*OFFICIAL* Alienware M18xR1/R2/18 Benchmark Thread - Part 3

alienware knows as long as they do x99 haswell E with 20 inch and a possible dual screen laptop i'll be down 30grand instantly on that and they still wont do it. giving up hopes on it man, that x79 and x99, all hopes on clevo now.

 

I would like to see Alienware get a little more extreme. Not dual screens though. Heck I'd love to see them shoe horn a desktop gpu.

 

Captain Cloudfire`s overclock log, November 20th 2013

Attempt #1:
Stock clocks.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Alienware 01W2J2

Attempt #2:
+50/+400 OC
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Alienware 01W2J2

Attempt #3:
+100/+400 OC
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Alienware 01W2J2

Attempt #4:
+135/+700 OC:
Failed. Froze in test 4. Had to reboot on black screen.

Attempt #5:
+135/+600 OC
Failed. Froze in test 4. Had to reboot on black screen.

Attempt #6:
+135/+500 OC.
Failed. Froze in test 6 (the last one). Had to reboot on a black screen. It must be the memory clock.

Attempt #7:
+135/+450 OC.
Failed. Again. Sigh. %¤#"!¤"!. In test 6. Had to reboot on a black screen. Could it be the core clock?

Attempt #8:
+135/+400 OC.
Fail fail fail fail. Froze in test 1 this time (?!!1?). Had to reboot on a black screen. Same memory OC as the first 3 tests that worked. Fishy. Very fishy.

Attempt #9:
Not shure where to go next to be honest. hmmmm
+120/+400 OC
May the Devine Cow God be gracious upon this machine. As well as looking out for the sanity of the guy trying to recover from all the failed attempts.
HAPPY DANCE ^_^
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ,Alienware 01W2J2

Attempt #10:
Higher memory clocks, same core clock. For science!
+120/+600 OC
Failed. Looks like science thought me there are several blockages here.

Attempt #11:
+135/+400 OC
Nope, still doesnt work.

And that is enough of today`s adventures.




Final thoughts on GTX 770M SLI
GTX 770M apparantly do not have the same high voltage memory you find on GTX 780M. It have low voltage memory like you find from the GTX 600M series.
Meaning around 1200MHz is max memory clock.
Core clock goes to max 917MHz (ish) on stock vbios. It could go higher with a better vbios but only way to find out is trying a modded vbios. Perhaps later.

Graphic score went from 9591 (stock) to 10822 (Max OC on stock vbios).
With max OC the GPU temp maxed out at 70C. So if I use a good vbios I know I can squeeze out a lot more out of these GPUs.


Stock clock results






Max Overclock results

 

This is with only Cpu multipliers adjusted in XTU, stock Bios, no AC,1 PSU http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4872544

 

Could you run a 5 min Intel XTU benchmark with 4.4Ghz or 4.3Ghz, please?

 

So, 770m SLI with a max OC isn't quite up to stock 680m SLI ?? - I was just comparing Brother Cloud's results with one I did (back in the day when I had a decent computer LOL) which yielded the following: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 which scored 10669 (12290 GPU).

Granted, I had my XM set to a level 3 factory OC.....In my mind, I had thought that a pair of OC'd 770m's would beat a stock pair of 680m's.

 

Nope, it is quite a lot less powerful than 680M. GTX 770M falls somewhere between 580M/675M and 7970M in terms of performance. GTX 770M has the same Cuda core count, but 580M/675M but has higher memory bandwidth than 770M does. I would say that GTX 770M would be the closest current generation NVIDIA GPU replacement available for a system equipped with 7970M, although not quite as powerful. To avoid a performance downgrade, one would have to receive 780M as a 7970M replacement of like or better quality.

While it overclocks very nicely, NVIDIA really choked 770M on memory bandwidth and Cuda core count. I am guessing they did this to put greater distance (a huge gap actually) between 770M and this year's and last year's flagship mobile GPU.

