*NEW* M17xR3 Available for order... details and discussion here

The unit at CES (at least the one that had some pictures taken of it) had a GTX 460m as shown in the device manager in the picture

 

Anyone know how much extra for the 120hz 3D option?

~I wonder how much longer they're going to take to add this option.

@Dane Do you know the average time frame for something like the 6970 to be an option?

 

on US website
17.3-inch WideFHD1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED [Add $150.00 or $5.00/month1]
but as of 3d screen i dont think it'll be available sooner than 2gb ATI gpu, dunno, just feeling

So can any1 tell me how much does R2 last without charging?

 

I can tell you that mine in my sig that I had lasted about 55 minutes from full. That was gaming for 10 minutes the rest just on the web.

 

Any laptops charge depends on how you use it(word processing,internet browsing etc)

 

I was just on the configuring site for Alienware and they had the 1gig ATI 6870m and the 1.5 gig Nvidia 460m.

 

On the AU web site:

17.3" Truelife Full HD (1920x1080) 3D LCD Panel with 3D Glasses [add $430.10 or $4/week-1]

 

The US site shows

17.3-inch WideHD+ 1600 x 900 60Hz WLED [Included in Price]
17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED [Add $150.00 or $5.00/month1

and AU haves

17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) WLED LCD Panel [Included in Price]
17.3" Truelife Full HD (1920x1080) 3D LCD Panel with 3D Glasses [add $430.10 or $5/week-1]

1600x900 is including in price for the us. So, does that mean the US will have 3 options to choose from?

5 hours ago the support chat told me the error for the 3D option will be fix around this time but its still not there.

 

TBH, I am seriousely thinking goin the R3, selling one of my R2's. I found I dont game near enough to justify 2 vid cards, BUT that 16G ram would make my life easier with the ammount of VM's I run, and the CPU...just yummy

And I could come close to breaking even with selling one my R2's for a new R3

 

They need Beta (or should I say User Acceptance) testers for the R3. LoL

Someone needs to identify and help rectify any issues before we jump in.

 

Maby....like I said, 2 vid cards I have is nice, but I dont use the power, and I have seriousely found myself wanting more RAM, multiple VM's and all.

Depends what I think I can get for one of my R2's......

Probably will wait to see a review or two before I jumop....but its a serious consideration.

 

LoL. I got my R2 with 8GB for the same reason.

Might look at an R3 later in the year. Once the 6970 Xfire or a new model such as an m18x is available .

 

This is exactly how I saw it. It's not meant to be their flagship. It's aimed at the same sort of user as the M15x IMO; people who want something that's powerful, but lighter, thinner, and cheaper, and don't mind compromising SOME power for it.

And that's what appeals to me. I was considering getting the future inevitable Sandy Bridge M15x refresh before this was released; now this appeals more to me with a bigger screen size, 2 HDD slots, 4 RAM slots and (hopefully) a future 6970M option.

They advertise 6 hours battery. Unless some major advancements have been made, there's no way you'd get that on a 460M, 12 cell battery or not. I'd say it definitely supports the IGP.

There were two systems I believe. One with a 460M, one with a 6970M.


IMO; they're probably holding off on the 6970M for two possible reasons: One, lack of availability at this time, and two, they need to wait for ATi's 3D technology before they can advertise the 6970M for 3D purposes.

 

This is kinda how I view this one....I would be sacraficing graphics power (but TBH I dont use it all anyway...so I wouldent loose much anyway), but I would be getting a better CPU and more mem capacity (those 2 are a big win for me).

 

Wouldnt you have thought though, givent the above statement, that Dell would want to reassure their "enthusiast market" that there IS a new replacement "flagship" model in development.

This would do two things:

1. It would avoid all this hassle - those enthusiast who are disappointed with R3 would KNOW that its not gonna be forever.....

2. It would allow, for those people who ARENT going to buy an R3 because of its "lower non-powerhouse type" specification, the room to hold off on a purchase of maybe, a NON-DELL system and wait patiently for the "M18x"...hypothetically....

It would have been great news all around if at CES, Dell had said that the new R3 was an addition to the line-up but with xxx months, they would be releasing a new "flagship"

If they HAD have done that, everyone would be happy instead of this "backlash" against the R3.....I really dont think Dell as Alienware, know how passionate its enthusiasts are about owning the very best. One thing is for sure, if Dell dont provide a solution in form of a system that superceeds the R3, they WILL lose custom to the likes of Clevo and Sager etc....

