M17x with crossfire

hey guys, ive been a very happy Sager user for a year and a half with my NP8662, but i am about to upgrade my system to Alienware's M17x i have all the specs sorted out but am a little unsure about weather i should go for crossfire HD5870's or a single card set-up.

its not a money issue but more doubts about in game real performance increase.

i will be using this machine as my primary computer, for both gaming and all the other bits and pieces, i like gaming and gaming at as high settings as i can, i will have the 1920x1200 screen.

basically, what percentage of games support crossfire in mobile gpu's and what performance increase would i expect in gaming from having crossfire compared to a single card.

thanks and sorry for the question, ive only ever had single gpu's in the past.

 

Nothing but problems when it comes to the latest games + the CF 5870, steer clear from Alienware for the time being IMO.

 

A single 5870M is a down-clocked desktop 5770. The number of pipelines, shaders, etc is identical, only the clock speeds are different.

A pair of 5870Ms in CrossFire is somewhere between a desktop 5850 and 5870 in performance. This means that you'll be able to get higher frame rates or detail settings at the display's native resolution.

The only downside to CrossFire is that some software is coded in a way that prevents it from working properly. It may be possible to work around some of these issues (e.g. using RadeonPro to create a custom CrossFire profile for the game), but in general the game simply uses only one of the two graphics cards.

Personally, I went with CrossFire. There are some driver issues at the moment with the 5870Ms, but I expect these to be sorted out within the next few months. After that, my laptop should last a good 3-4 years (assuming I don't have any hardware fail on me).

 

This seems to affect the 5870Ms in general, not just those from Dell/Alienware. Asus have not updated their drivers since the G73JH (their top-level gaming laptop) came out, and it sounds like Clevo are using the same cards as Dell.

The only way to work around this issue in the short term is to go with nVidia, and that has its own problems. Their latest 480M GPU is fairly new, and the first 480M SLI machine has only just been announced. You can go for a laptop with dual 260M/280M/285Ms, but you won't be able to use the latest DX11 features in games.

As I said above, I expect the driver issues to be sorted out in the next few months. The current official Dell drivers work fine for most games, just not all of them. When the driver issue has been sorted out the 5870Ms will be the most cost-effective way to get maximum gaming performance from a laptop.

 

so i currently have a machine with the GTX260m i dont want to upgrade to sli, if i understand you correctly nzgeek if i do have a issue with drivers in a specific game the worst that will happen is i would have to only use 1 gpu..still more powerful that my current GTX260m, especially if we add the cpu upgrade...but if it does work then it works very well, to the point of a desktop 5850/70.....hmmm i think im better of going with a crossfire, its only $270 more.

 

I would go for CF now, saves doing it later. Worst comes to worst, you'll have to use a single GPU (Still more powerful than your current rig) for a few months while the drivers are coded better.

 

sweet, im on the chat line with dell now, see if i can get some cash reduced.....

 

Make sure to mention the HD5870 drivers thread on notebook review.

Also link it, and tell them that its worrying you.

Also say that Alienware has confirmed the problems and are working on a fix, so it makes you worried if you should actually purchase.


Seeing all this will overwhelm the salesperson and get you a better price.

-Ash

 

The performance should be 0-80% better than a single 5870. A rule of thumb is games are 80% GPU and 20% CPU so yes it is critical you get crossfire if you want to play games at high settings. Any modern mainstream game should benefit from crossfire profile. If it doesn't that is the games fault.


Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 Crossfire

 

nice tip mate thx, problem is im not sure how much i should be paying for this machine, the customize price is $3167 aus, how much can one expect to get off?

 

Ah, you are an aussie too.

You wont get much off the price - dell here seems to think we dont deserve the same discounts as USA - dell are far greedier over here.

-Ash

 

Haggle as much as you can. I managed to get $NZ4473 down to $NZ4400, about a 1.6% saving. Not a lot, but it's better than nothing.

 

Would you be so kind as to link it on this page?

 

im up in the air now, as im currently in America until next week, i should have acted sooner and got the machine here...now i wont have the time......the fool i am...its actually cheaper buying it in Aussie my set-up will cost $3174.04 aus,(without discounts) and the same machine in America will cost $3272.00us (without discounts) the only difference is a 2 year warranty in Aussie verse a three year one in America (didn't have a two year option).

oh i just noticed nzgeek we have exactly the same built. great minds