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

XM model still not reach yet

 

Hello

First test<s>e</s> Single 5870M M17X R2

 

NIce score for a single 5870! What kinda numbers can you do with crossfire enabled?

 

No possibl CFX 1 Dead

Scroll+caps led boot

 

Ouch, are you still under warranty?

 

Yes Warranty

 

Give dell a call and they will replace that 5870

 

yes Thursday exchange GPU

 

so since I am on easter break, I got nothing better to do. I decided to put in my newly bought GTX 580M to see how it goes, even though I am still waiting for the revised heatsink to come soon.

GPU Stock clocks, CPU oc'd 40-39-37-37, max temp for GPU is 64*C and only one field (unlike AMD)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2920XM Processor,Alienware M17xR3 score: P3626 3DMarks

So any advice? Anything I should do with this GTX 580M (other than repaste and placing pads correctly, which I intend to do when the heatsink arrive).

Is it a good idea to use the .92 vbios if I wont run furmark ever? What OC clocks should I use? Anything I should do with this whole optimus thing?

 

I haven't touched the .92 vbios, mainly because I'm new to the whole benchmark and OC sceen. I've never had a system that I could do so much with. On that same note, I never had a system that I was afraid of frying. I haven't done a repaste or repad job yet. I might hold out for a while as my system seems to stay pretty cool on the stock job. Perhaps when I get settled into our new house here in the UK, I'll open it up and see how they did. As for Optimus, I had to disable it because whenever I ran any benchmark app, it wouldn't switch to my 580m, it would stay on the intel graphics. I wasn't sure if there were any other solutions to fix it other than install the modded A08 BIOS and disable it.

 

I've been using the .92 vbios for a while now, no issues. Just need that extra bit of power for something like this... The card goes to .8v when it is idle so no worries. My IGP is disabled and has been for a while now due to me being plugged in and on my holidays, so my dedicated card is working all the time.

I'll say it again for the noobies, Furmark is pointless. Start a game in windowed mode and find a particular spot where the GPU load is 99% and just stay there and monitor temps on GPU-Z. Way better.

 

Well, i wouldn't say furmark is pointless, it does have its place and purpose

however, from what i've seen:

.92 bios + furmark = dead 580m

 

Thanks a lot guys! I will proceed to flash the .92v vbios then . Everyone rep'd!

Also do you guys now if throttle occurs, does the system simply downclock or would it ever shut down?

optimus hasnt given me any problem yet and other than the bios, I dont know how else to configure it so we will see.

Lastly, what clocks should I set for gaming and normal tasks?

 

Hey,

That's a good stock score as a starting point.

You can use the 0.92v vbios very safely which means never use Furemark, it's been fine for me for now almost 4 months with quite high temps compared to your AW but the card seems to cope that well.
The safe o/c to start with is 800/1800 with 0.92v but I would first run 750/1800 @ stock voltage see how stable is that and then go over 800 and o/v.

My 24/7 o/c is as in my sig but temps get quite high with demanding games like BF3 (hit 90°C) since both core/memory clocks are high. 800/900 is the safest o/c if you were to use the o/v vbios, otherwise 750/1800.

 

Thank you paulow! Thats very informative! I will rep you when I'm allowed again.

Btw Geocake? that screenshot is beautiful!

 

Haha yes it is, the females in my Skyrim game turn me on for real!

I run 770/1800 for modded Skyrim, it's very very very picky with anything higher, giving me black screens. I think I use 810/1800 with everything else.

 

beat myself...
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2920XM Processor,Alienware M17xR3 score: P4745 3DMarks

still fiddling around with it, I can crank core clock up to 870 on 3dmark 11 without artifact of any sort but memory can only get as high as 1735, a tiny bit more and all kind of noises swarmp up the screen the higher i pull it (though it can still run).

With vantage even at 800 I can only run close to the end of the 2nd demo until the card throttle. So yeah, definitely have to get on with the heatsink there.

 

That's great

 

I finally broke down and applied the .92vbios. Everything is working perfectly. I'm not sure if it's just me, or I'm doing something wrong, but it seems that I'm not getting as high a score as others are with their OCs.

My highest score in 3DMark06 is 20724 with clocks of 744/1800. After applying the .92vbios, I tried clocks of 800/1950 and my score is 20636. It seems that if I use my computer, then decide to run a benchmark, my score will be lower than if I benchmark after powering up my laptop. Is this normal? Should my scores be higher?

 

What are you using to overclock? Remember in my guide you have to use Nvidia Inspector and OC both P0 and P1. Otherwise it will throttle to lower clocks. It was probably happening when you were using the 0.87v one as well. Remember the way the fix works is that P1 and P0 are both @620 to give the illusion of no throttling. If you OC P0 to 800 but not P1, it will drop to 620 when it decides to throttle so your P1 needs to be 800 as well.

 

I'm using Nvidia Inspector and I OC both the P0 and P1 states. I'm not having any issues OCing or running benchmarks. I don't get any artifacts or high temps. Everything seems to run perfect. But my clocks don't seem to reflect what my scores are as my previous post shows. If I power up my laptop, apply an OC, then run 3DMark06, I'll get a pretty decent score. If I then apply a higher clock and rerun 3DMark06, I'll get a lower score. It just doesn't make sense to me.

