1.5gb GTX 460m Official on Alienware USA/Asia

Just talked to some Alienware support guy online about upgrading to the 460m from my 260m. Apparently that wouldn't be possible because of a new motherboard? Seems weird that Alienware upgraded motherboards just like that. Maybe he knows what he's talking about, though.

Code:

11/08/2010 07:12:43PM	Agent (Name): "Hello (me)"
11/08/2010 07:12:48PM	Agent (Name): "How can I help you today?"
11/08/2010 07:12:48PM	Me: "Hello, I just have a quick question."
11/08/2010 07:13:11PM	Me: "I recently purchased an Alienware M15x and received it on October 22nd."
11/08/2010 07:13:25PM	Me: "I ordered a Nvidia 260m with it."
11/08/2010 07:13:41PM	Me: "Would it be possible for me to somehow upgrade to the 460m that was recently released?"
11/08/2010 07:14:30PM	Agent (Name): "I am sorry but that is not possible. The motherboard does not support that type of card"
11/08/2010 07:14:57PM	Me: "I see. So when Alienware upgraded the video card, they upgraded the motherboard as well?"
11/08/2010 07:15:12PM	Agent (Name): "Yes"
11/08/2010 07:15:28PM	Me: "Ah, ok. Thank you very much! Have a good day!"
11/08/2010 07:15:47PM	Agent (Name): "You are most welcome"

 

i really don't think its a new mobo, most of the time the techs don't have a clue. but new mobos should be coming out soon when sandy comes out to play.

 

i'm declaring a state of shenanigans!
quick, find a broom!

we'll have to wait and see from someone who bought the laptop with a 460m unfortunately.

 

They might have made the motherboard smaller so that they could fit industrial fans into the M15x.

Joking aside, I doubt that the motherboard is different.

 

i called dell yesterday and asked them to get the replacement from nvidia 260 to nvidia 460 and they said they are willing to come down to my place and get the replacement for me. lol?
i owned a i7 820 right now
is it really different motherboard!?
how the hell are they going to replace my 260 to 460? LOL!

 

Wait so no bios update needed? ? By the way benchmarks for the 470m have just surfaced on in the Clevo threads and it performs about the same as a stock 480m. Unbelievable. it gets close to 9k GPU in Vantage so we'll see what overclocking headroom it has. If your 460m works without a bios update, then I'm going to get me a 470m

 

what bios version should i update on my system?
currently i have a07 on my system =/

 

Well bios a08 came out and fixed the throttling etc but everyone on the forum didn't think it supported Fermi cards. Update to a08 just to be safe, I'm thinking the techi will want your computer up to date.

 

what do you mean by fermi cards?
hmm i think i will update to a08 bios then.
i believe no one here has 460m yet lol.
ill be the first one

 

Yeah fermi cards are nvidia dx11 cards - 4xxm series onwards. Usually a laptop needs a bios update for new hardware compatability and there hasn't been one. We'll see tomorrow when you get your new graphics card...

 

cool ill try to update my bios right now

 

I thought I read they added support for them back in the last BIOS update?

I guess the 480 is so underclocked it's not really as bad versus the 460 and 470 as you'd think based on the specs.

 

Just a note to the 470m hopefuls. A user in the Clevo forums has overclocked his 470m a bit and it has achieved a GPU score of over 10800 so I'm guessing the performance is AT LEAST par with the 5870 and by the looks of it more. So @len888 tell us if the techi successfully gets the 460m in yours and WORKING and I will happily dish out whatever dough to get meself a 470m.

 

From what I've heard so far the GTX 460 should already be a match for the 5870, so the 470 should blow both away. Maybe that's not the case for Donutmark though.

 

ing hell the technician delayed my appointment till tomorrow -,-
ill update you guys after they replaced the gpu

 

By Donutmark I assume your referring to 3dmark. Anyways '06 is heavily CPU based where a 920/940xm with all cores loaded down can raise the overall score by as much as 2000 points. Vantage is a better indicator because of the GPU score. The 470m has easily reached over 10k with a mild overclock. The benchmark that everyone should be performing with DX11 is the Uniengine Heaven benchmark as it is the only benchmark that can accurately show the DX11 capabilities of the hardware. For in game benches, I guess Metro 2033 is good as it is unbelievably demanding especially in DX11. But anyways I digress. Hopefully we won't need a bios update but the only person that can tell us that is len888, tomorrow.

 

What games should I test to test throttling and general system stability?

I was thinking of starting with Halo 2 on this (just finished Reach last month and decided I'd like to see the rest of the series) but obviously Halo 2 won't make this thing break a sweat...

Although I do plan on running at least one CPU and GPU work unit through on Folding @ Home, so maybe I really don't need to worry about pushing it with a game right away.

 

gta iv for example, or borderlands
but try prime 95 all cores plus furmark

 

Seriously wolfpup what do you mean when you say donutmark? Furmark or 3Dmark? Both are very handy benching and stability tools so I don't know why you're being negative about either. 3Dmark Vantage to tell you how your gpu is running and what different changes(drivers, clocks, etc) are doing to performance. Furmark will let you know if it's stable to run at those clocks or if you're gpu is going to turn to a mini oven and explode.

 

How about Folding on both at the same time? I guess CPU and GPU Zs should show this right?