It may be savvy marketing by Dell in terms of targeting the Asus market with the R3, but in the same breath, they have...and excuse the pun..."alienated" their very high end customers....

 

Hey, if I was the marketing manager for Dellienware, I certainly would release information on future systems.

Sadly, I'm not. (If I was marketing manager, I'd also push the financial managers to stop charging extortionate rates in other countries, but I can't do that either)

What I'd like more than anything though is information regarding the 6970M that they showed off. And whether it will actually be compatible with the 3D screen (i.e. able to display in 3D).

The system still appeals to me either way. The 460M is good enough for me. But I'd be really annoyed if the 6970M was released after I bought an M17x, particularly if it works in 3D, if there was no information released regarding its release.

 

i guess its kind of normal that these things get released and the info provided is lacklustre to say the least....

The only thing that announcing an M18x would have done is to re-assure people and , it WOULD have stopped people jumping ship if they WERE looking to buy an R3, given its released specs.

 

Given the issues we've seen with previous revisions perhaps Dell are cutting their loses and dropping support for the high-end 'enthusiast' market. Perhaps there is just too much risk and too little return for the company to continue supporting this, dare I say, shrinking market (due to the rise and rise of console gaming)?

After all, a lack of support in this market is the reason we saw company's such as Alienware, Clevo and Origin begin to build machines to cater to gamers.

Is this the beginning of the ‘dumming’ down of the Alienware brand? Guess time will tell.

 

A lack of information avoids putting off a casual buyer with information overload or telling them something they don't want to know.

And this system is definitely aimed at the more casual buyer. Well, definitely those more casual than the 'hardcore' crowd who'd get a fully loaded R2 in any case.

 

I would not call it a "lower non-powerhouse type" of system, its different is all...it has more power in different set up. One that for me is a better setup..I dont need the power of 2 vid cards, I DO need the power of more memory and a more powerfull CPU.

Just because YOU dont consider it a powerhouse, does not mean it isnt.

 

Even so, and i do agree that it does sound like the beginning of the end in terms of very high spec enthusiast Alienware systems, it would pay Dell to announce things so its consumers can make an "informed" decision rather than leave them "hanging"

Reagrding R3, ive also read that Dell have also released a 3d XPS 17 too Dell XPS 17 and Alienware M17x Get 3D Glasses, Intel Next-Gen CPUs | News & Opinion | PCMag.com which , to me, doesnt make a whole load of sense. The two systems are closely spec'd with some differences in the gpu dept.....why have two such 17" 3d capable laptops??? - surely, it would have made more sense to target Asus' 3d market with the XPS and leave Alienware to do its "Enthusiast" thing....

Afterall, I thought thats why Dell accquired AW in the first place, to corner a niche in the market that they , at the time, did not cater for.

Doesnt make sense to me....both priced the same, both 3d capable, both SB cpu....both 17" screen....(according to the linked atricle)

 

I didnt mean it quite like that....its a good system, it just doesnt seem to offer what people were expecting of it in terms of a dual card solution and the abscence of rgbled and a few other things....sure, it WILL sell and it will be a great system as it has a SB cpu/chipset....a "class 1" gpu even tho its not in the upper echelons of single gpu's at the moment based on 460m with no apparent AMD option yet on the UK website.... (im sure it will come tho).....I just dont think its the AW that alot of people were hoping for....

 

Okay, that's true, you don't really need 2 3D capable devices. Aimed at different markets perhaps?

However, there's still one possible ace up Dellienware's sleeves; the 6970M. We've no idea how powerful it'll be at this point. Didn't someone say that the board looked twice as long as a standard MXM 3.0 card? That certainly indicates to me that the 6970M could be a monster of a mobile GPU, possibly even a dual GPU card (although I do doubt that...but it's still a possibility). It could well match the 5870 XFire in the R2 for all we know.

