6970 now avaliable for M17xR3!

Laptop are like cars, it loses value very quickly. as soon as a refresh pop out be prepared to lose alot of money.

 

And with AW unless you play your cards right and get an amazing price you're gonna lose a decent amount of money anyways. Very rarely do you get even close to what you paid back from the machine.

 

Yeah but the AW warranty gives you the safety of having a working PC for many years to come and if something goes really wrong you get the new generation. Because of this and because of many other aspects of AW also, I believe the price is justified. (At least in the USA. For sure the Europe pricing has no meaning...)

 

any ideas if they will offer an xm chip for the r3.
xm+6970 = me very happy

 

Inap you should know very well that this is AW and only god knows when that'll happen IF it happens.

 

Since the R3 is not a replacement of the R2 I would say no. They will offer the XM on the M18X.

 

i know its a replacement for the M15x but the M15x offers xm, why wouldn't they offer one for the r3. if they don't it would be very lame. curse you dell.

 

Well you have a point. Not sure why. They might offer it.

 

DAMMIT!!!!!!!! I just order my R3 with 460M yesterday. Now I have to decide whether to cancel or not. Why do they do this to me!

How do they expect me to choose between 3D and faster graphics! I want BOTH!

 

Fully agree with that. However I sorta figure, if you get a sandybridge now, let's say 1 yr later, they would have max 1 refresh? And by then the SB platform would still sorta be like the last gen i7s now... Which are still going like hotcakes for those who either don't seek or have the budget to get top of the line.

So I figure if you get the r3 now for $2k tax in... 1yr later if you can still sell for $800-$1000? That's not bad going towered another upgrade for us a yr later. Cause cmon let's be honest, those of us who are early adopters for AW products would likely be the first ones tempted to get the next gen stuff when it gets released in future

 

If you want 3D keep your current system and upgrade later to a possible 485M or 560M.

 

"I'm in" as I'm breaking out the wallet to replace my M15x with the M17xR3. I think the used market for Alienware lappys is fair. With my specs I would probably ask for $1500 and see what I could get for it on ebay, craigslist, nbr, etc... However I'm selling it to a friend for $1k. He's a good buddy and he won't be able to find a laptop with these specs for that price.

 

Glad I ordered the 460m. I don't feel like dealing with the poor driver / game support that is virtually guaranteed by an ATI card.

 

That may have been the case in the past but isn't anymore, I had better driver support on my 5850 in my M15x than the last couple Nvidia cards I've owned. Nvidia is starting to slip on a lot of issues and how long it takes them to properly fix them.

 

Now that's not fair. That used to be true but is not anymore. Saying that ATI does not have the great driver support of Nvidia would be true but your statement is just plain false and from a different time.

 

Issues of the past are not issues of today.

 

why does everyone say ati have poor driver support, during the last year they did an awesome job supporting drivers, maybe even better then nvidia. i'm not a fanboy but that statement, i feel is no longer true.

edit, wow everyone beat me to it, hahaha

 

I agree, considering I will sell one of mine if I jump and can get the 6970, I think I can get between 1500-2000 easy...closer to 2000 I think. Both have almost a full year left on on site warentee also so.....

 

I think Dell has done a good job with 3d/120hz vs graphics power.

 

So the 6970 stomps my two OC 4870's? or are we talking minor differences?
Also notebookcheck.net i take with a grain of salt

 

On games like WOW I would say the 6970M is going to kill your cards. On games that are fully compatible with SLI/Crossfire, you might be on par or even behind not sure. It will depend on games...

 

Review AMD Radeon HD 6970M Graphics Card - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

on 3d mark 06 and vantage the 6970 with a i7-740qm scores lower than our 5870 CF configs.

Then again, how reliable notebookcheck is, is another story. But at least it is a review from an existing machine.

Definetly not worth the change for me. For a CF config... well that's another story xD

 

I play FPS's like Bad Company 2, MOH, MW2, and only mmoRPG i will play is Diablo 3 when that comes out.

EdIT: seen that review definitely not worth it!, but i will wait for another review to come out\


look at this power consumption
It's already obvious that high energy consumption will accompany high performance. Under heavy use, the Radeon HD 6970M really shows its greedy nature. The Eurocom W860CU Cougar (Core i7 740QM) ate up between 131.5 and 182.6 watts during the testing. The Radeon HD 5870 drains substantially less power, e.g. in the MSI GX660R (Core i7 720QM) 117.2 – 150.6 watts as well as the DevilTech Devil 9700 DTX (Core i7 820QM) 124.5 – 165.4 watts. Even the GeForce GTX 480M doesn't consume as much as Radeon HD 6970M, the DevilTech Fragbook DTX (Core i7-720QM) came out having spent 123.0 – 172.0 watts.

 

I think the XM requires a special chipset (P67) that supports overclocking (unlocked CPUs). I think the R3 uses the QM67 chipset, which doesn't support such overclocking. It's a guess. Things are a bit unknown at the moment.

