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

Use the default Performance settings. The Extreme settings are relatively brutal.

 

Hmmmm interesting. I wonder what the X score is. I thought they were usually with the P scores.
Either that score is super duper being an X rated one or it is really low and your running on the intel chipset GPU. Try swithing and checking that you are indeed running on the 580M. You may need to change a setting in the bios. Check in there and with GPU-z.

Cheers.

AHhh lol thats what it was! X for Xtreme settings lol not X-rated.
Well that explains it.

Cheers.

 

well i would llike to see some x-rated benches, lolz

 

As a matter of curiousity, here's a 3dMark11 run at the Extreme settings. About one step faster than a slide show. Thank heavens for the Physics Test.

 

Here's my updated results on Performance.

 

That's a little low, d.brutus. Most of the 580M's are running about P3400 in 3dMark11, even with the 2630QM. So, something is holding you back, but I can't tell what it is. The 580M's are notorious for throttling in stock configuration, so that would be the logical first suspect. Downgrading to the A04 system BIOS helps in most cases. Perhaps one of the Nvidia aficionados can shed some further light on the subject.

 

Wow, it's hard to believe there is that much difference in performance between a single 580M and the humble 6970 in CFX... I would not have suspected such a wide gap in performance considering the gap in price goes the opposite direction on the GPUs. What is the typical 3DMark11 score for a single 6970M on the R3? AMD Radeon HD 6970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P7398 3DMarks

 

M17x R2 + GTX 580M (I'm still working on getting SLi to work):

 

This must be why you posted the other day that you hate NVIDIA. That certainly is a sad Vantage score for two 580Ms. Any clues yet why the SLi won't work? Still having issues with drivers not installing correctly?

 

With nVidia mobile drivers after MXM swaps, it's like dealing with a psycho girlfriend who just got hit by a bus and found out that her cat died. I'm not sure if it's the drivers, VBIOS or nVidia restricting SLi support since the GPU + chipset combo hasn't been seen yet.

 

Here are some of the posted scores on 3dmark's site for the same configuration that I have and they are pretty much the same as mine. And of course they are all low scores.

3DMark 11
8/14/11 12:00:00 AM
P3149
Get it! Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor
Details
Get it! NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
Add to compare

3DMark 11
8/13/11 12:00:00 AM
P3099
Get it! Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor
Details
Get it! NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
Add to compare

3DMark 11
8/20/11 12:00:00 AM
P3077
Get it! Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor
Details
Get it! NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
Add to compare

 

Well, OK, then declare it normal. Perhaps the 2630QM's are imposing a greater performance penalty than expected. In any event, those 580M scores are lower than are typically reported in this forum. It could be that most forum users who are drawn to benchmark testing are aware of the 580M throttling issues and have opted for the A04 BIOS, thus avoiding the performance hit. However, far more importantly, if you are satisfied with your R3's performance, then the synthetic benchmark scores are irrelevant.

 

Im getting only p3077. I have the dell drivers though

 

Quick question. My video card is bad. Ever since my last vantage run when volt modded there are artifacts all over my screen at idle clocks. Will dell send the video card to me if i request it? I dont want one of those techs touching my computer. I had a very bad experiance.

 

R2 + 580M Single card run OC'd to 750/1500/1750



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Looks like the R2's cooling can handle this even though I did use some external cooling and my room is kinda warm...

 

looking good ichime!

if you can see both cards...
then go into device manager and do a single install/upgrade of each driver. this can some times help to invoke sli or crossfire when disabled.
make sure you pick the same driver from the list of options.

 

Could you possibly use the second nvidia card for Physx? As the laptop recognises the second card it should be able to use it for non graphical non sli purposes. It may make you feel a bit better instead of having the second card sitting like a lemon and doing nothing.

 

He should be able to, I tried it with the 285M and 280Ms and no SLi cable.

 

I tried that along with physically removing the second one and letting the first one install and then putting back the second one and still no luck.

I'm able to use the 2nd card for PhysX, but no SLi option.

From what I gathered at MVKtech, it seems as if the newer MXM cards don't use a Master-Slave VBIOS relationship anymore and it's more like desktop cards in terms of that setup. The 285M in the M17x-R2 I believe still uses that Master-Slave relationship. However, I'm not sure about the GTX 460M SLi in the Clevo X8100. It uses pretty much the same chipset as the R2, yet 460M SLi seems to be offered. I'm not sure if the 460M in that system are two Masters or Master-Slave. If it's Master-Master, then the issue could be the motherboard BIOS not having SLi Certification, which is why I hate nVidia for doing such a thing (you don't even have to worry about that with ATi cards).

Anyways, I'm still committed to figuring this out now that I sold my 6970M CF setup...

 

stock 6990m CFX benchs

3Dmark06
Vantage
3Dmark11

 

Nice Kenny, +1

Are you having power issues at stock clocks? What does a stock 6970 put up for GPU score and 3DMark11 in Vantage with a 920XM? I should know these since I had the cards. Just can't remember.

I may be getting 6990's and so I'm hoping that they run fine at stock clocks. Mostly because when gaming, I never overclock. In fact I may undervolt the cards to drop temps a bit. I see the R2 gaming with 6970/6990's for quite some time into the future. I'm hoping to keep the R2 for at least 2 more years. With the exception of my 6990's, my last thing to install should be a big foot killer. Might order that soon.

 

wow niice score kenny, have you tried any oc'ed runs

 

Those are some very nice temps on the first card! And nice runs! Looks like the R2 can handle the 6990Ms as well as the GTX 580Ms (man I hope I get SLi working soon).

For reference, a Stock 6970M CF in my R2 scored 20600 GPU in Vantage and 5600-5700 in 3d11, with Cat 11.6. I see Kenny is using slightly older drivers (Cat 11.4), so things should improve once he upgrades drivers.

