Still no 2920XM for R3?

That the best processor you can order from Dell for it is no better than what you can get in a 15" MacBook Pro is an embarrassment.

Any news on if they'll even offer it (or allow the overclock they do on the M18x)?

 

The 2920xm is not really available for the MBP.
Anyway it is sad that the 2920xm is not really available for the R3, makes no sense. Anyway you could grab one aftermarket and upgrade yourself.

 

I have a 2920XM. Believe me, compared to the 2820QM it's not worth it.

 

Yes, but grabbing one and lacking the possibility of taking advantage of its unlocked features and being not far from the 2820 at stock, defeats the whole purpose IMHO.

 

Dell probably locked it in the bios and didn't offer it because the didn't design a dual piped heatsink for it. Pure speculation

 

I did post a unlocked bios mod for the M17xr3........... somebody with a 2920xm should flash the bios and check inside to see.

 

If it's there but only locked, that's partially good news for R3 owners

 

Yeah, my point was that it's not a factory option for either laptop. They both top out at the 2820QM.

 

I have a 2920XM ES cpu and I believe the BIOS locks it down, since I can't manipulate the multipliers.

 

Have you tried the modded one?

 

That's a pretty discouraging thought. Seems odd that they wouldn't offer it after they made the 940XM available on the M15x.

 

And they had to limit the 920xm/940xm in the M15x bios due to throttling. Something that wasn't a problem in the 17x

 

seriously though anybody with a 2920xm should try the modded bios. It won't corrupt you or anything unless you somehow lose power in the process. A lot of deep features got unlocked.

 

i tried the 2920es with the modded bios already. sorry but modded bios is no help

 

you tried with throttlestop?

 

Thanks inap for trying it, I wasn't sure if it hadn't already been tried.

 

yeah tried with ts and no luck, i can see that the multies are unlocked but even if i set the multi higher it still does nothing. there is still something locking it in the bios.

 

Dang. Can anybody with experience mod the bios to remove the lock? Unclewebb talked to me about something like this:


"The turbo power limit is encoded in MSR 0x610 and bit[63] is the lock bit. If bit 63 is set to 1, the power limit register is locked and can't be changed. A modified bios would need to set bit[63] to 0.

For Sandy Bridge, if you run ThrottleStop and click on the TPL button, it will show you if this register is locked or not. If nothing can be changed in this window then it is locked.

For the 2920XM, I believe there is also a lock bit for the CPU multiplier but it is not publicly documented and I don't know where that bit is located. There is one bit that is documented but I think that there is also a second bit that can prevent multiplier changes when you are within Windows. 0xCE bit[28] needs to be set to 1 so the multiplier register at 0x1AD is read / write. If 0xCE bit[28] is 0, register 0x1AD is read only."


so if Wiz or anybody else can mod bios PLEASE remove the lockbit!

 

Exactly my experience as well, TStop let me change the value but they did not take effect. The values wouldn't be changeable if the cpu wasn't capable, correct? I just can't remember that small detail about TStop.

 

strange idea. anybody attempt to compare the M18x and the M17x bios to look around? I know for sure the 2920xm is fully unlocked on the m18x.

 

yeah on a reg cpu like 2720 the value can't be changed at all.

i don't think its fully unlocked in the M18x bios, i think the bios handles all the oc'ing, but ts can't change the multi. correct me if i'm wrong