1070 gtx in an m17x r4

Hi, all. I recently got my hands on a low-power Eurocom 1070 from @woodzstack. Installation wasn't super-difficult (because it uses the old mxm form factor). The only significant problem is that it won't run the on-board display... only an external monitor. So I'm asking for both him and myself: Any ideas?

Pertinent Details:

120hz display.
Running in PEG/Dedicated mode, full UEFI.
GPU runs normally (can install drivers and run benchmarks) on the external monitor.
8 beeps if the external monitor is not plugged in.
External monitor can be on the mini-displayport or the hdmi out.
VGA out doesn't work (might be a clue).
UEFI boot logo (alien head) is mysteriously replaced with a squashed dell logo (might also be a clue).

I'm going to try some more stuff this afternoon before I roll back to the 980m for monday.

I have a 60hz panel I can try.

Optimus mode is probably off the table because I use this machine for VR game development (and that's historically been a non-starter).


Edit 1:
Vive won't run in direct mode in this configuration. It fails to make a connection to the compositor... I'll try the 60hz panel next to see but this may be a bad sign re: the vbios overall.

Edit 2:
No dice on the 60hz display: same results.

Edit 3:
Rolled back to the 980m.

 

The 1070 is supposed to work with the 60Hz display, as it works in the AW17 with 60Hz.
What we didn't know, or have confirmation of, was if it would work in the M17X-R4 with 120Hz panel.

Seems it didn't start in either case.

When you have it in the 60Hz panel config, make sure your settings for boot are legacy supported, so that the HD Intel chip loads the panel, thats the key, the HD intel graphics loads the LVDS.

 

EUROCOM though has confirmed it works in both situations, which we never took for 100% because they gave short quick "yes" answers only.
So - before anyone thinks I send customers cards that do not work - me and Schurke here knew what we getting into before just shipping blindly.

now the question is, how did EUROCOM get it to work, if they did, or were they simply lying or made a mistake ?
(in which case, of course a refund is possible, understandably.)

We want to figure out how to make this card work, anyone have suggestions ?
Is it just a matter of vbios ?
we have some tools available, but only option in this specific vbios that was altered was power total.

Does anyone have a copy of the Zotac vbios, I would like to try it on such a card and see if it makes a difference, then maybe ship it to Schurke here to see it that changes things.
(or do we risk using the MSI vbios, how different can they be ?)

 

For either the 1060 or 1070 (Eurocom or MSI) to work with our M17x R4, we need to have the 120Hz panel. It has absolutely nothing to do with the refresh rate of 120Hz, because of course any LCD would work fine no matter the refresh rate... But the problem with the 60Hz panel is the connector it uses, it's LVDS, and the 120Hz one is eDP. Pascal cards only work with eDP panels, so it is not compatible with the 60Hz panel for that reason.

There are a couple threads on the web about the 1070 and how a few people managed to install it in the M17x R4. I'm myself thinking about buying one, probably today or tomorrow. I'm not yet sure whether I'll buy the 150W MSI or the 115W Eurocom model... The 150W is a pain to install, I'm not sure it won't throttle like crazy with the stock heatsink, and I'm not sure about the performance gain in game either (I heard +9.6%...). I could technically have one for the same price exactly as the Eurocom model.

About the vBios, I also need to know more. I seem to understand that MSI vBios works with Alienware, but do NOT try anything based on what I just said. We need confirmation.

 

hello good I am interested in the subject I have a m17xr4 with 980m and 120hz panel then is the 1070 compatible with our laptop? just having to change the heatsink thanks


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

 

Well, yes. In fact there are two different models of the 1070, the 115W from Eurocom and the 150W which has a larger footprint. Both cards work in the M17x R4 120Hz, but with some modifications to the chassis and the motherboard connector for the 150W model. The 115W model the OP is refering to does not require any mods to the chassis/motherboard, so it's easier to install for the hardware side of things.

Now all 1060 and 1070 cards require the heatsink mod, and the 150W 1070 might require a better cooling solution alltogether, since our M17x R4 is designed to handle 100W GPUs max by default. It's probably going to struggle with the higher power 1070.

Regarding the requirements for these cards, all that is needed is to have the eDP 120Hz panel, which you have, and the A12 unlocked bios which you can flash. Then you might need to reinstall your Windows 10 in UEFI mode with GPT partition, it won't work any other way. Then it's all about BIOS settings and modded drivers.

