*OFFICIAL* M17x Benchmark Thread - Part 3

yes someone on the french forum : portable4gamer put a 940xm in alien and it work fine (3dmark 06 : 18000 stock)

 

Any idea on what GPUs they were using?

 

Crossfire 4870

 

Is there an app that has an option to turn off Hyperthreading? I want to try something with Hyperthreading off, and run some benches, also having problems with some older games, and I'm hoping this will help.

 

Post moved to the Official R2 Owner's lounge.

 

You should be able to pull the device id off of the vbios and then insert that into the driver inf.....that is a relatively easy fix so try it out!

 

Lets get this back on topic - benchmarking discussion. Received a few PMs on this and all OT (non-benchmarking 17x) posts need to stop. 4870 vs 5870 compatibility, throttling, CPU drops, etc. do not belong here - we have threads already in place.


For joker's throttling discussion - go here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/488348-m17x-r2-4870-5870-throttling.html


Questions, PM me.

Thanks.

 

ok so i received my m17x today. Thankfully everything appears to be in pristine (brand new) condition. I have an r2/ i7 720qm/ xfire 5870's btw.

Here's my beef. I get roughly the same vantage gpu score as everyone else with my config (12,360 ish) but i notice while looking at the performance during the benches it seems awfully choppy but it will display as 30 fps or whatever (visually appears to be <10 fps). However when I disable crossfire the system appears to run smoother and correlates with the fps shown.

Whats the deal with xfire? Theoretically it is enabled and boosting the performance but it doesn't display as running smoothly.

 

it was 4870 cfx

 

Support for Crossfire is very driver and game specific. Crossfire has a drawback phenomenon called micro-stuttering. Every single picture is computed by the GPU alternately and this shows up as stuttering when the frames are bellow 35 fps because of the lag between the two GPU's. If you can see the micro stuttering than the image will look significantly more smooth and homogeneous with Crossfire turned off and with a single graphic card instead. If 5870 X2 runs with 25 fps in game and a single 5870 runs 20 FPS than the single may look better at lower frame rates without the stuttering. Try turning vertical sync OFF or ON and see if that makes any difference.

 

Back to benchmarks here is one for the leader board.

 

ok, added.

If I missed anyone just PM me.

 

Have you submitted a full Vantage score with the 5870s yet? If so I missed it.

 

Thread is now open. Any further off topic posts will be removed and infractions will be issued. Mods should not have to come in here for OT. The majority of posters here have been here long enough to know what is OT and what is not and how to use the search function. Also, any discussion on mod action should be addressed to the mod via PM or sent to the Lead Moderator.

For those that need a refresher, see the forum rules.

Thanks.

 

Wee first post since reopening.
As I wanted to say, can you peeps with 5870s start more benching. Between everyone I'm sure you can figure a way to make them run faster than the 4870s even with Dell drivers.

 

Can benchmarks be improved by switching from internal speakers to external? Does the M17x have SPDIF out or is there another way. I just thought if watts could be saved on sound than perhaps they could be used for overclocking to improve benching? Has anyone tried this to see if it makes a difference benching?

Also this may be a stupid question but if you keep the power charger cool does that improve the power handling and improve benchmarking? My Dell chargers always seem to run hot when working the GPU. With desktops the power supply is always actively cooled. Why not actively cool a laptops power supply for improved efficiency? I think a hot charger might make the CPU work harder.

Also any noticable improvements from laptop coolers?

 

Laptop coolers will help as lower temps allows better overclocks

cooling the ac adapter will make it run more efficiently, although I am not sure by how much

the speakers are not making noise during benches usually, so that is a non issue, you can also just mute them....

 

cooling the ac does really help.
keeps it's temps in nice operating range.
same goes for the cpu and gpu
we tend to think that 100c is the max for the cpu...wrong. it's not optimal at that temp. it's optimal at 67C and lower on all cores. going above this and the cpu slowly loses sync and starts slowly lowering it self.(or needing more voltage to run which in turn generates more heat) this applies to gpus as well..just because you can max it at a certain temp benching, does not mean it's running optimal. and when benching with laptops...every degree counts! you may be at 86C on gpu and crash, where 85C you can run all day and 75C you get higher scores..
so yes, it all matters when benching.

 

Can someone prove that cooling an AC adaptor on a laptop improves bench scores? I don't see how that is possible. If AC adaptor cooling was a performance issue, wouldn't it have some kind of cooling or ventilation built in? I'm not an electrician so I'm not an expert on this, but I thought all the AC adaptor did was provide AC/DC conversion. If it was overheating, I'm sure it would affect performance and benchmarks as it would probably die. But just running warm to the touch I don't think degrades performance. I just don't see how that is possible. The Motherboard regulates power to the devices, it only accepts the input from the AC adaptor. I tried searching online for info about this, but wasn't able to find any.