 

The "review" of the 6970 single is here AMD Radeon HD 6970M - Notebookcheck.net Tech and the benchies shown include figures from the pre-sample AW R3 with SB cpu and a 3dmark06 of 20k+

It also says that it will likely be a 100w card, like the gtx480m so im wondering if the R3 will power it sufficiently or if it will have been "dummed down" to fit (im no expert on these things but i believe something similar was done to the 5870's we have - that they were "castrated" a bit to get 'em in) and yup, Ashtefere said it was a monster in size too!

Ive also seen reports (probably we all have by now) that the R3 that was tested with the 6970m throttled and couldnt handle Crysis 2.....so, i read.

But who knows until it at least shows as an option and more importantly, until its been properly benched eh?

 

especially if the 6970 is comprised of two 6870s which are slightly underclocked 5870s from what I read. That is usually what happens with desktop GPU's. the 5970 was basically two slightly underclocked 5870's if I remember correctly. However, I have a feeling it is just a legit successor to the 5870. I would rather have that anyway. I like single card solutions. Less heat, less scaling issues, and guaranteed compatibility.

 

If the synthetics are anything to go on, the 6970M (in Vantage) comes up just short of 5870 XFire, and significantly ahead of the 460M. Still, can't say until we get game benchmarks. The lower resolution of 1280x1024 might also have not been getting the best scaling rate on the XFire; multicard solutions (particularly crossfire) are known to scale much better at higher resolutions.

What IS certain is that the 6970M appears to be a damn sight better than the 460M.

I just hope they release it before I get an R3 (if I get one). And that it's compatible with 3D.

 

there isnt anymore surprises to be honest. amd has released the full specs of 6900m series. in case anyone missed it, here they are.

AMD Radeon™ HD 6900M Series Graphics
■TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
◦960 Stream Processing Units
◦48 Texture Units
◦128 Z/Stencil ROP Units
◦32 Color ROP Units

Performance Specifications
■Engine clock speed: 580-680 MHz
■Processing power (single precision): 1.1-1.3 TeraFLOPS
■Polygon throughput: 580-680M polygons/sec
■Data fetch rate (32-bit): 111-130 billion fetches/sec
■Texel fill rate (bilinear filtered): 27.84-32.64 Gigatexels/sec
■Pixel fill rate: 18.56-21.76 Gigapixels/sec
■Anti-aliased pixel fill rate: 74.24-87.04 Gigasamples/sec
■Memory clock speed: 900 MHz
■Memory data rate: 3.6 Gbps
■Memory bandwidth: 115.2 GB/sec


AMD Radeon™ HD 6800M Series Graphics
■TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
◦800 Stream Processing Units
◦40 Texture Units
◦64 Z/Stencil ROP Units
◦16 Color ROP Units

Performance Specifications
■Engine clock speed: 575-675 MHz
■Processing power (single precision): 920-1080 GigaFLOPS
■Polygon throughput: 575-675M polygons/sec
■Data fetch rate (32-bit): 92-108 billion fetches/sec
■Texel fill rate (bilinear filtered): 23-27 Gigatexels/sec
■Pixel fill rate: 9.2-10.8 Gigapixels/sec
■Anti-aliased pixel fill rate: 36.8-43.2 Gigasamples/sec
■Memory clock speed: 900-1000 MHz
■Memory data rate: 3.6-4.0 Gbps
■Memory bandwidth: 57.6-64 GB/sec


Compare 6800m series with "older" 5870m,
■1.04 billion 40nm transistors
■TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
◦800 Stream Processing Units
◦40 Texture Units
◦64 Z/Stencil ROP Units
◦16 Color ROP Units

Speeds & Feeds
■Engine clock speed: 700 MHz
■Processing power (single precision): 1.12 TeraFLOPS
■Polygon throughput: 700M polygons/sec
■Data fetch rate (32-bit): 112 billion fetches/sec
■Texel fill rate (bilinear filtered): 28 Gigatexels/sec
■Pixel fill rate: 11.2 Gigapixels/sec
■Anti-aliased pixel fill rate: 44.8 Gigasamples/sec
■Memory clock speed: 1.0 GHz
■Memory data rate: 4.0 Gbps
■Memory bandwidth: 64 GB/sec

we can clearly see 6800m, even the highest 6870m, will not be taking over 5870m anytime soon. the raw power just doesnt match 5870m.

as for 6900 series, the performance will be very close to its desktop variant, and we all know how Barts perform. it's a scaled/clocked down desktop 6850 in short. 5870m CF is actually performing in between desktop 5850 and 5870, and for people who overclock their 5870m cf, it can be as fast or even faster than desktop 5870 factory clocked. that said, dont expect single 6970m to be faster than 5870m cf anytime soon. only 6970m CF is the proper upgrade for those who want CF.

