gtx 780m SLI in alienware 18 parallel to gtx Titan pc ?

You are forgetting one thing in your power calculation... The new alienware 18 have haswell cpu, meaning 30% less power consumption than other i7 cpu's in older models. Meaning, more room for overclock...

P.s
Forgive my grammer mistakes. English isnt my main language.

 

Do you think that the 30% less power load applies during full CPU load? I bet you will see same or more power draw at full load than any previous mobile i7 they are talked about as more efficient during idle and mediacore load, but I dont know if they mention full load 30% less power draw

 

Its definitely not 30% less power usage under full load. I've even read in some reviews its more in some circumstances. Hopefully at the very least its 10% more power per watt, even then I have my doubts

 

I fully expect that it is going to take every bit as much power to run a 4930MX at 4.7-4.8GHz as it does to push a Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge XM at those speeds. And, I bet the Haswell CPU is going to run hotter to boot. Ivy Runs hotter than Sandy, so I'm expecting the same thing here. Smaller die size means less surface area available for heat transfer. We will be finding out before long, but I won't have my surprised look on my face if it turns out this way.

 

^^ very true mr.foxy! wonder if only haswell iGPU can be downclocked due to its un-usability while using dedicated only graphics..

 

I don't know why it could not be, just like it can be on Ivy and Sandy. It's dormant anyway, so it should pull almost no power when using discrete graphics. It will depend on how locked down the BIOS is whether that setting is accessible. And, unlocking the BIOS might not even be possible if Dell has chosen to make it that way on the new machines. That part is going to be interesting to see. It might end up being a really sad story for overclockers, much like owning a BIOS-crippled Clevo if they do that.

 

Isn't your machine housing an OC'd 3940XM though? Those cards have a higher power drain than say... a stock 4800MQ would have. Unless you turned your cpu OC off, but then again, your CPU should still drain ~10W more. If full brightness, non-OC'd 4800MQ, slight OC'd 780Ms (100/400 like the WingNut suggested) hovers around 310/320W, then with the 330W PSU (I'm pretty sure it is 330W anyway) that comes with a P375SM, I think that'd suit me more than just fine, methinks.

I'm literally just waiting for mythlogic to add the 120Hz screen + 3D options to the P375SM before I get it. I believe they have to be waiting for WHQL drivers from nVidia before they can test it and release it, but that's just my theory.

 

any benchmarks to support 780m sli i mean gaming benchies that it doesnt consume too much power and performs like a titan ?

 

I just can hardly wait for the day when my watch can power 4K @ 100fps or greater... perfectly smooth.. ohh yeah baby!

Half joking of course. For now... I'll have to just be happy with what I have.. For development I'm on a MacBook Pro Early 2011 (8,2), but soon I'll have the Alienware 18 w/ 780 SLI (4930mx, 16gb ram). I don't know if you all got your questions answered so far regarding benchmarks etc with these specs, but I'd be happy to run through whatever with you guys when the machine arrives.

-s

 

I'm about to have the Alienware 18. I'd be happy to do some testing with you guys if you didn't get any of your questions answered already. Here's my specs:


- Alienware 18 BTX Base Mod
- 16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
- Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI Enabled
- 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, English
- Overclocked 4th Gen Intel Core i7-4930MX (8MB Cache, up to A.B GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
- 18.4 inch (467.36mm) WLED FHD (1920 X 1080) TrueLife Display
- 330W A/C Adapter

 

Put it this way... These cards can draw up to 140W per card from what i can tell. At least that's what I make out of the tdp%. Still trying to understand how that works fully. When I speak of turning down the screen, this is only for benching purposes nothing more. I can game on this machine at 1124 to 1150/3000 on a desk in room temp temperatures. I have posted some shots of this. Will start testing SLI soon. but can run at least 1060/3000 under same conditions a single gpu...I got side tracked from there so I didn't go further. An Alienware psu has a shut off point of about 441W (330 rms). You will need to find a real kilowatt meter to see this. So it will not readily shut off as most seem to think it will. Not All games draw the same watts or loads while in gaming. So on stock clocks and volts with a fixed vbios, you can game 1000/3000 no problems. that's 229 mhz/500 mhz higher over clock. Svl7 and I have fixed this problem. One only needs to know how to make it work. If Clevos 330W power supply was rated at rms (speculation of course) instead of max watts, then they wouldn't really be needing two psu's. A 2960xm can draw as much as 125W when fully over clocked.

 

Well we are waiting for your max oced sli 780m gaming performance and want to compare with titan.... hopefully 780m sli max oc to 1100 on the core and game stable without psu running out of juice to run it also can a single 780m oc to 1200? ?

 

You are getting dangerously close to the desktop cards there lol which are pretty power hungry.

