M17x-R2 - out with HD5870

Yeah bro, I don't know how reliable either info is (no 5870's at all, or 5870's tomorrow). In any case, if you believe the guys that told you it is totally incompatible, then it would make no sense to get it with a 5870 instead of dual 4870's if the upgrade path to dual 5870's is not possible in the future.

 

If it's free, go for the $300 4870 upgrade. No reason not to.

 

it is remotely possible, but admittedly not likely, he could have told you that due to some hush order.

I only go by what I heard on the threads. For all I know, nothing is going to be announced on May 5 lol

 

even that is speculation however. The bottom line is we've created 120+ pages of guessing. Will it be sewper awesome if they become available within the next 2-3days? Yes. Will I be the least bit surprised if they don't? Nope. Its why although I have the option to change my order for the next 12 days or so, I still have my M17x in production


Moving past that however, I can't see many sales reps that get paid at least a little bit my commission to tell you to wait on placing your order and not say, buy right now!

 

I do think WaR is right, allthough I would prefer a strong single card over a lesser CF one. And with that said the HD5870 = DX11.

I am more or less in the Same boat like you are ARISTOTL. I have to choose between CF 4870 or single 5870, because of the cancellation of the 5870CF option.
Waiting till 6th of may to deside... tomorrow is a Dutch holiday (liberation from zeee Germans in WWII), guess they aren't working @ Dell NL.

 

That is a good point, ThaDutchy. Games that will take advantage of DX11 are probably around the corner.

I'll probably wait a while myself and see what is released...

 

YouTube - (1080P) HD5970 DX11 Tessellation Comparisons


I'm honestly considering dumping the 4870's for the 5870 if they don't come out in crossfire anyway.

 

Not yet.

A single 5870 is a mark improvement over a single 4870 plus it has DX11. Not everything supports crossfire properly plus the 5870 has a lower TDP. Even if 5870XF never shows up you will still have a more than capable card.

 

dont include desktop gpus in this story man. if it was for desktop i would go for the 5870 too.

as for the upgrade from single gpu, something we must also think is that the crossfire cable is not available from Dell to order (only with second gpu) its more than difficult to find as a part on the net. also there is no sign that a single 5870 will have crossfire input meaning that you have to change the first gpu too.

 

ok try more those 24 hours ;-) if you get it work i can simply buy one too.

did you have such an issue with any gpu before? did you try the official A02 bios?

thus 5870 is 1gb while 4870 CF is 2gb.. thus if those stuff here are true

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

single 5870 is at the 8th place while the 4870 CF is at the 4th place.

i am in huge dilemma!

 

yep, either option, you get a great machine. If nothing is announced, I'll probably go with the 5870 even w/o crossfire...

 

As far as desktop parts go, a single 5870 outperforms dual 4890s in crossfire. I can only imagine the mobile 5870 would also outperform the mobile 4870s in crossfire. They are both clocked lower than the desktop variants, but the rule should still apply.

 

No I haven't tried A02 yet. I'm waiting back for some calls to get the official word on which system bios supports the 5870.

Remember there is overhead involved with crossfire plus it is also another point of failure. If I didn't like to benchmark I know the 5870 would be more than enough.

 

ok if you finally make it please pm me. damn i dont want the second gpu to be empty. thus i will have to buy both 5870s plus the cable (if i find it) in case CF 5870 will be available if i order a single 5870 (no crossfire input).

i think i will go for CF 4870 and wait for your results. DX11 would be the only point for me as 4870 CF have been proved more than fast on the M17X R1. thus i will get an 920XM on the machine.

 

It's usually a whole kit you buy, crossfire cable/heatsink/GPU.

 

I don't believe everything http://www.notebookcheck.netl says. Allthough SLI/CF configs are probably a bit stronger... But then again they (SLI/CF) eat away at least 70 more Watt's then a Single HD5870.

 

exactly thus meaning you throwing the single 5870 away. lose of money.

one more thing i am thinking now is that if something goes wrong with the gpus and then there is no 4870 CF option i can get 5870s (CF configuration)

what i hope now is that you get your 5870 to work. this will solve my dilemma.

 

I don't know about that. I know in the M1730 days it was all or nothing but with the 4870s there were part numbers for kits and part numbers for single cards. Dell has part numbers for everything. I once got a part number for a single screw from them, lol.

No one else out there has the A04 bios?

 

yes but this may attribute to performance at least to crossfire enabled games. again CF 4870 is 2gb instead of 1gb of single 5870. what did you decide finally? single 5870 or CF 4870?

 

Waiting till May 6th...

 

not fifth ?

 

It doesn't scale to 2GB. It only uses 1GB in Crossfire mode. The second card has to have memory but it's not an aggregate of both.

 

he was talking about his deadline so as to decide for his replacement system. lool

he is in the same situation as me. in fact i can decide until Thursday morning too.

 

No, it's a Dutch holiday aswell just like in Mexico... So guess the 6th will be the first possibility to fix my order?

 

so you say that with a single 5870 someone is able to play all games at 1900x1200 and full settings and the performance will be like the CF 4870 even if they have good crossfire support?

whats interesting is that i saw someone who bought an 5870 (from babyhemi) for the M15X and it worked. the most strange bios to the most strange benchmarker. lool

 

I keep hearing the 6th too just had a chat with a dell rep..lets see hopefully it would be a good day for me

 

that's what I am waiting for lol

 

According to most M15x with 5870, they get about 45 - 55 FPS in BC2 at max setting whereas I get about 60-70 FPS. I hardly find them equal power.

 

You cannot compare on just one game.

 

Talking about a game that's pretty well optimized for SLI/CrossFire support to answer Aristotelhs2060's question.

