First review of Alienware M17x with GTX 680M

Well, I just managed to increase the voltage of a desktop 670 per vbios mod... it's not perfect yet, but it works

 

We don't know yet...but by sept, there should be ES samples floating around. I've heard many conflicting rumors...some say it will be a massively tweaked 7970m able to sustain higher clocks...then just the other day, my contact at dell told me he saw an inf file with 8900 inside. So i don't know if they are tweaking or going all in with the 8900m's. If AMD holds true to form from history, we will see a refresh shortly

You can??? What gtx 670 do you have? Some are coming with the hardware mod already applied to bypass the nvidia safe guards. For example, I know that the gigabyte 670's can run at 108% of the power limit, and there is an MSI version that advertises and overvolt feature.

 

Yes the AMD 8800M series has appeared in the latest beta drivers. What does that mean? Who knows?

 

it means that AMD will have another kick-butt card coming very soon

 

OT, but yes, it works... I don't have one, but my buddy was willing to flash some of my mods, he's got an Asus DirecCU II Top as far as I know.
I can also increase the board power limit per vbios.

 

the Asus GTX 670 Direct CU II has the hardware mod already applied, that's why you can tweak the voltages. You don't need to do it via vbios, you can use the included Asus utility

Unfortunately, my EVGA's can't do this

 

Interesting... well the max voltage per Asus utility is 1.175V, I increased it This might also work for your card, but first of all I need to do further testing.

 

haha...i wouldn't have expected anything less from you lol

 

We don't know yet. I've only seen one 680m OC'ed and it got up to 1154mhz.

I'm guessing that because nvidia has a 900mhz mem speed in their spec, the ram going on the cards will be rated at about 1ghz...you can only OC 1ghz rated ram so high

It doesn't make sense from a money/business perspective to put really highly rated ram on the cards when it is running 900mhz stock

 

Wow, the 680M is quite a bit more expensive than the 7970M! I am thinking of buying an M17 soon, and I was waiting for pricing and performance numbers. It's not that much better for the money really...

 

yes, alienware is charging $300 more in Canada and $350 more in the US for the 680m over the 7970m...it is definitely expensive

BUt you want to see expensive??? Check this out:

Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M 4GB DDR5 for clevo eurocom etc upgrademonkey-in stock | eBay

 

$1,200 for a gtx680m - I lol'd
I dont mean to be profane but For that price upgrademonkey needs to offer "extra services".

Desktop gtx 690 is cheaper
You can also buy two brand new gtx 680s for that

And to add insult to injury they charge 18$ for shipping

 

bro, no "extra services" is worth $1200 lol

When i first saw that, the first thing that came to mind was is the computer included in that price?

 

Lol it just a bit cheaper than my R3

 

so let think we can overclock the gtx 680m like this

GPU 820 mhz = 26,19 GPix/s 91,79 GTex/s

Mem 1100 mhz = 140,8 GB/s

gtx 670 desktop on stock got this

29,3 GPix/s 102,5 GTex/s 192,2 GB/s

This clocks should be tested with gtx 670 desktop card
without turbo boost and let see what the 3dmark11 GPU score is
I think we can get 7K

lol

Update

Notebookcheck has tested overclocking the gtx 680m
and reached stable 810 mhz gpu and 2025 mhz mem
in the clevo with msi afterburner with 89° highest temps
at stock voltage

Maybe with the m17xr4 we can overclock a little higher

 

Overclocking will vary from card to card. Some people will be able to go crazy with the clock speed and others will not have the option. Only time will tell.

 

It show us ca. the range we can overclock.
Some people a little more or a little less.

One question,can i switch optimus off like enduro?

 

no you can't switch optimus off...unless you do it with an unlocked bios which doesn't exist yet for the R4

 

HEY GUYS! PLS HELP ME!!!!!! the dell guy is saying that if i upgrade my m17xr4 from 675m to 680m myself, i will loose the 3d vision

and can u guys help me out on another part?
if you upgrade your laptops what do u do with the old parts? like if i upgrade my 680m what should i do with the 675m??? and yeah, DOES LIGHTBOOST THING WORKS IN 2d? like i have the 3d vision thing, but i am watching movie in 2d, so will lightboost still work?

 

well...if you want to keep your warranty, you have to keep your 675. If problems occur, then dell will want you to put the computer back to original config

If you don't care about that, ebay or nbr marketplace is a great place to sell your old gear

 

you mean to say, that i can take it out (675m), break it up (d laptop), put d 675m and i will still get d warranty ??? WOW!!!!!

and pls also answer my light boost question!!!!!

 

bro, i didn't type those words

 

wat?? watcha mean??


and ya! where can i buy the 680m from? i have been looking everywhere

 

What's up with Dell/AW reps? I asked how much will it cost me to buy a 680M to replace my 580M and he said 680 is not out yet for mobile

Then he suggested 675M instead since "it's almost the same as 680M"
Is Dell even updating their staff regarding hardware updates and performances?

I'm really getting a good support from this guy since I got my M17 and the M11xR3 and I can email him directly about my concerns but sometimes he just say stupid things.

