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

well i posted before

i tried with 950 and 1400

it ran perfectly and scores were

3D Mark 11
P6426
Graphics Score: 6132
Physics Score: 8697
Combined Score: 6229

3D Mark Vantage
P23681
Graphics Score: 23715
CPU Score: 23582

 

well, keep going down then until its stable theres a reason for the word "fine-tuning" in this context ^^

 

that's not bad bro. Seems the only way you will get higher is if you flash with the 1.075 bios. Stock is 1.05

 

well i guess i have the latest bios
its 3.72.02 A02

saw it in Dxdiag

 

i was talking about modded vbios. 1.075 will probably get you stable at 1ghz

 

few benchmarks of my R4 running 3 Crucial M4 in raid 0

Atto:


AS SSD:

Copy

IOPS:

 

nice !

i get around 525 read speeds with my samsung 830 ssds
not RAID btw

 

i am stable so far at 1010/1650 in 3dmark11, scored this...im aiming for 7k

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Alienware M17xR4 score: P6842 3DMarks

 

good luck with that! so far no one has reached 7k would sure be a breakthrough

 

wow thats crazily high! Did you overvolt? Congrats man! With a better CPU you will reach 7k for sure!

 

Does it make sense to overclock your GPU that much? You're just going to burn it out.

 

nah, just make sure it runs stable with those clocks. aside from that, i wouldnt recommend using an overvolt 24/7 or OCing the vRAM too much, then u should be fine, no burn-outs

 

Define "stable"?

 

lots of options to check clock stability: furmark, OCCT, 3dmark loops and/or gaming benchmarks such as crysis 1/2, metro 2033, the witcher 2, skyrim, BF3, etc. if u have no artifacts, freezes, driver crashes or black screens in any of those then u can definitely consider the clocks stable

 

Only for extreme benchmarking.

Stable in this context means able to complete the benchmark before crashing.

 

and no artifact or red/green stripe right?

 

sure, there of course is "bench-stable" and "24/7" stable

 

its using the vbios with 1075v, which is not too high at all. Max temps are 67c, idle is 55c
I could probably flash it to 1150v and go even higher and easily hit 7k, but dont want to ruin it

 

then i guess you got an exceptional card! Can you try gaming with that clock?

 

A few artifacts or a little tearing can be tolerated during the end play, but can't say I've encountered any red or green stripes during benching. Have lost a monitor or two to the old green vertical stripe, but that didn't happen during benching. When do the stripes appear?

 

been playing bf3 ultra all day and hasnt artifact or crashed yet. Will try crysis 2, maybe that will be a diff story

 

I had reached 1030/1500 @ 1.1v - for benchmark that's fine but for gaming, it's not stable at all

edit: wow great then !

 

nah I just remember someone said something about memory clock and core clock give different sign of card failure? One give artifact and the other give stripe or something.

 

Yep, usually artifacts are telling you that you are pushing the limits on the core; screen tearing indicates that VRAM is too high. Both are affected by temps of course.

You seem to be blessed with a golden card. Congratulations.

 

thank you! now heres my issue. when i tried the 1150v bios, during benchmarks my screen would start flashing a little, just as if my brightness was dimming back and forth, even when i would exit to the desktop. A restart fixed this however. So too much voltage and cause this dim flashing? anyone else see this that flashed their bios?

 

That flashing is a clear message that the voltage is too high and is causing instability. With clock settings, you can push the envelope with reasonable confidence that the worst that will happen is a crash, with no damage. Voltage is more dangerous and can kill your card. Because the 7970M's are new there is very little experience with the true limits, but several members have reported instability at 1.10v. Instinct suggests that increasing voltage to 1.15v is dangerous ground. That card is too good to be killed by over-volting. Your card, your choice, but be careful. +Rep for your efforts to date.

 

With a bit of fan control tweaking, here's my new wPrime 1.55 32M score for the 3720QM:



And with a 102 BCLK:

 

i def backed off 1150v after seeing the flashing. Sticking with 1075v. Any idea if AMD will ever add driver support for the 7970m? or are we stuck with Dell drivers for good?

 

The card is still very new. Give it some time.

 

Can i overclock the i7-3720qm with the stock bios?

 

yes, you can bump the multi up 4x (400mhz) so its 4ghz single core

 

why isnt this possible on the 3610qm? can i OC it at all?

 

nope. and why? no idea, ask intel

 

That makes the 3720QM worth the money IMO (if you do any other CPU intensive tasks other than gaming), and I'm glad I went with it. It's harder to say the same for the 3820QM.

 

unfortunately, you can't overclock the 3610qm at all. Nada, zilch. You can't even bump the bclk up 1mhz without it crashing.

Your 7970 however, that is a different story

i agree. The sweet spot is the 3720qm. For $150 more, it's worth the cash

 

but if all im doing is gaming, did i go wrong with the 3610?

 

In certain games it might be a slight bottleneck but you would have to really compare it to another machine with a CPU bump to even know.

If games are running good dont even sweat it. I have seen some cheap QS/ES 3720s/3820s on Ebay if it really starts bugging you that much.

 

maybe in the future i might look to get a ES XM cpu. Quadzilla, i remmeber your from years back in the forums, you must be the guy i sold my old m17 to lol

 

Yep that was me . I am still around from time to time when new tech pops up then i disappear for a few months .

7970 seems to be a beast and i am hoping to get one for my M18x eventually .

My M18x project .

http://forum.notebookreview.com/8522721-post240.html

 

it def is, ive been having a blast with the 7970m, hope the 8970m works in the r4's next year lol

edit: your m18x is the sickest laptop i have ever seen, nice paint job. if your ever bored ill pay u to do mine lmao

 

Thanks.I had it powder coated professionally but i dont think the R4 could handle that process since its plastic. It could be sanded and painted though probably to something very similar .

You can usually find spare panels here and if your bored grab a set and find a local body shop that would do it .

I believe the R4/R3 share the same panels.

Dell Alienware M17xR3 Laptop Repair Parts | Parts-People.com

 

Quadzilla's still the King.

 

Lol thanks Rev. I guess you will have a 7970m soon enough ? . I know you have the itch or are you waiting on the 680m to hit before deciding ?.

 

Are you that same HaloGod that was around when we were all trying to solve the stuttering in the quadcore M17? Just wondering, if so, welcome back.

 

Never understood white as a laptop colour...

 

YES lol, it was called project freeze. Good times

 

Quad def has good taste in Laptop color ....R2

 

It's a shame what clevo does.I never ever will buy a laptop
from this company!!!!!
So i go for M17xR4 in begin of july.
Hope for all clevo HM owners the Online Petition will change their mind!

 

well all i've heard since now is that the current CPU models will never bottleneck in gaming, especially if you're not going for a sli/cfx config.
i went with the 3610.. and 7970M... hope that wasn't the wrong decision as i don't want to go through the whole discount-process again ;-)
(want to overclock the 7970m a little bit. still hope the cpu can manage it (in gaming))

 

well as i overclocked the 7970m the fps increased greatly, leading me to believe the 3610 wasnt holding it back. And all games run amazing.