AMD 6990 coming middle/end July:

Well, if you like to pay for the priveledge of snobbery....... - being frugal at the same time as wanting performance doesnt equate to the same thing.....

 

the 580M SLI is now available for 1200$ on the US site

 

Screw it, just changed my order to the 580's. From a price/performance standpoint its pretty much completely indefensible, but I live in a 3rd world country so I'd rather get the best I can, now. Plus, I hear the 580's stop 7.62 rounds better at close range if I wear the m18x as a breastplate

 

The bullet proof only works with the onboard intel graphics.

 

I bet that was a marketing decision, no engineer would have gone that way.

 

Hahaha - enjoy 'em when you get 'em ...be sure to post up some benches when you do!

 

man 2920 + 580 sli ... what does that break down to on a cost per increase in fps in your favorite game?

i can't decide if i should get the 580's or the 2920... both is just too much... either one is actually

 

If my 11"stops 5.56 I reckon the M18x has a good chance, stands to reason really Macs barely stop a BB, who would have guessed?

 

For gaming, give the 2920xm a miss and lash out on the 580m's - most games are gpu dependant rather than cpu dependant....your cash is better spent on gpu's if your a complete gamer....the 2820 will not do you wrong....

 

Hey what is up with notebookcheck website listing the 590..is this the answer to ati's 6990 gpu?

 

The listings in black are desktop cards.....

 

Strange... You would think notebookcheck would leave out the desktop cards since it is a laptop/notebook website.

 

Well, its to indicate in overal heirachy, where mobile graphics cards stand in relation to their desktop counterparts.....gives you a better idea of how powerful the mobile cards are which is quite handy!

 

So if you have a M18x with xfire 6970's and you upgraded to the 580M sli's yourself would your M18x now have optimus or is the motherboard going to be different between the GPU platforms??

Thx

 

is there any news if the 570 will be avaible for m18x?
else ill be going with sli 460s i guess

 

Optimus would require a hardware mod, so no, no Optimus for the 580M or any other cards. With the Precision Mx600 series they decided to go with Optimus and there's no IGP switching for the AMD cards.

 

Oh, that's weird. People like myself can be under the assumption that optimus will work now on the M18x because of the Nvidia logo text to the left of the selection on the video card page that's copied below from this page.

Dell US M18x Selection

 

Well, if they revised the mobo to add Optimus support - it may work. I still have my doubts.

 

Indeed IN AnandTech's review they basically say the only real gain from the 580 over the 485 is the optimus .... so if no optimus ... no real gain ?

AnandTech - Optimus Top to Bottom: NVIDIA Releases the GeForce GTX 570M and 580M

 

Unrelated but funny, this was one of the links on the side of that anandtech link:

DailyTech - Computer Chess Champion Caught Injecting Performance-Enhancing Code

 

Again, totally unrelated to the topic but moreso related to the link above....that guy should spend more time "injecting" his wife than playing computer chess....... .....maybe he looks at toooo much "pawn" (sorry, couldnt resist the lame chess related joke)

 

I recently asked about this very subject. As a truck driver, I have to power my laptops via power inverters when I don't have shore power, hence my interest. Gonna have to probably get the 460 SLI vs the AMD crossfire since they draw about 50 watts less but am still wavering. Was hoping to see a 560 SLI option.


Time Details
06/29/2011 02:04:00PM System: "Thanks for choosing Chat to assist you in making your purchase on Dell.com. An Alienware representative will be with you shortly."
06/29/2011 02:04:15PM Session Started with Agent (MARY_A)
06/29/2011 02:04:21PM Agent (MARY_A): "Welcome to Dell US Chat! My name is Mary and I will be your Dell.com Sales Chat Expert. I can be reached at [email protected] or via voicemail at 1-800-379-3355 Ext-2160085.How can I help you today?"
06/29/2011 02:06:01PM Scott: "Heya Mary. I am looking at an 18x I want to know how optimus works with the AMD video adaptors"
06/29/2011 02:06:38PM Scott: "I know it was designed to work with Nvida"
06/29/2011 02:06:53PM Agent (MARY_A): "I'd be glad to assist you. Welcome to Dell, Scott."
06/29/2011 02:08:50PM Agent (MARY_A): "You're are inquiring about the optimus feature in the Nvidia video card right?"
06/29/2011 02:09:25PM Scott: "I configured a system, currently $4,267.00 but I want o know how Otimus works with the AMD ATI video adaptors, and if there are any discounts/coupouns you can send me. Im hesistanting...."
06/29/2011 02:12:33PM Agent (MARY_A): "Let me inform you about how the optimus works and about the discounts I'm afraid that all the deals that we offer online are the least price that we could extend as being set by Dell based on the Market."
06/29/2011 02:14:05PM Scott: "it's in the MB and Video boards I think. Does it work at all with AMD cards. I have heard that you can switch between onboard GPU and the AMD cards but have to reboot, whereas with Nivida it's an automatic process. This correct?"
06/29/2011 02:14:30PM Scott: "Too bad about deals... your loosing a sale..."
06/29/2011 02:14:46PM Scott: "fYI, I have about 10 more minutes"
06/29/2011 02:15:52PM Agent (MARY_A): "You're right about the video card, Scott."
06/29/2011 02:16:16PM Agent (MARY_A): "You do know then how the optimus feature works."
06/29/2011 02:21:06PM Scott: "nods, thanks for confirming. I wish to purchase, but $4,267.00 is a lot of $$ and I a poor truck driver..."
06/29/2011 02:21:42PM Agent (MARY_A): "You're certainly welcome."
06/29/2011 02:22:01PM Agent (MARY_A): "Anything else I can address for now?"
06/29/2011 02:23:42PM Session Ended

 

I dunno, I'd actually prefer the 6970m over the 580m. I'm not a huge fan of Optimus; I'd rather have the manual switching that the ATI card provides. Also, I was reading in another thread on this forum that with CrossFireX you don't need complete driver updates to add more support for more games, whereas with SLI you do? (Sorry, I might be wrong, I'm totally new to CrossFireX and SLI).