 

Well that's just performance leakage over up time, it happens and even the Futuremark guys recommend a restart before each bench. It happens. Plus you are using a benchmark that is over 6 years old. Try with Vantage or even better '11 or the Heaven Benchmark. I could also make you a custom vbios with specific clocks if you want.

 

If you wouldn't mind doing that, I would appreciate it. What do you think would be safe? 800/1900? That's what I'm currently running for The Witcher. I am worried about frying my card, so I don't want to keep it at higher clocks if it's going to do damage to my card. I'm still new with the .92vbios, and have been taking it real slow. The highest I've gone is 850/1950 with 3DMark06 without any issues. I'll probably do a Vantage and 3DMark 11 run tonight. Although my serial for 3DMark11 is invalid. I'll probably do a Heaven bench also.

 

I'll make you a 800/1800 one. I use that sometimes and its great. I think that's the most I'd go for 24/7 usage.

 

Articles : NVIDIA GeForce 301.24 Beta Drivers Add Major Gaming Features & Boost Skyrim Performance By Up To 20% - GeForce

!!!

Download: Drivers - GeForce

Another Skyrim performance boost, w00t.

 

Thanks Geo! Made a proper thread

@Skyline. Custom vbios for you

 

Thanks widezu69. I'll give you rep once it lets me.

 

Hello The best score

 

That's a pretty good score for a 5800 series card

 

I took the HD out and put the SSD in Bay 1 in AHCI.I won't be able to use Bay 0 anymore unless I get a new motherboard cause somehow the little copper prongs that the interposer is seated in got bent.Anyway I did a clean install,implemented all the tweaks an SSD requires such as turning off system restore,disabling Superfetch and prefetch in the registry,disabling Windows Search and Indexing and no paging file.I got the drive on Amazon and am returning it tomorrow.I have a Corsair Performance Pro 256Gb coming tomorrow.I have to say I'm not the least bit impressed with this Intel.The only test it did pretty good in was ATTO.I know with the Corsair I won't get as good write speeds in ATTO because of the Marvell controller, but overall I think I'll do much better with the Corsair.

 

Well those speeds are actually pretty decent. Remember you need to tweak it ever so slightly to get the 4k speeds up and you will have to do the same with the PerfPro. However, the Performance Pro like the other Marvell drives will be a better performer across the board.

 

What tweaks Widezu?

 

This one:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...-intel-series-4-5-965-chipsets-jjb-tweak.html

I use 99%. You'll under stand what I'm on about when you do the tweak.

Also, I recommend you get throttlestop:
http://static06.techinferno.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=21
Run it and remember to click TURN ON. Make sure you uncheck C1E and that's it

Rerun CDM and your 4K writes will have almost doubled.

 

those numbers are decent, uptown! Congrats on the drive

 

Will I need a new motherboard because of the bent copper thingys in Bay 0?Thanks guys for all your help by the way

I applied the tweaks Widezu69 suggested and got some great results Thanks Widezu69.







After tweaks Before tweaks

 

Right, so I just got off the phone with dell about replacing my GPU cause it's most likely broke, turns out they still have the 560M GTX in stock. However, it will be delivered with something called a service kit, does anyone know what this is?

MOD NOTE: Feel free to use the report button( ) any time you need a moderator's action.

 

thermal pads, paste? if you're lucky, you'll get a new heatsink too

 

Installed the Corsair Performance Pro and upgraded the Ram to Corsair 1866.Sent the Intel back.I did the registry tweaks and in avanced power plan and ran a couple tests.Everything looks good except in both tests my 4K scores were a little low.Can anyone tell me how I can improve that?

 

Have you done the throttlestop fix? Make sure that throttlestop is "TURNED ON" and uncheck C1E.

 

Yes I did everything you suggested.

 

I just purchased two OCZ Agility 3 240GB SATA-3 SSD. I have installed one, and the other is due to arrive on Friday from NewEgg. It's on sale for $199 after rebate.

I cloned my M4 to the OCZ and look forward to creating the RAID0 array within Windows and not having to reinstall all of my drivers and software... thanks to Intel RST software and my BIOS being set to RAID.

I still love my Crucial M4, but needed more drive space. Below is a bench on the OCZ SSD.

 

Those speeds are sick!

 

those are pretty good numbers for a single drive

 

Dang, almost makes me want to get away from single drive sata 2 lol. Can't wait to see the RAID 0 results!

 

^^^me, too. Just remembered that I need to order an optical bay caddy, so will have to get that first. May not be this weekend unless it arrives that fast.

 

Before everyone begins to freak out about Mr. Fox's CDM score, that is done with compressible data where the V3 truly shines. Other drives such as the 830, M4 or Performance Pro will perform better than the V3 in the default setting.

Nonetheless, the score is amazing. It is the highest speeds I have seen even on 0fill data. My past SandForce drives would never break the 500MB barrier in CDM.

 

I applied all the registry tweaks and power plan tweaks and ThottleStop and I can't get a decent 4K write score.I love this drive; though my other scores are good

 

did you enable caching on the drive?

 

Maybe you should get the modded A08 bios and enable C7. That could make your 4K times quicker.

I have the same the drive and I have no caching of any sort, only ordinary windows write-caching and I get similar scores.

 

Yes when I first got the drive I disabled write caching because I read somewhere to do that and my scores were in the toilet so I enabled write caching and they are much better.I think with the sandforce drives you can disable that but not with Marvell.I have the modded A08 bios,I'll try the C7 thing.Thanks