The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
 Next page →

    1.5gb GTX 460m Official on Alienware USA/Asia

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by DaneGRClose, Nov 2, 2010.

  1. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Here's a screenshot for your proof, not too bad priced as I had thought it would be, just $250 over the base unit, looks like we may have a new competitor for the 5850 finally. Here's a screenshot:

    [​IMG]

    No sign of a new bios yet so for now it looks like it's just new systems only and no upgrades or sourcing our own cards :(


    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    MOD EDIT:

    I have closed the old discussion thread on this -
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/528467-gtx-460m-m15x-spotted-dell-japan.html

    Asia owners feel free to discuss here in this thread (we dont need 2, 3 or more). Thanks.

    -BB
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
     
  2. neoideo

    neoideo Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    72
    Messages:
    171
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    31
    cool,

    but why they keep selling 260m at the same price lol
     
  3. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Think about it, it's Dell lol. They don't always seem to do things that make sense.
     
  4. IKAS V

    IKAS V Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    1,073
    Messages:
    6,171
    Likes Received:
    535
    Trophy Points:
    281
    Most likely just to get rid of old stock
     
  5. alvinkhorfire

    alvinkhorfire Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    175
    Messages:
    249
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Well, GTX 260M is labelled as " Alienware Recommended". Does Alienware want us to use the inferior graphic card?
     
  6. Thierry19

    Thierry19 Coffee enthusiast

    Reputations:
    1,458
    Messages:
    1,543
    Likes Received:
    122
    Trophy Points:
    81
    I think they did not edit the website yet. It is still written; ''Get the M15x will the powerful GTX 260M card from nvidia!''
     
  7. alvinkhorfire

    alvinkhorfire Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    175
    Messages:
    249
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Joking aside, is the GTX 460M powerful enough to utilize all 1.5 GB VRAM? Well, GTX 260M only has 1 GB VRAM. My point is that if the graphic card is not powerful enough, the excessive VRAM will not be utilized and be wasted, thus does not aid gaming performance.
     
  8. stevenxowens792

    stevenxowens792 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    952
    Messages:
    2,040
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    I want to see some serious game benchmarks before I go jumping on this bandwagon. The 5850 is plenty powerful for my needs... Especially above 5870 clocks.

    Notice the 460 says "65w". I will assume this means 65 watts. How does this compare to the 5850? Also notice if you choose order the preliminary ship date is 11/29. After US Thanksgiving... I wonder if they are trying to buy some time for a new bios or update?

    Best wishes,

    StevenX
     
  9. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Funny thing is that the 65w is the same exact limit of the 260m, so if that card spikes above that with the extreme processors we're going to be back in the same throttling issue again. That's one of the things that makes the 5850 so freaking amazing is the power draw, max from the manufacturer even with the GDDR5 is 39w instead of 65 :D
     
  10. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    YES! I feel like I've been waiting for this forever! Okay...I guess I'm going to order. I'm worried about throttling though of course.

    I WOULD order with a 1.86GHz CPU. It's a $318 upgrade from the 1.73Ghz, and I figure that's actually 532Mhz more, plus 2MB extra cache for $318...I'd go for that, BUT I'm worried about throttling, so I'm thinking it's smart to just go as slow as possible? I really, really don't want to give up on having a quad core though-I've wanted a quad since before I bought my current notebook almost two years ago!

    Man, I wonder if there are other questions I'm forgetting to ask...

    Hmm...color, I guess I'm getting black, because I assume it's the least offensive looking. Silver looks cheap a lot of times (don't know that it does on this though), and the red actually looks pretty nice from the photos on Dell's site, but I'm hesitant to do that-outrageous and all...

    It's the same as the 5850 on paper too, so who knows.
     
  11. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

    Reputations:
    3,289
    Messages:
    10,780
    Likes Received:
    1,773
    Trophy Points:
    581
    the mobility 5850 is no less than 60w. an estimate of 39w is way low.
     
  12. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Here are two different sources stating 39w:
    ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 5850 GPU Specifications
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 - Notebookcheck.net Tech
    Now I understand that real life usage and paper usage aren't always the same, but with the 39w out of the factory number on the ATI there's a lot more room for error than with a 65w card. The 460m looks like it will be an amazing card but it makes me wonder if there may be more throttling issues ahead of us if AW doesn't do a bios update for a larger power brick.
     