3DMark11 P8858: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2920XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 (4.8GHz, extreme max GPU overclock)

3DMark11 P9868: AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2920XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 (Dell Level 3 OC, stock GPU clock speeds)

3DMark11 P10263: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4800MQ Processor,Alienware 18

3DMark11 P11421: AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2920XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 (4.6GHz, moderate GPU overclock)

 

Yeah - I can see how the above makes complete business sense......unfortunately.

 

Pffft, Captain Cloudfire not giving up that easily guys. Today was my first attempt (really it was, I`m so slow...) at overclocking. And I`m pretty bad at it

If you looked at temperature log I posted, the GPUs tops at 70C. Meaning I have 20C more to spare. And the PSU is surely not taxed nearly its limit.
HaloGod2012 scored 11019 GPU points with his GTX 765Ms for crying out loud. He already beat my max OC of 10800.
GTX 765M have 768 cores on a 128bit bus while I have 960 cores on a 192bit bus, just for context. He runs a custom vbios of course, I dont

I experienced blackout with higher clocks than 920MHz. I have a hunch that it is because it needs a little more juice in terms of voltage to operate higher.

As for GTX 680M vs GTX 770M: Today I found out 770M doesnt have high voltage memory. That kinda changes things because it means I can`t go up to 1500MHz like I previously though, to regain the 680M memory clock lead. The possible good news is that the memory might need higher voltage too, since HaloGod runs the memory at 1400MHz. And who knows if I really need more than the 1200MHz? We will see
All in all, I`m hopeful that I can atleast beat stock GTX 680M SLI.

Captain Cloufire will return with more results later

 

Stock core clock speed on the 770M is almost as high as the maximum stable overclock possible on 580M/675M so for those that only push the power button and play games without any overclocking interest will find 770M to offer a substantial gaming performance increase over 580M/675M. On GPUGPU compute, the 580M/675M and even 6970M/6990M have more "low end torque" than 770M does. But, 770M opens up a can of whoop-fanny on those older GPUs in terms of gaming performance.

It's going to be a real challenge for 770M to beat 680M because the Cuda/shader count and memory bandwidth are much higher with 680M. I could be wrong, but I doubt you will be able to overclock high enough to make up for the difference.

 

Well my feelings are hurt:cry: At least I got 2 comments on my Vantage run in the Sager forum. Maybe I'm coming off as showing off; if so I don't mean to.

 

I thought you just posted a CPU benchmark mate since you mentioned XTU. Sorry about that.
That is a pretty awesome score. You beat Mr Fox total score thanks to that desktop 4930K which is a beast compared to Fox`s 3920XM CPU.
Fox beat you with GPU score though, 51934 vs 56763.

Beats stock score by a mile. Well done :thumbsup:

I don`t really like Vantage though, because its so CPU dependant.

 

I was waiting to comment because the overall score is a not much more than my overall score in Vantage. Your CPU score is much higher with the 6-core 4930K, but GPU score much lower for some reason. So, I am waiting to be more impressed by the overall score when you get an unlocked BIOS and get your GPU score up closer to mine.

But, yeah... very nice score. Sorry I did not say something already. Did not mean to hurt your feelings, bro.

Here is a quick comparison: Result

Why are you only using 2 sticks (8GB) of memory on your new beast?

@Cloudfire - it's funny you mention not liking Vantage because it is CPU dependent because that is one of the reasons that I do like it so much.

Fire Strike is probably one of the least CPU dependent benchmarks now. An old M17xR2 with a comparatively weak 920XM CPU and 7970M CF does a really nice job without a good showing from the CPU. Have a look at this Fire Strike score and you can see what I mean.

 

Question to all you experienced overclockers:

When one begins with overvolting a GPU, how does one go about doing that?
How much do one increase voltage without possible killing the GPU?

