Alienware m17xR3 i7 2820 gtx460m review

Correct me if I'm Wrong but isn't the 6970 a 2gig GDDR5 Card? I know that there are Plenty of people in this Forum with Much more up to date Knowledge on Gaming Hardware, but to be honest that sounds like a powerhouse of a video card and if the m18x is getting 2 of those then who gives a crap about 3D? When your at the Drag strip do you root for the pretty car or the one that gets to the end faster than you can WOW?

 

hmmm... understand what you're trying to say, but not such a great analogy

for consideration, a pinto/gremlin/yugo/etc. can be made to go extremely fast at a track... really, sometimes speed isn't everything.

back on topic.

 

Probably not but the Logic is good i think. Sorry for the Crude way of saying it but when it comes to a gaming laptop shouldn't the first priority be performance instead of Cosmetics. Although, I do think that with the 6970 the r3 will be an amazing machine it is just too soon to tell if giving up some options will be worth keeping the others.

 

Lmao. Actually I cheer for the pretty car. Everyone is different but I prefer an overall package. the alienwares have the looks and performance for sure. If we cared about performance i think half the guys would be using breifcases made of black plastic. I mean Clevos.

 

haha yeah i guess you do have a point. got a little carried away i did. Im a little excited since im still having to wait to even order mine. When the R3 gets the 6970 i might even look into getting it. I was looking forward to the 6970 already being ready when it first came out to order. waiting isn't one of my strong suits.

 

Hmm. Klipsch tuned speakers. Still 10W though. doesnt the XPS 17 have 21W combined speakers? and i dont believe the R3 has a subwoofer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRM4P7SvLtM

 

my brother is getting an ibuypower notebook this week with the desktop cpu. not that pretty.

 

Ibuypower is in my hometown somewhere. I saw the dude at the post office one day, with a ton of cardboard boxes with "ibuypower" printed on the side, with their ?lion? logo on it. I had no idea they were a computer company at the time, and went home to google them. Lo and behold--they were! Too bad they're really expensive.

 

i like the signature of one of the guys on that forum of the review:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4_gyuPQ7cPE/TTD6wljbzjI/AAAAAAAAADM/VnHZSlDBLGU/Alienware M17X R2.png.jpg

"m17x r-2 with dual 6970's in crossfire" YEAAAAH. and then a fail display, rofl.

 

I don't really know, and can't really tell...but are the photos posted in 5150joker's post (2nd post of this thread) supposed to show the 460M as a GOOD gpu, or moderate? Looks good to me, but could someone please offer some commentary on whether or not we should hunger for more, if say, we're just playing SC2 in ultra, various shooters (Gears of war, Black Ops, Crysis) and pcsx2/dolphin emulators?

Thanks!

 

With GTX460m you can max out all current games easily unless it's Crysis or Metro 2033

You will easily Run starcraft 2 on Ultra settings +30frame because i do on my G53 with much weaker CPU (M17X 3 got a sandy bridge cpu, much faster)

GTX460m is not a weak card but people want stronger cards so they can max out any game + run insane AA plus to future proof it for few years

For wow users GTX460m max out wow easily

 

lol, totally understood - everyone's chomping at the bit and can't wait to get their new beasts in play!

 

Ah-ha! Sounds good for me then, as I haven't bought any pc games besides SC2. The last PC game I actually played before that was BroodWar/SC1, lolz. Everything else is emulators, or games that you stated would run @ max settings. hmmmmmmm 485M/6970 would be a waste for me then icicic

 

485 will cost +500$ more over GTX460m, to me it's not worth it however 6970 might cost only 100$ more or so over gtx460

For emulators it's 95% about your CPU not your GPU so sandy bridge will do the trick, Dolphin/PCSX2 at least all about your CPU they barely use your GPU and GTX460m is overkill for emulators (wont even use 50% of its power for emulators)

 

Goshdarn. Sounding better and better with each and every new post Say, does the Chinese reviewer make any mention of Optimus?

 

The 6970m will be priced close to the 485m if they perform similarly, regardless of production cost. Dell is not in the business of giving you more for less sadly

 

I dont think anyone would choose the 6970m if it was within $150 of the 485m, considering the 3D, phyx and CUDA AND possibly optimus.

