Just got my 880M twins!

Yes. There is no point in dual psu setup with AW18.

 

Best 3Dmark Fire strike score with Gtx980m vs gtx880m in sli http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/2402025/fs/4760525

 

Gotta love the P570WM and its ability to not spontaneously combust with 880s at that core =O

 

Although P570WM have an i7-4960X processor so is not i7-4930k far behind. Oc Gtx980m sli have nearly 65% higher graphics performance in Fire strike than the most overclocked gtx880m in sli. @PC GAMER says Gtx880m in sli is almost as good as gtx880m sli...LOL

 

Both those machines are P570WM and in many cases the 4930K overclocked better than the 4960X did anyway so yeah I can't think of a better way to compare.

I want USMC's cards... Mine can't get anywhere near that core. Lol

 

^^^^

 

I have one friend with the same setup as you excluding the 120Hz and he paid 4200 USD so it's pretty close. The 2×330psu really intrigues me I have to say. But then again ican just purchase a 660PSU and change my BIOS to work with it.

 

You don't say Papusan. But we can still sort of purchase a 660PSU and change the bios so it works with it.

 

Hey Ethrem can you tell me what you mean that the 18 can be attached to the box

 

Have not seen anyone who has fixed the problem with dual psu. Aw18 was launched nearly 2 years ago. Long time without a fix. Not help with dual PSU anyway. Mr Fox has tried but failed.

 

Its a board limitation. There is no way around it without modifying the board.

I should note that nobody has modified the motherboard so even that may not be a fix.

 

Bios is completely locked and no one knows if it's possible with this AW18 motherboard anyway. Had it been possible to use 2x330w so this had this been fixed long time ago.

 

I did not say that I was just saying that a properly overclocked 880m ib SLi can hold its ground. The 980m sli with a different architecture should really provide good benchmark results, that is a must but in real life gaming performance, the difference gap is not big and I've played all the benchmarks games like crysis 3, metro last light redux and GTA 5 maxed out with advanced settings cranked up well above 60fps.

 

Oh okay but can you tell me what you meant by the 18 is attached to the box

 

Yeah, you previously mentioned that it's not necessary to have 2x330w for the 18. Why is that so?

 

It is tested Aw18 draws no more than 330W the max dual or single PSU can deliver.
Stock clock gtx980m vs gtx880m in sli. Remember as well that Gtx980m is a better graphics card for hefty overclocking than the throttled gtx880m if you go over the stock speed...
Nvidia will also optimize drivers for Gtx980m better than previous graphics card models forward. This is already kept proven.

 

I don't see anywhere I said anything like this?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/just-got-my-880m-twins.750830/page-115#post-10005202
Does not work anyway

 

I suppose I could have worded it better...

The 18 uses the same plug the M18x does so his dual PSU mod can be connected... But will not draw more than 330W.

 

Correct. If someone had managed to get this to work, then it would be Mr Fox.

 

Oh okay, I get it. Maybe in terms of performance, the power that the 980m delivers is extraordinary. But the thing is, I got more fps than 61 when playing metro last light and I played the redux which is way more demanding. With 2xssaa, I get 60-70fps with the rest maxed out.

 

Hey Ethrem, is it a good thing if the 18 will never go over 330W. Given that one 880m uses 120W to normally operate. Then if 2 superclocked one can work without going over 330W must be a good thing?

 

If Nvidia update newer drivers you can obtain better fps in the same game. Nvidia normally get better (Moore optimised) performance in newer graphic card drivers than older generation cards into the future.

No this is not a good thing. You can't have a big overclock with a 330w limit on the motherboard. I can run over 270w in benchmark tests with a single oveclocked gtx780m. If you overclock heavily with your graphic then you can't do the same also with your processor. A limit is a bad thing.

 

Yeah, maybe having a limit is not such a good thing but it's to protect the hardware so am not against it. I am far from needing an overclock too when it comes to real life games as I get above 60fps on every maxed out game I threw at them. When they start to struggle playing games on ultra@60fps, no big deal, am just gonna upgrade the gpu to the 1000 series (as it should be out by then). The sheer power that 2x1080m will produce will just make overclocking useless.

 

Overclocking is a nice thing... It's just crazy that laptop manufacturers create barrier for overclocking of the hardware you own and have bought for your hard earned money. It is not necessary to make restrictions for overclocking of hardware (to protetect hardware). Those who overclock hardware, know what the consequences are of doing this wrong. I do not know if the upgrade to Gtx980m is fully functioning with AW18 yet. There is also no guarantee that Gtx1080m "if this is the name" is going to work with AW18. No one knows what Nvidia is going to do for mischief(deviltry).

 

The problem is users who do not know what they are doing can cause damage and that cost falls on the manufacturer when they return it for repair.

 

There is a larger problem that laptop manufacturers do not make good enough cooling solution, fan profiles and use poor thermal grease . Think there are several damaged processors and graphics cards because of this, than some cause damage of hardware with overclocking.

