Just got my 880M twins!

I typically buy a new laptop every 3ish years. It depends on if it is still working for me. I got this one in March of last year and it's working very well. The 880M is a finicky beast, but I have it running pretty good for what I use it for. I don't typically play a vast variety of games. I usually just play maybe 2 or 3 and that's it. Right now it's Mechwarrior Online and some Counter Strike: Source (for which I think the HD4600 graphics is overkill).

 

Yeah, , I play csgo too . Pretty addictive if you ask me. Well for now, the only game I've run into trouble is the witcher 3 not only because of fps but constant crashes, freezing my AW18, stuttering, lagging, loading times take roughly 5 minutes everytime. I am pretty sure all these issues take a toll on my fps. I usually get around 45fps while free roaming, 30-35fps in extremely heavy populated areas where there is a lot going on and 60-80fps when in close quarter areas like one of the first mission when you are in a cavern.

Hey @Ethrem, can you help me please. Since the v1.05 update for the witcher 3, I've been playing the buggy simulator. It's appalling, I am constantly getting crashes to the desktop, 5 minutes loading screen, stuttering and lagging, freezing my computer, horrible pop-ups. My fps are all over the place. Sometimes, it's so bad I get 29-35fps which is horrible and makes me sick. Any advice would be appreciated, maybe reverting back to the previous update?

 

1.05 is a mess on my machine too. I knew installing mega patches like that was a bad idea. I haven't been feeling much like playing lately, I've been sick.

 

Ahhh, thanks a lot Ethrem, at least I know am not the only one experiencing that many issues with the game. My fps ate all over the place plus sometimes it can drop as low as 29-30 which is horrendous well I guess we just have to wait for patch 1.06 then. I am sorry to hear that you are sick. Hope you get well soon though when you feel a little better, you should try to run ark survival evolved, it's wrecking every single gpu out there due to it running of UE4 and bad optimisation too. A 980Ti gets 45-50 on a mixture of epic and medium settings. Eager to try it out and report on the fps I get.

 

ahhh I was hoping I could use SLI with it but now that I hear its UE4 I know I would have to turn down the settings

 

Hahahah UE4 engine plus bad optimisation, well maybe quad sli Titan x's can reach 60fps I will try it against my 880m SLi on ePic settings everything maxed out and report back on the fps. Hey @Ethrem @Mr. Fox I was wondering, do you guys think that the 1000 series will be compatible with my AW18 ( don't really care about other alienwares just my 18). According to me it should as my 18 uses 2 x MXM 3 slot? Cause I am really looking forward to swapping my 880ms for them. According to how things are turning out now, I am expecting the 1000 series to be at least 60% faster than my 880ms. Now upgrading to the 1000 series will be an all around worth while investment unlike the 980m SLi.

 

With the way Dell and nVidia have crippled the Alienware machines lately, I wouldn't be surprised if your machine doesn't work with them at all.

 

Well let's hope for a change of events. Maybe people will find a way for it to work just as they did with the 900m series. The 18 is MXM 3 compatible and thus by that logic should work with the 1000 series. Maybe change the heat pipes and BIOS too will do the trick. Fingers crossed I guess but thanks for your answer @Ethrem. What do you think @Mr. Fox

 

If they work they will most likely be a throttling mess unfortunately.

 

Well to be fair with you @Ethrem, I just want them to work regardless if they throttle or not Hey Ethrem, I forgot to mention that but how many years of ultra gaming do you Think I'll have with my 880ms. I am thinking 2 to 2.5 years especially with directx 12 even though my 880ms won't fully support it. But hey, as long as they benefit from the fps boost which I know they will according to nvidia then that's really all that matters, considering to make the most of directx 12 the game has to be designed with that in mind which won't be until 2 to 3 years.

 

I'd reckon a couple of years max, because some games you can't even max out now with 880M sli - I'd reckon a lot of games you'll be able to max out over the next year, maybe not the following. I also think the 1000 series will be a lot faster than the 60% faster than your 880M sli that you were hoping for (talking sli 1000 series here). 980M is already nearly 60% faster from my memory, so 1000 series Pascal will be a lot faster!

