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

It's nice to finally see Clevo catch up with Alienware in performance, thanks to Prema's BIOS mods. Maybe they will step up to the plate on build quality and start making their machines with a metal chassis instead of plastic, too. I hope they never implement crippling Secure Flash garbage like Alienware has done.

Did you change CPU, or is this a different machine than the one in your signature?

Edit: what's up with the Futuremark error message? I thought that only affected Windows 8 machines. You're running Windows 7, correct?

 

Tnx, Mr. Fox. I decided to pick Clevo cause of it's price, 3d vision and SLI in 17" form factor) Originally i have 4800MQ CPU, 4900MQ i borrowed from my friend for a couple of days when PREMA released his bios, just couldn't hold to find out if it can do +600Mhz OC as advertised. But the temps at 4.2Ghz are kind of insane, even at 4.1Ghz XTU Stress test throttles in 1min after it reaches 95C and that's with fans on full blast and laptop pad! It can do much more in a freezer and 2 power bricks, hehe)

True about materials used, i'd love to see some metal/aluminum finishes but it could rise the end price, one of the main reasons people opt of for Clevo.

 

Broke 58k GPU Score, but of course my CPU lets me down. Runs never come together..... Ran out of time

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

 

Seriously, that is amazing. I thought our M18x R2 was the fastest out there, these scores make me want to put mine up on ebay! But yeah, as Mr. Fox said, Cleve needs to step up their game in terms of build quality. 58k Vantage is impressive. The cheap plastic chassis is not.

 

I though you had a Sager?!

 

He does... Sager is merely a branded Clevo... sort of like Alienware laptops are made by Compal, with the difference being it is an Alienware exclusive product.

Origin, Eurocom, Falcon Northwest, etc. are all Clevo resellers with their respective brand names tacked on.

Our M18xR2's are still the fastest machines with a mobile XM CPU. No way it can compete with a desktop K or X CPU with 2 additional cores.

 

Thanks vulcan! The FPS were flyin! It's repeatable too, just need some time....gotta work for a living though, lol.

But really the clevo machine was unleashed by users and community enthusiasts like Prema, svl7, and johnksss. Otherwise this machine would be like clevo's X58 platform.....you couldn't OC the CPU. So even with the latest and greatest desktop proc at the time, all the mobiles beat it.

Clevo really cant take credit for the performance, since heck, they don't even support what we're doing here. They supplied the parts....the community did the heavy lifting.

Oh, and I hate the plastic too. You touch it and it scratches, lol.

 

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

 

Well said. +1 Rep.

The enthusiasts are always what makes great hardware work to its fullest. Pretty much nothing gets shipped that performs optimally and the best you can hope for in any brand is a solid foundation to work with as a starting point. It's too bad that Alienware and Clevo don't rally behind the enthusiasts and do things that make it easier to tune for extreme performance without resorting to firmware mods. That's the least they could do to express their appreciation for the support and FREE ADVERTISEMENT that makes their products more desirable, even by ordinary gamers that do not overclock.

When they go so far as to deploy firmware that actually interferes like Alienware has done with the new 18, it's a really MASSIVE let-down and a MAJOR turn-off. It feels a lot like getting a slimy loogey hocked up and spat in your face, LOL. They need to undo this locked-down mess ASAP to avoid losing any more business to Clevo than what they already have. It seems that the people in control of firmware have no idea about the extent of irreparable damage they are causing to the Alienware brand name by leaving the system so crippled.

 

I just ran 3d mark, and My scores are not what I thought they would be:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4900MQ,Alienware 01W2J2

Only 8071 780M SLI with I7-4900QM? I was thinking I would get 10k minimum, Just got the unit in today, What could be going on, its stock no overclocking or anything, but I was already getting 6500 on My R1, at this point I might just pack this up and send it on back!

 

You have identified the problem precisely. The problem you nailed by answering your own question is " its stock no overclocking or anything" because the performance pretty much sucks stock... it sucks especially at benchmarks. You can improve the situation by using a vBIOS mod to fix NVIDIA's mistakes and XTU to fix some of Alienware's mistakes. Check your CPU clock speeds and you will see that it is not even running at stock turboboost speeds under load with BIOS defaults. The fan tables are also messed up, so as soon as you correct the screwed up CPU settings with XTU, prepare yourself for much higher CPU temps on account of the fans not functioning correctly. In most circumstances it takes a temperature of roughly 96°C to be sustained for 5 to 7 seconds to trigger a response from the CPU fan. Depending on what kind of benching you are doing, you may hit a thermal shutdown before the CPU fan ever turns on.

For reference, please see these threads:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...w-overclock-4930mx-4-3ghz-messed-up-bios.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ienware-18-please-promote-ideastorm-asap.html

 

Very good advice from Mr Fox there. I'd add to double check you have SLI enabled.

