*OFFICIAL* Alienware M18x Benchmark Thread - Part 2

WELL THEN.

If that actually looks like a normal out of the box score, then I suppose the newb tag under my name is appropriate.

So what I've learned in the (9) posts in this forum is:

1. There is nothing wrong with my system

2. I'm getting "low" ratings because Im competing with OCers and tweakers.

3. I need to learn to do the above.

Well, out of curiosity, when Vantage tells me

Your Score Target Score for your hardware

Overall Score P18404 P21700
GPU Score P18814 P23800​

Isnt the target score supposed to be from "out of the box"? Or no?

 

Roger and welcome aboard

 

Exactly!

I don't think so. I think that may be the average of scores for similar systems, many of which are not benching with a stock configuration. As you stated, you are competing against overclockers.

NICE! Finally got your replacements? My goodness, that was a long wait.

Check your power profile. You are probably running in Balanced or Power saver mode with the CPU set incorrectly. Switch to High performance and set CPU minimum and maximum to 100% if it's not already set that way.

 

Man! Since Dec. 14th to yesterday....Mighty long indeed.

 

You were correct, it was set to balance. Now to figure out how to overclock the cpu and gpu....

 

Yeah, that balanced mode thing is a mith. You can still bench and get a decent score.

Side note:
Looks like there is a new sheriff in town...

P8858

 

New wPrime scores for the leader board

32M = 5.491 / 1024M = 169.458

 

congrats Mr Fox wonderful bench... Shows ES can use over 100watss for sure and obviously its capable over 1.35 volts
Congrats John that's one score to be very proud of

 

Nice work there!

That's not a 300 dollar ES chip either. It's a QS with 25x multiplier. The 300 dollar ones only have 24x multiplier with a max voltage of 1.3511.

PS:
Brother Fox...We don't need hwinfo...but 3 screens of cpuz.

 

Thanks, Brother John! I remembered the 2 additional CPU-Z after closing everything. I was so excited about breaking my own records that I just spaced it off.

I also have new scores for 3DMark11 (8400) and Vantage (32597) to post, but I'm trying to do a little better before I throw in the towel for the day and post the screen shots and links on the thread. The hotel AC unit is doing wonders, LOL. The display drivers keep crashing, so I am backing down on the BCLK a little to try to keep them stable. I'm not 100% how it works, but I think the BCLK being too high affects the PCIe bus in such a way that the video cards are not liking running so fast.

The nice thing is that the CPU is no longer holding anything back.

Brother RV - as John mentioned, it's a QS and it will also take 1.501v like an OEM.

 

Oh yeah! The hotel you say. Well let the benching continue...lol

 

That explains it it handles like a normal one =)

 

Well, I cannot seem to lower the wPrime 32M score no matter what settings I try. I also tried what you suggested, Brother John. Not sure what's up with that.

But, the hotel AC unit has produced some great Futuremark scores. I will post the screen shots here in a bit.

Courtesy of Hampton Inn, LOL...

 

New benches for the leader board...

3DMark11: P8439 | Vantage: P32676 | 3DMark06: 32569 | 3DMark05: 39934

 

I can probably fix that.
TV

 

I came pretty close to the same setup when living in a hotel (also hampton inn) for 6 weeks in Boston for training for new job haha

 

Get ya hotel living on!...lol

 

wPrime 32M: 5.14 ~ thanks for the help, Brother John

 

No problem Brother Fox.

 

5.14 secs very nice Mr.Fox AC rocks those with the vents like that are amazing laptop coolers

 

Lmfao that is awesome, I know you mentioned hotel AC when I asked before but I had no clue you had it directly setup like that XD

 

I tried OCing the cards and I'm still getting this score:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P18766 3DMarks

Am I doing something wrong here? I wouldn't be surprised if I am.

 

Terrik - your CPU is going to be an impediment to getting really outstanding benchmark scores, but there is definitely room for improvement on your benchmark results. I doubt there is anything wrong with your system, it is most likely simply a matter of optimizing settings. Your CPU probably does an excellent job in gaming and I'm sure that's the primary reason you purchased the M18x. If so, don't be overly concerned with benchmark scores if your gaming performance is excellent.