 

Your asking for allot ain't cha? LOL!
I need to really record it better though. I might get around it. And that's a pretty big might.
I was just starting out in a hot room and no ac or extras other than my cooler master cooling pad.
60 to 100 fps. Every thing on ultra. Motion blur on high and flares on.
941/2700@ 1.025V, but not really need for this test. Cpu at 4.0 ghz
EDIT: AA=FSAA AF=16X - Drop 15 FPS when using MSAA 8x
I will run it at about 1050 to see what it does later.

 

Quick question because I am curious; what temps do you get without using the cooler? Your room temp matches what I get year round usually; so it'd be a good judge for myself. I don't plan to OC my CPU, but I do plan to do a lot of streaming, so the extra heat from that should match what's prevalent in your OC'd MX cpu.

 

That cooler helps nothing. Blows around more hot air and that's about it. Im just too lazy to move it.

 

Dang that is some tight fps there in crisis 3 w/ 780m gtx sli. Just wondering what antialiasing setting you have it on?

 

This has often been the case for me, but it is kind of a moot point because one card cannot be overclocked enough to meet or exceed the performance of SLI. It is sort of like saying that a 4 cylinder can rev higher than a V8, but 400HP vs 750HP in the same chassis is kind of a no brainer which one is going to come out on top.

 

What is the prospect of 780M SLI performing stably with a mild overclock, the one Johnksss refers to above (+200/+500) with the CPU at 4.3-4.4 Ghz (1200 primary plane, MSR Lock and BDPROCHOT disabled, the usual overclocking tricks)?

 

I would say the prospects are pretty darned good for that.

 

I believe that depends on the user to a fairly large extent. With the right tweaking and talent on an Alienware laptop, it can do amazing things. Without the right tweaking and talent, maybe not.

On a Titan equipped desktop in the wrong hands, it can be less than amazing. Here's an example of what I mean. Notice what is under "High End Gaming PC" in this screen shot.

Spoiler

I doubt you will see a score anywhere near this low with Brother John's Titan. I'd say that's a bad example of the Titan, but a good example of what happens without it being in the "right hands" LOL.

 

that is hilarious mr.fox you just made my day nice point

 

but one thing im still trying to wrap my head around is that 1 card is putting down sli 680 numbers.. 1 card.. even if 2 cards dont do as well as expected because of power constraints you are still going to be doing far better than the 680s..

every one was worried that these cards were just rebadged some things or anothers.. like amd is doing.. but now that we are seeing what these cards can do i wonder what amd has up its sleeve..

but for now... 780s here i come..

 

You are very welcome with the donation I made for the cause.

 

I haven't followed these 780m OC benchmarks very closely so everyone please correct me if I am wrong. However, I never for once thought these were going to be re-badged cards like the AMD cards. However I was expecting about 30% increase which superceded my original expectations prior to people getting their hands on the cards. I doubt the cards offer double the performance of 680m. Maybe a heavily OC'ed 780m matches stock 680m SLI in a game or two.

I think the real question is how these cards handle the heat in the new chassis (big unknown) AND the limits of the 330 watt PSU. Personally, I think these cards are going to show a nice improvement in performance, even at stock, when new games come out that take advantage of the extra shaders and bandwidth of the stock 780m. The 780m SLI should be absolutely sufficient for the next few years at the resolution of 1900x1080. It will be quite awhile before the 4k resolution displays become standard and there is hardware sufficient to power such high resolution. I read that 4 titans running in SLI were able to run Crysis 3 maxed at 4k resolution. 4k resolution currently costs about...ironically 4k. 4 titans also runs about 4k. So basically I say it's pretty safe to say 2 780m SLI will run 1080p for quite some time

 

I think a lot of what we think or speculate is going to end up being wrong. GTX 580M, 680M and now 780M came stock with nowhere near an accurate view of their potential. Every single one of them has performed far better than we expected them to, but not the way they came from NVIDIA. It was only after they got fixed by a few end users that they became awesome.

The way NVIDIA released 780M it was not really that much better than our vBIOS modded 680M GPUs.

 

have you seen johns numbers for a single card? he has 1 780 performing better than sli 680s.. well putting down the same or better numbers under benchmark conditions.. i may be wrong but the number are there to support that.. oced or not the 780m kicks butt..

 

Yes, I have and it is awesome. That's because of John and svl7. Stock, the 780M doesn't perform as well as our vBIOS optimized 680M cards. The people that are not willing to do the necessary flashing, tweaking and experimenting with tuning after they get their new Alienware laptops or buy 780M cards as upgrades are not going to experience anywhere near the kind of performance you are seeing in John's numbers. Other than John's benchmark scores, (exclusively due to his effort and partnership with svl7,) there has not been much impressive happening. I have not seen anyone else with 780M being able to beat the 680M SLI benchmarks that John and I have posted. That does not diminish the potential of 780M in any way. It is a wicked mobile GPU with an unlocked vBIOS. I want 780M SLI, too. It's going to have to wait for my budget to fit it in. Had John and svl7 not put the effort in to get it working the way it should work, 780M would not have been an upgrade worth pursuing.