 

Looks like the same deal as the desktop cards. 68xxM series is designed for the more mainstream market whereas the 69xxM series is designed as the replacement to the 58xxM series in the enthusiast market.

 

Wont the 6970M be very thick or very long? I mean my 4870X2 which still is a decent card occupies two slots but stuffing that into a laptop seems incomprehensible. Stuffing it into a thin laptop like the R3 seems even more unlikely.

 

I suppose, technically there "should" be room for one BIG gpu given the size of the R3....if they are THAT big tho, i reckon it would be impossible to shove a xfire 6970 in ....the only system that "could" take that would be the mythical beast that "may be" the M18x....

Oh, and knew i had seen the pics somewhere of the 6970 benches with the pre sample R3 http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r3-sandybridge-benchmark-you-may-wanna-c.html those figures correspond to those on notebookcheck too.....

Note that the setup with 460m and SB 2820 scores suprisingly low (16957)....obviously '06 is very cpu dependant, which must mean the gpu score is what is stopping the score being alot higher....heck, my set up gets 16.5k with my "old hat" 840qm so my 5870's must perform way better than one 460m huh? - given that the Sandy will trounce my cpu and give a good score on '06

I would love to see how a single 460m performs with a non SB cpu......

 

I never really understood what the RGB LED was supposed to do? Look better?

 

The 120hz display is now available to order on the US site: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Yeah but that's an understatement. RGB LED's biggest advantages are it's >100% color gamut and it being an 8 bit panel. It's also very bright (~315-320 nits) and has a fairly good response time. RGB LED > WLED always.

 

Dya reckon that $350 would be better spent on a larger 3d capable external monitor? - if you were not wanting portability?

 

Of course, you don't even need to ask. I would never bother spending $350 just to get a 120 hz display on a notebook. Some may feel it's worth it because they like the inherent smoothness of a 120hz panel but for me its not a big deal. It just depends on what you like.

 

It just says 6900M series in the benchies. Is there any other 69XXM card besides the 6970M?

 

I like the front grill of the R3, wonder if it would be possible to switch out front grills?

 

Not that are intended for R3 afaik...notebookcheck has a 6950 listed tho..... they state its a mobile gpu (otherwise known as 6950m but not much info on it)...have a look at this as it has some info on the proposed 6970 gpu http://blogs.amd.com/press/2010/12/...gpu-ever-amd-radeon™-hd-6900-series-graphics/ and it also states that they are 3D gpu's - for those that are wondering if the AMD 6970 gpu is 3D compatable.

Quoted from the above article:

With flexible and cost-effective AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology and AMD HD3D technology for 3D entertainment, the new AMD Radeon™ HD 6970 and AMD Radeon™ HD 6950 graphics cards offer The Ultimate Visual Experience™.

I doubt it as the laptop itself is slimmer.....might be worth someone "hacking" an R3 to bits tho to find out

 

Will the 120hz be of any benefit without 3D?

 

I generally agree, just on the NEXT go round (ie full revision) I hope we don't see a multimedia machine with pretty lights and logos but no real power beyond what the XPS offers. That is my only fear. Mass public goes for barely good enough today, forget tomorrow... as a power gamer my philosophy was that I cut down the number of purchase cycles and extend the real lifetime of what I get (unless I make a poor purchase). Most laptop buyers don't think this way.

When your status-symbol minded friend buys one and can't even figure out how to overclock it I think we are in dangerous territory for h/c gaming. Alienware is a niche product... I don't mind a more mainstream product IF we have a reasonably priced option in the line up. The R2 value-power is a temporary option that will go away with the final R2 sales event... and we will live with whatever is left.

Nissan went through this... they were known as a reasonably priced performance line... then a lady got in who "didn't know cars" and over time the whole line up became even more vanilla than Toyota with boring barely interesting cars, nearly killing the company... without the reliability. To recover their image and market, the company realized they went wrong and bet everything on the new Z-car, even admitting that if it didn't take off the company was likely to fold. I see signs AW *might* trend in that direction in catering more to the mainstream masses...