And I think this is still relative to the topic as AW laptops generally have very warm to hot running AC adaptors. I would be interested to know if cooling it helps performance. I just don't see how it would. Can an expert provide proof?

 

it's because your not hard core benching...once you start doing this..you will understand.....that more cleaner power is needed to hold a stable over clock for benching certain test.
but just for above regular benching...no need to be concerned about cooling your AC.

hope this helps.

 

OK. That makes sense. I didn't really take into account that overclocking would require a larger power source causing the brick to work harder. I was just thinking about my measily stock M17 performance. Thanks for the clarification. + 1 for the training!

 

no problem

 

Has anyone ever tried to run 2 AC adapters? Should works just fine

 

What do you mean 2 AC adapters? sepertely or together, and how does that work?

 

Yep, you are right that should work just fine, the only issue is the custom wiring required to connect them together which would certainly void the warranty in case it broke.

 

wouldn't that be to many amps to the motherboard? isn't the r2 at like 6.4 amps now?

 

@TheCodeBreaker
Imageshack - psu.png
This is a very simple draw I made

The only benefit right now would be for each PSU to run less hot but that's pretty much it, no other gain concerning benchmarks since throttling will take place

@johnksss
I am sure there are limitations to the max current that the motherboard can handle but I am not aware of that limit.

 

I wonder if you could just add 12v 4 amp psu and just add another 48 watt which would certainly give plenty of power and not overcharge the PC.

 

The laptop will drain as much power as necessary for it to operate. As long as you keep voltage the same (19.5V) you can increase the Amps that will give you the extra Watts you need.
I repeat though that this will not increase any benchmark score

 

Well it will allow further stable OC therefore could increase further benchmark scores. Joker did some test and further OC on the 4870 XF gave worst benchmark due to throttling which would not have happened if the psu was able to follow.

 

It's not the PSU the bottleneck here, it's the BIOS that limits the maximum power that can be drained from the PSU

 

Yes you are right but it probably does that to protect the psu from being pushed too far and burning it out.

 

That's correct

 

Just ran a pc vantage test for the first time and got 8024
ORB - World of Performance

isnt that low? anyideas why =/?

also why is my cpu speed only at 2.1? its on turbo o0? need help with this techy stuff please

also done a 3dmark vantage and got P14028 3DMarks,

http://service.futuremark.com/home....12D7F0C300432E?resultId=2236010&resultType=19
video seems a bit laggy and not very cleary (noAA) never adjusted any settings though?
anyone help me with my 'new r2' please =/ seems R1 all over again thus far..

thanks again

 

Got my system. The problems that plagued my first two systems is evident with this one.

I have an M15x on order now. We'll see how that works but the M17x will go back. May play with it a bit first.

 

5850 the m15x that you have in order?

 

Is stealth mode on?

 

pretty sure no, i re launched it and it said stealth mode accesss detected, =/

 

Which problems are you referring to?

 

When you start changing hardware and/or bios settings the system has problems posting. You need to try it a couple times to post.

 

Which bios setting specifically? I change the boot order in my bios all the time and it never once had a problem posting. I've been through 3 R2's now and not a single one had this issue you describe. Besides, is a minor issue like that really a deal breaker? Its not like a simple reboot wouldn't fix the issue unless you're constantly messing around in the bios for some odd reason.

 

Are you referring to simply installing the Vertex?

 

*A desktop power supply has ventlation holes and some a fan. A power bar has neither.

*Some people spend a lot of money cleaning up and regulating voltage on a home theater system.

*The power supply is designed to work under a certain load. When benchmarking the laptop you are moving beyond a typical load.

*Perhaps someone could test by putting it into a fridge.

*Here is a yahoo answer regarding tranformer heat. Transformers and why they heat? - Yahoo! Answers

*Here is another answer on laptop power supply.
Can not be ignored, laptop power supply you should be aware of the five secret (part 1) at Digital battery

* http://www.epanorama.net/links/psu_computer.html

 

Joker, if you disable onboard lan, bluetooth and one more component i don't remember right now the system won't post. it's one of the bugs i've found with A05 bios.

 

Does it require a discharge to boot? I'll give it a try on both my machines.

 

I was playing with the sata controller settings at the time. I do mod my bios constantly when I have the 920 installed.

Yes it also happened when I installed the Vertex and the memory. I did one at a time.

 

will be interesting to see if that happens to you too. me and at least one more member reported that behavior.

 

My last machine did. This one I don't have to at the moment.

BTW, they gave me Seagates for the 320GB hdd now instead of WD and the memory was a different off brand also.

 

well just rebooted and re did it, got 9060 =/ duno whats up! any care to shed some light plss?

 

I really don't know what is happening at Alienware right now but something is not right...