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

Made me lol

 

No kidding the words "cheap" and "2920xm" don't belong in the same sentence together, I really don't see the point in paying for anything over the 2720qm in the R3 as there's not enough overclocking options to make the 2920xm worth it and the 2820qm is a joke to pay $200+ over the 2720qm for a .1ghz bump. This series is awesome at stock vs. stock levels to past gen chips but overall it's kind of lacking for enthusiasts.

 

The 2820qm does have more cache and there may be overclocking options that you cannot see unless a 2920xm is installed, afaik no one has tried this out yet

 

yeah your right,its more curiosity then anything. just want to see what kind of numbers it can pull since we have nothing to go by right now.

 

And we do not yet know the fate of TS with a 2920xm in a dell machine

 

In the M17x-R3, TDP and the multiplier are locked by the bios for the 2920XM so ThrottleStop can't do anything with them to increase performance. I don't own an R3 but that's the feedback I received from a user after he did some testing for me. Unless someone rewrites the bios and clears the lock bits, TS won't be able to do anything and these CPUs will remain locked.

Maybe in the M18x, Dell will unlock these CPUs since they ship with a 330W power supply. In the M17x-R3, it doesn't make sense to pay big bucks for a 2920XM since the performance increase will be limited compared to the non Extreme CPUs. You won't see the huge increase in performance like the 920XM and 940XM were capable of. It's the end of an era.

 

We know there is some semblance of overclocking as a factory overclocked M18x is an option, means it will be either available or unlockable for the people not wanting to pay $75 for an overclock

 

The lack of overclockability is the one turn off I have with the SB systems.

 

Good answer boss

 

hahaah always wanted to do that you've been warned!!!!

how no unlocked multies too, heard about the tpd stuff and now this. dang the 2920 is not worth the money when its gimped like that.

 

I think the M18x will have an adjustable multiplier in the bios for the 2920XM but probably over a very limited range. If it does have this, Dell can still choose to lock it so after you exit the bios, ThrottleStop won't be able to take it any higher than Dell wants it to go.

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/specupdate/324827.pdf

The default Intel maximum turbo boost specs for the 2920XM are:

3500 MHz - 1 core active
3400 MHz - 2 cores active
3200 MHz - 3 cores active
3200 MHz - 4 cores active

Each of these specs are 100 MHz greater than a 2820QM and 200 MHz greater than the 2720QM. The 2820 and 2920 give you 8MB of L3 cache vs 6 MB of L3 for the 2720QM. Without any bios options to go higher, neither the 2820QM or 2920XM look like money well spent.

The TDP was adjustable in the bios up to 99W for the 2920XM so you shouldn't have any problems running these maximum speeds when fully loaded but that's it. On the R3, you won't be going any higher without a moded bios.

 

Thanks Im ordering an M18x for you to test and review thoroughly. Oced benchmarks included. It will be maxed out and i shall spare no expense!

Hmm... Odd, my rep seems to have dropped. I'll have to work on that.

 

lol inap!

Thanks for the tips, Dane. CCC tweaks + CPU repaste:

3DMark 06

21510

3DMark 11

P4435

wPrime 32

8.659s

 

As NBR Lead Mod, You are hereby ordered to do moar benching! Those numbers must be higher or suffer the consequences!

 

thanks for the update unclewebb, doubt they will ever do anything for the r3 then since the 2920xm isn't officially supported. aarrrggghhh!!! sucks

 

What is a stable HD6970m OC for gaming?

 

Have mine flashed to 750/1000 for a couple of weeks now, stable and temps are great.

 

sry for asking a stupid question but can i noe what 750/1000 means? SRY

 

He's talking about the GPU clock speeds... it means 750 MHz core speed and 1000 MHz memory clock speed.

 

looks like the benching is still going on. nice to see.
side note:
with these new laptops...you guys should really do more of the benches instead of just dx11/vantage and 06.

 

Oh. Thanks. Been tracking this tread for a while now. New to this stuff.

 

Thanks man. Can i achieve this by using Trixx and stock paste?