 

thats dell.

when i called them after 3 failed attempts to fix the 580M throttle issue, one of them told me "ok, our solution for you is: you have to buy a cooling pad to keep the temperature low"....needless to say i didnt agree with him ^^

btt: i´m still waiting for a rep to call me so i can configure my replacement system. by the time they hopefully are aware that dell is already selling the 680M

 

For the same system with gtx 680m i would pay 2888€ regular
Dell offerd me the same system with hd 7970m for 2156€
So the hd 7970m is the best card for me!

Hope for unlocked bios soon!

 

I have to argue that many reps are not like this. I've encountered many knowledgeable and truthful reps that know their stuff. Although I've had my fair share of reps with the IQ of a table cloth...

 

Hey, I got a quote this morning for $3500 for an R4 with GTX680, 8GB ram and 3720qm (+blu ray, killer wifi, 3D screen and 1TB HDD).
I noticed the card has 2GB of video memory.

The one reviewed on Notebookcheck has 4GB.

What s the go with that?

Edit 1: Australia based

 

Won't make any difference at all either way. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

Yeah but it really kills any attempt to go mobile, the 60hz atleast gives one the capability to engage Optimus....personally I had a very tough time with Optimus, whitelisting and what nots (during the m17xr3 and 460m times) to make any games work, and even then the intel had used to come on.

Any how despite being a great fan of all things NVIDIA, I had to give it for the 6990m and dedicated gpu controls, and was very content ( portable power upto 5.45 with a ssd and hdd) and would've kept it if it weren't for the AW build issues

 

The only way out for 675m is to reduce its price to £150 range. so people can upgrade their 560m.
Fact: 675m is not a premium card anymore since 680m (maybe never was)
That's my thought.

 

675 is a rebadged 580m (same hardware just different name). 580m was the old flagship and is still a pretty powerful card in its own right. Just not near as powerful as the 680m.

 

for AW systems it's a no-brainer to avoid the 675M and go with 7970M unless you are budget constrained and dislike AMD. But I can attest it plays Crysis 2 on Extreme with no issues at 1080p. But a slow part it's not, still #3 mobile GPU. Until the 7950M shows its face anyway.

 

So I'm guessing no one has actually received their M17x with a 680m yet?

 

Well I'm about to order one dunno if I should get it with 7970 or 680m

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

just took the plunge and ordered one with the 680m... and the anticipation begins..

 

Hey guys, just read the thread... got a question I have been searching for ... is the 680m gonna be compatible with my mx18r1 or the mx17r3?

A dell rep told me today the 680m is not compatible with the mx18r1 MB which does not make sense to me as both the r1 and r2's MB's are MXM 3.0b ... and so are both the 675m and 680m so it seems strange that I not be able to upgrade the mx18r1 with the 680m unless there is some sort of mb bios support needed.

Any info or thoughts on compatibility with the mx18r1 or mx17r3 is GREATLY appreciated !

 

regarding the M17xR3 compatibility: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/672230-m17x-r3-680m-compatability.html#post8691483

so far i have not been able to find drivers that work.

i going to try to install new ones on the R4 today to finally see if its a driver or R3 compatibility-issue (i personally think its a driver issue, but we will see).

 

Please do post back --- I am very ready to make this purchase but need info LOL and to anyone else with info please chime in

So you have an r3 and r4 sitting around there, COOL!

 

Nope still waiting...

 

When's your EDD?

 

Ordered on 6/25 and EDD is 7/18.

 

Ordered mine on 7/4 should get it on 7/20. 9 days to go, can't wait. X^D

 

so, im kinda losing track of all those "m17x + 680m"-threads, anyway i´m going to post it here for now.


today i tried to tweak the 680M in my R4 to see what it can do.

using msi afterburner i was able to raise the clock to a maximum of 854Mhz and set the memory to 2300mhz.

both, gpuz and nvidia-inspector showed the numbers correctly.

next step: starting up furmark as well as 3dmark11.

memory-oc went just fine (standard: 1800mhz, oc: 2300mhz), but the core-clock wouldn´t go up one freakin mhz during both tests.


since "hackness" over at the sager-board was able to oc his clevo 680m, im wondering if dell/nvidia managed to block oc´ing via vbios?!

 

You're the first one I have seen on here that actually has the M17x R4 with the 680m. Pretty much identical specs to me it looks like. Don't like the sound of your overclock problems, I was hoping that the M17x could actually do better than the Clevo with better cooling etc. Please keep us in the loop as you tinker with it. I can't imagine that they would block OC'ing on it.

My EDD is 7/23. It originally was 7/16 but I decided to upgrade my processor and it got pushed back. Trying to stay patient

 

that's not good... I wonder if you can permanently flash the card to higher clocks using a tool like the 580m. Once more people get their systems I'm sure a fix will be discovered.

 

Same here, gpu does not overclock at all ... Which is something I am really fed up about, considering the price we paid for it only to be denied its full potential (which is certainly considerably higher than 719 MHz)!

 

Laptop will be dropped off today. Hopefully tonight/tomorrow will do some testing.

 

I would not be surprised if they have taken measures to restrict overclocking.

Pretty sure a great many 580m cards died because people pushed too hard, and Dell probably wants to avoid that with the 680m. I suspect a work-around will be found though.