M14x R2 is out now

Definitely impressive no doubt but that's still 30-40% less FPS. We'll see. CPU has little bearing on many games' performance, but the GDDR5 and faster GPU clock could bump it 25-30% FPS improvement.

 

Well, according to this website , the M14X R2 definitely has an Ivy Bridge

Alienware M14X R2 and M18X R2 Latest Laptops | Gadgets World

Wondering how it would impact the overall price though ..

 

Why not wait for Ivy Bridge CPUs as well?

 

Rang up the sales rep the other day asking about ivy bridge, he said he will get back to me after talking to his sales manager. After a few hours he rang back saying that ivy bridge will be released for some desktops/laptops on the 23rd but the alienware line wont get them until around june time, i cant wait that long as ive got engineering assignments to write =/
He could be wrong and if they do get released next week i will be giving them a call back as i ordered under the impression they wont be released until june

We'll just have to wait and see what comes up next week and what they have instore for us!

 

We all know it will have Ivy Bridge eventually, but WHEN. The Ivy Bridge chipset is backwards compatible with Sandy Bridge and it's the same socket.

 

Will there be any performance difference in the 1GB vs 2GB Nvidia GT650M cards? Or is this just a marketing scheme similar to the last GPU cards?

 

No, there will be no difference, as the 650M is not fast enough to run high-end games at the resolutions and settings which would strain a single GB of video memory. I'm talking triple monitor set ups and AA stacked on top. The card's technical specs would bottleneck and choke it long before the memory had the chance to do so.

Charging an extra $100 is a cash grab, because they know the majority of people are uneducated and will equate extra GB to extra gaming speed.

Disgraceful.

 

Crap, that was me, I bit hook line sinker, and added it to my configuration...If I cancel, then they'll have to reenter everything in the system, maybe I'll email my rep on Monday about it...Are you sure there is absolutely no benefit to having the 2 gigs?

Also, FWIW, I was on the line with a Dell tech guy tonight about a problem I am having with my M17xR2, and told him that I had placed an order for the new M14x, I asked him about Ivy Bridge, and he did confirm that it would be included on the M14xR2s...So take that as you will...This dude seemed to know his stuff too, was a nice guy.

 

Dell reps (and reps from any other manufacturer) are told squat about new product information until it's available. They know as much or less than we do about it. And 2GB vs 1GB will make no difference whatsoever. In high resolution, like triple monitor 1080p it would help, but 768p or 900p nope, no help. I would plead with them to modify your order so you don't get pushed to the back of the queue.

 

I'm positive. Desktop 6950 1GB vs 2GB performance summary. This card is over 3x the speed of the 650M.

The 2GB didn't matter until 2560x1600 and 8xAA was applied. The GT 650M can't game at those settings, so it can't use 2GB.

 

It is too bad manufacturers take advantage of people's lack of knowledge on something like this. In a laptop, 1GB video RAM is overly adequate. I can see if your intent was to output to a triple monitor setup, but then most laptop GPU's aren't capable of such performance anyhow.

 

Seems too late for me too. Just pushed the confirm button yesterday. Once the order pops up ill give dell a call though. I dont know what I was thinking either. For some reason I was one of those you talk about, equated more memory with better performance. What a lousy tactic.

I just want to add a thank you for posting this info. There should be a sticky that has advice like this for new guys ordering (usually new guys to forums are not going to come to page 12 on a thread to find that one golden nugget advice piece)

 

i have used over 1.2 gigs of vram on my m14x, before, i believe it was in gta iv, on a 1080p monitor that is..

 

I believe that GTA 4 was poorly optimized for PC though.

 

Well, even if the vram is populated, doesn't mean it's able to process it fully. Kinda like asking to read your system ram simultaneously, it's not gonna happen because of bandwidth limitations.

 

Well I still have these..
If a GT 555M can do this, I dont see why a GT 650M cant use almost 2gb of VRAM

EDIT: Oops picture didnt attatch

http://oi40.tinypic.com/21jdhsm.jpg

 

any idea about battery life? I am considering one right now!

 

Probably about the same as the R1, probably 5.5-6.5 hours. If you wait for Ivy Bridge that could easily go up to 7.5 with an SSD

 

Just because it's storing data in the vRAM doesn't mean it's necessary. It's just "staging" it in the vRAM because it's available. You'd probably show the same amount of RAM used if you only had 1GB vRAM.

 

Ive never heard of staging RAM. What does that mean? Also since you said it would use the same amount of RAM being used even if I only had 1gb, then doesnt that mean that its better to have more vRAM because either way its using that amount? To me it seems like you pretty much said, yes it is using 1.5gb but it doesnt matter if you have 1 or 2gb of vRAM anyways because of something called staging. Im not really sure though, Im confused :S

 

Staged, stored, cached, whatever you want to call it. It has to keep textures somewhere, video ram, system ram, hard drive/ssd. Whatever's available, it's ideal to keep it in the fastest available. That doesn't mean it can't fetch from system RAM. And it needs RAM for processing.

