M17x-R2 - out with HD5870

omg, i found a pic of an asus laptop with dual ati radeon 5870 on it !
Linkey !

 

The total weight of the x7200+PSU is under 6kg, slightly less than M17X+PSU

 

Acer: AMD's XGP External Technology No Good

Yeah Acer thinks the XGP "doesn't offer the best user experience". Acer the company that hasn't realized GDDR5 has been invented.

 

LOL awesome.

 

Miniature Hadron Collider.

 

Hahaha *sigh* Look what we've been reduced to. Dellienware needs to release these 5870x2s!!

 

The Canadian site has been pretty funny this last week, prices keep dropping and going back up. Right now, Base Price of the m17x dropped $100 and Advanced warranties are now substantially cheaper. Saves me about $170 on the config I may want.

 

no more comments about The picture i linked to,
it's an asus laptop with TWO Ati radeon 5870

 

I laughed.

 

They're almost as big as the laptop itself!

 

I never realized how massive those things are until just now

 

that is a 15" laptop so, yeah they are that big ! ._o

 

well I was basically going off the size of the 16X PCI-E connector less than the Laptop. The laptop was just icing on the cake.

 

i see, did not think of that :b

*edit*
i'we noticed that on the UK page and Norwegian page there is an message saying "Choosing this part will delay your order with 12 days. " under the single 5870

 

For those in this thread that were still curious, Dell has announced that there will be no official support for the 5870, even in a single configuration, on the R1.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/482224-ati-radeon-mobility-hd-5870-m15x-m17x.html

 

That sucks. Doesn't Alienware say these systems are upgradeable yet the R1 is already obsolete.

 

I think they want to put that disaster of a notebook behind them as quick as possible.

 

I agree, but I pressed the issue and that's the response I was given.

I've been a Dell customer with desktops since the 90's and owned every iteration of Dell laptop from the XPS Gen 1 through the M1730. Between a GPU failure on my M1710 and them having a replacement GPU indefinitely out of stock, a motherboard and GPU failure on my M1730 with another GPU indefinitely out of stock, and now the early obsolescence of the M17x R1 along with the DPC/stuttering/trackpad problems, I'm highly considering looking elsewhere for my next laptop. I really hate saying it because so many of my friends, family and co-workers badmouth Dell and I've always stuck up for them, but enough is enough with disappointment on my 3rd model in a row. I wouldn't be nearly as upset if the R2 wasn't getting it either, but that's just rubbing salt on the wound at this point.

I think you're right and they're trying to sweep both the R1 and the M1730 under the carpet, but they have to remember that many of us still have these systems.

 

Elkay, considering all the DPC latency difficulties Dell has had to deal with thanks to the shoddy nVidia chipset, can you blame them for not qualifying it for crossfire 5870m? It's not just a simple matter of programming in bios support for it, they have to put in place tech support, quality testing etc. which just diverts resources to a problematic notebook.

IMO, they shouldn't even be selling the R1 on their website and it should have been discontinued the moment R2 was released. Dell works in mysterious ways but I do recognize why they wouldn't support R1 any further. I also think any R1 user that has DPC problems should automatically be granted an upgrade to R2 (and some have been given that option).

 

It's basically the same thing thats happening with Clevo. The M980NU was and IS (the R1 of the X8100) being sweeped under the carpet and having its resources dedicated towards bios upgrades to the X8100 now.

IMO the real problem is the fatally ill Nvidia chipset on the R1 and M980NU as Joker mentioned above, perhaps the engineering teams on both companies are seeing things that cannot be fixed.

 

You bring up an interesting point that they're still selling the R1 as a new system as of today. That means anyone that buys it today will be warrantied at minimum through a year from now. That kinda sucks for Dell in that regard, but you're right. Maybe I'll hold out with this stuttering/downclocking problem I'm still facing due to the GPU clock fluctuation (locking max clocks is *not* a solution) until the 5870x2 is released and try to get a swap to an R2 at least, even if I have to bump up to the 5870x2 myself afterward (which is what I'd be doing now anyway).

That's pretty obvious at this point, unfortunately.

 

i think that ever since nvidia released the 8800 series, they've been using cheap quality resources and now that they need to produce something to compete with ATI's DX11 cards, it's going to be even cheaper in quality, but of course it's going to sell for hundreds more... only the fan boys are going to buy that stuff..

 

It seems nvidia cannot do anything right. I may be mistaken but every system you listed that failed ran on one type of nvidia device or another. I too have had nothing but issues at work with my workstations and my dell now is going through GPU failure. Personally I dont think you should give up on dell. I am hoping they have realized that nvidia has caused enough issues and stick with ATi.