 

plus GTX485m is a little bit faster

It will be properly 100-200$ over GTX460m for 6970 and 400-500 for GTX485 over GTX460

 

They will probably be within $100 of each other I would guess (they = GTX 485m and 6970m). Of course this is also all assuming the GTX 485m will even be an option which it very well may not.

Keep in mind that dell is highly ignorant with their pricing....GTX 285m SLI cost more than 5870m CF

 

Estimated price for a single 6970M is under 500$, but I agree, Dell has the final word.
Furthermore, expect the AMD card to be equal to 485M in performance (if not better). The only review we have so far, was done with an engineering sample + i7-740QM. And even then it fell only 10-12% behind the SB 2920xm+ 485M config. Keep in mind, eng. samples may differ significantly from the final/production units.

 

Well AMD was "promising" to come out with their own switchable graphics pretty soon so you might just be able to cross optimus off the list, though i can't make any promises that it will happen.

AMD Switchable Graphics Technology

 

well it looks like the 6970 has power express with it according to uk dell site.

 

looks like powerxpress only works with amd cpu , but in any case i prefer to manually switch.

 

Does anyone know if you can even switch graphics card manually on the r3? I don't remember seeing that in the manual .

 

It has been confirmed that you can with the 6870 using ATI's own software CCC which should come installed or you can download from ATI's website.

Im assuming the same can be done with the 6970.

 

Due to the fact that the 6970 has finally become available, the following quandary has arisen:

6970m + 60Hz WLED
or
460m + 120Hz WLED (3D)

A lot of people, on various threads, seem to be (metaphorically) thanking their various gods that the 6970 has arrived; I’m unsure as to why…

I fully understand that the 6970m is far superior to the 460m, but it requires the selection of a 60Hz, rather than a 120Hz display… Furthermore (and I know that this is, technically, speculation)… if/when the 485m becomes available, it will allow an upgrade to a level above that of the 6970, and, crucially, being an nvidia card, may likely support the superior 120Hz display (3D enabled).

So (as seems to me), the logical path (if ordering an R3 within the next few months) may be to specify the 460m + 120Hz WLED with ‘3D bundle’… then wait until the 485m becomes available as an option (speculation?… absolutely), and till the point that you feel that the 460m seems no longer sufficient (could be a year or two… allowing the 485m price to drop), then upgrade to the 485, and continue to enjoy the benefits of 120Hz and 3D.

(If I’ve fallen off of any logical cliffs, please correct me)

 

Your logic is fine assuming one cares enough about 120hz on a notebook. Personally I'd rather take the 6970M with its much higher performance vs 460M and just use triple buffering if screen tearing bothers you so much.

 

On that note... I've no idea of the display differential regarding 120Hz Vs 60Hz… have you any experience of this yourself?

Edit:
Further to that: if not opting for 120Hz 3D, it appears more difficult to justify not going for an R2 with ATI xfires and a 940XM… (RGB and aluminium)

 

Well 120hz is supposed to give you a smoother experience when doing regular tasks and obviously 3D gaming. BUT its only really helpful in games if you exceed 60 fps and experience tearing. With 60 hz displays you can remedy that with triple buffering vsync so to me its not a big deal.

I just saw your edit. As much as I love my R2, I wouldn't advise anyone to buy it now. If you absolutely must have a dual card system, wait on the M18x.

 

I appreciate the advice. If you don't mind my asking, can you explain (or provide a relevant link for) ‘triple buffering’. Thanks Joker

 

Well do you want the technical details or just a link to a program that you use to enable it for games? Guess I'll give you both:

1. Technical: Triple Buffering: Why We Love It - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

2. Program: RadeonPro: Radeon Games Profiles Automation Tool

 

A bit of reading in store... Many thanks for this

 

Okay, sorry if this is a newb question but... All this discussion about no optimus with ATI cards... It still has a manual toggle for user to switch b/t GPU and integrated graphics right??
I mean, I have the m11x r1 and that has no optimus but I still get amazing battery out of it cause I keep my GPU off for all activities other than gaming and exporting image to tv through HDMI. Personally I'd actually not mind the manual control so much since programming is still "programming" and god knows computers can be retarded sometimes and flip your GPU on for watching YouTube

Any thoughts?

Ok. I guess some folks already answered that with prior posts and saying that CCC cam do the manual switching. Anyone with the 6870m can confirm this??