But the 128-bit / 64GB/s bandwidth will restrict its throughput and can't/won't utilize that amount of RAM.

 

It depends on what resolution you are running at and what the game has. Take Skyrim for example. You add a texture pack and the Vram will go skyhigh since it needs to process all the new added textures. It works harder and than stores it at a later time in stages. Your better off getting the 2gb for Vram-

 

It won't matter. But once people get their M14x R2's it'd be good to do a benchmark to compare performance on Skyrim with 1GB and 2GB cards.

Even upper end desktop cards come with only 1GB vRAM and doesn't seem to hinder performance and the 650m is a far cry from a desktop card.

 

So, youre saying, it does use that extra vram, but it doesnt affect performance because..?

 

Because of memory bandwidth and CPU performance limiting throughput / FPS. If it were able to crunch through 1GB of RAM with each frame then it would become an issue, but that's not possible with the 128-bit 900MHz GDDR5 and 650m GPU. The greater the resolution, the more load on the GPU, which in turn would be able to manage less per frame. Only high end GPU's or dual GPU configurations running high resolution and/or high AA will require more than 1GB.

This report is a bit old, but still holds true: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-ram-4870,2428-5.html

I showed 1920x1200 below which still isn't a bottleneck. Until you reach 2560x1600 will it be any concern. So 1366x768, 1600x900, or if you output to 1080p monitor still not an issue. If you plan on running 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 with 8xAA and a huge mega texture pack, then get the 2GB RAM. Otherwise 1366x768 or 1600x900 even at 4xAA will have adequate RAM with 1GB.

To each their own of course. There may be a game or two that come out where performance might be improved slightly by having more vRAM and if the extra $100 is in your budget, go for it. But imho that $100 could be better spent elsewhere.

Spoiler

 

Hey guys, so I'm looking to purchase a new laptop and was happy to come across this forum. I am leaning towards the m14x, however not sure what configuration I should get. Now seeing that some are saying the 2gb card is a cash grab.

So this is was what I have priced out based on that.

The base model on the site comes with this for $1099.00 (Canadian)

PROCESSOR 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-2450M (3MB Cache, up to 3.1GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit edit
MEMORY 6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz edit
VIDEO CARD 1 GB DDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M with Optimus™ edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s edit
LCD PANEL 14.0" High Def (720p/1366x768) with WLED backlight

So my questions are...Should i update ram to 8gb for $80?
Upgrade processor for $100? to i7 6mb cache?

Video card you guys said dont do it.

Hard drive? should i upgrade?

Lastly LCD screen should i upgrade to high def 1600x900??

Thanks.

 

Oh, so its just bottlenecking thats limiting the FPS basically. That wouldve been much easier to say

 

I honestly went for the CPU upgrade to i7-2670QM. Its personal preference if you want the LCD, although it is a little bit higher res.

Thats just my opinion though man. And its all depending on your budget. I could not break 1300. so ill just throw in my own SSD/ more ram if I feel I need it later.

 

Screen:
Always go for the screen upgrade as #1 upgrade - It has more brightness/gamut and offers 30% more room, which is incredibly valuable.

CPU:
As for the CPU, some games such as BF3 favour quad core i7 processors, giving you better performance, so it's up to you - I'd recommend it. i7 will also increase the resale value if you decide to sell it in the future.

Note on Ram/HD:
RAM and HD can be done by you in the future. Doing either is quite simple and there's plenty of guides online.

Dell charges significantly more money for these two parts. You can find good prices RAM and a HD on newegg or canadacomputers.

Rules of Ram:
4GB = Gaming
6GB = Music Production/Rainmeter-Rocketbar
8GB = Maya/3D/Heavy Adobe

Hard Drive:
You can replace the optical drive with a another hard drive for even more storage. There's detailed. how-to guides on youtube.

Warranty:
It's cheaper to get it at the time of purchase because if you upgrade it after purchase, they increase the prices.

 

I will see if I can find some other benchmarks that 2gb Vram will make a difference. Those benchmarks are very poor at 4x AA and just without. Those games were released back from 2007 and 08 and should not be used to judge Vram.

You need to take in account AA 16x, FXAA, and MSAA since a lot today's modern games implant this.This is when your 2gb Vram will need it the most.

edit: found one picture and this is just an example since it's a bit hard to find benchmarks of 1gb and 2gb vram difference. I know resolution is a slight difference, but Vram is all the same on how much you got.

I wish I could find a benchmark for Batman Arkhum City showing the difference of Vram. Appreciate if anyone can find this! I think this game would show you a bigger difference!!

Take note of the 560ti 1gb with MSAA off and 4xMSAA on. That's a 15-20 fps difference!! This can be applied to the others as well.