I also had a black M17x R4 before which I upgraded to the 980M, but this one had the 60Hz panel, I now moved to a red 120Hz one with a better CPU 3840QM and a 680M which I'm about to upgrade to the 1070 (115 or 150, not sure yet).

 

The Eurocom variant seems to be a bit different. It's not working correctly with a 120hz screen in PEG mode with a full UEFI config (using the unlocked A11 bios). People have reported getting it working with the 60hz pannel in optimus mode, but that isn't a solution I'm able to use. We don't have any confirmations on getting it working in PEG mode on the 120hz screen. I'm going to follow up with Eurocom to see what they say.

 

Hi, @ares6 -- We haven't figured out how to get the Eurocom version of the card working properly with the M17XR4 using the 120hz panel. It installed, but the main display didn't work (only the external monitor). The card is small enough that you only need to mod the heatsink.

 

Okay guys, indeed, I've been talking to woodzstack, and that's what he told me too. Sorry for the misinformation, I just found out about that issue.

I just went ahead and did the mod on my motherboard and chassis to fit the MSI 150W 1070, but I'll also have the overheating issue to take care of a bit later.

 

then from what I understand does not work on a m17x r4 120hz correctly


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

 

The cards that work on the M17x R4 equipped with the 120Hz screen are the 1060 and 1070 from MSI. Not the smaller form factor 115W Eurocom 1070 sadly. The issue with the MSI 1070 is, you need to modify the MXM connector on the motherboard, cut two plastic tabs, and you also need to remove one part of the chassis. With that done, it will work fine, but it will throttle. The MSI 1070 is a 150W card, and the M17x R4 is designed to handle 100W cards, not more. So to stay under acceptable temperatures, the card will lower it's operating frequency if it reaches 75°C.

So in the end, the 1060 might be the best solution here, if you do not absolutely need the extra power of the 1070. It's way easier to install.

Keep in mind all these cards need the heatsink to be modified, but in case you are not willing to try that yourself, the modified heatsinks can be found for sale.

 

Why don't you try the VBIOS I use for my Zotac 1070?

I have the same symptoms (8 beeps, only external monitor) and with this VBIOS I was able to use the internal one...

Please check my thread...

Note:
Hope you have an SPI Programmer in case it does not work as expected.

Thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-17-r5-gtx-1070-mxm-3-1b.800137/

 

Zotac GTX 1070 eDP is the only one you can use without hardmod the case, only the heatsink, but this is even with the 1060.

 

I am one of those few people running a MSI 1070 on my M17xR4. I did mod the chassis, the mxm connector and i am using the stock Heatsink without problems so far. The only game that managed to push the card over 75 degrees Celsius is Rise of the Tomb Raider when i am playing it on my Ultrawide U3415W (3440x1440 Resolution) at max settings.
I will get a 5Pipe GPU Heatsink soon and ill see how that goes.

Together with the GPU i am using a 3920xm clocked at 4.1 and 4.0. Stock Bios A13 (no unlock) and 32GB of Ram.

Currently reaching 14k+ firestrike score.

My guess for your card would be maybe upgrade to Stock A13 Bios and see if you get an image on your internal display. In any case that, before flashing vbioses to your card.

Cheerio

 

There you go, this is my M17xR4 running a MSI 1070:



The highest score i managed to get, was this:



My 3920XM in it, oc'ed @4.1 and 4.0Ghz with a 3Pipe Heatsink and a modified fan (swapped cpu fanblade - not the complete fan like other users did) with that of a M14xR2 Fan).




The MSI 1070 runs @+220/250 with stock Heatsink (GTX680M). - I do plan to get a 5 Pipe Heatsink (reason explained futher below).



My M17xR4 only performs like this because i am using a cooling pad that elevates the back of the laptop.

If i was using the Notebook on a normal flat table i have to run the MSI 1070 on stock clock because the most demanding games like "Rise of the Tomb Raider" make GPU temps go as high as 82 degrees Celsius (and even crash afterwards) and temps on my oc'ed 3920XM as high as 92 degrees Celsius (on stock clocks or moderate oc as high as 78 degrees, which is totally fine). Normal or older games run just fine with the notebook staying "cool".

Then again, running demanding games with this rig on my cooling pad also dont make GPU temps break the 76 degrees barrier. But my goal here is to make this MSI 1070 work the most demanding titles on normal surface/table with temps as cool as possible.