 

Well. Thanks for the replys. Clevo may not be the only one. Falcon Northwest offers a FragBook DRX (also not so heavy and thick has the AW) with a customized option of a Core i7 Extreme 980X... I have heard from other gamers that this CPU is in the "next" list of Dell's AlienWare. Hope it's true. I need it for high quality graphic, video and sound editing.
Thanks anyway!

 

Clevo is the ONLY one. The rest are distributors and resellers.

 

The Fragbook DRX looks like yet another Clevo rebrand, just with a nicer paintjob.

 

Not at all, my friend: Falcon Northwest is a well known american manufactor of is own brand of computers and laptops. You can check it @: Falcon Northwest Configurator
or even @: Falcon Northwest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I don't hink that Dell-Alienware will give up in some near future to include the dual ATI 5870 in CF and the Core i7 980X... Dell cannot give up to its competitors. So, I will still wait (or finally choose another option).

 

The closer we get to the 5th the more people are questioning that release date. If the 5870 CF doesn't fit in the m17x then Alienware will probably make changes fairly quicky to the design or push out a new laptop by the end of the year.

 

Agree to your feelings Xhero regarding the fairly quicky changes. Regarding the second part, I'll doubt they will wait so much. The sales people need to compete right now. Is their war game...

 

@SOS4DELL

You do realize the 980x is a desktop processor, and as far as I know it is only featured on the clevo d900f, as well as its rebrands.

 

Yep, but also Falcon Northwest is manufacturing one with this CPU.

 

Falcon northwest rebrands clevos and adds a paint job to it. They do not design anything.

 

Just checked what what you're talking about, and it only confirmed what i already knew, that model is a clevo d900f that is rebranded by falcon.

 

Performance depends on the game but for the most part you should have no issue.

Edit: With that said there are cheaper lighter alternatives to single 5870 systems. You just will never have an option to get a crossfire config with them.

The Fragbook DRX is a Clevo D900F that has been painted. Clevo happens to be their ODM.

Edit: looks like I'm late to respond.

 

It would be foolish and useless to have this CPU in a laptop. First of all, I am sure you actually don't NEED that CPU especially for graphics... If you are talking about game, the AW is the fastest laptop out there with the dual graphic card option.

Second of all, if you are talking about sound editing and video editing, yes I am sure the 980X is great but just 6 months ago it was a Quad Core that was amazing and I am sure suited your needs... My point is that the 920XM is an amazing CPU and will do an AMAZING job for your video and sound editing and you will actually be able to play games with dual graphic card option.

Third, this debate is useless and has happened many times. AW and Dell will never put a desktop CPU into their laptops. It's not what their customers want. The AW is the most powerful graphic/games oriented PC out there and has the best cooling and best design of all laptops.

When looking at the price of the Falcon, I would say stay away... Not even mentioning smaller companies have horrible driver support when something goes wrong and their custom paint is so far from making their laptop even close to as good as the M17X.

I say Alienware all the way...

 

do you know if an MLK with one gpu has the second GPU fan too?

 

With regards to dual 4870 vs single 5870, there's no reason at all to pick the 5870. Even if you can find 1 or 2 cases where Crossfire doesn't work in a game, it's not much of a reason. Most if not all modern games have crossfire/sli support and the performance gain is fairly substantial over a single 5870 (min 30% in most cases).

I listed about 10+ modern games in a post I made before and every single one worked perfectly with crossfire.

 

Yeah even older games like WOW have dual GPU enabled options.

 

Well, thanks for your opinions joebarchuck. I'm learning as much as I can from everybody in this forum. I'm not pressed. I can afford to wait and continue learning until I decide. So far, yes, Dell it's my best option (BTW: I use Dells computers since Michael D. start selling them over the internet). Maybe I'm teasing a little bit to get opinions and learn. The Dell's AW I'm looking/configuring is a little more than 6000 so, I must be careful.
g.

 

I can certainly wait. My system is great, however, I am always on the lookout to get something better.

 

If you are willing to spend that much money, do not hesitate with an AW. The M17X has had some issues but is by far the best laptop out there. In terms of build quality, it's just unsurpassed and I've never seen a better laptop.

In terms of price, I am not sure why you come close to 6,000.00.

Here is what you need for the best performance, should be closer to 5,000.00:

M17X
920XM
Crossfire 5870 (Available Shortly or most likely)
Hyper X Ram (Order from Newegg)
Vertex 2 SSD (Order from Newegg)
LED Screen

That's it and you have the best system and it will last a long time.

Add in a 3 years warranty and complete care and you are set.

 

Thanks for this. i was thinking the same. many people talking about crossfire support and the absence of it (if any) on some games seems to be the only way 5870 can outperform 4870 CF.

in my opinion 4870 CF has the following advantages towards single 5870:

1) better handling of games with dual gpu processors
2) maybe hotter than 5870 single but there is also one extra fan
3) power consumption is not of concern for most of us as we alwas play games with AC adapter
4) its easier to buy a 5870 from a reseller than the whole package of two 4870s and the crossfire cable
5) if CF 5870 becomes available you will have to buy two gpu (as the single 5870 has not crossfire cable) and the crossfire cable itself. same for the second gpu fan
6) on the other side if you have CF 4870 you can buy two 5870 CF (if ever available as configuration) and thats all. you will have the crossfire cable and the second gpu fan too.
7) if something happens to your gpus you wont be able to demand two gpus if you have a single one. to take this further if there will be 5870 CF option and not 4870 CF then they will give you the 5870 CF.

Advantages of 5870
1) dx11
2) less power consumption

 

The 5870s will probably be out before you have to decide making the whole decision process pointless.