 

That's true, so it's basically 2 years nice. Maybe with some overclocking along with directx 12, I can push it to 2.5 years so basically till the middle of 2017. The 1000 series, now thinking about it, it can be as much as 90-100% faster than my 880ms. Pretty sure a single 1000m card would be on the same level as 2 880m:/ Yeah, in terms of memory, the 980m SLi has about 60% more. But in terms of gaming experience, the 980m SLi is only about 25-30% faster than my 880ms so that's why I am saving up for the 1000 series and also praying to god that my 18 will be compatible with them Actually, I have been able to max out every game so far even the witcher 3 and get well above 60fps. The witcher 3 is the only exception as it was optimised for the maxwell GPUs but even then I get on average 50fps which is pretty darn good

 

Apparently with Windows 10 and Direct X 12 UE4 engine games will support SLI?

 

I thought you could sort of force SLi via the nvidia control panel which is what I am planning on doing for Ark?

 

Impossible to predict. We can only hope it works better as a simple bolt-in upgrade than Maxwell has. Upgrades were never an issue until now, so maybe they will figure out what they did wrong and fix it with the next GPU. Could go either way, and potentially get worse. With the über-wuss ultrabook-loving masses being the crowd Micro$haft, Intel and the other OEMs are pandering to, performance enthusiasts with beast machines are not even on their radar any more. It would not surprise me for NVIDIA to do something really retarded like ending support for SLI in notebook drivers.

 

That is indeed a possibility @Mr. Fox and a really grim future for performance notebook owners. Let us hope your predictions are wrong

 

Hope is all we have left now, but the direction things are going, holding out on hope carries the potential for all of us to look stupid in the end for being foolish enough to be optimistic in a very dark and gloomy time filled with reasons for us to not be so naive. The mind-benders have assimilated the masses and we are the divergent minority that they don't want to have to deal with. I suspect they would like to just shoot us all rather than having to deal with us and our obsession with quality and performance.

 

You are probably right @Mr.Fox but my expectations are already low so I have nothing to lose. But I swear to god, if my 18 doesn't support the 1000 series, I will go super Saiyan on Nvidia's ass and I'll be done with gaming as a whole once I am done using my 880ms to the best I can. Ohhhh and btw @Mr. Fox, you should really work for Nvidia, that way, all our drivers would be superb and not a hot pile of smelly dog ****e. On a side note, I just want to thank you so much @Mr.Fox, your drivers and your contributions are what helps us through the tough times nvidia is making us go through

 

Desktops are really the last bastion for PC gaming, I don't feel like that will ever go away but it may be changing as well.

 

When I am done with my 880ms, I'll probably give the 1000m series a go if it ends up being compatible with my 18(which I, for the sake of nvidia ,hope it is) but after that I am building my own rig. **** that, gaming laptops are changing too damn fast ( insert too damn high meme here) and plus it's not about performance now but all about looks and how thin it is SMH. Yeah so there you go.

 

Have there been any indication about the new line of AMD mobile GPU and BIOS/UEFI support, i dont hope they will require UEFI like the Maxwell cards, i would like to upgrade my dual HD6990M with the new line if possible.

 

@macdaddy8000 - I hope not as well, but Micro$haft is pushing UEFI Class 3 compliance in an effort to force everyone to upgrade to their latest Windows abortion (as UEFI Class 3 will not allow Windows 7 to function). I sure do wish all of the OEMs and ODMs would stop cooperating and tell Micro$haft Nazis to stuff all of their nasty, Satanic UEFI Class 3, signatures and WHQL filth up their hind ends. The older UEFI with full CSM/Legacy Option ROM is just fine, but Class 3 is extremely bad news.

 

Hey @Mr. Fox. Now that I am thinking this through, I saw people upgrading their Alienwares from the 600m series to the 980m without any apparent trouble and some upgrading from AMD to NVIDIA. If I am strictly going by this, my 18 should be upgradable for at least 2 more generations (especially considering that I make use of 2 x MXM 3B slots) or am I just missing the point here ?

 

Have not you seen all the problems in different threads? Driver and bios problem with AW18 models. Maybe the problem is getting bigger later... This will also include Win 10 with its flaws.