I haven't seen John beating any of his or my 680M SLI benchmark scores with only one 780M. Maybe I missed a post somewhere. One well tuned and overclocked 780M (not stock) definitely is turning benchmark scores as good as 680M SLI with a stock vBIOS. No question about that and that is pretty amazing. I think where the opinion that 780M was a rebranded 680M came into play was based on the observations that it has somewhat unimpressive performance with a stock vBIOS, just as 580M, 675M and 680M were unimpressive with a stock vBIOS.

 

It wont let me upload the sli video for some reason. And that time I did up the quality.
Took these at it's lowest point. About 75fps under heavy conditions.

 

Is that with MSAA 8x? Cause if so damn that's impressive!

 

Yeah that Titan score is pretty low. Here's what one of my Titans pulls with core at 1202 mhz: NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3770K Processor,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. MAXIMUS V FORMULA Since 680M with an unlocked vbios, Titan like performance has been possible for a long time now. The 780M SLI just adds a bit extra to that. The most impressive thing I think is the mobile CPU physics score beating my [email protected] GHz. I can scale up to about 4.8 GHz but it eats up a lot of voltage so my 24/7 setting is at 4.5 GHz.

 

Can you reach titan score with the 780m sli without OC?
I dont like the idea of tweaking and messing with VBIOS if it can do harm to the hardware in the long run... My question still remains simple as stated on the subject of the thread, can a stock 780m sli reach 1 gtx titan performance?
On some videos i have seen and after doing some reading, one 780m stock card is equal to a gtx 650 ti pc card, and gtx 650 ti in sli, for some reason... Out performs a gtx titan in games...

Edit:
I bought a 27 inch u2713hm dell monitor, i wonder how well the 78 sli will be able to run games maxed on its native resolution of 2550x1450...

 

I do believe that if you are not willing to tinker with your vBIOS and do some overclocking, you are going to find that the GTX 780M is going to perform measurably below our optimized GTX 680M equipped systems. So, the short answer to your question is "no" you won't reach Titan performance.

A stock GTX 780M (stock meaning factory installed vBIOS and no OC) is going to perform notably better than a stock (again, stock meaning factory installed vBIOS and no OC) GTX 680M. The trouble with that is hardly anyone you will want to compare performance with here at NBR or Tech|Inferno is going to be sporting a stock GTX 680M, or a stock GTX 780M for that matter. We are talking about significant differences in performance between stock and unlocked vBIOS on both GPUs. If you are not into benchmark fun and are only interested in gaming, this may not make much difference to you. Who cares as long as it does an awesome job at gaming, right? But... once you get it, you're probably going to end up changing your mind and want to tweak it.

 

yea like own Lamborghini and never break the speed limit ... lol

 

Mr. Fox, John, & anyone else into the tweaking vBIOS, overclocking, etc.. I see some of you claim to have unlocked the potential of your 680m SLI M18x's ... did you have to make modifications to the power adapter or anything to do w/ power to do achieve this? I'd love to know I have the means of unlocking my M18's potential when it arrives next month - if I can find the proper learning materials with your help.

Thanks,
S

 

Hello sethwb, welcome to NBR. We are glad you joined our community. Congratulations on the new beast. You're going to love it.

To your question... It depends on what you plan to do with it. The answer is yes and no depending on your intent. And technically, you are not doing anything with the power other than manipulating your system to work best with what it has available to it. That's a combination of luck, art and science that you will have to master through trial and error, using basic information you can pick up by reading things that have been posted. Since you have a while before your new machine is delivered, spend some time in the following two threads. Start at post #1 and work your way to the end. You'll be addicted by the time you're done and you will have a good head start on things when your machine arrives.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...alienware-m18x-benchmark-thread-part-2-a.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...locking-thread-learn-how-share-tips-here.html

A 10-page essay on each thread will be due the last Friday of this month.

 

Brother Fox's word is gold right here. I think the bottom line is a stock 780m is about 30% faster than a 680m stock. However the potential is what has people excited (and surprised). We don't get these enthusiast systems just to play at stock settings. The ONE mistake I am going to pay for right now with the new m18 is that I didn't get the fully unlocked 4930xm CPU. I will have to accept the small OC tweaks I can do in the bios and the massive vbios tweaks I can do with the 780s (which is what I care more about). These machines likely won't break (assuming we have m18x and m17x type quality). Get a 3 year warranty. Dell WILL take care of you. This is not just a place to discuss Alienware's from the factory. We are the guys who take the stock exhaust off our Vipers and put full bellanger headers, Random Flow cats, and Borla exhaust on our cars. We then put a Paxton supercharger, tune it to a 24/7 8-10PSI and safe dyno tune. THEN we go and talk about our vipers.

