GPU switching, it is automatic, you cannot permanently disable one like the M17x, however there are options available if you install the unlocked BIOS, but because of the M14x's LCD display is running on the iGPU, when you disable the iGPU, the LCD display will be permanently disable which mean you're in trouble, lol. But there is an option where we called it Whitelist, where you go into the NVIDIA Control Panel and whitelist individual game .exe to have it run on either GPU - Intel iGPU & GT555M, the guide can be found in my sig.