So there you have it, this is the main reason for me to buy a 5 Pipe Heatsink and i am eager to test my rig once the new 5-Pipe HS arrives.


I hope all this information was useful.

Regards!

 

uff a lot of modifications I see then I will stay with the 980m and wait for the 2000 series for no luck and we will install it


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

 

Yeah, there are quite some changes to make to be able to fit the MSI 1070 in the 120Hz Alienware. I did all the necessary modifications yesterday to mine, and my card is on order.

Following someone's tutorial, and with the wise help of woodzstack.

1. First of all I took the laptop appart completely, cleaned it up.



2. Then I cut the small retaining tabs / guides on the MXM connector, both sides.




It was a clean easy cut here, but I heard that on some laptops there is some red glue below the tabs, and it might be a little more tricky to cut them. No problem here, I just used small flat cutting pliers.

3. Next step was to modify the chassis by removing the separator between the CPU and GPU compartments. I used a Dremel equipped with a cutting disk.





All done for the hardware modding.

4. I should also modify the heatsink for the 1070, but the stock heatsink will not provide enough cooling for the most demanding situations. I was looking on the net, see if I could find informations about a custom all copper heatsink and I found these!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/All-copper...R3-R4-GPU-Heatsink-0MT1DN-0VH0YK/253386407713

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Heats-Fo...-M17X-R3-R4-CPU-Cooling-Heatsink/253284253813

This seems to be the perfect upgrade here, and it's already designed to fit the 1060 / 1070 cards! With the all copper construction, I guess it should provide way better cooling than the stock aluminum/copper heatsink. So I'll give these a try and upgrade the CPU cooling as well at the same time, and replace the CPU fan with a M14x R2 fan for even better performance.

5. I was on the stock A12 bios, I moved to an unlocked one from svl7. The latest one being A11, I first downgraded to the stock Dell A11 downloaded from their website, then I flashed A11 unlocked from svl7.

But now I hear A-Gits say he is running A13 stock? So no need for the unlocked bios?

6. Since I needed Windows 10 to boot in UEFI mode, and my 680M card would not work in pure UEFI mode, I had to flash the updated UEFI vbios from svl7. That way I could install Windows properly, and switch back and forth between the 680M and 1070 in case of an issue. Both should work fine on the same OS.

7. I reinstalled Windows 10 in UEFI mode, GPT partition table. Clean install, all drivers and software.

That's where I'm at right now. My M17x R4 has a 3840QM CPU, which will be way enough for now, but I might upgrade to the 3940XM in the future. It will depend on how the cooling has been improved by the all copper radiator I'll be using, and the fan upgrade.

Anyway, to make sure nothing is limiting, I'll also replace my 240W PSU brick by a 330W model soon. I'll try things on the 240W first, make sure everything works as expected.

 

That is correct. I am using A13 Stock. In fact i never unlocked my bios in the past, even when i was running a GTX980M.

Btw, nice clean cuts! I am looking forward to your benchmark scores .

 

Okay, well I've never thought about trying with the stock bios. I assumed it was necessary to use the unlocked one, and I didn't look into that any further.

Well, yeah I'm now waiting for my card to be shipped. And I'm also waiting for the chinese guys on eBay to give me an answer about the performance of their heatsinks, and the shipping options. Then I'll order them both for the CPU and GPU.

I guess I should be able to test all that in less than a couple weeks maybe.

 

Well, what can i say? They are chinese sellers, ofc they will tell you that the sinks work great.
If i were you, i would buy and try.
Woodz also sells heatsinks (5pipe gpu and 3pipe cpu) but his GPU Hs is not completely made of copper i believe, it also has aluminum. I ordered one from him and i gave the chinese guy you mentioned earlier a try and bought one from him too.
I will try out both sinks and tell which one is better.

 

Oh, you bought them already! It will be interesting to have a comparison.

I mainly sent them an email to ask them for shipping options, since I'm from Reunion Island and I need to know which shipping service they use.
I also asked them about the performance, but as you said, I'm not going to make my opinion based on what they say. I'm definately going to buy and try. Since it's full copper, it just can't be worse than the stock heatsink that's for sure.

I know woodz sells stock heatsinks (and modified ones to fit 1060/1070). He has full copper heatsinks on his M17x R4 CPU/GPU, but these are custom made, not for sale. I'm not sure how it compares to the ones from eBay.

 

Woodz sold me a full copper 3Pipe Hs for my 3920XM. That HS is doing a good job i must say.