 

Yeah you are right, overclocking should be allowed but well nVidia makes the rules so, we can't do anything about it The 980m sli is functional on the 18 but suffers throttling issues that's all. I am pretty sure that the 1080m will work as my 18 uses MXM 3 and MSI TITAN which also uses MXM 3 said ut would be upgradable for two generations. It is 99% confirmed. The only modifications will be to the heatpipes and BIOS that's all Can you tell me what rig you have

 

See my hardware signature at the bottom. Aw17R1. Last AW17 without Bga garbage

 

What's the point of BGA by the way? I don't see any positive thing about it, not for the manufacturer or the consumer..

 

I guess BGA must just lower overall cost to the laptop manufacturers, it must outweigh any CPU/motherboard failures that would then require a replacement of both. It also stops users upgrading their CPU, so could mean that users are more likely to buy a whole new laptop a little earlier, which also increases their profits - but this is only a very small mechanism, not many people upgrade their laptop CPUs.

 

I always wondered why the MXM port never became a real must standard for laptops. It is somehow more expensive to include a MXM port compared to a soldered GPU, if so why is more expensive?.- Maybe that's the same reason why in theory it would be cheaper to produce soldered CPU's.. I remember the masive heat issue with the 8600M GPU and how Dell had to change the whole motherboard for their costumers...

 

Haha, I remember the whole debacle with the 8600M GT, I was lucky and must have had a golden sample, I ran mine with a pretty massive overclock for years in my Dell M1530, I think it was: 700Mhz core / 1700Mhz shader / 1000Mhz VRAM which was like 47%/78%/42% overclock (temperatures in the 80's). Yeah, the debacle was the high 8600M GT failure rate due to constant heating up & cooling down causing cracks I think, the way I operated mine on a notebook cooler combined with the fan profiles meant that mine didn't constantly cycle in temperature during operation - perhaps that's why mine lasted ages.

Yes, I guess it is cheaper to offer soldered GPUs, otherwise they wouldn't be the most common solution. I guess final assembly costs of the laptop are greater for MXM GPU laptops, and maybe there's other reasons why it's more expensive too.

 

That is indeed a nice rig you got there dude. How is your 780m holding up against newer games. Am pretty sure the 780m can play games at 30 or 45+ fps on ultra(similar to one 880m). When did you get your AW17 if I may ask I was just wondering, as am a newbie in those stuff, can you explain me what BGA means

 

Fortunately we have 2xMXM 3 slots in our 18 which is fantastic. But it's true, it should be a standard for laptops.

 

BGA vs PGA

BGA - Ball Grid Array / non-replacable - Fully soldered - heatup / throttling they eventually make the machine fail & needs replacement of whole mobo - whatnot = Total BS for Enthusiasts / True gamers.

Spoiler

PGA - Pin Grid Array uses sockets/ Fully customizable & upgradable - no disadvantages except $$$ = Win

Perfect examples of PGA advantage - Clevo P7x0ZM uses an Z97 Chipset which supports LGA1150 socket & currently they ship with Haswell but when the Broadwell comes out that machine will support new CPUs with a simple BIOS update, the P377SM-A too which is an SLI beast, M18x R2 held crown of perforemance for a quite fair amount of time but the Maxwell UEFI requirement and throttling issues nailed it, tho the throttling is fixed on all AW's, P570WM SLI is another story which can run LGA2011 CPU, a Hexacore CPU...tbh only kind of machines / real DTRs that exist in the world...

Thats why -

Spoiler: Clevo P570WM

^these do exist on a notebook which matches a GTX Titan X performance..

Too bad Alienware's dead now..they don't issue a patch nor anything for the older machines for Maxwell upgrades / Fan profiles / Locked BIOS..

 

So basically it's the CPU being soldered onto the motherboard? That is indeed a true disadvantage as everytime someone wants to upgrade, he/she has to buy a whole new laptop. Am so grateful I own an 18 which is fully upgradable, CPU and GPU, even the motherboard. I think your AW17 is upgradable too Alienware is pretty much dead now. They f***** up hard and are now paying the consequences Well the 880m SLI is no slouch either, according to the results above, it still got a graphics score of 15073 compared to 24838. A difference of 9765 is still good considering the 980m SLi has a new architecture and operates at a higher clock speed than the 880m sli. That just goes to show that an 880m SLi is indeed future proof and as a matter of fact, it killed ever single game I threw at them ranging from crysis 3, metro last light redux to GTA 5 with advanced settings on, which were all played well above 60fps. Your 860m delivers quite a good performance too given its price and the fact that it has low maxwell components Actually, I am planning on upgrading to the 1000 series once it comes out

 

Well my friend mine is a Kepler chip based off GK104 & I don't think so they will plan to release a new architecture (Pascal, Im sure that won't be called a 1000 series ) when the Maxwell is king of the hill on both DT and NB markets while AMD is struggling to recover from massive losses $$$.

Though Alienwares are upgradable AW17 & 18 but they are infected with a serious crapware called which is non curable - NVRAM BIOS (Can't basically reset easily in case of a failed OC ) & Secure Flash - unable to unlock the BIOS

 

I have seen and read many many many threads of people successfully upgrading the 18 to the 980m SLi though it was a pain in the ***. I just have to follow their instructions and am done, Mr Fox has the same AW18 as me and he has 2xgtx 980ms running, the AW18 is just so good. Your AW17 will be much easier to upgrade as the 900 series Dell sells are compatible with the AW17. The new mobile gpu from nVidia will be called Pascal and will supposedly launch in 2016(can't wait for them ).

