*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 and M17x Benchmark Thread - Part 4

I feel out of place but with my 460 over clocked to 825/600/1500 my 3dmark06 is around mid 16k and 3dmark11 is at mid 2100. Still behind the 6970 but it's more than enough for the games I play.

 

Do you happen to know the answer to my problem?

 

To all 6970m users, you use Trixx to overclock right? On T¦I I read a guide telling me that you have to change the inf's in the Driver package to enable overclockability. Is this true? I mean I don't have a problem with this but just making sure.

 

I have the 3d model so my computer doesn't know what integrated graphics is. Sorry!

 

I didn't need to change anything... I can overclock the card easily with Trixx, unfortunately no overvolt (not even with flashing the vbios... )

 

thanks for that info bro, normally I run my CF @ 800/1200 every day with original voltage with no problem at all, maybe I should leave it @1200 only

 

Nvidia Optimus processes tasks on the discrete GPU then routes the resulting information via integrated GPU. Just about all software currently in existence sees info coming from the integrated GPU and reads it as such.

It's not really much of a problem in the scope of benchmarks (though it is annoying). It is a problem when specific software requires specific hardware to run properly but can't see that you're using said hardware even though you are....then disables hardware acceleration within that program, resulting in fail performance.

 

Hey Kunekaden, did you get my PM? It has been a week and no response.

 

The instructions for registry/inf mods were meant for xfire users. They have been updated to reflect this. Single 6970M users should be able to use trixx without any changes.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Here's my most recent benchies, some promising stuff here as I think it could be pushed even further with some driver and CCC tweaking.

Vantage: P16,128
GPU: 14,793
CPU: 22,117


11: P4,445
Graphics: 4,150
Physics: 7,905
Combined: 3,960


06: 22,317
SM2.0: 9,126
SM3.0: 10,108
CPU: 6,345

 

Time to crown the new M17x r3 king...!!

Where's Inap when you need him... ?

Edit: You got the better CPU than Inap... but he should still be able to get you with the GPU scores... this is gonna be interesting, hehehe.

 

Awesome runs dane, loving those cpu scores.

 

So does that mean that when I run a benchmark and it shows that the Intel integrated graphics was used for the score that it is in fact getting the performance figures from the 460m through the integrated graphics? So in that case the scores are correct for my system.

I am just making sure it's not something I am doing wrong.

Thanks for the help!

 

So I was curious about what my new laptop would show with all stock clocks etc.

3DMark06 - 19502

http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15728552

I think it's good, but not too sure tbh. xD
By the way it's all default settings and everything for the actual hardware(which you can see) and the free version of 3dmark06 so I guess it has to be default or something.

Any thoughts about the score? It is the only benchmark I have run so far, I've only had the laptop for 2 days.

Edit~ I just ran 3DMark Vantage and got 12346 which seems rather low. But I guess with 100% stock drivers and clocks I shouldn't be looking for anything ground-shaking.

 

With absolute stock settings and clocks that's pretty close to where you should be, both scores look a little low to me but not enough that you should worry. A couple tips as I have the same exact specs:

1- Use the 11.4+Cap profiles for gaming, 11.5 for benching.
2-Learn your CCC settings as they can boost bench scores quite a bit.
3-If you haven't seen already use Sapphire Trixx for oc'ing the GPU, OC the CPU in the BIOS.

Have fun man, it's an awesome rig, congrats!

 

Sweet thanks a lot for the tips dude!

 

Anyone bench an R2 with 11.5 drivers yet? Is there any improvement over the 11.4 when it comes to OCed benches? If so I may do some benching next Wed on my day off. Last I remember I was +/- 300 pts from Vantage 22k. If enough improvement is shown with 11.5, maybe I can break 22K? Worth a shot if there is potential there.

 

How do you overclock your 6970M that high? When I make my clocks/memory that high 3D Mark Vantage won't even start.

 

The overclockability differs from card to card. Some are lucky and can push it much further than other users. Remember that the card is only binned to work at stock clocks (680/900).
My 6970m for example seems to have its limits at 830/1100 when I don't use any additional cooling.

 

Please help, My M17xR3 just arrived today and i just benched marked it for the first time. Never done anything like this. Below are the results. They look very low compared to many others. Is this the case? Is there something wrong with my laptop? What can I do to improve them? Everone elses GPU Clock speeds seem higher than mine, why?

3DMARK Vantage
P 12356
GPU 10889
CPU 20736

 

your fine that looks right for stock, the other benches you are seeing are heavily oc'ed.
here is my stock vantage for reference.

 

yeah it improves, but not much about 200 points that I remember, lazy to run it again, I'm on 11.5a hotfix

 

Could someone please help with the following questions:

1. Why is my GPU Clock speed 680mHZ and memory at 900mhz when most others i see on this exact card are at higher?

2. How exactly can I use cc to tweak performace? even a link to another thread would be awesome.

3.How do I update drivers on my laptop, is there a one stop shop for this to monitor it all? again please point me to a thread if there is one.