 

yeah you should be able to do that with stock paste but i recommend keeping an eye out for temps the first few day. you should repaste and repad your gpu if you are planning on oc'ing it.

 

I have been getting around 60 degree with that oc without a cooler. Is it a good temperature? Or it should be lower? I am using stock paste as well.

 

Wow 60 is a great temp, my gaming temps are like 10c higher then yours.

 

Gaming temps or idle temps? You must live in a pretty cold place if these are your gaming temps...
... and if these are your idle temps you'll need to repaste.

 

Ya. gaming temp. I live in Melbourne and its bloody winter right now. haha. So it is pretty cold. And btw, is it better if i OC it when i want to do benchmarking and gaming then switch back to factory clock or just leave it OC all the time? Thanks !

 

I've had my 6970 overclocked to 780-1000 at all times since i got it. I actually haven't tried it at stock, so there should be no problem having it overclocked all the time.

 

If your temps are OK and its all stable I don't see any reason why you couldn't leave it overclocked all the time

 

Overclocking is 0.00% risk if you are not raising voltages and the temps are not going crazy high (like 100c)

 

My Unigine score is like Is that normal???

 

Hey! PCMark7 just released and ofcourse we have to test it out and compare the score with each other.

I´m getting 3992 PCMARKS with the Stock R3 Result


6870m
2630QM
8Gb 1333Mhz
Intel 510 120 Gb

LET THE ALIENWARE´s WORK HARD!

 

had some spare time today so ran a few benches:

 

These are great scores Inap, congratulations!!
You have the 11.5 drivers & hotfix installed I guess? Amazing runs... not only the GPU but also the CPU scores are really impressive!

 

Got me. I knew you would though. Way better at it than I am. Question-Why are your default clocks higher than mine on the 6970? My defaults are 680/900. Yours show 750/1000. Ideas???

 

he just flashed his card on higher clock

 

Ahhhhhhhh! And I found out that here too. So, how to do it??? That is now the question.

 

You need to use RBE(Radeon Bios Editor), GPU-z(to extract the vBios), and ATIFlash to flash the vbios in dos once it's edited.

It's kind of a detailed process but here is the basics:

1-extract and save the vbios with GPU-z by clicking the button next to the bios info on GPU-z

2-open the vBios in RBE, the only values you can edit without having problems are the actual clocks which have different levels(2D, 3D, throttle, etc)

3-once you have it edited as you want save the vbios and remember exactly what you named it as

4-create a dos boot flash drive and place ATIFlash and the edited vbios on the flash drive

5-boot the drive and flash the vbios

Here is a link to a more detailed guide:
Tutorial on how to use RBE (Radeon BIOS Editor) | techPowerUp

 

if you need detailed instructions let me know.

 

So the Dell 6970m's are playing nice with ATIflash? Any luck on raising the voltage yet? I have an M18x on the way and it will need some benching done on it

 

yeah works well with atiflash, but no voltage change yet prolly a hardware limitation.

btw congrat M18x sweet!!! i prolly wait for M18xr2, hehe

 

I set my 5870M CF @ 950/1250 - 1.20V but I run 3DMarks Vantage, it seems run on 300/400 clock only, I don't know why?

 

try backing down to 1.15v i don't think the 1.2v is supported.

 

Would be great. I have sold my R3, but a good friend bought it and we'll/I'll be flashing it for him.

 

I tried with 1.15V, but I've got black screen when running Vantage, even I let down clock to 900/1230

 

Every time I try and run a benchmark it only recognizes the Intel integrated graphics and not my GTX 460m. Is that just because I am using the free versions of 3DMarkXX or is there a setting that i may have wrong?

My system info is in my sig

 

Ill get the scores updated this week. Been to busy to spend much time here at NBR.

 

i do a write up in a lil bit.

normally the black screen is cause by the memory clocks being too high, i recommend lowering to 1100 then slowly work your way up. not alot of cards that can go past 1200.

 

Here's a nice summary for flashing ATI cards, written by The Rev.

 

Thanks svl been looking for that. Saved me a lot of time. Hehe
Prolly gonna pm him, thinking of copying 99% of it to make an official 6970 guide.