Question for all of you BAREBONE R3 owners...

I am meaning, no upgrades at all, nothing! You bought just the BASE version of the M17x R3 and you haven't added anything to it.

Ok, so now the question.

Is your stock R3 capable or running WoW at High to MAX settings? smoothly? if not what settings are optimal for you to run at?

Only game I will be playing is WoW(latest expansion) and maybe Diablo 2(I know both really old games, but I love them) I know that they may be very easy to run or may not be on this lappy, but I am a laptop nub... so any insight would be great!

I want to go Alienware for not only the looks, but to be in 'that' club. lol

I am torn between Alienware and Sager. Sager I can get a tad bit more out of for the same price.. but I just love the Alienware looks and lighting customization.


Edit: The reason why I am considering AW and even Sager is because I do alot of 3D CAD and Photoshopping with huge images. So I need the performance to keep up with the work demand, it will just double as a personal lappy too!

Thanks for looking and helping in advance.

 

You'll be able to upgrade to a Quadro FX gpu with Sager, but (most likely) not with an r3.

My r3 + GTX 460M has issues with AutoCAD, but not Revit (architecture) or CS5. Hopefully the replacement with 6970 will be more suited to the tasks I throw at it.

 

Wow and even Diablo III (i am a
Big D fan as well) , 6870m is more than enough. Just get 2720 and upgrade ram yourself and you are set.

Enjoy !

 

Yeah, a selling point for the Sager was that it is easily upgradeable in the future.

Interesting, I hope AutoCAD runs fine on the 6870m, now.

Stock though, or at least on DELL's site, the R3 comes with the 6870m standard.

Diablo is probably my all time favorite computer game followed close by WoW. lol I am a nerd.. I know..

I figured as much from what I have read on AMD's website... just never saw a video of it on a R3 running WoW...

I know WoW isn't very demanding at all, but I want to be able to max the settings out while playing one of my favorite games..

 

If this is going to turn into a comparison thread better post it in the "what notebook should I buy" section of the forum.
Cheers

 

I put it here because I figure more R3 owners come to their 'corner'..

I don't want it to be a comparison thread anyways.. I already have one.. or two.. lol

I want to hear from actual owners how their R3 can handle WoW..

 

I'm pretty sure the issue is directly related to the GF104 architecture and will not be present with the base AMD solution.

The r3 is a really good buy, IMO.
If you planned to ever upgrade to a quadro, you should know up front that they're like $1200+ for a respectable model.

 

You can prolly destroy most modern day games with the stock config, just to letcha know. Here I am playing Dolphin with the IGP while on battery. Also, if you see my youtube page, I accidentally had the IGP on during a screening of BFBC2.

Best of luck, and hopefully you join the club It's a good one, and the folks here are the nicest/bestest forum ppl you'll ever meet.

 

I didn't technically get the barebones system but I've heard the high 80s being thrown around with the 6970m card so I figure that with the base card it should still be able to hold it's own, especially with WoW. You may have to dial down the shadows though but that's something I can live without. Alliance or Horde?

 

ORLY!? That makes getting the base version even better for me then.

I know this is a very dumb question, but if I get the base version, how much can I actually upgrade? I know I can do RAM myself, and maybe the GPU, but what about the CPU?

And also, is it REALLY worth upgrading the screen if all I really am gonna be doing is playing WoW?

I hope I do too! I am kind of wanting to wait or just atleat find out when the new R3 versions of the AW line-up will be out.

But then again, I am torn because 17" seems just perfect.

Hmm... How much more advanced is the 6970m compared to the base 6870m??

Horde for the mutha f**king win!

 

You can upgrade everything IIRC. It's like they threw a desktop into a lappy's body. You should get the stock config and see how that fares for ya. You should be able to accomplish everything you like without ever upgrading, actually. So get the stock config at the cheapest price you an haggle them for. If you're buying through aafes, even better!

 

I have used AutoCAD on quite a few laptops and found that with all high end laptop cards, its not in fact the power of the card that matter rather the stability of the drivers.

I dont know about ATI so much but the nvidia 285GTX i had was 100 times less stable than the Quadro 3800M with certified drivers. Technically there is almost nothing different in the hardware.