What are your NVIDIA Control Panel settings? Be sure you set if for "Performance" or use the 3DMark Vantage profile. If you use the Vantage profile, change all the settings to high/maximum performance, turn off eye candy settings, multiple display, power management mode, etc. Also, grab the latest Verde beta driver.

I just did a benchmark with my GPUs set at stock speeds. Here is a side-by-side comparison. Look at the detailed results section: Compare Results

Ignore the CPU part of the benching for now. Focus on your GPU score. There are a couple of tweaks we may be able to do with you non-XM CPU once we get the GPU part in order. For cross-reference, here are my cumulative scores with the 2760QM CPU | GTX 580M SLI. You should be able to achieve similar results with the right settings, although the 2760QM CPU is a bit more powerful than the one in your system. You will need to flash your vBIOS to run at 0.92v in order to push your GPU setup much beyond what your current clock speeds are. Here again, if gaming is your primary objective, this is not necessary.

Once you get your GPU performance looking better, have a look at my posts on this thread for helping improve your CPU performance. You're going to need an unlocked A05 BIOS to make some of these adjustments. (There are more linked threads in my signature. Click the link right above the graphic for a list of threads that may be of interest to you.)

 

Well, turns out my control panel settings were on "Quality" not performance. Ran vantage again and got this:

That score look a bit more normal then?

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P21337 3DMarks

 

Yes, that's much better! You're making good progress and just earned a +1 rep. Good job, bro.

Re-read my post above. I was still editing it when you replied.

Next step: update NVIDIA driver

 

Just did a stock run at 2.7 ghz and his score is way too low...


Brother Terrik. Did you ever flash the new video bios from dell?

 

Good question, John. Apparently, some were still shipping without the correct 580M vBIOS applied. Here is an example.

 

I upgrade the drivers to 8.17.12.9551

I also used the throttling shortcuts in that other thread that was pointed out before I ran vantage.

My new score is:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P21527 3DMarks

Not all that different really.

As far as my bios is concerned, according to NvidiaInspector its:







Out of curiosity, why is the fan speed set at 0% and grayed out on GPU(0)?

 

OK. You have the correct vBIOS. That's good.

Because the GPU fans are actually chassis fans on laptops. The GPU modules do not control the fans, the BIOS EC does. There is nothing connected to the software fan controls, so they are grayed out. That feature only works on desktop video cards.

------------------------

Here's a link to benches with a CPU like yours: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7897632-post310.html

 

That's nothing....
Run vantage and tell me your fps & frames rate are right when jane nash jumps from the plank to the box above the water. Then you can exit out and report back here.

It looks like you are throttling down.

 

Ah got it. Well then, am I up to speed with the GPUs now? Or is there more to do (besides tweaking the CPU in the threads you mentioned)?

EDIT: Oops, john ninjia'd me.

Be right back, I'll check it out.

 

It hit a low of 57FPS when she jumped to the box above the water.

 

One sec...running it now.

edit:
You should be at about 3500 frames and mid 50's fps when jumping from the platform to he box.

Edit:
When that test finishes...You should have about 6800 + frames. (68. whatever fps as an average when the test is done.)

 

My average FPS for Jane Nash is...


Jane Nash 70.38 FPS

 

Now do the second test.
It should end up with around 67+ fps for an average.

Wait:
I was mistaking your over all score for your gpu score... My bad.
So your total gpu score is 23.3k right?

If so, You are fine and right where you're suppose to be.

 

23432, yes.

Well then--SITUATION RESOLVED. Now I'll look at that CPU tweaking thread.

Thank you all for your help

So ultimately my issue stemmed partially from drivers, but (mostly) from my Nvidia Control panel settings being set at "Quality" instead of performance.

 

Could very well be. But as of right now. You are on target with your cpu speed. The last test i ran at 2400mhz on all cores and default settings for gpu.

 

John did you ever try that validation 53x on SLI enabled? Results could be interesting.

 

Nope. not yet. was working on wprime 1.55 with Brother Fox.

Can you do 52x?

