M17x-R2 - out with HD5870

2x 5870m cards in crossfire does not equal a desktop 5870 because they still have half the memory bandwidth

 

my laptops and i are outside today :b

 

So what will the Dual 3870s cards be equivalent to Dual 5870s?
like 10%, 20%, 30% or ..... more
is it worth getting or wait for the next cards in 2011
Thanks

 

i think that might be a noticeable improvement.
new flagship cards always coming yearly (ok, at least from red), therefore all depend on u

 

what will be the new card in 2011 'cause the gt480 come in july and 6870 will arrive....later.

 

You always can wait to a new card in 2011... then you can start waiting for the next card in 2012... and so on perpetually...

 

Exaclty. Once the throttling issue is fixed, thanks to joker , and updated drivers come out, crossfire 5870's will last a good long time.

 

It's what i was saying i answered to that :

 

For those of you with single 5870s and want to upgrade to crossfire, I just placed an order for the secondary 5870 with crossfire cables. Part # was indeed RV546. Price is the best part, $334.99. I was pleasantly surprised, can't wait.

 

Where did you order the 5870?

 

Called alienware tech support

 

currently out of stock

 

did you ordered the blower for the 5870?

 

I was told it was included, but well see when I get it, EDD is 6/7

 

So ive been reading these forums for the m17x, im planning on ordering mine soon, just got a question for desertfox9, you bought a second 5870, does that card come with a second gig of ram so then you have to 5870s with 2gb in xfire, because if thats the case id def be up for that rather then 1gb for 2 5870s in xfire. Second question, is it tough to install a second one in a laptop?and what kinda of draw would it have on the reg psu in the 1 card unit??? More info please about the second card installation.

 

It is two seperate gigs but you will only really use one gig when gaming

If your ground yourself and go slowly and carefully, no.

The normal wattage is 54 watts I think

 

Okie dokey , im pretty tech savvy and can do reg desktop installations and so fourth but laptops a new frontier, trying to get the best of both worlds from this laptop, going to use it for university aswell as gaming, another question i know theres a benchmark thread but I cant find much for benchmarks on games. Ill be hooking the laptop up to my 52 inch sharp lcd through hdmi and its 1080p. So in general the I7 with 6 gb ramm 1333 with 5870 xfire should run stuff like oblivion and fall out 3 at full, but what about BFBC2, STALKER, so on and so fourth? Are we talking max settings at 1920X1080 or like mid settings.

And so to follow up on my last question, is it worth it to buy a second card and installing it or just buy the pre built xfire 5870? Would there be much difference if any ?

 

you should be able to run bfbc2 maxed out. Don't know about stalker though

 

Ordered mine today.
Delivery is june 10. I ordered the C8245 and the RV546.
I'll be selling my single 4870 and 920xm.

Installing the video cards is easy.
Replacing the CPU is an adventure.

 

Yes the additional 5870 card will give u an additional gig of ram, but xfire will only utilize 1 gig out of the 2 gigs available.

I took a look at the guides, and it doesn't seem too bad I guess I will find out when I get my second card. I've replaced graphics cards in my previous laptops before. I believe the second card will draw a total of around 75 watts believe? You will definitely need a 240 watt power supply

As for buying it with xfire or upgrading later, it's completely up to you. The cost is more or less the same, so its probably best for you to buy it pre-configured if your not comfortable upgrading it yourself. Unless you buy it with a single 5870 and decide you don't need another one. Trust me a single 5870 is definitely capable enough.

 

when are they going to fix the flicker in some games, its just like the dpc latency for r1 but anoys ur eyes not gameplay=/

 

It's new tech, unfortunately there are always a couple of bugs but hopefully these will be ironed out in short order. Didn't you already make a separate thread about this issue?

 

When you say one 5870 is capable, what settings are we talking about? mid or max? My screen ill be doing the bulk of my gaming on is a 52 inch lcd 1080p, and as of right now im playing a slowly breaking ps3 (polygon artifacts).

EDIT: Ive already revived it twice from Red LIght of Death and believe its a burnt out GPU giving me the artifacts, although ive also switched to a new hard drive and its crossed my mind too that maybe it could be causing the issue, im more then positive its the processor though.

Ive had it since 2006 when it was released day one and im used to those graphics how would 1 5870 compare to the RSX(7800gt comparitively) or even 1 5870 to 2 in xfire? There arent alot of benches to really get a good idea what the difference between the 3 GPUs would be.

I understand the ps3s chip is radically dated and because its on deaths door step im moving to pc gaming for simplicity so i dont go blow a bunch of money on both a seperate laptop and another ps3. Rather get one unified system that will handle games for atleast another 3-4 years.

PS: sorry about the life story ha

 

The reason that you cannot compare consoles and PC's is because console games are made PERFECTLY optimized to that hardware, so it always runs smoothly. With pc games you are given scalability so that if you have better hardware, you can adjust the program to utilize this

 

I can run most games at 1920x1200 at high or maxed settings with a single 5870. It's when you crank it to directx 11 when there are problems

 

anyone has the alienware Breed theme of alienguise? i cant find it nowhere. is it included now in alienguise on their website or only invader etc?

 

so if the second gig of ram isn't being used in xfire is it possible to make use of it with through driver updates?

 

I ordered mine with the breed theme. Once I installed win7 from scratch on to my new Intel ssd, I realized it was not on the resource dvd or on the website. Pretty lame.

 

In theory the ram could be better optimized to be utilized by crossfire but that would be a coding nightmare which is most likely why it is not the case

The ram is used, there is the exact same data in the ram on each card is all, so it is not used optimally

 

I completely realize this, but just to give some ability to compare what would PS3 graphics be sitting compared to xfire 5870s? Just to have something have reference to.

 

Consoles usually run with almost all of the graphic bling turned down/off compared to a highend pc

Games always look alot better on the computer (although possibly lower frame rates if the hardware is weak)

 

They have such small resolutions to run the game at with TV's, that the games run at fluent framerates.

 

all modern consoles but the Wii play at 1080p....how is that a low resolution? (1080p=1920x1200 @ 60Hz)

 

not native rez of the game though scook. Usually all console games are upscaled from 720p.

 

I see...

Good thing I stick with computers....lol

 

Actually a surprising number are even lower [than 720p], they're then just scaled to the res the machine/tv is set to. Its another reason why some games look decidely ropey!

 

It would be nice is we could hookup & play PS3
on the AWm17x screen
can it be done ?

 

Not unless you find a video input. So far I havn't seen one on the system. But games look better on computer than they do on the PS3. You can custom adjust the sttings, and it is a gaming laptop. Easier to just game on the laptop and hook up a controller than hooking up a PS3. Although I suppose the RGB would be nice for the games that are only on the PS3.

 

Aye, you'd have to find something like a high def firewire input box, with low input lag.
Reminds me I really ought to test the HDMI input on the X8100 one day and see how good it is.

 

The HDMI input on the x8100 is a pretty cool feature in my opinion

you would need to use a tv tuner/capture device with the M17x

 

Hi, barging in for a quick question since this thread is very very long, a question you might have run across before and that I saw mentioned around page 160, if I order an M17X equipped with a single 5870 and I already hold another 5870, are the CF cable and heatsink supplied with the rig or not?
Cheers.

 

No, you have to add the cf cable and heatsink as well as the 2nd card. When you get the 2nd card from Dell it already has both of those installed and ready to go

 

Thanks for the info