Unfortunately I don't own either of those games to test (wouldn't mind borderlands though):-/

Well, those are good points both about stability and possible relative changes. The problem with using it to compare systems though is it's not a game, and drivers and whatnot tend to get tuned for them (or at least did). You can have a part that performs better in Donutmark, but in real games does worse. Anandtech didn't even used to list them-held out for YEARS until caving just because of their popularity, and still says "well this doesn't mean anything, but here ya go..."

I just skip through to the benchmarks.

 

Mate all we want to know is what the hell you are referring to when you say donutmark. 3dmark or furmark? Good luck benching.

 

has anyone know where to download the nvidia 460m driver?
please help

 

Did your Alienware come with the 460m in it or did you buy the card separate to upgrade?
If you bought it separate then you probably cant use it. Apparently the A08 Bios does not support the 460m.

 

so what should i do mate?
the dell just replaced my 260m to 460m
and my current bios is A08 damn

 

If you computer boots up, it means that the GPU is recognised. Try downloading the 260.99 drivers from the nvidia site.

[Edit] Sorry buddy didn't read your other thread if the 260.99 drivers aren't working then try going to the laptopvideo2go.com and getting the 261.00 with the modded inf.

 

So now len888 has got a 460m working in his m15x WITHOUT any bios update, who has the balls to jump to the 470m? I would happily if someone found me a cheap way to get it to the UK...

 

please check for throttling

 

Yeah...it MIGHT not be too late to cancel my order (says "in production" though)

 

Wait. I don't get it why would you want to cancel your order, Wolfpup?

 

If someone checks for throttling and it does with a 1.86GHz CPU or slower.

 

you can do all the testing yourself, you have 21 days to return it if there is a problem.

 

What are the chances? I mean I thought most of the reported throttling cases occurred with the extremes.

 

Sure, but I'd much rather just know ahead of time and cancel the order. Easier and cheaper for everyone involved.

There are people reporting throttling with slower CPUs, so far as I can tell, though I guess it's less common.

It's sort of hard to tell since that thread isn't organized and there are people reporting their system as throttling, when actually it's because they didn't understand it's always going to throttle on battery, that type of thing...so hard to tell for sure, but it sounds like there are cases, at least prior to A08?

 

Yes you're right. With A08 though, it shouldn't be a problem anymore for slower CPUs.

 

My 260 throttled with the 820qm. Even after bios a08.

This was mostly in synthetic tests though. It didn't throttle during any recent games.

 

Anyone got the 460m yet?

 

Apparently someone's got it working.
BTW, those 470Ms are looking more powerful than the 480M's atm. xP

 

Mmmmm me want 470m. Watt for performance the 470m blows the 480m out of the water but its all proportional. The 480m is still more powerful but at a large power consumption cost. Now where to get me a 470m?

 

still gonna be awhile from what i've heard. guess they are holding on to the supply for new laptop orders.

 

Yikes, see that's scary...I've ordered the 1.86GHz model...

But we don't know how the 460 will affect it...on paper these all have the same TDP right? But something about the 260 stresses it more, so...who knows about the 460...

*sigh* I hope we find out soon as I'd like to cancel if we know...

 

So any throttling? Please so no! Please say no!

And hurray for getting it! I'm one bump higher on the CPU...maybe a mistake...

 

Hmmm, more benchmark please.....vantage, RE5, CRYSIS...etc (btw can try running furmark until 10mins and report the temp here.
Currently still below the 5850 if OC to 5870 speed....
what will u guys think?

 

What settings was furmark run at? And run vantage, 3dmark06 is cpu biased 3dmark vantage will show you the gpu's capabilities. As soon as you break 10,000 gpu score and still have headroom in the OC then I might believe the 460m is better overall than the 5850. Until then your scores look awesome but they don't show that it's a better card in any way. There have been too many 5850's to break 10k in vantage gpu to say that those scores prove it's in any way better. Congrats on the card though!

 

Camping here for real time updates~

 

that's a pretty impressive temp, even my g73jw gets around 79-80C during load in Furmark.

Does it get hot on the palm rest as well as underside of the laptop?

 

Well, did you try running Prime and Furmark to test for throttling?

Even with Bios a08 my GXT 260m throttled with Prime and Furmark.

 

I saw furmark, but i didn't see Prime.

Have you ever tested for throttling? I can run Furmark on it's own and not have any throttling for hours.

Now, when i run Furmark AND Prime95 it throttles after less than 2 minutes.

Also, isn't that read as 8k? I thought the GPU score is what most people take into consideration or am i mistaken?

 

I wasnt saying over 10k total score I was saying 10k gpu only, you're still at just shy of 8300 gpu score, my 5850 ran 10,450 gpu score only and there have been quite a few other 5850's break 10k gpu in vantage. The 8300 isn't too far off of stock for the 5850. You also have physx turned on, it has to be turned off or turned to run on the cpu in the nvidia control panel. You have a good card, but based on the scores I'm seeing in gaming and most real world scenarios the 460m simply won't beat the 5850. I've said it a million times before anything heavy in tesselation(dx11), CUDA, or Physx it will beat the 5850 just not in games.

 

From what i'm seeing, it seems very true.

I'm just super curious if the nightmare with throttling will happen when others jump the bandwagon. That's my only reason for pushing a Prime95 & Furmark run together.

 

i was wondering what is the furmark for ? what does it do to run it whatss the purpose thanks

thout i would ask it here instead of a difrant thread since ur all talking about it here and
didnt want someone to get lock happy and lock and close the thread down when i could have put it here lol