 

Well said Mr. Fox, I owe you a GREAT deal for all the tireless assistance you have given me, turning my machine into a MONSTER. If it wasn't for people like you, SVL7, StevieJones, and Johnksss my machine would be about 40% slower. That is a big difference.

Reading your comment I was thinking of how lame UEFI secure-flash/boot is and how AWESOME the AW 18 would be if it was churning out the performance of the Clevo AND had a 19-20 in. 2560x1440 screen (and the desktop i7-4930 of course).

Imagine that, the AW 18 chassis, a 19-20" 2560x1440 screen (it WILL fit in that bezel, not sure if anyone is making this LCD though) and basically the Clevo internals. THAT would be worth $5k.

I still can't believe these scores the Clevo is putting out, they seem right on par with GTX 780 SLI desktops.

If anyone from Dell/Alienware is reading this, get a hint, THIS IS WHAT WE WANT.

 

You're welcome, bud. Being helpful is something our community is famous for. I agree with your comments about what we want.

 

"Time measurement data" is either a bugged run or system info hack. Most likely in his case a bugged run since the system components are recognized.

The sys info hack is interesting and creating some ethical issues in the benching world. The Aussies and Germans claimed some WR's with the sys info hack, which returns the "Time Measurement Data" error among a slew of other errors. HWbot says it's legal for them as long as there is a screen shot. Adds many hundreds of points to the score.

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Unknown,
Generic VGA video card benchmark result - CPU information missing,

 

Here's an overclocked memory benchmark... 2133 @ CL10



Edit: Here's a nice Cinebench R11.5 run @ 4.6GHz, cooling with fans only... thanks to Liquid Ultra, max temp was about 90°C. :thumbsup:

 

Now this is interesting... I wonder how much Micro$oft paid to Futuremark to make Fire Strike run better on Windows 8 than Windows 7? Windows 7 usually excels in benchmarks, especially when they are heavy on CPU dependency. Note the higher CPU and GPU overclock with Windows 7, yet Windows 8 scores better...

It sucks to see Windows 8 actually do something better than Windows 7 for a change.

Fire Strike: Side-by-Side Result - Windows 7 vs. Windows 8.1

Windows 7 - 11039 3DMarks - 4.6GHz | 1139/1500	Windows 8 - 11039 3DMarks - 4.5GHz | 1085/1500

I thinks I smells a rat... that just ain't right.

 

Yep, but firestrike is the only one it excels at. I'm kinda liking win 8.1. I used to despise win 8, but the more I play around, the more I see it's more efficient than win 7 in many ways.

Faster boots, shutdowns, and opening apps, don't need an antivirus, gorgeous new interface with apps, are some of my favorites.

Once you get used to going to the corners of the screen to get menus and navigate around, it's a breeze.

 

How come win 8 doesn't need antivirus?
Does MS just include one and does it make sense to go with the 2nd opinion anti-virus instead?

 

I have been using Windows 8 (and now 8.1) on multiple systems since it was first released and still hate the Modern UI and apps. I thought it would eventually grow on me and it has not. After more than a year I still think it sucks and most of the apps have garbage adware. I use the weather app and that's about it. I despise the light colored pastel color schemes, overuse of white and light gray sucks, and full-screen design of the Modern UI is really lousy. In many ways the modern UI feels like I am using a stinking Android phone for an OS. When I close a program I want it closed, not moved to the background or covered up by another open program. Using ModernMix to force all of the Modern Apps to the desktop and run in Window mode is a big improvement.

Living on the desktop it is tolerable after I have tweaked the snot out of it to make it look and feel like Windows 7. I have disabled all "hot corner" features because I find them extremely annoying. The hot corner features are sometimes useful, but I access them only by keyboard combos rather than using a mouse. I don't like using a touch screen interface, but the computers I use that have a touch screen also have a keyboard and mouse and I use them instead of touch. I miss Aero tranparency on everything. I wish they had not done away with that, but it was probably necessary to ditch that to facilitate anemically poor performance products that are also intended to use the OS.

@joecait - it has it's own malware and antivirus protection built in and there is no need to waste money on performance-hogging third party utilities. That part is definitely a plus to Windows 8.

 

yeah, window 8 has a very good security featury.

 

I found these disks back in 1990 at work. They shipped with some new PC's. 286's I think they were. Three disks on 3.5in floppys. Windows 3.0. My first foray into windows. No one was using windows back then. Everything was still DOS and Lotus 1-2-3 was the "program" that everyone used. The secretary's used wordperfect or some crap like that. LOL, those were the fun days. I couldn't believe it after I loaded Win 3.0 and found you could have two applications running at the same time and on the screen at the same time......mind blowing!

24 years later and I still like when new versions of windows come out. Well, the only one I didn't like was vista. But win7 is just a corrected vista, so I guess I do like it now. Maybe we'll have a corrected windows 8/8.1 down the road, but as "real" productivity is able to move to handheld devices, the "touch" type OS will become ubiquitous.

