*OFFICIAL* Alienware M18x Benchmark Thread - Part 2

My SSDs in raid0 have no trim waiting on the release of the next Intel RST

 

Thank you for chiming in. What are you using for garbage collection in the meanwhile? I know some folks use CCleaner to wipe the free space. I have actually done that with my TRIM-enabled single SSD.

 

Not showing in rst. What other program might show it?

 

Refer to the thumbnail that I posted a few minutes ago... CrystalDiskInfo 4.2.0 will show if the drive has TRIM, but I don't know if it reads the same way in a RAID0 array that does not have the ability to use TRIM. My guess is that it will not list TRIM as a feature (or it will be grayed out) if it cannot be used, but I cannot say that with any confidence because I cannot test it for myself.

 

Yea I use Ccleaner seems to be the only way to keep RIAD0 SSDs nice and snappy Also crystal disk won't post info with RAID0 SSDs for me anyway

 

ah, no trim on raid so far. I just checked

 

You can verify TRIM by doing the following.....although as mentioned, there is currently no support for TRIM in the latest RST from Intel BUT they did announce it will be available soon on a release in the near future.

1. Using the Start Menu Search Box, Search CMD;

2. Right click the Cmd Program and select Run as Administrator;

3. In the command line type “fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify” (without quotes)

If DisableDeleteNotify=0 TRIM is Enabled.
If DisableDeleteNotify=1 TRIM is Disabled.

 

Thanks, Stevie. I totally forgot about that command.

 

So if in Raid and new Intel Rst is released... you need to run that command? Trim isnt enabled automatically or it because in raid its not set on automatically

 

The command is only to check the status. TRIM should be enabled automatically, but it will not be supported in SSD RAID0 until Intel releases the new RST drivers.

Spoiler

 

Thanks Mr.Fox i see now its just to check. Thanks again

 

Here is more info from the opening post of the http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...d0-questions-troubleshooting-discussions.html thread for anyone that hasn't already found it.

Spoiler

 

Intel RST 11.5 is suppose to bring trim support to raid also btw. When will that be released, good question.

 

We are all anxiously waiting for Intel to release it. That's one reason why I am procrastinating about buying a second matching M4, optical drive caddy for my data drive and eSATA enclosure for my BluRay burner. When the new RST with RAID support comes out, I won't have a good excuse for waiting any more, LOL.

 

I've got the two mushkins in raid 0 using garbage collection and they've been working great. I've checked the performance after a few months of usage and they're still hitting around 1GB/s which is what they're suppose to hit. I had an optical bay caddy from a previous laptop, so I put the 500GB drive it came with for the data drive. I had the external enclosure also, so I put the stock dvd in there but I'll probably grab a blu-ray shortly.

 

After I installed mine yesterday I tried to run Crystal Disk and it wouldn't post info for me either...said "Cannot Find Disk". I then assumed since I was in a RAID 0 config the program got confused trying to determine which SSD to analyze.

 

CrystalDiskInfo does not support raided drives, it wont work. CDM bench tool will work just fine but the info app wont.

 

3Dmark06 scores seem low..

m18x
cpu= 2720 i7

ram= 16 gigs 1600

hard drive 320 gig 7200 rpm

gpus= dual 460s in sli


ok my question is this.. on the free version what should my base scores be around?

is 13000 to 14000 normal? i thought it would have score higher..

also in the free version is says its using only 1 gpu? it doesnt work in sli?

well thanks

 

Here is my results with the free version as well:

3DMark Score 22948
SM2.0 Score 8579
HDR/SM3.0 Score 11534
CPU Score 6142
GT1 - Return To Proxycon 73.33 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest 69.65 FPS
CPU1 - Red Valley 2.07 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 2.92 FPS
HDR1 - Canyon Flight 141.55 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze 89.13 FPS

Conclusion was my system is comparable to like systems.

 

Can you please post a screen shot so we can see what you are looking at. Would like to see the score as well as what you are seeing that says it does not work in SLI. (I don't have the free version, so I am curious what you are seeing.) If you can, post a screen shot similar to this:

Spoiler

3DMark06: 23762

​

*click image to enlarge*

 

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is that normal that my Video Card #1 is used a like 40% and the #2 at 60-70% in a game? They aren't supposed to be on same % load?

 

here is what i scored

13891 3DMarks

is normal for my set up? I have sli 460s.. it shows 1 in the mark06..dont know if this is normal or not..

Spoiler

http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16496487

 

No, neither CrossFire nor SLI distribute load equally between the GPUs all of the time. What you are describing is normal.

Looks like you need to turn on SLI in the NVIDIA Control Panel. The web page from your benchmark run states that SLI is turned off. The score looks like a single GPU score. It is normal for the software GUI to not mention you have 2 GPUs. As you can see, my paid-for version of 3DMark06 only mentions one GPU. If SLI is enabled in NVIDIA Control Panel, it will also be confirmed by GPU-Z. See the attachments.

 

ok you are right.. thats wierd.. the control panel said it was on.. so i dl gpu-z to confirm and it was off.. so i disabled it in the control panel and re enabled it and restarted and the score went up.. 17303.. im wondering why 1 card scores 13000 and 2 cards only reaches 17000?