 

You have to compare apples to apples. Saying a GTX 560Ti vs HD 6950 loses performance isn't indicative of RAM size but it could be due to processing capability. The HD 6950 shows only a few percent difference with 1GB and 2GB and that could be due to other factors as well. Perhaps the 2GB has slightly faster GDDR5. But a couple percent is nothing to worry about.

And as I already stated in my previous post:

" If you plan on running 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 with 8xAA and a huge mega texture pack, then get the 2GB RAM. Otherwise 1366x768 or 1600x900 even at 4xAA will have adequate RAM with 1GB."

Which is exactly what you're showing: 1920x1200 4xMSAA + High Post AA + Ultra preset. Turn that off and you're fine. This only affects a handful of games this way too. And honestly, try running your GTX 650m at 1920x1200 in Battlefield 3 at Ultra with 8xAA with 1GB or 2GB and see what happens. It'll be unplayable due to limitations of the GPU and 128-bit memory bus. If the 560Ti / HD 6950 desktop cards barely manage 30fps, imagine your 650m.

I did say that... see below quote.

 

I'm not talking about a vs of a 560 ti and a HD6950 so can you please read more clearly. I'm stating the VRAM difference in MSAA and AA with best settings. They are using the same GDDR in this test or else that would be silly wouldn't it?

For the enthusiasts of people who play games and want the best and hell if I'm spending about 1,500$ on a m14x I'd like to be able to use MSAA and AA on high. Even FXAA is a added bonus.

Your speaking of resolution and this is the closest I could find native to the m14x. If I had a m14x I would show you the difference on MSAA and AA on. and honestly I already know you can't run 1920x1200 and so does everyone else since m14x is only 1600x900 and 1366x768 thank you very much.

It's really up to people who will want the 2gb vs the 1gb and I recommend the 2gb for now and future gaming

 

The minimum FPS of the 1GB HD6950 in that chart was within 5 FPS of the 2GB HD6950. I suspect that the GTX 560 Ti's performance drop was because it's a weaker card, not because it has 1GB of RAM. The comparison between the two HD6950's is far more important than looking at the GTX 560 Ti in that chart.

The fact that the 1GB HD6950 handled itself so well tells me that the 1GB 650M in the M14x will be fine, especially since you'll only be running it at 1600x900, further mitigating any memory bottleneck you might run into.

Not to mention that we're talking about a far weaker card than either the GTX 560 Ti or the HD6950; you're simply not likely to hit the scenarios where 2GB GDDR5 would matter on what amounts to a mid-range mobile GPU.

 

Exactly, that's what I've been trying to say. At lower resolutions it won't matter.

 

The fps difference illustrates just how taxing 4xMSAA is, and has nothing to do with the VRAM.

If anything, your example just proves our point, that high resolution + AA would kill the 650M long before it ran out of memory.

 

Thanks for response. I'll most likely do what you said.

Another question...should i wait for Ivy chip sets before i order?

 

It's new tech, why not "More speed and less power consumption" is the selling point when comparing mobile SB vs IB CPU's.

I'm not sure on the date exactly, though - I've been seeing "very soon" on a few tech sites through google search.

 

Guys , how do you think these specs are for the next 2 years ?

- i7 2670
- 6GB 1600 MHz
- 500GB 7200 RPM
- 1GB DDR5 GT650M

And should I wait for Ivy Bridge ?

 

Specs are definitely good for 2 years, but if you wait for Ivy, you'll get better battery life and slightly better CPU performance. Up to you, though.

 

If you want it now the only thing I'd change is the processor to an i5.
Heat management is far better and there is minimal if any difference compared to i7 gaming wise.

Otherwise wait for Ivybridge.

 

Thanks Caladdon and Voodooi !

I'm gonna be using the laptop for other stuff too , hence the i7
One more question , when is the mobile version of Ivy Bridge expected to be released ? I've read on some sites that it will be released on April 29 , while others say its only gonna release in June

 

I asked a dell customer service rep, and he said that it would be released around June. I'm really tempted to purchase the m14x but I might just wait a little longer to get more bang for my buck.

 

Did you happen to ask what price they would do the system for? Maybe sweeten the deal as we are taking old tech off their hands.

 

Keep an eye on this thread, its getting juicy!!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...14x-r2-m18x-r2-coming-speculation-thread.html

 

Just ordered my M14xR2 today (in Germany) by phone with i7 3820QM. Expected delivery date is mid of may - not june.

 

So it's only a matter of time before they offer the new ivy bridge CPU in the m14x r2 to Canadians xD

 

Anyone placed a order with the msata SSD as a boot drive? Curious to see how speed will be. Why more companies didnt jump on this like Lenovo has is beyond me.

 

do dell pack the accessories inside the system box? or do they ship the accessories like the mouse, keyboard and backpack separately? thanks

 

They're packed separately and you usually get them before the laptop arrives.

@elsk10:
I highly doubt that the price will be increased. People would flock to another company if that were the case

@sskyler80:
It's worth the wait

 

Umm does that mean we can get a bluray drive for the R1 now?