 

Take the reviews with different CPUs with a grain of salt. Consider an i740 with 5870 does 14,400 3d06 and people are already reporting i2720 gtx at 14,300. CPUs have a huge impact on some games so it varies. Only those with 920/940 xm imo aren't missing out much except games like wow where the r3 6970 will absolutely crush it.

 

Well Looks like I am gonna have to get me a 920xm then

 

theme name is a little bit misleading, since its only available at UK website (yet)
also, have i missed it somewhere: does 6970 support 3d?

 

thanks for this, hoping your wrong though heheh.

 

Don't know if you're right on it requiring a specific chipset to support the overclocking or not but the R3 doesn't have the QM67 chipset, it has the HM67(Cougar Point) chipset

 

6970m have more info that what need at this point... many leaked info showed it getting 20K+ 3Dmark 06 now whether the CPU effected the score a lot or not is another question but notebookcheck is not the first site to report +20k 3Dmark

but again why do you people care about benchmarks? look at the games frame rate a single 6970 slaughter 4870 CF (for those who think 4870CF is better.....)

 

Be sure to swap the 6970M into one of your R2's to test it out for us. Will give you much rep.

I know you're new around here but seriously, will you stop quoting notebookcheck for performance reference? Everyone knows that website has never been a good indicator of graphics performance and that review you keep pointing out is a joke. Wait for someone credible on NBR to get one and then talk.

 

No gaurentees I will buy a R3 and sell one of my R2's but, yea, if I do I can do that.

 

I am holding you to that and waiting for you answer like others so we can decide to buy a m18x or upgrade the m17x r2 ....i have a feeling a TON of r3 with 6850 or gtx 460m are about to hit the outlet and Bunch of 5870 will show up for sale in market place if 6970 is compatible .

 

Well, like I said, I will test that out if I decide to get a R3, still looking and deciding if it would be worth it. There are some VERRY nice things about the
R3 that would make it a better deal for me..

16GB Memory << BIG DEAL FOR ME
Faster Processor
3D, kinda on the fence with this....

are the two that most interest me.

Loss of 1900x1200 will hurt a bit, but not a huge deal
Loss of RGB will hurt a bit also, I do like this screen
Loss of a CF setup wont missit at all dont think, I really have no need for a CF

so, reading the reviews, waiting for a "official" NBR review or 2 to hit and will make my desicsion soon enough

Also, with the M18 maby kinda rumor comming out....

 

So,

A) Why isn`t there 3D included with the 6970m? It supports 3D right?
B) What wattage does it draw? 75-100W is kinda vague...
C) How good is the PowerXpress from AMD compared to Optimus? It switches automaticly right?

 

A) No one knows for sure
B) No one knows for sure
C) It's probably as good but again no one knows for sure.

Answers coming soon.

 

A) Probably because Nvidia has some sort of deal with Dell, the 3D screen has the receiver or whatever it is built in. Typical Nvidia. I'm going to try calling them and asking for the 3D screen with the 6970M, they may, I mean more money for them.

C) Yes it's the same thing, except Optimus isn't supported if you get the 460M with the 3D screen atm

 

C) Could that be the reason why 3D isnt included with 6970m and 3D is included with GTX 460M but not Optimus? Either you have 3D or you have PowerXpress/Optimus. They arent compatible with each other?

Awesome answers joebarchuck

 

Well this bums me out . I already ordered one with the 460m but it hasnt shipped yet (3d package). How hard would it be to cancel my order or get them to upgrade the card for upgrade cost (sounds messy since I got the 3d package?)? Man this kinda sux any help is greatly appreciated. (US customer btw dont think thr US site shows it yet)

 

1. Call them
2. Cancel old order
3. Re-order new system

 

Thx, are they going to try to charge me a restocking fee tho?

 

Considering I dont work for dell, I have no idea if they will try to charge a restocking fee, most likely not if you are re-ordering, but I cant say 100% for sure.

You will need to totally cancel your old order, and be prepared to make a brand new order, dont think just asking for a GPU upgrade will do it....

 

nope
10 char

 

If your system has not shipped then they won't.

 

Not usually if you can order the new system on the phone. If you cancel and reorder they usually just don't worry about it but some of them will fight you to death ... thats when you hang up and try again.

 

This thing is so expensive though.

Just upgrading to 1080p and Blu-Ray have it at $1849, whereas I can get the P170HM w/ Blu-Ray and 485M for $100 more.

 

i'm with you on that! can't wait

 

Would you be able to put the 6970 into a R3 configured with a 460m or is it a diff mobo? I have a gut feeling that's going to be a no ><

 

yes man you can

 

You have to be strategic when you buy, you can get 4% to put it on your DPA account and you can easily get one and just make a lump payment. You get no intrest for a year so thats nice.

There are coupons every week, currently $50 off coupon floating around. When the laptop hits the EPP most companys and schools qualify for 10% off or more. Also if you call in your order and tell them about that Clevo they will give you some thing for free to convince you to order from them.

With Dell it will be cheaper if you try ALWAYS. I have owned both.