M17xR3 First Impression

Flash the Mob. HD5870 with an HD6870M VBIOS and try again.

'course then you'd be really SOL if the M15x stopped recognizing the card too.

 

I was going to suggest this as well. Hopefully doing so won't brick the card.

 

Have you guys played the Steam version of Star Wars Force Unleashed 2?

 

Optimus is supposed to work on the non-3d version.

Is that vid on the 460M or the 5870? That's similar freezing/lag when I'm using my crappy old radeon 9600pro with a newer game. happened a few times when I first installed sc2 on my dinodesktop.

 

The vid is with the 460M but this also happened with the 5870 in the M15x. This is also the only game I have this issue with.

 

Never played the game myself. I'm sure this has been asked or you've already tried but have you tried changing the audio settings both in the game and within Windows itself? Also does the game require any additional crap audio programs like the one used with Dirt 2? I've also had conflict/audio issues with those too.

 

googled it and it seems to be a common problem for both steam and non steam versions try

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 PC Fix and Fixes for Crashes, Errors, Black Screen Issues, Freezes, Graphics Glitch, Level Bug, Controls not Responding, No Sound, Low Performance, Choppy and Stuttering Framerate, V-Sync Error, Loading Problems | Gam
or

Choppy Cutscenes with Vsync fix Found!! (tested on non steam version) [Archive] - Steam Users' Forums

 

Nope but it looks cool. If it comes on sale I'll grab it.

Edit: Ouch the reviews are harsh: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-ii/user-reviews

 

mandrake, have you tried OCing yet?

i just OC 6870 to 750/1075 and ran furmark for like 10 mins and temps refuse to budge pass 64.

any "safe" amount of Mhz that i can OC the gpu by? i jsut OC it by 75/75. can i go more then that?

 

It barely plays on low settings. I'm wondering how it'd do on the R3.

 

little off topic but with this turbo boost 2.0 it basically boosts more speed as long as the temp isnt exceeded. so if you have a laptop cooler that gives u more thermal headroom does that mean it will turbo boost longer?

 

Mandrake. How is the build quality compared to the g73?

 

i played it fine on my g73 through steam..
it wasnt that great of a game som i am not in a big hurry to play in again, but if i do, i will let you know if is see the issue

 

I haven't played with audio settings. It doesn't require any special audio apps.

I saw the first link before. I'll go through the second one, thanks.

If you're a fan of Star Wars then I would say get it. The first one had bad reviews but I loved that game.

Not yet. Honestly I'm more fond of CPU/memory OC'ing than GPU. I will be playing with that first when I get the time.

I maxed out the settings on both my systems when I tried it. When I was troubleshooting on the M15x I started scaling down everything but it had not affect. I assumed the issue is not related to in game settings.

Would need to be tested but the theory sounds solid.

The G73 is one of the worst built systems I ever played with. I've never played with ANY AW that was as bad as that. Hopefully there is an improvement in their second gen systems.

It was so bad that the first one I owned (that eventually died) didn't sit flush on my desk.

Do you game with a keyboard or controller?

Edit: I just tried keyboard and mouse only and it didn't help.

 

Mandrake, since you've had your system, how would you describe the CPU's capabilities for everyday stuff? Like this kinda stuff: internet browsing, youtube videos, watching movies, startup/shutdown time, installation of progs/games, etc etc.?

 

It may be worth a shot to mess with audio settings as what I was able to see was similar to some issues I had in COD:BO with audio settings both in windows and the .cfg file for the game itself.

 

a little OT but can you recomend a good controller reviews are soooo confusing

 

XBOX 360 controller

 

PS3 controller via USB or BT. Look up Motionjoy to use with it. You can also use motionjoy with 360 controller I think.

Also, can everyone use the owner's thread or another thread for non-OP-related stuff, so that we don't hijack [insert user's name here]'s review thread(s). Let's be respectful to the OP(s).

 

if having a laptop cooler will enable the turbo boost 2.0 to overclock higher for longer then I think having a cooler will actually be worth it now. Up until now it's really not been worth it to have one but with this turbo boost 2.0 as long as you have the thermal headroom it keeps going and going

 

turbo boost has a set time limit, seems to be 56 seconds or so. no one knows if this can be adjusted in the R3 yet. Maybe Mandrake will shed some light on this soon.


EDIT: im talking about the max turbo by the way. from reviews it seems the 2820 is happy to hover around the 2.6ghz mark for long periods of time. thats a gentle 10% overclock most of the time. not as impressive as the initial turbo which is 3.1ghz on all four cores. but still.

 

So what are we going to expect from the 2720, which says turbo 3.3ghz ? Does "max turbo frequency" refer to 3.3 on quad-core mode or single core mode?

 

hmmm Do you think there will be substantial gains from a 6970 r3 compared to a 5870 m15x ?