  13. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Wolfpup, I would say it is entirely up to you. The thought of throttling at this point is nothing more than an idea that it may happen due to the power draw. I think it's going to be entirely up to you. The reason why the extreme processors were having issues with throttling is that right out of the box the 920/940xm have a 10w higher power draw, and if you overclock them that only goes up. If I were to guess I would think you'll probably be fine with either a 740 or an 840 with the lower power draw. Good luck on the order! Guess you can send that Asus back now :p or I guess you could accidentally address it to me ;)

    Edit: And just so you know I thought silver looked bad on my m17x as it was actually silver, the "silver" on my m15x actually looks more like a flat gun metal gray than a silver, it's grown on me :D
     
  14. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    Dang it, I shouldn't 'cause of throttling, but I'm sooooooo thinking I might do the 1.86GHz one :D
     
  15. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    1.86ghz shouldn't cause you throttling, it's the 920/940xm aka the 2/2.1ghz cpus that are overclockable that caused almost all of the problems with throttling. You should be fine with anything other than the 940xm.
     
  16. spradhan01

    spradhan01 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,392
    Messages:
    3,599
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    106
    yeah! People might wanna hurry ordering it with 460M before the price changes.
     
  17. miahsoul

    miahsoul Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    75
    Messages:
    1,372
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Surprisingly cheap... Only a 250 dollar upgrade. Not bad!
     
  18. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Not bad at all, I called today to find the upgrade price on an existing system and they don't even have it as an available part yet. I'll keep trying.
     
  19. miahsoul

    miahsoul Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    75
    Messages:
    1,372
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Hopefully the Dell 460Ms are like the dell 5850s. Better in every single way compared to every other brand. :D
     
  20. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    I wonder what the M17x is getting and how long THAT will be?

    Wouldn't mind the extra power, the extra drive bay (so I can use an SSD as primary instead of a Seagate Momentus XT)...but then realistically a 17" system won't fit on my little stand thing I use at home. Of course that feels like a stupid reason not to get one, but oh well...
     
  21. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Honestly I see Dell waiting for SB for the m17x, the 5870 xfire combo beats everything but the 480m SLI and the only way to improve the CPU is to go to a desktop CPU, they have a solid market there still.

    Edit:They also added the 285m Sli a while ago to add Nvidia support for the Nvidia fanboys.
     
  22. miahsoul

    miahsoul Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    75
    Messages:
    1,372
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Lol. I'm a nvidia fanboy on the inside. Even though I have the 5850M and it's better than the 460M, I've always wanted a high-end Nvidia chip! Just how I go about getting one is probably gonna be really hard...
     
  23. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    AFAIK the 460 is supposed to be between the 5850 and the 5870 in performance today, although it could get better for future games.

    Either way though I want them for their better drivers. To date I've never had an issue with Nvidia drivers (since a few weeks after I got my TNT 1), and I've always regretted going AMD, so...

    Not that the 5870 isn't a good piece of hardware.
     
  24. 5150Joker

    5150Joker Tech|Inferno

    Reputations:
    4,974
    Messages:
    7,036
    Likes Received:
    113
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Most likely the 460M will be undervolted and/or slightly under clocked. I don't think throttling should be an issue unless you run an extreme CPU (and even then it may not throttle in real world use).
     
  25. spradhan01

    spradhan01 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,392
    Messages:
    3,599
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    106
    We need to keep checking Japanese, Uk, Australia dell to see if there is something new coming up with M17x.
     
  26. mafiaboy01

    mafiaboy01 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    144
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Time to start begging Dell to swap out my card! Thanks for the update guys.
     
  27. kyo86sg

    kyo86sg Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    39
    Messages:
    208
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    31
    anyone tried babyhemi clevo 460m GTX cards on the M15X yet? was talking to him to try on my M15X, but because i am in Singapore, thus the shipping is somehow more ex. anyone in the US wanna get a card and try?
     
  28. LastKnown1

    LastKnown1 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    105
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Apparently due to the current BIOS version people on these boards say it wont work. How they know? Im not sure.
     