 

Well I did come across some complaints but I never actually experienced them with my 18. No driver nor BIOS problems for me but the only thing that bothers me is they stopped releasing new drivers and BIOS updates. I get that Win 10 will make things harder for us such as UEFI 3 that @Mr. Fox mentioned but I am pretty sure we can find a way around that like the community did for the 900m series. I still have high hopes for the 1000 series being compatible with my 18 because after all, the 980m is fully working on the 18 now (significantly less throttling if not none at all) and the 1000 series will use MXM 3 slot so one more positive point. @Ethrem , a new update, v1.06, will be released next Monday (15th June) for the witcher 3. Let's just hope it won't be a bug fest

 

He's refering to the 980m in the m18x r2/AW18 complaints in the other theads- You've totally missed the point he was making.

The 900m series isn't all peachy and the 980m is far from fully working in these systems. It's a reoccurring battle.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/aw-m18x-r2-dual-980m-sli-upgrade.765169/page-235

 

Yeeeees. You get/got the point.. You know..

 

Ohhh yeah totally missed those points :rolleye: But it seems they are slowly getting it to work so that 's good. I still have high hopes that the 1000m series will eventually be compatible with my 18 and maybe the m18 r2 as well.

 

considering the 980 debacle, I would not get your hopes too high

 

What 980 debacle? I don't know but I just have a feeling that eventually the 1000m series will be compatible with my 18 albeit not right from the start, more like in a couple of months after release just like the 980m. On a side not, anyone else pumped for Batman Arkham Knight? I just hope it won't be the same ******** like with the witcher 3( optimised for Maxwell GPUs, Kepler you can go **** yourself even though my cards and the 780ti have been around for only 1-1.5 years). What is more ironic is I manage to pull 50fps on average with a bug fest v1.05 witcher 3 while most 980m Sli I saw got on average 65-70. 20 fps, so much for the game being really optimised for them. But I still do not understand why @Ethrem got 89fps on average with hairworks on too while my 880ms get 40 on average and a 980 with 44. That is just mind boggling ( maybe you could test it again @Ethrem with v1.05 so we could both be on the same ground ). BTW, NVIDIA released a new video showcasing the gameworks effect in batman arkham knight. I am excited to play it on ultra and see what fps I get. @Splintah, you should be expecting 120fps on ultra with 2titan x's. I am thinking 50-60fps on ultra with gameworks.

 

@PC GAMER

What do you mean? I just linked you to the debacle.
You need to start reading the information people are posting you rather than bury your head in the sand - no offence.
Calling 980m compatible is a massive stretch fails to appreciate the ongoing problems .
1. 980m only work in a Pure UEFI environment. That stinks
2. They throttle unless the user is meticulous in installation and driver editing , even then, often break and throttle.

It won't be upgrading if you're throttling to integrated graphics like speeds.

 

Also fan trouble with (bios/Ec). Not many Aw18 tested with gtx980m, most of them is Aw18r2.

 

Oh Okay, I guess I'll start reading more forums and just gather more information on the matter first. But as @Papusan mentioned, it was extensively tested on the m18xr2 mostly which is quite an old machine. Maybe the AW18 would provide different results? Let's hope the 1000m series won't be as finicky as the 900 series .

 

Hey @Splintah, I just played Ark Survival Evolved and I got on average 10fps on Epic settings with only one 880m. I heard that the Titan x gets on average 20fps. A 980 Ti gets on average 44 fps with some settings turned down to medium. The game is really not optimized at all.

 

Yeah well there is no 89 average with 1.05.......... 62... So mad...

If I wasn't a mod, the expletives flying from my mouth........ Yeah............

 

Yeses well I knew it, the difference between the 980m Sli and the 880m Sli is around 15-20fps. On a side note though, v1.05 is a ****ing joke, it's not the witcher 3 anymore but the bug simulator 3(insert facepalm emoji if there was one). Hey @Ethrem, do you know when directx 12 is coming? You guys are expected to use it at 100% but I am more excited for the fps boost BTW, do you guys know anything about the upcoming 1000 series, any leaks or information about it. I find it weird that nvidia will change architecture so quickly, I though they would go with maxwell 2.0 like they did for Kepler but instead are going for a newer so called pascal architecture.

 

Hey @Ethrem, have you tested the v1.06 update of the Witcher 3. I don't know if it's out though cause what I got from it was it was suppose to launch this Monday?

 

I've decided to shelve it for a good 3 months or so. It's still too much of a mess. Like all PC releases these days.

 

Nevermind @Ethrem, still a mess. Save yourself the trouble of updating it. The funny thing is I get new bugs with every new update.

