6970M, 6990M, and Beyond...

Well, I've been thinking of selling my machine and getting a new one with a 6990M. Problem is, it's looking like I have gotten point of no return with my R3 - I am doubtful I would be able to sell it without taking a somewhat nasty loss. But my greedy little hands really want the latest and greatest, that's why I bought a damn Alienware in the first place!

The one thing that makes me feel better about this is the idea that MAYBE a year or so from now, the next line of GPUs will come out and blow even the 6990M away. Question is, is it likely that whatever that GPU may be will work in this machine? Any theories, concrete info, or even gut feelings on the matter?

Come on, make me feel better!

And thank you!

 

Why not just buy the card by itself and install it yourself?

 

Where would he sell the 6970 though?

 

I'm curious about this too. I realize know one knows these things for certain but there has to be a road map on these things.

So will the next GPU's hit before Ivy Bridge?

If so I would think waiting with the 6970m till the next gpu hits would be the smart move, it's only a small bump for the 6990 like 15%. The new card should be at least 15% more on top of that though, definitely worth it.

For that matter, does Dell even intend to put out another 17x model..

 

Just hold out. I'm sure after the 7000s come out and the next Alienware is refreshed/updated, someone on eBay will buy your laptop for very close to what you paid for it.

 

Looked up the current road maps, these could change at any time.

AMD says Q1 for the new GPU's.
Intel says Q2 for Ivy Bridge.

So we have a decent shot of getting the 7000's in the R3 based on those numbers.

 

Tapa, i hear you.

This is the same reason why i prefered to purchase a pair of 6970's instead of swapping to the m18x.

I believe that in an year from now new tech will be available and maybe inside an m18x R2...

M18x is a great machine, but something better will come (as always tech do). If i were in you, i would hold until next year.

 

If you play the game to stay on the bleeding edge of tech you will always be poor and disappointment. Enjoy what you got until it no longer does what you need. Then get the newest toy out there.

 

Now, I normally agree completely with that sentiment, I really do. It's just that when I splurge and buy the best, it usually takes more than 2 months for something new to come out. I really don't understand why AMD released the 6970 and 6990 so close together, especially when up until this year, there have usually NOT been powerhouse mobile GPUs released in such rapid succession. Like when I got the 9800M, it was the best for a pretty long time!

Some of these comments have helped to give me hope that there may be an upgrade option. I mean, the R2 guys were able to get the 6970...can they get the 6990? For that matter, is the 6970 working just as well in the R2 as in the R3? If so, that's a good thing for the future!

As to buying the 6990, that is a silly option in my opinion. Although I want the best, taking the $300-$400 loss for 15% is not worth it. Now, if the next gen is priced the same, standalone, as the 6990 9 months from now, that might be worthwhile...

Thanks for the input, guys.

 

lol, until you realize the M17xR3 is made of flimsy plastic and only supports one GPU. Then you realize that something better ACTUALLY comes out the year AFTER that....the M18x.

 

I haven't noticed my R3 being flimsy at all...sure I can't put dents in a steel wall with it like the R2, but I would not call it flimsy.

No one is arguing the M18x is a superior machine, but it's also a huge power hog and stupid heavy. Where the R3 is highly portable and not uncomfortable on my lap I found the R2 to not be, and I am sure the M18x has even more heft than the R2.

The question here is if you think the R3 will be upgradable to the next GPU to come out, not if a machine twice the price and much larger is better.

Judging by road maps I would say yes. Judging by how slowly Dell likes to release things..maybe.

 

Yep I also like the option of dual GPU's, but damn the M18x is huge.

 

The HD 7000 series is supposed to be out before the end of this year.

 

@OP AMD has announced that the 7000series will be MXM 3.0 compatible, so they should be swappable with your current graphics card.

@PsiPr0, you obviously either own an m17x r2 or m18x. The plastic definitely isn't 'flimsy' and it supports one gpu by being lighter and smaller than the m18x. And yes, the m18x r2 will be better than the m17x r4, if alienware keeps with its current trends.

 

I would wait for the 7 series to come out in 2012. You can sell your used 6970M for probably half price (still has whatever warranty is left that your computer has) and then buy the 7 series for like $600. So you will probably end up spending an extra $300 or so.

 

exactly what I am planning on doing Bartlett.
One problem though, is Dell and the Bios.

Will they release a working bios on the R3 for the 7 series, or not.

M17x R2 makes me think no, 6970 is shown and used by many on R2's, but no support from Dell, and no official BIOS to make it work. The only reason I can see for this is that they considered the R2 EOL and didn't want to make a new bios for 6970 support.

Now if the 7 series hits at the end of the year, it would almost be guaranteed to work in the R3, since Ivy is still like 3-6 months away from that, which would mean R4 would be a month or so after Ivy hits.

Hope that all made sense, it did in my head =)

 

7000M won't be available until the Feb/March period, at the earliest, and even then there's no guarantee of it being MXM 3.0b compatible.

 

I really don't understand why laptop GPUs have to be compatible with the BIOS. Can anyone explain why?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/594117-switching-gpus-r3-580m-6990m.html

Read this man, you can upgrade your GPU without selling your system. Read my posts.

 

I'm guessing its because the manufacturers want it that way, why put a GPU that the company knows isnt compatible into the BIOS and risk frying the board...