The majority of the public thinks our systems are a joke and we are people who just waste money. That is all fine and dandy until a 3dmark is posted with scores knocking out 99% of systems out there all while sitting on a comfy sectional couch about to load up Crysis 3 and have some Dexter playing on the 60 inch Samsung Plasma at the same time. We are gangsta here. Nerdy gangstas.


Fin.

 

lol , loved the detailed example you gave there
point taken and received. maybe if i can let go of the fear of what will happen to my system and refurbished replacement parts, i will try some benching and OCing learning

 

Benching is fun... gaming is fun. Game benching is fun.

"Yeah, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" - Serious Sam

Spoiler

Batman Arkham City - DX11 Max Settings
I wonder what the "little people" are doing with their Asus, MSI and Clevo laptops?

 

I'm not going to add more about the 780m's performance, since Mr.Fox and the others already plenty covered the topic. I just wanted to mention that playing it safe (leaving the GPUs un-tweaked and with stock vBIOS) doesn't guarantee that the hardware will necessarily live longer than leaving all at stock. These cards have great potential in terms of performance and they easily tolerate serious tweaking. In addition, once tweaked you could simply create several overclock profiles for every need, as most of us here do. In doing so you won't be "stressing" the GPUs 24/7 and you'd only boost 'em up depending on what you're doing. Otherwise it'd be like living a sheltered life afraid that something bad could happen out there. For instance, some people never travel abroad because they're afraid of... the world. Yet, once they get a taste for it they won't stop traveling and do it whenever they get a chance. In sum, don't think of modding the vBIOS as something dangerous to do, but rather see it as unlocking your cards so you can fully enjoy them. Don't be afraid

 

This is seriously starting to get pretty funny.
1: You can't go no higher than 92C with out the card dialing it back down a bit.
2: You can control how many watts the card puts out. And you can lower the temp to what ever you like and the card will dial back
3: 1.1V is not going to kill this card.
4: Your not going to kill this card with a bad flash. Way to many ways to fix it, if your an M18x or M17x user.
5: Run this card with factory vbios and your the one who will wish they didn't upgrade.
6: For all single card users, this is the holy grail, if you can figure out how to make the card work in your favor. Will you beat sli 680's? Heck no! Can you get in the ball park at least? Yes.

So lets give all that a rest now. Bottom line the card can draw far more watts than it's 100W tdp er...ummm... max, but at the same time the card is fully control able. I dont care if you sit there and forget and let it try to over heat on the bed covers. Not happening. it will dial back. So lets cut out the worrying and have at it or get something else.

 

Wonder if same rules should apply to 680m since identical architecture ?

 

1: You can go no higher than 92C YES with out the card dialing it back down a bit. NO
2: You can control how many watts the card puts out. And you can lower the temp to what ever you like and the card will dial back. NO
3: 1.1V is not going to kill this card. YES
4: Your not going to kill this card with a bad flash. Way to many ways to fix it, if your an M18x or M17x user. YES
5: Run this card with factory vbios and your the one who will wish they didn't upgrade. YES
6: For all single card users, this is the second to the holy grail, if you can figure out how to make the card work in your favor. Will you beat Crossfire 7970'S AND 8970'S? Heck no! Can you get in the ball park at least? Yes.

 

I bet its matter of merging some features from 780m vbios to 680m vbios , and of course time, time, time... and effort

 

We shall see.

 

Hello, Guys. Need some help or advice. Recently i've bought 2 pcs of 780m and installed them in my Alienware M18x R1 2920xm. I never overloclocked cpu and gpus, all are stocked. But my 330w DELL PSU behavior worries me much: in some modern games (Far Cry 3, Crysis 3, Skyrim modded to ultra HD) under heavy load my PSU just shutdown and laptop goes on battery (and it's very laggy in game). When i replug PSU from eletricity it turnes on and everything's fine but just for 1-2 minutes and then PSU shutdown again. On previous gpus (6990m crossfired) i never met this problem. Any suggestions ?

 

Your AC adapter needs to be replaced. I have had this happen a couple of times running the stock GPUs and replacing it fixed the problem. It's not the 780M fault. It's probably just old, tired and weak.


(click to see replacement part)

 

Thank you, i thought so... but why PSU is stable in most other games and shutdown only in some of them ?

 

where can i buy gtx 780m except from upgradeyour laptop? @xenol put some benchmarks dude want to know 2920xm at stock does it bottlneck 780m sli performance?

 

I bought them from upgradeyourlaptop, delivery was nice and fast, parcel was well packed and both cards were stress tested. I will make some beenchmarks after get new DELL PSU.