 

3.0 on quadcore and 3.3 on single. but the max turbo only lasts for 56 seconds or something like that. then it hovers around 2.5 2.6. Im assuming if the thermals are really crap then it might go down to the base clock which is 2.2. but im hoping the R3 can prolong the max turbo through bios TDP and turbo duration tweaking. i woudl be plenty happy with a laptop running 8 threads at 3.0 ghz.

 

more than 50-65% better according to benchmarks

 

yikes ill fitting plastic galore. I was hoping it at least would not stoop below the R2's already questionable levels.

 

Wondering the battery life for this new m17x-R3(9cell)

 

Are those scratches on the front of the notebook?

 

Thanks for clearing things up! I think I'm gonna wait for 6970m and the moment it is available here in SG!! Can't wait anymore

 

When do you think we will see and official review?

I see alot of people using hyerX RAM is there anything better? and why hyperx

 

Prolly cuz it's one of the few laptop rams to have a heatsink. G.Skill is good, but no heatsink for laptop memory

 

and hyperx supports XMP profiles with low CAS latency's and are known to be top quality and extremely reliable

 

What's XMP? Is that a program?

 

Just a reminder folks, please try not to sidetrack this thread with discussion unrelated to Mandrake's observations. If you want to discuss XMP Memory or need additional info, try the search function first. I'm sure we have multiple threads where quite a few of these 'side' posts can be placed.

Thanks everyone...

 

For eveyday stuff I can't tell the difference between this and my 920XM in the M15x.

I will look around to see what others are doing. Most of the issues I see posted aren't the exact same as this. I also find it weird that both my systems do it so I thought it would be more common.

Since it's natively compatible, highly recommended. Once in a while you need to do some tweaks but for the most part games that are compatible with it work really well.

Only in benchmarking.

I hope not.

I'm not sure what your are looking at. If you pulled up the original size of the pic you'll see lots of dust and finger smudges.

XMP = Xtreme Memory Profile. Since the M17xR3 is the only system I know that supports it make it's advantages limited to this system. Before this I was buying non-XMP versions.

Here is the post showing the ability to change your memory settings. This is because of XMP.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/550559-m17xr3-first-impression-29.html#post7101959

Thanks!

 

Yea, it's a buggy game but I was still getting consistently single digit frames on my work laptop unless I set it to the very lowest of settings. I'm not going to download the future DLC content or re-install the 1st game in the series until my next gaming laptop, hopefully an R3, though some improvement is necessary (better Optimus, GPu, screen).

How are the boot times for windows and load times for FUII?

 

I haven't timed anything yet but seems about the same as what my M15x was.

On a side note I like how the language filtered out the Star Wars abbreviation and actually made it worse. "F.U.2" :laugh:

 

Bummer about the 5870. I personally and am extremely disappointed with how the MXM standard has been butchered by the exclusion of all cards but the short list that the manufacturer offers. Defeats the purpose of the STANDARD. They should just make it wide open like in desktops

Tried pulling the cmos and then starting the laptop? Also it may do better with AC power

 

Hey Mandrake you may want to go check this out:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...nds-design-flaw-new-sandy-bridge-chipset.html
My explain some of the issues you were having with the harddrive as the Cougar Point chipset has some sort of SATA controller problem.

 

Well they are talking about issues over time. I would certainly hope the time frame is more than a few days...

 

I would imagine so but a small glitch with it BSODing with a SATA drive could be early indications. Probably not but possible.

 

Depends on usage. Him actually removing the GPU could have accelerated the process

 

Let's not be silly. That is not at all in line with the content of the press release.

 

not too sure about after some time. but i have been having hangs and crashes after running op flashpoint. the game hangs, then displays a checked black and white image over the screen. then BSOD and restarts.

also, upon hibernation, after screen shuts down, alienFX still remains on for around 3 mins, then shuts down. when i power up again. its a brand new boot up of windows, not what i hibernated earlier...

just tried putting it to sleep, and while screen has shut off, alienFX is still on, has been for the past 6 mins now...

anyone can explain is going on?

 

Interesting. My issue went away after upgrading the firmware but I guess that doesn't mean new aren't issues coming.

No I didn't do any extra steps but I should have. At the very least a power drain.

The answer is really crappy video drivers. I can't even put the video drivers on without BSOD. I used the modded drivers from laptopvideo2go which should help with the BSOD issue but not the hibernation issue. Maybe Batboy can chime in on this one. I think he's more of an expert in that area.

 

does the crappy video driver affects the 6870 as well?

 

Oops, I missed that. It might. Definitely for the 460M.

 

Guys, take the chipset bug talk to that thread and stop cluttering this one. If I keep seeing these arguing back and forth posts I will report them, already reading all this in 2 other threads. Let's leave this one to M17x R3 discussion

 

report them scook as you see it. thanks.

 

Mandrake, it's been about a week since you've had your PC. I was wondering if you could do a quick "first week's" review.

1. What are you happy about?
2. What are you not happy about?
3. Any issues with drivers that will need updates?
4. Anything you want to add that people should know about the R3.


Thanks that would help people currently researching the R3 and whether or not they should purchase it.