Side note:
yes i can.

5.272 ghz

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2234845

 

Nice you gained a couple mhz (these ranges every mhz is hard to gain (going higher in baseclock))
I am and been in process of getting a nice setup get that AC unit easily used regularly for benching building into a small laptop desk then gonna use aluminum dryer vent hose to port it up to an opening in top of desk and seal up my notebook cooler over this so a constant base of cool air can build under laptop for intake as i said before 52x booted like it was a cake walk for it gonna run cool to see if i'm lucky enough to handle above 5200mhz... im hoping for 53x

 

Actually you never said it did 52x, just that it did 5173. Didn't know if that was a combination of things.

Im pretty happy with this chip, that's for sure. And I got some nice 580m's as well. Once i get the back plates ill put this baby back together


Side note:
I can play skyrim at 5 ghz.

 

my bad thought i said i was running 52x @ 99.4 and 99.5
im happy with this chip too i was referring to my system being unopened and on AC but who know wouldn't hurt to run a desktop heatsink over the cpu
so you still have it like in the pics on the AC and open etc?
ill get some results to check out as soon as i have a work area going

booted 52x on 1 active core no hyperthreading and even with single core multi at 52x and all cores and hyperthreading enabled last i checked that was no forced fans and in 70F room so i cant tell if i had a heat issue causing 53x to not get fully into windows... it may though it got past windows logo but not far. hadnt tested since then... i'll chill it some on AC and boot 1 core at 53x and see if one of the flex could maintain it... 52x loaded fine in mid 40's of flex no other chip i had did that so same here love my chip I dont even know its potential yet

side note too i think i will be able to also i booted 51/51/51/51 x 99.4 and ran intel processor identification utility (lower 8thread load than wprime and shorter run time about half) at some low flex i was blown away didnt drop from the 5070mhz on 8thread... i ran 5ghz on the first 2920xm in Skyrim but under anything heavier than skyrim speed i had to make it drop or over heating will occur... we can set burst speed with short limit and then a reasonable long watt limit this one has been handling much like your chip (cant tell on benches havent went through the whole process)
my first 2920xm ran wprime 32m at 4920~ but not efficient enough as a lower speed beat the results.... this one may get 5ghz even wprime 32m like yours did

thats why on my first 2920xm oem i tried to show 1 and 2 thread loads at 5ghz could handle intel burn and prime95 loads stable and not need more voltage so if it supports speeds like youve been mentioning the chip can handle like i said in 1 to 2 core extreme load wont crash it... if people make sure it drops under heavy load it can run the games in 5ghz i ran BF3 at 5ghz on the first 2920xm its anything over 5090mhz never worked. it could boot over that but strangely my max validation speed was equal to max superpi i could run thats not normal... isnt it usually a little higher validation over max super pi could survive

your 4.8ghz 2960 and my two 2920xm ive had... couldnt do what your chip or my chip is doing and when coming close... still never did it with such a low flex

 

This game does not use all 8 threads so you would be able to run 5 ghz the whole time. Provided your chip is cool. im on 51x with all 8 threads enabled. Been playing for about 30 minutes so far.
side note:
But it looks like there is not enough physical voltage to keep it there. Probably need about 1.52V and it would hold

 

I LOVE Hampton Inns and use them when I can when I travel. Free WiFi, usually nice, clean rooms and free breakfast buffet in the morning along with AAA discount = good rates. Just my favorite place to stay when traveling. Make sure to get a HHonors card so you can rack up those free Hilton points.

 

I'm Hilton Honors Diamond and a Hampton Inn fan, too.

 

Cool John ill give it a try. Been trying 53x cool and no go so im seeing how high i can go via baseclock
btw curious to know what flex allowed you to boot into 53x... Pretty sure im just not able to use it. I might be using too little flex though ill keep pushing 52x maybe if i see that max and start flex from there maybe 53x will boot

 

Try something like 70 to 75 and like 150 amps or so.

 

Thanks again for your help Mr. Fox, last score before I ended the night

AMD Radeon HD 6970M / 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P26934 3DMarks

 

Now that is a definite improvement.