Here are some pictures of the 3pipe Hs on my 3920xm and Stock Hs on my 1070:







Gesendet von meinem SM-G935F mit Tapatalk

 

Ok, it looks to me like the same model.

 

Hi, I have a 3840qm CPU and would like to overclock some tutoring? Thank you


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

 

I never tried overclocking on the Alienware. I will soon I guess.

Last time I overclocked a CPU it was my watercooled i7 920 something like 5 years ago, reaching 4.12GHz and still running fine.
But for the laptop I'll wait until I get better cooling before trying anything, my CPU reaches 81°C right now under full load.

 

Well, good news, my graphics card has been shipped, I should get it next week.

Waiting for the copper heatsinks, I took one of the aluminum ones I have around, and machined it for the 1070. That way I'll be able to compare the stock one and the full copper one when I get it.
I have a small CNC machine, so that one was done quick and clean.

 

Wow dude! You could mod and sell them yourself! Very nice machine you got there .

Gesendet von meinem SM-G935F mit Tapatalk

 

This is the vbios I've got right now.

EDIT: Whoops, my bad. I made a mistake, I did not mean to post this here. If someone can remove that post... Sorry.

 

So, i got my 5 pipe heatsink from Woodz today and i have to say: Hands down to that piece of hardware! It really lowered the temps on my MSI 1070 for about 4-5 degrees Celsius. Not bad!



Now, to see if the heatsink does its job, you need to throw something heavy at the 1070. One of the best games to make your M17xR4 - GTX1070 go hot and crash is Rise of the Tomb Raider @ max settings.
Using my old stock heatsink and playing with the notebook on a flat surface would go make my temps go as high as 82-83 degrees Celsius after 15 minutes and crash.
After installing the 5 pipe heatsink and testing ROTTR for over 1 hour on a flat surface i got a max reading of 78 degrees Celsius and stable. Its still a high temperature but most games dont stress the GPU as much as Rise of the Tomb Raider does. In fact, most games run at max 67 degrees Celsius now.

The best part though, is seeing the temps go even lower when using a laptop cooler (i am using a Cooler Master CM Storm SF-17):
Temps on ROTTR cranked up on max settings dont pass the 67 degrees Celsius barrier, which is really astonishing!

The modified Heatsink from Woodz is a mix of copper and aluminum. Within the next days i will get a full copper 5 pipe heatsink from a chinese ebay seller and test how well it performs against the copper/alu HS from Woodz.

For now this beast get me this solid firestrike score:

 

Great news!

+points for the custom sticker


I'm still waiting on my 5-pipe and card. I'll post temps and scores when I get one or both.

As an aside, are any mods watching this one? The thread's wandered pretty far from the original topic and could use a re-title like "Notes on the 1070GTX in an M17X R4" as it's becoming more about life with/after mods and less about the Eurocom card specifically.

 

Very nice results you got there!

On my side I'm still waiting for my card... which should have been delivered by now. Except, the shipping company told be a couple days ago that they are "trying to locate my package, so they can resume the shipping process as quickly as possible". That's definately not reinsuring...

The copper heatsinks for the CPU and GPU has been shipped.

I'm eager to hear about the differences in temperature between the alu/copper 5 pipes heatsink you have right now, and the full copper one. It should help quite a bit more I guess.

 

Okay great news, I just got my MSI 1070 from @woodzstack!



I had a few issues fitting the thermal pads, with some of them not touching the heatsink. I always had issues with GPU thermal pads. I remember the same thing happened with my 980M upgrade a few years back. I always feel like the pads that comes with the card does not match the stock heatsink...



Anyway, I plugged the card in, tried to boot the laptop and... It worked right away! I was expecting a bit more fiddling with the BIOS settings, but everything went smoothly.

I modded the latest NVIDIA 391.01 driver by editing "nv_dispi.inf".

Code:

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0...14310]
%NVIDIA_DEV.1B81%           = Section118, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1B81

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0]
%NVIDIA_DEV.1B81%           = Section118, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1B81

[Strings]
NVIDIA_DEV.1B81 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070"

These 3 lines were replaced by the following.

Code:

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0...14310]
%NVIDIA_DEV.1BE1.057B.1028% = Section118, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1BE1&SUBSYS_057B1028

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0]
%NVIDIA_DEV.1BE1.057B.1028% = Section118, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1BE1&SUBSYS_057B1028

[Strings]
NVIDIA_DEV.1BE1.057B.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070"

But I guess I could simply have added these 3 lines at the end of each section, keeping the 3 other ones untouched. But it worked for me that way, after trying different things.