 

There really is no reason except for perhaps fan control and temperature reporting. But there is nothing that should prevent a card from posting and running at the appropriate clocks.

The reason why there are issues is thanks to manufacturer specific pins in the MXM interface. Which is stupid. If MXm is supposed to be a standard, then it's not standardized to have manufacturer specific pins in the interface. And all those pins do is check and see if the card is "supported" or not.

 

Tech advances way to much for my wallet to catch up My 460m feels old and shameful....

But seriously, this is the same muck i'm in. Do I upgrade to either the 580m or the 6990 now or wait??

Oh the decisions.

 

If the 460m does all you want it to do now, then I'd wait. There's no guarantee that the 7000 series will work in the R3, and if they do, who knows how powerful they might be. It might be similar to the jump from the 4870m to the 5870m - which was pathetic minus the DX11.

Wait for the 7000 series, and if they don't work or aren't worth it, you can always buy a 6990 then.

 

Even the 6970m would be a huge step up from the 460m, but if you were going to do that, just grab the 6990m. Then you could skip the next card to come out.
460m ---> 6990m(or 6970) Definite Yes.
6970m--->6990m. Can't say I would recommend it, unless you can find it cheap.

6970m---7k series(if available for R3) Definite Yes.

 

New Alienware Dell m17x r3 2GB ATI 6970M V9XKH | eBay

But the price...ouch But its a Dell part so will work out of the box right.

http://cgi.ebay.nl/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-6970m-GPU-MXM-3-0-Type-B-/110692404813?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item19c5c80e4d
http://cgi.ebay.nl/ATI-HD-6970-2048MB-RAM-Notebook-Grafikkarte-MMX3-/120750487562?pt=DE_Elektronik_Computer_Computer_Graphikkarten&hash=item1c1d4a380a

dont know if these will work.

 

At those prices it may be cheaper to get them from Dell, it's worth a call at least, maybe a Dell coupon would work as well.

 

But what would Dell charge? About 700 dollars right?

 

If it is still good, then sell it on ebay for like $350-450.

Bet it would sell like a hotcake.

 

Well if you would like to sell your 6970 send me a pm, or ill send you one shortly. Then you can upgrade to the 6990.
As for pricing we can talk about that if your interested, but you can get a new 6970m on ebay with warranty for $420, so selling a used un warrantied part will decrease the price a good deal.

 

Man the upgrades that come out like this are mind blowing.....which route to take? I have CF 4870s and now the nVidia comes out....my question would be answered if the 7000 AMD GPUs came out and could be run on the R2 in CF, still how much power it needs in the end? Prize will be a lesser factor since the performance will be very noticeable.

 

if you went from the 4870's to dual 6970's I'm sure you would notice a huge jump.

I'm not sure if the 820QM would be the bottleneck at that point though.

 

I think the power supply will be more of a bottleneck than the cpu. 6970m cards are rated on 100w each. 240 - 100 - 100 = 40w left

 

In reality the 6970M isn't close to 100W. It's more like 80W, as the load tests fron NotebookJournal.de show that it consumes almost exactly 20W less than the GTX 485M.

 

Still willing to buy the 6970m off someone who is going to be upgrading.

 

I would be more than happy to sell you mine. I've only had mine for like 35 days, but I want to upgrade mine to the 6990 if Dell will sell it by itself. So far no luck. They keep telling me that my system is incompatible and unable to upgrade.

 

I didn't understand what you mean...

 

You sure? Dang. Is there an item number for the 6990m?

 

Just got off the phone with a rep I've worked with for awhile.
He said at this time they are not selling the 6990m for m17x R3 units. You can configure them with them brand new but they will not sell them alone yet, unless you have a M18x.

Why we get 2nd status to M18x doesnt make sense to me, but whatever.

 

just tell them you have an m18 then?

 

^ Exaclty, all you do is tell them this, and they will sell it to you. Haha I think that is stupid, if you want to buy a part you want to buy a part, shouldnt matter what you have.....

 

They are verifying service tags, no service tag no card, I did attempt that =)

So as of right now the only way I can think to get them is buddy up with someone with an 18x.

 

Hi,

I was looking at your M17x R2's spec and see that you have 2x 6990M's installed ?

Most interesting, because I owned an M18x but was dissappointed with it due to the lack of RGBLED screen among other things, so, if you haven't been asked before, how did you do it? (upgrade to 6990M's)

Regards

Andy

 

Hey Andy,

Look over this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...6970m-your-m17x-r2-single-gpu-crossfirex.html

 

You guys should've signed up for the Dell buy back package.

 

if its $700 for the vid card, then you have to get a heatsink/fan, thermal pads, thermal paste etc... you've paid 50% of the cost of a new alienware already.

In this scenerio, i'd wait and get a new laptop. Sell the old one to help cover the cost

 

BTW, i've been following developments on the upcoming AMD 7900 "Tahiti" gpu's...they will be revolutionary. I would definitely wait. The Tahiti will use Rambus XDR2 memory which has twice the bandwidth of DDR5...and it will be built on 28nm TSMC process.

just check out these desktop specs. I expect the mobile version to be downclocked, but still... The radeon 7970 is suppose to be faster than crossfired 6970s. now this will be a worthy upgrade



source: nordichardware

 

If they can downclock a 7950..... wow.