EDIT: Wait... you have to reboot with the AMD offering? That can't be right. I had a dv6t with a 6770m in the past and you didn't have to reboot, you just had to click the button and the screen would flicker for a second or two and you'd be using the other card.

 

A reboot is required with AMD 6970's to switch to the iGPU.

 

At least it works unlike Optimus with its bugs and glitches.

 

that is not suposed to hapen unles you have a 3d app running

 

Ah ha........... OK so to clarify, does anyone know "how" optimus works between the Nvidia card and the Intel 3000 chip? It can't be on the vid card? That would not make sense due to the fact that when the 3000 chip is running the video, the GPU card is completely powered down and can even be removed and put back on the board during this time. So is it just the 3000 that runs optimus or another chipset on the board that maybe the M18x does not have?

 

Your saying a reboot does not have to happen? If thats what you are saying then how do you turn on IGP without reboot?
Thx

 

i don't have a m18x but so far with the amd/intel mix you have you close all open aplications and the switch is suposed to work without forcing the reboot

 

There's no way to turn on IGP w/o reboot. It's disabled in BIOS. During reboot the IGP is enabled and the GPU's are disabled. Valid for the M18x.

 

meh that's a wierd choice anyway it's still better then my m17 i have no IGP

 

I too prefer the switch, though I do wish it wasn't on a reboot basis. The "auto" phasing in and out of Optimus isn't my preference. But I'm sure you can turn it off.

 

All we need to figure out is HOW optimus works right? Where's the brain of optimus? Would it be in the bios?

 

no optimus is coompletly software based the barin is inside nvidia's driver

 

I'm confused, that does not make sense to me. The XPS 17 is a great example, the 3D version and non 3D version both have the 555 video card and the 3000 Intel. In the 3D version they bypassed the optimus somehow and it can't be turned back on.

Do you know where you heard software based? Not saying you are wrong, just trying to figure out what I have been told.

 

Some good news thanks to RedLine: The 6990M drivers are up on Clevo website for the P170/150. It's getting very close.

 

Oh, I hope they undercut the hell out of Nvidia's pricing.

 

With all the posts going around about the upgrade to the 580M, I see alot of NBR members trying to convince/prepare for the purchase of 2 580M's in SLI.

I recommend waiting to see what AMD has under their sleeve before taking the plunge. I would hate to see fellow NBR/M18x owners upgrade their units for 1200.00USD+ only to have their system smoked a few months/weeks later for half the price....unless you need Cuda.

This will end just like the 285M vs 5870M last gen. AMD is very quick to release a comparable or better gpu.

Honestly I prefer Nvidia, but as of late I applaud AMD for taking care of me from G73JH>M17x R2(4)>M17x R3>M18x R1.

 

I was actually about to pull the trigger on an m18x (2630qm & 6970m xfire) for about $2030 last night.

I decided to just wait because there is a very good chance that an m18x-r1/2 will be released soon with better upgrade options. And mainly because of the reason you stated that AMD will most likely bring out the 6990m's VERY SOON which will have made me feel like crap if i had just splurged cash on 6970ms.

I'll just wait and see how it goes, but chances are AMD's newer mobile GPU will be cheaper than the 580ms...i mean $1200 for 2 mobile gpus? ouch..

 

6990M is official it seems -_-

 

Clevo has added the 6990M to their driver page, as well as the P150HM/P170HM User Manuals.

 

So how does the 6990M Crossfire compare to the 580M SLI?

 

Truth is we don't know, although there is someone here who has a 1120 shader es 6970 ... maybe if they tossed out their benches it would give us an idea ?

 

Well considering the 6990m is vapourware at present , no one knows.

 

Greaaaaaaaat......................they combined the threads......................lame....lol

 

I bet 6990m vs 580m will be exactly like 6970m vs 485m. AMD will be cheaper and they will be pretty much equal in performance.

Nvidia fanboys will be arguing that Nvidia have better drivers, support for PhysX and is better than the AMD solution. AMD fanboys will be arguing that the 6990m is pretty much equal in terms of performance, cheaper and that physX is only implemented in few games. Reviews will be quoted, personal attacks will be made and all in all it all brews down to who have the most money to waste and personal references.

And the dance continues.

 

Couldnt have said it better myself. Great post.

 

The bolded is close to being an objective fact, to be fair. For instance, what blockbuster games are using PhysX, this year or next? I think Batman is.

The 6970M is actually my very first experience with AMD, and I must say, all of the fears I had built up (especially in regards to driver support) were largely dashed. The 11.x series of Catalyst has been really solid. Maybe I just jumped in at the right time.

I still have a bit of nostalgia for Nvidia's GPUs, but now I have no fear of going with AMD, if pricing again forces my hand. The 580M is a $350 premium. Crazy, right? It's all but assured, that the 6990M will be hundreds cheaper, making the 580M hard foe me to justify.

Nvidia = abusive spouse, who I want to love, if only they'd stop kicking me in the dangly bits

 

But if the 6970m xfires already play everything out there right now, why even bother paying anything extra for 6990m?

That's the bad thing about computers, you will never have the latest and greatest for very long.

 

MORE GPU POWER! HAHAHAHAHA - evil laugh