Say we meet a limit on stock voltage. We increase voltage some, retest the failed clocks from stock voltage, if it works, continue on the same new voltage until you meet a wall again. Then increase voltage some more and keep doing this until heat is too much or you meet PSU limit?

Is that how it is done?

 

How do you run a 5 min. benchmark test? The only timer I see is in the stress test

 

Hmmm interesting. I thought a new benchmark like Fire Strike would be more balanced to be honest. Same with Fire Strike Extreme too?
I`d imagine its a blast to drive down a road with a custom made fully tweaked 900HP high torque car while the people in their Volvo`s or their Lada`s watching you zooom past them. Yeah I totally understand but do not condone

 

Yes, go up in small increments on core until it becomes unstable. Move the voltage up to the next NVIDIA voltage step and repeat. There is a voltage cap set by NVIDIA and it is best to not breach that.

You are more likely to destroy the video cards from doing unrealistic memory overclocking. There are no memory or VRM temperature sensors and you can literally fry the memory or VRM modules without the video cards seeming to be getting hot based on core temps. Plus, the vRAM overclocking does not help a great deal in the grand scheme of things. The core overclock contributes far more to the benchmark results than memory overclocking does. The memory bandwidth is more important than the memory clock speed.

Fire Strike Extreme requires more of both CPU and GPU. Fire Strike Extreme is pretty extreme.

 

Thanks for the advice mate.

How do you find out the cap with an unlocked vbios?
And is there actual voltage steps within the unlocked vbios?

Is the lines here what you call steps? Only increase the voltage one line at a time?
http://www.abload.de/img/inspch7hh.jpg

 

You didn't hurt my feelings My Gpu coreclock was only 970 amd I wasn't using NI to increase power & voltage plus I was on 1 Psu.I'm sure when I do the above and use dual Psus and AC I'll do much better Gpu wise.Are you talking to me about 8Gb of ram, cause it has 16Gb quad channel ram. I don't know why it's not showing in Cpu-z all the ram slots occupied. Same in 3dMark Result it shows 16,308 MB but only 2 dimms. I got 7.9 on the memory part of the WEI, I don't think I could get that with 8GB of 1600MHz. I just looked in system information and it says "installed physical ram 16GB"

 

Yes, if you use NVIDIA Inspector or EVGA Precision X, one click or step at a time. There is a limit on how high you can go. Voltage is not adjustable with a stock vBIOS as far as I know. I believe you need an svl7/johnksss unlocked vBIOS for that.

Yes, in your Vantage run it shows only two 4GB memory modules for some reason. I know you ordered 4x4GB but Vantage only shows 2x4GB. That is why I asked.

 

What was your core clock when you got 48,159 and were you using 2 Psus and AC?

 

47x4 @ 100.3 BCLK. Yes on the dual AC adapter and AC cooling. The system cannot be run that hard with a single 330W AC adapter... it simply is not enough power to sustain those clock speeds and high power demand with XM CPU and both 780M cards all at once. CPU pulls more than 100W and each GPU more than 130W like that. With the portable AC cooler on the same circuit, I have actually tripped the circuit breaker powering the electrical outlets to my home office a couple of times while benching, LOL.

Here is the screen shot for that run.

Vantage: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 - P48159 3Marks



And, here is my best 3DMark11 so far...

3DMark11: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M SLI card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 - P17029 3DMarks



I haven't really devoted much effort to Fire Strike since my 780M SLI upgrade... may do that pretty soon, just too busy with other things.
Here was my last best effort, which obviously has some room for improvement.

Fire Strike: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 - 10554 3Marks



Fire Strike Extreme: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 - 5572 3Marks

 

Maybe when I get my unlocked bios and learn how to set up XTU for this Cpu I'll try increasing my core clock and the other settings in NI. Plus the 2 Psus and AC. By the way Sager is sending me a new unit because of this power plug thing. If I move the computer from the cushion on the couch next to me and put it on my lap out it comes.Sometimes just sitting here it'll just fall out I know it's the computer socket because if I plug the power brick into the converter box it's really snug plus I tried the 2nd power adapter and the plug falls out on that one too.