 

its the way the cards scale drop some backround tasks and overclock your cards and SLI will score higher (so will single card)... But for most part 1 card will always have a greater score compared to SLI score cut in half and compared... Single card is more fully utilized than dual card but no doubt dual cards still get close to double performance over single card... close.

 

Can anyone tell me why my results suck so much?

 

Please post the link to the Futuremark web results so we can look at the settings. Other than a 6900M Series GPU, what are your system specs?

 

Ok, I got my 6990s from Dell.. I dl the newest drivers..and ccc
i got my 2960xm installed with the proper heat sink..

and I did a free install.. followed all the steps out lined buy Mr.Fox
also my cpu is over clocked..

and I ran the 3dmark06 and my scores still suck..


AMD Radeon HD 6970M / 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: 23811 3DMarks

why is it that 460s in sli scored this when the cpu was over clocked.. also my 460s scored higher in the WIE 7.6 vs 6990s 7.5 really?

I see in the begining of this thread people scoring alot higher with 6990s.

so what do i need to do to get my scores higher?

Can some walk me threw the settings i would need to score higher than say 25000?

 

My first test with 3dmark 06 think it came out ok.

 

Need a bit more info than that. If you follow the pictures on the first page, this will give you an idea..
Then we can try to help.

Looks good from here.

 

OK COMING RIGHT UP

 

Hummm, after doing a light over clock....Looks like it may need a bit of tender loving care...
28830 Single GTX580M

 

WELL HERE YOU GO..


THERE STILL HELLA LOW.. AND MY QUESTION STILL STANDS..

Spoiler

 

I know I suck but I try

 

locked bios or unlocked bios?

No you don't....

 

SORRY I DONT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.. I GOT ALL THE OVER CLOCKING STUFF.. AND THE BIOS IS a04

 

I don't see your scores bieng all that low considering that you are running at stock level on the video cards. After running test on 3dmark 06 and 3dmark 11 on stock video card settings my score where comparable.

06 = 23587
11 = 6639

 

MFW? YOUR 1 580 IS KICKING THE CRAP OUT OF MY DUAL 6990S..

 

WHAT CAN i DO TO IMPROVE MY SCORES?
the guy that just posted..lol his one 580m just kicked the crap out of my dual 6990s.. how is that possible?

any help optimizing would be great..

 

He kicked the crap out of mine as well and my video cards where over clocked a bit. I have noticed that his processor is overclock more than both of ours that has some thing to so with it. As Both 3dmark 06 and 11 are also CPU based.

 

For all stock, those scores look fine. Nothing to worry about there.

To hold anything at 45x on all 8 threads you will need the unlocked bios...

My stock scores were around here as well, if i remember correctly.

 

ok i am now on the unlocked A05 bios now..

 

ok im on the unlocked bios.. how would i hold the 45x on all 8 threads now?
and for testing purpose can the 6990s be over clocked?

 

You need to set the primary plane to 1000. primary plane is located in the power/advanced cpu control in the bios. And that's it.


And you can use Trixx to over clock the gpu or even CCC can over clock them for you.

 

Hi Mr Fox,

Here's the link -
AMD Radeon HD 6970M / 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2920XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P3929 3DMarks

My Spec is -
-6990 crossfire
-i7 2920xm
- 8gb ram
- 2x750gb 7200rpm in raid 0 set up

 

Thanks. Those are good specs. I am going to have limited access to the forum for a little while due to work. Brother John has forgotten more on the subject of benchmarking than I know, so you're going to get excellent advice. I am going to be dropping in as often as I can and see how things are coming along. I apologize in advance that I will not be as available as much as I would like to be.

This thread is growing fast and there is a lot of technical information already posted, so there are things to be learned from reading what is already posted.

Click on the link in the right side of my signature that will take you to my cumulative scores. Once there, click on the links to the Futuremark web pages for my 3DMark11, Vantage and 3DMark06 scores and you will see the settings I used outlined in the description field. You're going to need some creative cooling techniques to hit scores that high.

 

Ok..question.. I leave all the other settings alone that I made correct?
and for 45x whats the a stable setting for core clock? the mhz steps right now i got mine set to..100.25 is that safe? should it be higher? lower?

also this power plane..if i set it to a thousand.. is there any risks? am i bypassing the normal shut down options?

and is the potential there to smoke my cpu? id like to go big.. but im to to to push it to the point of ruining the cpu.. I couldnt afford another 2960xm right now or the near future lol/.

 

These Extreme Editon CPUs are very resilient to OC, the numbers being suggested are indeed "safe" and usually the worst that will happen is that either too much heat will shout down the PC or the PC won't boot at all.

That said, OC always has its risks (and rewards) so I suggest you take baby steps when OC.

Also no one can tell you what's stable and whats not, being that every single CPU is completely different, so they behave different, that's what's so awesome about OC, while the formula is pretty much the same, the results are sometimes widely different.

 

ok in my version of the newest unlocked bios.. where do i find the power plane at? I didnt see any option for it.. not in the first advance menu or the second advance menu..

 

Never said advanced menu options my young grasshopper..