I thought I'd try a benchmark, see how it performs. I launched Fire Strike. Unfortunately, for now I'm having heavy throttling. It goes up to about 70-90fps for like 3sec, then it drops to around 20fps for 10sec or something. Then it goes back up again, to 70+, for 3sec and down again.

So I checked a few things:

1. Using HWMonitor, I checked the GPU temperature, the maximum was around 66°C, and the fan wasn't even spinning fast.

2. I read about a BIOS setting, "Adapter Warnings", so I disabled it, but no luck here.

3. I have a Belkin Conserve Insight that I used to check the power consumption at the wall socket. The laptop swings between 45 and 55W on idle, on the desktop, depending on usage. On Fire Strike it goes up to 195W when I have 70-90fps, then it drops to 105W when the fps drops. I have the 240W adapter, so I guess there is definately room here.

I don't know what's up. I'm thinking maybe the thermal pads? Any ideas?

 

NVidia settings itself ?
Power management issues maybe.

 

Ok, thanks. Let me check that.

 

Those are better then Tornado F5 scores, all things considered. That's crazy.

 

No. If that's the setting you meant, it did not change a thing, sadly.



EDIT: I modified the global setting of course.

 

We modify the NVCVI.INF though, not the NV-DISPI (we used to modifiy the nv_dispi file... maybe this is the difference?)

 

Well, that's worth a try. I'll be back in an hour, and I'll check that.

I will also try to do a better job with the thermal pads, use the ones from my 680M or maybe a waterblock I have around, unused. I'll see what I can find.

 

mod this into the NVCVI

Or just edit one section for each while searching for 1BE1.. I think you know this part well enough.

But how come you did the DISPI.inf instead ?
You still had to disable DSE of course right ?
Did you read instructions somewhere saying for the latest driver, 391.xx use the nv_dispi ?
Sometimes method changes and someone spots something and we all sort of pick up on it, so thats why I am asking.
happens about once a year.

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0...14310]
%NVIDIA_DEV.1BE1.057B.1028% = Section118, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1BE1&SUBSYS_057B1028

[NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.10.0]
%NVIDIA_DEV.1BE1.057B.1028% = Section118, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1BE1&SUBSYS_057B1028

[Strings]
NVIDIA_DEV.1BE1.057B.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070"

 

By the way, I have those complete copper ones too, for the GPU, but they are not made from the greatest copper, and they are rough, and need to be lapped to be smooth, and still need to be modified on two edges or three I forget.

So take that little advice, get your polishing dremel going and polish it to perfection and cutting where you need, and should be good to go, from my experience.

 

Are you certain your heatsink is fitted properly ?

The reason I ask is because the heatsink modificatiosn shown in the picture, are not all that is needed for proper contact.

There are two coils near where the SLI connectors usually are that need clearance, and I thought stock heatsinks basically get stuck on those. (which can damage the card BTW.. so be careful)

 

here, take a look at what I cut and mod out



the edge where the pipes hang out, you will notice I cut them abit, and leave extra room for components. (this way it can be used for the pascal cards, either ones, either type)

 

Hi Etienne,

congrats on your card . You are almost done, let me try to help with the rest:

Taking a second look at your stock HS, i think you need to modifiy the edges:
Dremel them down with your cnc machine, just like you did with the middle part.




After that make sure that the components of the card make contact with your heatsink. I had to use a little bit extra pads on some spots.

Replace your nv_dispi.inf with the one i added as attachment.

This is a known issue, also happening with 980M's on the M17xR4. Happend to me and to other users as well, i.e. @Schurke.
The only suitable workaround for it is to suspend the system or shut it down and turn it on again (not restart). Then the card should run just fine and without power draw issues during the whole duration of your session. It doesnt happen always, just sometimes.
You can read more about it here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m17x-r4-980m-throttling-research-and-workaround.786903/

Other than that keep in mind that the stock hs, even in its modified version, will not be enough to keep the system cool when playing the most demanding titles out there.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers!

 

Ok, I'm back. I reinstalled the driver using the "nvcvi.inf" file. It works the same. But it seems to be the best way to do this indeed. Thanks!