 

Well when I was doing my GPU comparison for my purchasing decision I used notebookcheck's database, to be honest I don't know how reliable or accurate the information is but it looked like the best thing on the internet for me (consistent comparison and a wide range of info on cards). Given that, I think the difference between the two would be more apparent as you start pushing the high-end envelope of the game so for wow I think the 5870 should do well on a high setting in a raid with a respectable fps (40-50 territory) but once you start raising the detail beyond that is when I think you start to see the 5870 start to fall back.

Maybe someone else can chime in on the addon front I don't know how much extra load addon's like XPERL add to the game or if such a thing is even negligable. So there is also that to consider.

 

I would spend the cash for the 1080p screen if you're using shop/cad/etc

There's nothing worse than small resolution + cad imo~!

 

Just remember that the 5870 was top-of-the-line right before the 6970 came out. And in the time that the 6970 released, not many new games have come out anyways. So yah, you should be fine with the 5870 (6870), I think.

 

I am just torn guys, which one should I pick up for my M17x R3?

ONLY game I will be playing is WoW.

Its between the 6870M and the 6970M...


I cant find any vids of the 6870M playing WoW... any help would be great!

 

Get the cheapest one. If you're just gonna be playing Blizzard games you'll be fine.

 

I'm pretty sure it's the 5870. Like I said you can wait 3 weeks for me to get mine OR Dookie can install it on his beater machine that he's about to return so that we can see some FPS'es *cough cough*

 

I have WoW preinstalled. I'm also pretty sure the 6870 = the 5870, which blows away games like WoW so you shouldn't worry, OP.

 

I'm pretty sure the 6870 is slightly underclocked when compared to the 5870, at least for the desktop version, and I think the same can be said about the laptop versions as well.

 

the limitations with wow are not your pc, wow slows down due to server incapacity and over loading, you will notice this in areas where there's a lot of players gathered like in cities, frame updates start to slow down. Also note wow fully supports 3D

 

yes, 6870m is slightly underclocked as well in laptop version. So, you may lose at most 5% performance comparing with 5870m. You will able to find many user-feedback regarding 5870m performance in WOW. Also, 5870 was the KING of laptop GPU at 2010. Good wow performance requires a pretty good gpu (in this case, 6870m is good enough) and a powerful CPU (so I would suggest getting the 2720 as it offers the best value/performance ratio). The only thing that may drag the performance down will be shadow. It is affecting a huge user base because the coding is horrible (another crysis ). As long as you don't max out shadow, you can max out every setting available and sustain smooth FPS.

If you have the deep pocket like this guy I know who has rich parents to back him up (he trade-in and bought 4 cars in a year, each car only drove for like a few monthes) , get the 6970m + best cpu. Otherwise, 6870m + 2720 is combination offers best value.

 

I second this suggestion (I went with these options). 2720 plus 6970 are good upgrades. Possibly also the 1080p screen. Ram and HDD you can always do yourself as well as the wireless card.

 

Just bought a AW!

Specs are in my sig..

I didn't go with the 2720QM because more then one people have told me that I don't need it for what I want.

My IT was the final input I needed for my purchase... he said what I do and am needing, my setup is fine.

 

Good choice! I think you will be extremely happy with your purchase. Congrats!

 

Now I just gotta call back a few times to knock off some of the bill.. lol

 

Dookie, what is it with you and that damn Dolphin emulator? LMAO

 

Get the 2720, regardless, the processor allows higher speed RAM sticks, the one you chose caps out at 1333 I believe. It does make a difference for some things and it's only a few hundred now, or $400~ later

 

It's just too damn fun. Will hopefully get to try some Wii games later today.

 

Well RAM is the biggest of my problems I would think... For playing WoW and doing some bits or programming that is..

It does max out at 1333...

I think it should do fine for me, if not, then I will just sell it...

 

It's not his fault that Nintendo doesn't have a system with 1080p support! LOL. Get your hands on the Super Smash Brothers Brawl, I need to get some fps numbers.

Grats on your purchase ZOG now go plant your in the order status thread with the rest of us. What's your EDD?

 

interesting, so you can run wii games using the dolphin emulator, how do you get them loaded into the machine ?

 

2630 + 1600mhz ram is working fine in my r3 (XMP Profile 2)
Good choice on specs, I'm sure you will be happy with the system.

 

No idea yet. I hope its simple like ngc games.