 

I saw that in another thread. That's great service from Larry and Clevo.

Why don't you go ahead and try XTU now? You might be able to do some amazing things without an unlocked BIOS while you are waiting. XTU works with the Alienware 18 without an unlocked BIOS. It would not surprise me if it works well on your Clevo, too. It might not, but I think it would be worth a shot if you haven't already tried.

 

I wouldn't mind driving a Volvo truck that can do this.



EVGA Precision probably has 12.5 mV voltage step, Nvidia Inspector has a 25 mV voltage step. You can pick your poison and go with it.

And Mr. Northstar2320, what's the max temp in benchmark you have noticed on the 4930K so far?

 

"And Mr. Northstar2320, what's the max temp in benchmark you have noticed on the 4930K so far?"
I haven't really checked while I was benching but I had both hands on the underside of the machine to keep the power plug in and it didn't even get very warm. In comparison, I would actually get red marks on both my legs even with my levis on with the AW on my lap. I'll check next time I run a bench.

 

So, wait... I'm confused here: dual 770M's aren't better than a single unlocked and overclocked 780M? John was seeing more than 10,000 on 3DMark 11 with his modded vBIOS, and Cloud only reached 9.6k.

 

I would have thought 770m's would get more performance to be honest. I'm assuming the svl7 bios was used ( I didnt realize there was one till now).

 

hahaha, well that is one way of marketing Volvo trucks

Thanks for the headsup about Precision and Inspector btw. Afterburner have 12.5 mV too I think.
Another question: What happens if you feed the GPU too much? Say 1.05V working fine and 1.07 being too much. Would that brick the GPU or does the system shut off before anything bad happens? Is there any safe zones in terms of too much voltage? Say +12.5mV goes fine but +50mV brick it?

 

I reached almost 11k on stock vbios.

No, just the stock Dell vbios. I get back to other vbios tomorrow I think. GTX 680M/780M also need a new vbios to reach its potential. Not to mention that GTX 780M (and all other 700M series cards) are hindered by the GPU Boost which gets in the way of overclocking.

But yeah, not exactly impressed with the current vbios results. That it cant even do +135MHz (max OC) on the cores.

It was also on the stock BIOS, not sure if I gain anything by updating it though. I`m always careful with flashing BIOS if its not needed

 

If you're staying below 1.1V I think you should be fine. Giving it more voltage just means more heat, each 25mV will increase the temp by maybe 2-5C.

The 780M can go up to 950MHz+ at stock voltage of 1V.

Not sure if you could make the GPU overheat. I can't do it on mine. It will be pulling too much power and the system shuts off by itself due to the circuit breaker built onto the mainboard, before the GPU overheats.

 

I don't think anyone actually said 770M SLI was less powerful than a single 780M, but it can be overclocked high enough to perform similar to 770M SLI and definitely more powerful than stock 770M SLI.

Here is one of my benchmarks with a single 780M: 3DMark11 P10112

770M SLI cannot match 680M SLI, much less 780M SLI. It has too few Cuda cores and not enough memory bandwidth if you look at the specs. It's still an extremely good gaming GPU.

I think you might end up being amazed. Simply having GPU Boost disabled will be a huge benefit all by itself. NVIDIA hasn't had a decent stock vBIOS since before GTX 580M. This is one of the reasons that data produced from professional reviews can generally be taken with a grain of salt. Not only does reviewer incompetence skew the results, but also engineering incompetence with stuff like screwed up stock vBIOS. This applies to desktop vBIOS as well. Even Titan performance is poor with stock vBIOS, but once you disable GPU Boost and a few other tweaks it unleashes it to deliver performance worthy of its fancy name.