Why did I use "nv_dispi.inf"? Because I was looking for a tutorial on how to do the mod, and at first I tried modding the Dell file, and then MSI, and since it didn't work, I went for the global file, "nv_dispi.inf". And it worked. I should indeed have tried Clevo. Just trial and error here.

Anyway, this did not fix the issue.

 

HA!



Thank you @A-Gits you're right! A cold boot did not help, but I added the hibernate option to the start menu, and tried that, I get a constant framerate now. And finally a good Fire Strike score!

 

Nice!

You are getting 17k+ on graphics, that is really good. For a higher total score you will need a bit more on physics. You can achieve that by overclocking your cpu.
Try this, your 3840QM should handle following settings just fine:



Also, you should be able to get 18k+ on graphics by overclocking your gpu with nvidia inspector. These are the values i am using:



Keep an eye on your temps. Once you get the modified 5pipe gpu and 3pipe cpu hs, you can run all these settings without having to worry too much.

Cheers!

 

Nice! I'm not sure I understand exactly how the overclocking works on these CPUs. The last time I did overclock a CPU, it was my i7 920 on my old desktop computer, reaching 4.12GHz on my Asus Rampage III Extreme, and still working 24/7. Haha, I'm really happy about that old computer.

But anyway, it looks completely different here, and that was a long time ago.



It clearly improved the physics score about +600. Sadly... I did not reach 10k.

 

Oc your GPU for the benchmark and you will reach 13k+ as total score. If the benchmark crashes turn down the sliders a bit and try again.

Start with +150 Mhz on the core and +150 memory.

You cant do much harm since the voltage is locked in pascal cards, so if you increase the clocks and add no voltage you would tecnically undervolt the card. Try it out!

Gesendet von meinem SM-G935F mit Tapatalk

 

Hahaha, well, it seems like I broke the 13k barrier.



I have +220MHz on both the GPU and memory.

But it seems like I reached the PSU limit. When the GPU score goes higher, the CPU score decreases. And I measure around 210W tops at the wall socket, it never goes any higher than that.

I also definately need better cooling now.

 

Slightly off topic maybe. I was testing some games, and comparing my laptop to a friends old and new laptops, and my desktop computer. So there are the 3 configurations compared:

1. Alienware M17x R4 (i7 3840QM / MSI GTX 1070 / 16GB RAM / 17.3" 1920x1080 120Hz)

3DMark Fire Strike: 13135

Graphics: 18810
Physics: 9842
Combined: 4758​

Call of Duty Black Ops III: 90-120fps​

2. Asus G502 (i7 7700HQ / GTX 1060 / 16GB RAM / 15.6" 1920x1080 60Hz G-Sync)

3DMark Fire Strike: 9403

Graphics: 10997
Physics: 10367
Combined: 4224​

Call of Duty Black Ops III: 130-160fps​

3. Asus GL703VM (i7 7700HQ / GTX 1060 / 16GB RAM / 17.3" 1920x1080 120Hz)

3DMark Fire Strike: 9429

Graphics: 11010
Physics: 10577
Combined: 4211​

Call of Duty Black Ops III: 90-120fps​

4. Asus Maximus VIII Impact (i7 6700K / EVGA GTX 1080 FTW / 32GB RAM / Asus PG279Q 27" 2560x1440 165Hz G-Sync)

3DMark Fire Strike: 16872

Graphics: 22582
Physics: 11892
Combined: 7440​

Call of Duty Black Ops III: 170-220fps​

I tested a very few other games, Overwatch for example, stuff I had with me, I don't have a fast internet access where I was, so I couldn't do a better comparison.

What I can say is, all games except Black Ops III run at higher framerate with better hardware. That's indeed the normal behavior... The thing is, in this list, there are two computers (PC 2 / 3) with the exact same CPU, GPU and screen resolution, getting the same Fire Strike score, but with a huge framerate difference in Black Ops III.

We can see a 1060 (PC 2) crushing my 1070 (PC 1) at that game, which is quite annoying. And in fact, another 1060 (PC 3) running at the same framerate as my 1070.

Of course, all computers are running the latest Nvidia drivers, all games are using the exact same settings, it's also the exact same game folder I copied everywhere, and the test was done on the same map, with only myself running across the map, no other players. And in fact, all 3 laptops are running a fresh install of Windows 10, latest updates, my desktop though is not running a fresh install.

I guess the problem is the game itself here, but still, I find it quite odd to have such a huge fps difference between two computers with the same hardware. As I said, that's an observation I made, maybe off topic a bit.