 

I had the 980M SLI in my M18xR2. I moved it to a Clevo P570WM. The M18xR1, M18xR2 and AW18 all have GTX 780M GPUs.

 

@PC GAMER
Ashtrix gave you a very nice explanation of what BGA hardware is... The only thing I can say in addition; That this is a so called GARBAGE. Look under my avatar and nickname Regarding my AW17, I bought it when it was launched in the spring 2013.
You can disable sli graphics on your AW18 and run 3DMark 11 benchmark test with only a single gtx880m. Compare your single gtx880m 3Dmark11 score with my score of P9528. Then you get an idea of how the performance of my single Gtx780m is against a single Gtx880m you and other have.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9761352

@PC GAMER You say to @Ashtrix; Your AW17 will be much easier to upgrade as the 900 series Dell sells are compatible with the AW17.
What??? Dell sells 900 series graphics cards. But they are soldered onto the motherboard for the new modern "thin" Aw laptops...

 

Yeah that's what I though but I wasn't sure so I just said it. What is your graphics score for 3dmark firestrike as it is much more demanding. I did not buy the full version but when I ran it on one single 880m I got 6987 nearly 7000 and that is without any overclocks

Why did you do that Mr Fox? Were they working properly? I heard that it's possible to upgrade the 18 to the 980m SLi without much trouble but the disadvantage is that it suffers from throttling issues. Were yours working properly?

 

You must have a "golden" chip if you almost manages a graphic score of 7000 in 3DMark Fire Strike with stock clock and single gtx880m
3DMark Fire Strike is a "toy" benchmark test. This test is not demanding "especially for the processor". 3Dmark11 is a much better benchmark test. My graphics score is 7159 in Fire Strike http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4489017 I also like to chase numbers in Cinebench 11.5/R15 or Wprime 1024 test's... http://hwbot.org/submission/2849851_papusan_wprime___1024m_core_i7_4930mx_2min_47sec_657ms http://hwbot.org/submission/2852931_papusan_cinebench___r11.5_core_i7_4930mx_9.42_points
http://hwbot.org/submission/2852892_papusan_cinebench___r15_core_i7_4930mx_857_cb

 

The throttling fix will likely be finalized soon, but yes... terrible throttling, especially when overclocked. Worked mostly OK stock playing games (not always, but often was OK,). I am an overclocker above all else when it comes to PC and I simply could not put up with that throttling issue even a little bit. Gaming is just something I do for fun when I have time to sit and vegetate, when there is nothing else left to conquer as far as number chasing is concerned. Since I am not nearly as passionate about about gaming as I am overclocking, that was a total deal-killing problem for me.

Things have changed a lot recently with @Prema @j95 and @[Nikos] working together. I am super excited about the progress that has been made, especially with the @Prema vBIOS. It was not even close to being OK or good when I bought a Clevo to use them in. I'm still not thrilled about the pure UEFI and Windows 8 crap. Windows 7 does better at almost everything except for Fire Strike. Windows 8 is a sucky performing OS where CPU is concerned, so even with the GPU throttling fix here and now, having to use only Windows 8 in pure UEFI mode is still a really big stinker for me.

 

My 880m sure is '"golden"but then again I waited a long time before purchasing it so maybe it was one of the few that wasn't plagued. Did I mention, I ran 3dmark firestrike with the stock drivers from Dell and at clock speed The 880m can be a real beast, nVidia ****ed them up unfortunately I just ran 3dmark firestrike today and with a little overclock I got 8679 points. The temps were a bit high though, it stayed around 80 degrees. 3dmark firestrike is currently the most demanding benchmark in the world and it has been proven so.

 

Wrong. 3DMark11 and Catzilla both push the limits of the entire system more than fire strike.

 

Yes... both of those, especially 3DMark 11, separates the men from the boys. Even the antique 3DMark Vantage is more taxing on the overall system than Fire Strike is. There is a reason it is so popular with the cripple BGA notebook fanboys. Fire Strike is mostly a fluffy feel-good benchmark.

Fire Strike is very forgiving of CPU and GPU overclocking instability compared to other benchmarks, meaning what will crash and burn with other benchmarks often does not crash with Fire Strike. And, it gives nice looking overall scores to systems with really pathetic CPUs. It gives almost no weight to physics performance in the overall score.

 

P8679 in 3DMark Fire Strike is terribly low with your hardware. You should have over P9000 in Fire strike with stock clock and without overclock of the graphics cards. http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4850599 and http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3136599
You may post your score?

 

He's probably running into the power limit throttle from overclocking that causes his core to drop even lower.

9131 was my base with 880M SLI.

 

Something is wrong as the score are so low compared to what it should be
Edit: Here is a laptop with the same processor and gtx880m sli with stock clock in the graphics cards. No overclock ... Fire strike P9256 http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3206443