  29. neoideo

    neoideo Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    72
    Messages:
    171
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    31
    mmm i have the money to buy a m15x,

    but im really not sure, its the end of a 5 year long usb 2.0 generation, 3.0 is right over the corner...
    also these generation of Intels CPU are one of the most consuming, let alone the GPUs at 40nm which are mini ovens.

    it is supposed that intel SB will come back with the old low power consumption strategy, while offering the same or a little better than the actual i7/i5/i3 ones. i really like this idea.

    and maybe, if ATI and mostly Nvidia start to care more about TDP, we will get decent 28nm efficient hardware too.

    we are living a change in computer hardware, its the first time we face Watt consumption and heat problems in a serious way (for the enthuassist group).
     
  30. stevenxowens792

    stevenxowens792 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    952
    Messages:
    2,040
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    @Neo - if you wait now, then the next Revision may get usb 3.0, then if you wait even longer you might get Sandy Bridge, then if you wait longer you might get Aeon Flux Capacitors @ 1.21 Gigawatts... If you wait, you will continue to keep on waiting. Something will always be better tomorrow. Why not be playing games now and having fun right now? Each to their own I suppose. Good Luck, StevenX
     
  31. neoideo

    neoideo Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    72
    Messages:
    171
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    31

    yes Steven, you are right about that too. but im not desperate because im having the fun right now as every gamer should do :) ( i actually play all games because i built a desktop 2 years ago Phenom 850 x4, 9800GTX+, 4GB RAM).
     
  32. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    The annoying thing with Sandy Bridge is it looks like most of the performance boost will come from higher clock speeds rather than architectural changes, thanks to wasting space on worthless video hardware. They could have been building Nehalam quad core parts that would be fairly competitive against Sandy Bridge for most of the year now. :-/
     
  33. neoideo

    neoideo Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    72
    Messages:
    171
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    31
    maybe its time for AMD to bring some mobile bulldozers
     
  34. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

    Reputations:
    3,289
    Messages:
    10,780
    Likes Received:
    1,773
    Trophy Points:
    581
    AMD is so disappointing in the mobile CPU space, it's disgusting.

    Quad-Cores that only rival the i7-500M dual cores. Why bother.
     
  35. spradhan01

    spradhan01 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,392
    Messages:
    3,599
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    106
    Nice say! lol
     
  36. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    You know, I've just been thinking that...well, we don't know how Bulldozer will perform for sure, and what they're calling two cores is really more like one pretty wide core (?) but Intel's decision to waste die space on video leaves AMD a possible chance to catch up here! I mean their big new core is coming soonish, while Intel's new core looks more like a tick than the tock it's supposed to be.
     
  37. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

    Reputations:
    3,079
    Messages:
    4,207
    Likes Received:
    168
    Trophy Points:
    131
    According to babyhemi, 470m's are now shipping so hopefully well see some benchmarks...now for that bios update...
     
  38. spradhan01

    spradhan01 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,392
    Messages:
    3,599
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    106
    looks like you have to wait till 2012 to get a notebook.
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...902-intel-chipset-support-usb-3-0-2012-a.html
     
  39. Thierry19

    Thierry19 Coffee enthusiast

    Reputations:
    1,458
    Messages:
    1,543
    Likes Received:
    122
    Trophy Points:
    81
    That's intel chipset, few notebook already have USB 3.0 capability, the Dell XPS series actually support it.
    I'm waiting for some benchmark of the 460GTX and 470. I don't know if I really want to pay for something better since I don't game that much anyway..
    Meh, only time will tell!
     
  40. goha01

    goha01 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    75
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Therefore,the only thing that is really worth waiting great deal :p
     
  41. JonnyKay

    JonnyKay Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    6
    Messages:
    15
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Not worth it imo. benchmarks don't show much between this and the ati 5850 and the price jump is a bit much. could also suffer from the same throttling issues that plagued the 260m (before A08) as I think they will have the same TDP..maybe

    personally i think its a poor move from dell to offer this card at such an extreme price point, compared to the ati cards. better have some magical overclocking abilities or i don't see much point in this card, other than for people who enjoy their phsyx, cudu.
     
  42. Thierry19

    Thierry19 Coffee enthusiast

    Reputations:
    1,458
    Messages:
    1,543
    Likes Received:
    122
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Well PhysX is great and I believe a lot of people enjoy using CUDA.
    Plus Nvidia takes better care of their cards. Yes they are more expensive and they consume more power, but the drivers can really change the whole experience.
    I am a fan of Nvidia, I always liked how is their support team, but right now they are getting really behind AMD.
    Perhaps the 5xx series will perform better than the AMD 68xx.
     