 

Not that I like that prospective future. It does not bode well for overclocker's like us. Imagine how they'll laugh...printed circuit boards 12 inches long that only did graphics, LOL!

 

Nah, I don't like how things are shaping up for the future either. Looks like it's going to blow chunks pretty bad. I don't like touch at all. It's easy to use, but it is totally inefficient, awkward, slower and most of all I hate having fingerprints and slime on a screen... very nasty and unsanitary looking. I know it is not any more germ-infested than a keyboard, but it looks absolutely filthy. I currently have a touch screen PC. I have used and had access to multiple touch screen PCs besides the one I have now and just don't like using that feature on any of them. One of the reasons I hate tablets other than the fact that they are underpowered junk is they don't have a real keyboard. People that actually like them probably like the fact that they do not. I don't even like using touch input on my Android phone. I prefer using the keyboard and tracking device on my Blackberry (work phone) much more so than the Android touch. Although I like the Android OS better, to me the touch manner of input sucks. Feels like I am using a stinking kiosk instead of a real computer.

 

This was kind of interesting...

 

motherboard junk in the 18. I'm convinced the R2 is more efficient at running the gpus than the Clevo too.

Check out my 4.3Ghz run with stock GPU's. Ignore the CPU tests. GT 2 & 4 are the tough ones. Are you using throttle stop in those runs Mr. Fox?

 

Yes, I use ThrottleStop all the time. It loads as a task at Windows startup.

 

imo throttlestop by far one of the best software out there for accurate hardware temp monitoring, its a must have. people that don't trust it and dont use it just losing out..

 

Throttlestop not compatible with X79, as far as I know. I have a hunch that constant cpu clock helps GPU's. My cpu is on a violent roller coaster ride up and down in GPU tests.

 

I think you are correct that it does seem to benefit the GPU function as well as CPU.

What does it do if you try to use it on X79? Does it say "CPU not supported" like it used to for Haswell? Maybe if you asked unclewebb he can tweak it to make it Ivy-E/X79 compatible.

- Brother John, are you able to use it with your desktop?

 

Humm V.5 said not compatible. But I found V.6 @ techpowerup, and that one works. Well it opens but seems to only show 4 cores/8 threads. I'll have to investigate further.

 

Well, that would be good if it works the same, even if you don't have the monitoring tool available for 2 of 6 cores.

 

never used it on my desktop. only use the software that comes with it and bios over clocking.

 

SuperPI 32M 07m:09s



SuperPI 1M 07s:861ms

 

46x on the CPU. Need to refine it a little better

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

 

Is there a way to disable c-states in the P570WM BIOS? I always hate having my CPU to run at a lower "power saving" state even at idle, so I always disable that.

 

yea I asked the very same question back then when it got released, hated cstate too, it makes benchmark choke LOL yes there is option In unlocked bios

 

Do you have one of these bad boys, Brother unityole?

 

It doesn't have the plethora of C1..c3..C6..C7 and so on settings that an advanced BIOS would have. I'm sure it's buried in there somewhere, but someone like Prema would have to spend some time and dig it out for us. We have and Enable Hibernation, and a ACPI sleep state setting. Under CPU power Management, we have Speed step and turbo mode, of which the setting don't really work the way they should.

Oh, it idles at low power, and jumps around during graphics GT's. I don't know a way yet to get it to stick.

 

Yeah, mine idles at low power if I let it, but I have that "feature" turned off because I don't like it.

I would not care about any of those advanced features. I disable most things because they just interfere with performance and they don't add a scrap of value to me. All I would want is a simple switch feature to be able to disable c-states completely so the CPU runs full blast at whatever speed I set it manually to run and never slows down for any reason, even on battery power. That's how my M18xR1/R2 have always been set with an XM CPU. In this photo it shows it disabled. If I set it to "enabled" a huge menu opens ups with a crap ton of power saving settings that I don't give a rat's butt about, LOL.

 

I wish ours looked like that!

 

I just posted this for fun.

<iframe width='853' height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mzGQL3DfGKs" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

 

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

 

Looking good!

 

That's cool :thumbsup:

 

Thank you fine sir!

 

no but I was tempted to click on purchase barebone several times from ebay. x79 chipset runs surprisingly hot compare to newer chipset and I use usb 3.0 a lot, x79 only got the performance of 6 series chipset for it's usb so I can't have that. i'll wait for haswell E and clevo lol

 

Check this out...

Spoiler

Yeah, I know it's off topic, but it's too stinking funny to not share it, LOL

Spoiler

<iframe width='1380' height="700" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/PUKMUZ4tlJg?rel=0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

 

That was good I needed that laugh! That one dude sweeping up...didn't even phase 'em, LOL!

 

780M

880M


And yes, there is major throttle all over the place!