We don't bother to compare GPUs with stock vBIOS because (a) stock vBIOS are usually garbage for all GPU... AMD and NVIDIA alike; and, (b) we use modded vBIOS for everything so stock vBIOS performance simply doesn't matter any more. What matters is results.

 

Still struggling along with a locked Bios http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/738156-some-benchmarks-9570-a.html Brother Fox I guess I'll have to work on my Gpu scores

 

Maybe that monster desktop CPU is maxing out those dual 330W AC adapters and not leaving enough juice for the 780M SLI. You might actually need three 330W AC adapters on that kind of beast for it to reach full potential.

Try 3DMark11 using ThrottleStop profiles like we used to do with the M18xR2 before we had the dual PSU mod. It would be interesting to see if the same principle works on your Clevo, since the 4930K is drawing a lot more power than a 3920XM or 3940XM.

There should be a much wider gap between your 9570 (P570WM) and my M18xR2 with that kind of CPU power. Your system should be stomping mine with that beastly CPU and it is just barely beating it for some reason. An unlocked BIOS may not make any difference. It looks like you CPU is doing a fantastic job. I think your 780M SLI setup might be starving for power.

3DMark11 Comparison - P570WM P17156 3DMarks - 4930K @ 4.5GHz versus M18xR2 P17029 3DMarks - 3920XM @ 4.6GHz

3DMark Fire Strike Comparison - P570WM 10933 3DMarks - 4930K @ 4.5GHz versus M18xR2 10554 3DMarks - 3920XM @ 4.8GHz

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme Comparison - P570WM 5760 3DMarks - 4930K @ 4.5GHz versus M18xR2 5572 3DMarks - 3920XM @ 4.7GHz

 

Well I see your coreclock was at 1111 while mine was 1070 to get a score of 17156 when running the 3DMark 11, and I don't think 4000+ points in Vantage is barely beating your score IMHO. Anyway what matters to me is the total score.

 

I just wanted to say I won't be posting anymore scores in the AW forum.Sorry if I offended anyone.

 

Well, Vantage is just one benchmark out of many and it is extremely CPU dependent compared to the other benchmarks. If you look at why your Vantage score is higher it is just barely beating it. The CPU score is MUCH higher, which would be expected with that CPU, but the graphics score is really holding it back a lot. My graphics score is 2860 points higher. There should be a much wider gap between them and your video cards are holding it back from beating my system a lot worse than what it is.

3DMark Vantage Comparison - P570WM P52202 3DMarks - 4930K @ 4.5GHz versus M18xR2 P48159 3DMarks - 3920XM @ 4.7GHz

You did not offend anyone. Not sure why you would say that.

 

Well I just felt like here I am posting scores in a Forum where the guys are having to put up with Dells BS and can't get what they paid for, not that I would ever try to make someone feel bad. Again, are you not hearing me about your core clock in the Mark 11 bench of being 41 higher than mine and in your Vantage run you had a core clock of 1125 compared to my 1070. You don't think that makes a difference in the Gpu score? And what should I do ask you to make me a 3 Psu mod

 

I think you are misinterpreting. Your scores are really exciting and it makes me want one of those machines. They don't make feel bad at all. I like seeing them in this forum, too. Please continue to share with us.

All I am saying is that when you get the 780M SLI to work as well as mine is working (and as well as yours did when you had an M18xR2) it is going to be a lot more impressive than it is right now.

If you can run 1125 on core with your 780M SLI setup in the P570WM, then it would be good to see that and see what the physics score looks like. It should at least match, if not exceed my physics score. If you can't overclock the 780M cards that high in the P570WM because of 660W not being enough juice to power it with the 4930K overclocked, then I would definitely be looking into a 3x330W AC adapter mod if I owned one of those beasts.

I actually think that would be pretty cool to have even if it does not need it, just because it exhibits a passion for excess and nobody else has it.