 

Has anyone tested Batman Arkham Knight yet. I got 51fps on average for the PC performance test (everything set to high, nvidia gameworks set to on). I think to say though, it does not look like all the demos I saw, probs got downgraded as well

 

I have, and I'm not even remotely impressed by the SLi performance in my case. However, I am rather intrigued by your score of 51 FPS. Do you have PhysX set to CPU in the control panel?

 

I do have it set on CPU. SLi performance is dogshit, the fps is all over the place. You got a nice 3dmark 11 score btw, I got 15000 with both my 880ms but they throttle really much, don't run at 993mhz at all. Do you happen to have a mod VBIOS. In games, my 880ms are flawless, when stepping in benchmark territory, the MHz is all over the place, runs at average 840MHz. They are finicky bastards but I love them

 

Indeed, and with the SLi performance, I have found that my benchmark FPS drops to around 35-40 with PhysX set to 'auto', while a single 880M provides a slower but still awfully close 28 FPS. Thing is that with PhysX set to CPU, the interactive aspects of volumetric fog, smoke and debris become deactivated, which frees up a decent 10-15 FPS. The real 'problem' with SLi performance is the fact that it is hardly noteworthy; a 30% yield isn't impressive by how far dual GPU support has come over the last 5-10 years. It might come down to issues with the game itself, or perhaps even a bit of mishap on Nvidia's side with creating a decent profile for the title. As it stands, however, Rocksteady have acknowledged a problem with the PC version of the game, so that's something worth consideration.

The score in my signature isn't mine, actually, it belongs to someone else, but it's a very decent score that speaks to the concept of 880M when it doesn't throttle in this particular benchmark. As you can see, the site recorded the cards as operating at 993MHz, which most likely means that the owner was using the custom BIOS that's been discussed in this thread.

 

A very nice and detailed post, thanks. I will most probably switch physX to my second 880m to achieve greater framerates. I noticed a score of 56fps which is 5more fps with the same settings, physX set to CPU. The SLi utilisation is just a joke though plus the graphics have been severely downgraded to the point where I just want to cry myself to sleep I hope rocksteady comes up with a magic patch that will make everything work the way it was intended to be. I won't become the batman till then. Plus it's a shame for the last arkham title(the culmination of so many years of hard work). Indeed, a fully working 880m is a force to be reckoned with (a beast). I will most probably end up with a custom VBIOS so I can squeeze the life out of my 880ms before finally upgrading

 

So gtx 880m sli is possible on the m18x r2?

 

Sure as hell it is. You can actually upgrade your m18xr2 to the 980m if you wish too

 

Stay far away from the crippled gtx880m. Choose either gtx780m... Gtx980m also works but there is still some testing left before the card works as it is intended in Aw18x r2 ..

 

ok so gtx880m sli is a possibility but performance wise is lower than a 780m sli and gtx 980m sli. Im asking because i saw the upgrade options for both m18x r1 and r2 on eurocom website and gtx 880m sli is listed as an option for the m18x r1 but for m18x r2 is only an option as a single card solution and i was like wow becouse the m18x r2 is slightly more advanced than the r1 model ,both laptops are beasts though

 

Gtx880m is crippled with plenty throttling and heat problems (also not fond of oc). Gtx780m love Overclock with lower temp than gtx880m so they are much better cards and perform better. You can use both of those cards in a sli configuration on AW18x r2.

 

Well that depends, a crippled underperforming and overheating 880m (which is practically 75% of what was manufactured) will underperform when compared to the 780m SLi and the difference gap will be even larger against the 980m SLi. Fortunately for me, my 880ms work flawlessly except that I can't really overclock them due to the locked VBIOS. The highest 3dmark 11 score Mr.Fox was able to pull with the 780ms was around 20500(graphics score and with a massive overclock too) while I get around 15000 with my 880ms averaging at 845MHz. I saw people posting results of 880ms getting 18500(fully working 880ms working at the designed 993MHZ) . So you are looking at 3000 points difference between a massively overclock 780m to a stock 880m. Gaming performance is a beast and I noticed a steady 15fps difference up against the 980m SLi. If I were you though, I would really opt for the 980ms because the chance of you getting a working 880m is close to 0(even less due to them not being produced anymore). Cheers P.S. I forgot to mention that but I will be upgrading my 18 to the 980ms as soon as there is a price drop. The steps are different from the m18xr2 though.