I don't want to see some Dell marketing wonks who believe their surveys over real customer feedback in discussion, who then run a product into the ground to pad their resumes with increased sales that then kill the line over time as the brand gets tarnished and identified as "an XPS with a lot of blinky lights". Dell did purchase the rebel Alienware company, formed from former Dell people, and hopefully they will realize that the marque's appeal is in real performance, not gimmicks.... I suspect in three years we will all be laughing about 3d (again).

 

The 3d option is there now and I noticed Ty now have an error on the color page.. Option for another space black for $430 and nebula red for the same.

 

Yeah, whats up with the messed up colors option page?

SELECT MY SYSTEM COLOR

• Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Stealth Black [Included in Price]
• Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Nebula Red Add $0.00
• Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Stealth Black [Add $468.30 or $15.00/month1]
• Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Nebula Red [Add $468.30 or $15.00/month1]

SELECT MY LCD PANEL

• 17.3-inch WideHD+ 1600 x 900 60Hz WLED [Included in Price]
• 17.3-inch WideFHD1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED [Add $150.00 or $5.00/month1]
• 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 120Hz WLED w/3D Bundle [Add $350.00 or $11.00/month1]

As for the 3D LCD option, you can only select the nVidia GTX 460M GFX card with the 3D LCD bah.

 

Hopefully they dont drag their heels on getting 6970 and extreme CPU out for sale too long.
I ran across a short interview where a Dell rep? at CES stated that even though the R3 went to single GPU, a 6970 GPU and extreme sandy CPU will perform better on any game that is not graphics bottlenecked than the R2 with 5870Mx2 GPU and 940xm CPU. I.E. Crysis.
I cant find the interview link now so take it as rumor. Still digging to find it because they threw some other numbers out I cant remember. But it sounds like since the CPU gives such a performance boost, we should see higher frames in most games even with only 1 GPU.
Cant wait to see the real life comparisons now, sounds promising.

 

I'm hoping the same too, if Dell releases the 6970 by the middle to end of February I would be ridiculously happy as I think I could talk them into just swapping the cards for the price difference if there is any on my rig. The Xtreme cpu I'm guessing I'll wait a while on, but I'm also hoping to see it released soon as well to see some real world numbers on it. Based on the benches I've seen if the battery life is semi realistic I think it might hit the sweet spot for me finally lol.

 

I do like how they've put the texture back on the lid which was typical of older alienware models as opposed to the smooth lid of the previous "All Powerful" versions.

 

I have mixed opinions on the soft touch "texture", until I saw the red in the st finish I would have never ordered anything but black. I did love the gloss finish on my R1/R2 though. Nice thing is it attracts a lot less fingerprints than the glossy surface did

 

I looked and didnt see it, did you already order an R3? or just planning to?

 

Already ordered, it was ordered yesterday afternoon

 

2 things....

1. What could possibly be in the "Stealth" option to be worth $468? Maybe its actually coated in radar absorbing materials, so as to go undetected from airport scanners? Lols

2. The moment the 6970M is available, I'll be purchasing a loaded single GPU model. It's the perfect upgrade to my M15x, and will be close enough in performance to an M17xR2 without the possiblity of dual GPU issues at a lower cost.


Edit: 3rd thing. Will the 2820QM outperform my 920XM?

 

1-the "stealth" option right now is just a typo as the $190,000 32gb ram in the UK, neither options cost anymore at all.

2-you might be waiting for a while knowing Dellienware, I'm really hoping for a release of the 6970m with in the next month but it's probably not likely

3-It depends on how you define outperforming, at stock clocks the 2820qm is supposed to outperform the 920xm's stock clocks but with a good amount of OC I doubt that anything other than the Extreme SB will outgun the 920/940xm.

 

Alienware | ???????????? | Dell ??

New M17x R3 -> GTX485M in the page. Cannot configure with GTX 485M yet but it's hard to believe they made a typo mistake between GTX 460M and GTX 485M. I will investigate this tomorrow...
Does any other website in the world has GTX 485M written anywhere for the M17x R3...
If this GPU is available I will pull the trigger for one.

Edit:I just saw that the US page is saying SLI GTX285M for R3...You would think they check 10 times before to post information...