 

In my first Vantage run when I broke 50K, I was only on one Psu and a core clock of 970 and 44x6 Cpu. Today I was on 1070 core and 45x6 with no other settings in XTU applied. Truthfully I don't want to push this too hard as it's going back due to the plug socket problem.That's why I wouldn't do a 5 minute 4.5 Bench in XTU for Red Line.

 

So there are no dangers of destroying any components on the GPU with overvolting? I thought safeguards was only for increased clocks but not voltage.
I know HaloGod runs his at 1.1V, so I probably have some good room to see what the increased voltage can do

I`d like to compare temperature numbers on that GTX 780M vs my stock 770M SLI though

Well we will see what TechInferno`s vbios can do and if it helps removing the GPU Boost. I know desktop overclockers hate GPU Boost with passion, so there might be something to it.
I hope I will be amazed. Oh well. If it doesnt work, atleast I had the fun of trying it. To me its all fun anyways

 

Mr.Fox"Please continue to share with us." Ok you talked me into it Bro, how about making me a tri Psu mod? NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4930K,Notebook P570WM

 

wow that is a really good score.

Too bad you don`t own an alienware and can be on that list

 

Keep posting Brother Northstar. Most of us care about performance above all else to have any remorse about owning another branded beast. Variety breeds strength

 

Thanks Brother TBone

 

Well said, and I agree 100%. Being especially fond of one brand doesn't make it impossible to appreciate or even want something spectacular in a different brand. Anyone that has that kind of hangup is a sick puppy. If Alienware offered something like that Clevo monster, I would buy it in a heartbeat. Since they do not, my next purchase might be a P570WM with a non-Haswell 4930K or greater CPU. That would never mean I stopped liking Dell/Alienware... it would merely be an indication they did not offer what I wanted.

The idea of selling my Alienware stuff to get one has already crossed my mind more than once, but the thought of parting with my M18xR2 makes me feel sick to my stomach. I don't think I can bring myself to do that, especially without being able to handle one first to be sure I would be 100% extremely satisfied with it. I wish I could touch, twist, pull and pound on one for a few days to find out.

 

Careful what you wish for:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4930K,Notebook P570WM

12142 in firestrike

 

Yes, it's extremely temping because of the CPU and X79 chipset. Amazing score... congratulations on that beast!

I just have to decide if I am willing to sacrifice other things for that. It's a tough decision with the M18xR2.

I still have the best laptop money can buy, and it's still the fastest available with a mobile processor; plus:

• Anodized aluminum chassis versus plastic
• Awesome classic Alienware aesthetics
• Switchable graphics with roughly 5 hour battery run time (in the RARE circumstance I use it)
• Slightly larger display (18" versus 17") without a tacky bezel (I love my edge-to-edge display)
• One more drive bay (5 including mSATA)
• Superior service and support (which expires 8/2014 and cannot be extended further)
• Easier to find replacement parts due to huge popularity and broader distribution

Decisions, decisions... not an easy one. I love my M18xR2, and I would have to sell it to fund the purchase of a P570WM. I want both, but that's not in the budget. The impending warranty expiration is also a compelling reason to consider it. If I go through with it the P570WM will be purchased with the longest warranty period they will sell me.

I did not list size and weight because I see that as a plus for the Clevo. Call me crazy, but I actually like the fact that the P570WM is bigger and heavier.

 

If I were shopping for a new system I would also feel very torn. Brother Northstars recent acquisition made me check out some of the P570WM's on offer. I'm thinking.. What if its one of the last generation of old school CPU muscle ?! Next year Ivy-e won't be on offer. Its worrisome.
Thing is..as long as I'm in Japan being Dell is pretty convenient as far as warranty goes, that's a hard one for me to overlook. Plus my rig is pretty much a perfect specimen now. I just wish AW got a little more daring..

 

Haswell itself does not frighten me in any way, haswell-E is likely to be a bit better than ivy-E, but there are significant compromises in many systems that means there is no real clear winner at the moment, usually alienware takes this spot.