They had issues with alot of the 7000 series going bad too, and not to mention I had a ton of workstation cards fail at work a few years ago. Was a domino effect.

 

I said this a year ago...nVidia should stick to making GPU's not chipsets. Stick with Intel chipsets please for now on...

 

I know I sound like a naysayer but it seems everything that nvidia puts their hands on fails these days. Ill agree they should stick to GPUs and go back to the basics since they have alot to fix.

 

That, I hope, is my plan.

 

This is not exactly a good sample size of the general populous.

 

I ordered a single GPU config and was assured it has a crossfire connector.... twice! Everybody can bet on it, that when it arrives this will be the first thing I will check! So if it's not on it. I might return it directly, because that's not the deal of me buying this...

Allthough I can't believe that they would make 2 versions of cards... Why would they? It would have only reased development costs!

 

i was thinking of doing what you did just buy the dam thing and see, only thing is when i had m17 the 4850 cards i had in cf were two different types the main connections were different master had bigger connection than the slave card.

 

good luck! as i told you via pm they never think if you are going to want CF 5870 when you buy single 5870. they dont care. even they will gain more money. thus almost all mobile 5870s (if not all) on the net dont have CF connector as i told you.

 

Indeed m8! They should start fixing things asap. Some brands can't even remember their name now Nvidea

 

Haha that's awesome.

 

Cheers man, I was kinda shocked myself. I haven't fallen off the chair, but gotta admit, I was surprised!

 

N who?!? loooool

 

Alienware have started "commercial'icing" th redefined m17x:

 

This is from another thread. The Dell tech said there will be 5870 cf for the R2.

 

well he confirmed that it is compatible so i guess the only reason why it aint out is cause of marketing/supply reasons??

 

Mandrake says it could also be because of the BIOS update that needs to come out to support the 5870's in CF.

 

joka!!! where r ya??!!!

 

maybe they are working hard-as-hell on a new bios ? *getting my hopes up*

 

Honestly the R1's main weakness was the Nvidia chipset. There are plenty of 280M's in the world on a wide variety of machines that function fine. Intel chipsets are the way to go and this has been the story for years. Until the recent driver program ATI was out of the question due to lack of driver support, so I wouldn't call ATI suddenly the savior of all gaming laptop users. Basically they are finally stepping into the game with good cards, good support and products worthy of spending $ on.

Back when the R1 came out, many, many folks said "watch out for that Nvidia chipset" and people said "it'll be fine". It's not fine. But the GPU's aren't the culprit.

As for going back in history, I've had TWO GPU's replaced in my M1710 the second one of which has lasted over a year now without issue. I don't know why you got the "out of stock" message, but both replacements for me happened inside of 48 hours from start of call to new card installed. Neither HP nor Clevo support their machines with this kind of precision. You'll almost never hear of someone with a 4 year old dead HP getting a "new" model as a replacement. So be careful not to give Dell too much grief. They aren't perfect, I know, but they do a lot of things right, and the M17X is a good machine (R2 I mean). Just remember Intel chipsets only. ATI or Nvidia is now your preference since we have drivers for both. I wouldn't bet on the 480M being faster by enough to notice than the 5870. Once both are SLI or Crossfired, I suspect it will be down to whichever vendor you happen to prefer. Both will perform admirably.

Lastly the reason to WAIT is being highlighted here and people are missing it. When upgrade paths are closed (and they are often closed after a year out from introduction) your choice of when to leap in and buy is what determines how long you are satisfied with your machine. This makes it good planning to wait and leap when the product is what you want and you can live with its features for a while to come.

These things needed to be pointed out

 

It still doesn't explain why other companies don't have the 5870's in CF in their laptops. Are they are on hold because of supply problems/tech problems?

 

Why would you think it is a bios issue if they are currently shipping systems with the single 5870s. The same biios would be used whether there are one or two cards.

 

I only said bios problem because Mandrake mentioned it in this http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/482224-ati-radeon-mobility-hd-5870-m15x-m17x.html thread. The Dell tech said they have the cards but aren't releasing them. It could also be supply problems. Joker said they are checking them for other problems like flickering and such.

So no one really knows but they are here...just not released.

 

Just to be clear I never said they are checking them for flickering or other technical issues. I said they should release them when they're ready because we do not want to encounter potential issues like the M17x-R2 flickering that we had to deal with when it was first released.

 

well im standing by a June release, post E3

 

Along with the new NVIDIA cards

 

That's what I meant to say.

I'm still hoping mid to late may. The sooner the better.

 

First batches will probably ship quickly. The ones after, it all depends on supply but I'd guess they'll take longer.

 

I told you guys its marketing BS, and they will be here before the first week of june..