  43. DaneGRClose

    DaneGRClose Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    2,550
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    66
    If the 460m can do 3 things I may pick one up: 1-show to be as good or better both real life and synthetically to the 5850 2-not have any throttling or other major issues 3-not cost more than $300 and be obtainable through Alienware at around that price. Nvidia does have it's advantages the only 3 clear advantages that I see are tesselation, CUDA, and PhysX. The only reason I'm thinking of picking one up is I've been doing way too much encoding and graphic work lately both of which benefit heavily from Nvidia cards. The average person who uses these cards for just gaming is still probably better off with the 5850. We'll see what the future brings on these cards. :D
     
  44. $HighRoller$

    $HighRoller$ Newbie

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Ahhh tesselation. Only useful when displacement mapping is in effect otherwise not that much of a big deal. I think its used more as a marketing tool than anything else.

    And im an nVidia fan too :)
     
  45. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

    Reputations:
    3,079
    Messages:
    4,207
    Likes Received:
    168
    Trophy Points:
    131
    Yes it is a marketing tool as the only times you can see a noticeable difference are in the Nvidia demos (ha!) and in the UniEngine Heaven program. Yes I am Green Team too because the software algorithm I am working on in another forum is optimsed for Nvidia because Cuda does wonders for it. And I also like Physx (especially in Arkham Asylum, it gives an addition to the already great atmosphere). All this will change when "Crysis 6: Call of Bad Company 4 - Terran Limited Edition" comes out with extreme tesselation, full destructible Physx worlds with actual 1080p cutscenes rendered using Cuda. Then I can watch as my laptop sizzles and disintegrates to death.
     
  46. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    I think the 460 draws less than the 5870, at least based on battery life tests for Asus' G73jw versus jh...and the jw has a slightly faster CPU too...although come to think of it that's not necessarily how it'll be plugged in, since it could be achieving that by downclocking itself more.

    Anyway I think supposedly all three cards have the same TDP, so who knows real-world. But yeah, the GTX 460 gives you similar performance to the 5870 while also giving you better drivers, CUDA, and PhysX. The latter two are actually at least a little important to me (Folding @ Home runs better on it, so too will other programs probably once we get more, and PhysX is actually really cool in the few games that support a higher end mode for it.)

    So...well I'll consider AMD now that they're finally providing notebook drivers too, but from experience I'm willing to pay more and/or even go with a substantially less powerful part to go with Nvidia, but in this case it's not all that much more and it's equivalent performance (or theoretically probably better if it's full clocks, since it beats the 5870 sometimes, gets beat other times).

    For that matter, it PROBABLY has more room to grow since the tesselation's better even than AMD's 6xx0 line, and games will probably use that more and more...although since most stuff's built off the Xbox's capabilities and obviously that thing's tesselation can't be that great, and they won't want to exclude AMD's 5xx0 line, it might not make that big a difference.

    But anyway, I'm feeling really good about this part...it actually seems better than what I was expecting (of course it looks bad next to desktop parts at ultra settings...like one thing was doing 100+ frames while it's doing 33 or whatever, but still, for a notebook? Nice! :) )
     
  47. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    Nah, we're buying these suckers for the good cooling, right? :) Hopefully the M15/17x can stand up to being pushed hard continuously. Heck, my Asus N80nv which is just a two year old mid ranged system has actually stood up to CPU/GPU at 100% too, so I'm hoping for the best with Dell's high end line :)
     
  48. dotrunghieu

    dotrunghieu Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    144
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I just buy AW M15x (260m) about 2-3 months, I don't know will Dell offer to free upgrade to 460m. Anyone know?
    Thank you. :)
     
  49. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    No, you'd have to buy it, though it sounds like it's something that will probably be offered at some point. The GTX 260 is still a nice GPU though.
     
  50. miahsoul

    miahsoul Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    75
    Messages:
    1,372
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Hmmm..... I wonder if Dell will trade my 5850 + 50 Bucks for a 460M...
    Wanting to get one because of CUDA...
     
 Next page →