4. What are some basic things I can do to increase performance in gaming, i.e overclocking etc, that will not decrease the life of my laptop but give me some improvements, or is it not worth it? is there a thread if its easier.

5. Should I turn my page file off if i have 16GB ram? does it make things work faster if I turn it off?

All your help is much appreciated. Thankyou

 

It is my understanding that the page file is used when the system runs out of RAM and needs a quick place to store data. I'm pretty sure that with 16gb of RAM you shouldn't need a page file, but instead of turning it off just make it relatively small in case an application needs it for some odd reason.

 

1. 680/900 are the stock clock. when you see higher number that means the card has been flashed to higher clocks.

2.there isn't a thread that i know of on this subject.

3.normally if a new driver pops up you'll see something posted on the forums, normally new display drivers comes out every 1-2 months.

4.use trixx for the gpu. throttlestop for the cpu

 

oh hell yeah!!!!! broke the 16k vantage and without using the ac too.

 

Nice! +1

Scores to be updated tommorrow - Sorry for slacking on this, I've been picking up as much overtime as I can lately. Tommorrow I have the day off and will try and get everything updated. Thanks for those who PMed me scores, I still have them flagged for updating.

 

thanks bud.
dane will prolly kill it the second he sees this, gonna be hard to stay on the leader boards with just an 2720.

 

Might be time to grab that 2920 and show em who's boss .

Nice score.

I have not even run a single bench on mine yet just enjoying how fast the 6970 is at stock .

Good times .

 

yea was considering it but can't justify buying since there is no bios love for it.

on another note, i almost had a heart attack earlier, after benching i restarted the r3 and got a no os error, then in the bios it said my ssd was 0 gb. but i took it out and gave it a massage and gave it some sweet lovin', and it came back to life. hahaha

 

How about that unlocked bios that was just released ?. Maybe there is something in there for the XM cats.

 

yeah still waiting for someone with an xm chip and r3 to confirm, doesn't look like it happening soon. and ebay prices are still sky high atm. hopefully i will hit super lotto tonite then prices won't be an issue, hahaha

 

Dayummm! Nice run inap! I had to pull out the A/C to hit the 16k mark, I think your GPU is stronger than mine.

Nah, even though you're only 4 pts behind me I will probably wait until someone actually beats my score by at least 50-100 pts before I start the hard benching again, until then I'm just gonna enjoy gaming on it

What unlocked bios are you talking about Quad? It's been a while since I've been on here due to a crazy few weeks so I'm wondering if I missed something.

 

Hey, Quad. Welcome back to the AW fold. +Rep.

 

here is the bios thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/580828-m17xr3-bios-mod-released.html

prolly just got lucky, turn on the lappy and just ran one for the heck of it, and bam mo best score ever, go figure, hahaha was planning on a few ac runs, but my ssd bugged out on me.

 

Here's a little update, I am pretty weary of OCing but I gave Trixx a go and this was my first attempt. I really don't know how far it'll go though.



http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15748700

 

looks good, you can push it alot harder. 850/1150 should be stable anything beyond that is luck of the card.

next time us throttle stop too, gaves you a little boost for your cpu scores.

 

Thanks Rev Back at ya.


As for the unlocked bios it does not seem like much has been made of it yet but hopefully it opens some doors for the XM folks.

Prices are still insane on the 2920s so it will probably be awhile till we hear what if anything that bios can do.

Or if inap hits the lottery we will find out abit sooner then later .

 

if inap wins the lottery, he can fund a new bios from ground up.
I've never wanted someone other than me to win the lottery so much in my life!

 

Prices are insane because they have amazing performance

A stock 2920xm just about beats a HEAVILY overclocked 940/920xm

The factory overclocked 2920xm in the M18x is GG for the 940/920xm and I have not even tried to push it yet. It really is a beast of a cpu

 

This is with ThrottleStop and GPU kicked up a bit further. (Attempt 2)



Result

 

Can some one please give me some basic overclock speeds for my GPU, CPU that are safe and can stay permanent which will give me some decent speeds.?

 

So I tried pushing the gpu up to 900/1200 and when I run vantage or 06 I get a display driver error. Says device lost etc.

Means my card cant handle it? Or something else?

 

i'm running 750/1000 24/7 and has been good and thermals didn't change much.

even i struggle with 900/1200, it can be many things like drivers, temps or just the card can't handle it. normally anything past 880 core, i run on the ac but even then 900 core is not that stable. on these newer drivers i haven't been able to complete a 900 core run yet. but on the older 11.4 i was able to go 910 on the core.

 

I just updated to the new m18x 6970 driver. Gonna see if it has any effects.

 

Here's what I got so far. 880/1200



Result

 

nice run man, i think the dell drivers are holding you back. also another tip is going into the ccc panel and set everything over to performance and tick the use application setting boxes. thats all i'm gaving you, otherwise you will be killing my scores man, hahahaha

 

Oh nice tip dude, I just noticed the slider was half way over to quality rather than performance. ^^

 

thats its for me, everything else is up to you. don't wanna gave away all my secrets, otherwise you'll be killing my scores bro, hahaha