Also, get the Bigfoot killer as soon as you can. It's a definite improvement over the Intel N6300 I had. There is also the Atheros AR9004tb on the horizon, which is a triband card with 3x3 Wifi, Bluetooth and Wireless HD all in one! Seeing as it's an Atheros chip, BigFoot might rebrand and tweak it.

 

ichime - thanks man, +1

inap - thanks for that! gotta spread some rep before I can hit you again.

 

Nah not really power issues, 3dmark06 and vantage pretty much stayed under 240w power but i hit a max of 270w with 11 (usually it was about 220-250w)
No overclocks yet either still working out the wrinkles like that hot shader, general usability and drivers

 

Hi Kenny,

when i've installed the 6970's i had also shaders and mem I/O highers temps than the other sensors. I fix it replacing the thermal pads for the memory chips with shinetsu paste. I had a huge improvement, becouse (i believe at least) the pads that came with clevo heatsink are too thick and i didn't had a thinier pad (like 0.5mm).

hope this can help you improove your temps.

Also i highly sugest you to try the new 11.8 WHQL / 11.7 CAP3 combo. So far the best driver set i had

Just for the Records:

I've done a run with 11 and Vantage, i've set the 6970's @ 6990's clocks (715/900) in order to see what the difference between the cards is with the 160 more shaders per card on the 6990's. Other thing to consider is that i'm using 11.8WHQL vs the 11.4 Kenny is using, so he will get better result once he update the drivers.

I've got 6219 GPU score in 11 and 22200 GPU score in Vantage with the above settings.

Kenny, how your cpu was setted up during the bench? (i'm using 23x133 on 4 cores for daily use, 75W tdp). So i can reproduce your CPU score and have better comparison.

3dmark11


Vantage

 

CptXabaras looks like you many thing to play with that 6970Ms, I wish I could order them right now. btw never see you on nfs shift 2 steam!

 

Ok I redid the vantage and 11 with 11.8ccc and 11.7 cap3 and my cpu on 23x133 and 75w tdp
3Dmark11 - P6310
Vantage - P21448 (I got a better gpu score before 23199 same driver, no cap and no cpu overclock)
Compared to the 6970 its not that special really, I'm not sure how accurate the crossfire indicator in radeon pro is but both cards sat around 60-90% load never 100%
Trying to think why the slight limp in performance?

 

that's becouse most of the time i play that game when i'm away from home and the laptop become my only way to spend the time and intertain my self on the 2 month i have to spend on the desert. I only have internet connection on site office, not on the life camp where i have my room, unfortunatly . And by the way i found Dirt 3 being a lot more fun than shift2

Why are you using radeon pro for benchmarks? i've only used it to fix some issue with some game, never for benchies
Your gpu load % looks ok seeing the HWinfo reading you've got.

I side note: it's just me or both 6970's and 6990 runs cooler in our R2 than in the M18x?

 

I am surprised there is no one in the top benchmark with the 580M.

 

Throttling, price and the fact that most hardcore bencher went with ATI are the reasons.

 

one person ....ichime.

but his sli isn't working...

 

Throttling has a work around now on the R3. Overvolt can be achieved. I'm getting one hopefully so benches are coming soon. I do not have enough money for a CPU upgrade though so I have to put up with the 2630qm for now. I'll wait for the i7 2860QM when it comes out

 

update on the 6990m cfx
-undervolted @ 0.97v
-Psu throttling in power hogging games like Crysis, dual psu's definitely needed to unleash gaming and overclocking performance

Yes they are amazingly cool, cooler then my 5870s!

 

Kenny,

Do you see the PSU throttling as often with the card undervolted to .97v? Also besides Crysis, have you seen problems with other games dropping? or is Crysis by far the biggest factor?

 

Our adhesive came loose

 

I posted in the 6970 cross fire thread, found out card are performing great except in crysis which is a crysis issue and not a power issue

 

Kenny the 6990s are working great? That's awesome. I was supposed to get 6990s but 6970s showed up. Was thinking of sticking with 6970s but not if 6990s work well. Don't play Crysis.

 

stock voltage on gpus
power consumption 235w and 261w respectively (screen min brightness and alien fx off
Vantage
3DMark11

 

looks like you would have been able to put up some nice numbers dr650se....had they gave you the right cards...
now have them cross ship the right cards while you take those for a test drive... (and there is nothing wrong with 6970's if you ask me)

 

Yea, the 6970s are great in the R2. And not far behind the 6990s at all.

 

not at all!

you know im working on trying to hit 5 ghz right?

 

mmm when did they remove this thread from the stikies?!

 

I saw that. Maybe need to put a dice pot on it. Helped me a bit on the 920xm. That would be amazing on a mobile platform!

 

if i got it right fps drops in crysis 2 dx11 is due to the psu? if we use throttlestop for cpu with single psu we have no chance?

By the way, i have two 240 watt psus since long time ago (different brand though) but i cant do the dual psu mod as i dont know a thing about those stuff.

 

I was talking about crysis and not crysis 2, and the throttling turned out to be a crysis problem and not a psu problems like I said
Throttle stop should be ok to use as my ES cpu came stock with TDP @ 62w and 24x on all 4 cores you probably will need to test it though
Without a gpu overclock I have had no problems with the psu!

Crysis benchmark, 32bit, Dx10, VH details, 16xQ, 1920x1200

 

Don't know much about Crysis, is that good? At least as far as power issues

 

16xQ is the most intensive form of AA
I'm just amazed I can still get an averge of 46 fps in the crysis benchmark

 

Crysis Warhead and Crysis 2 don't look as good (real) as Crysis1 IMO.

 

crysis runs pretty good on dx10 with my configuration. crysis 2 and dx11 causes fps drops.