M14x vs M15x

Hi guys, ive been deciding between the m14x and m15x, specifically i want the 5850m on the m15x, so its gt555m vs 5850m. Which graphics card is better overall? Is the m14x overpriced for the specs im getting?

 

5850M is better hands down.

M14x is overpriced relative to the M15x.

 

M15x is still better for gaming.

 

@RedMagnum

From what I've read and seen NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M - Notebookcheck.net Tech is only about 20% better then the 260m. I could be wrong though. But I know for a fact that the 5850 WILL outperform the gt555m, making the m15x a better gaming machine over the m14x.

 

Actually when I had my GTX 260m it was still quicker than the 555m. It has been long discussed that the M17x R3 is the successor to the M15x. The M14x is just to fill the gap between the 11 inch and the rest.

 

The bigger the system, the better items can be fit in there and supported.

 

Go for the M14x or M17xR3, I wouldn't buy something from a discontinued line. The GT555 is slightly better than the old GTX260 plus it supports DX11.

 

Go for the M15x or the M17x R3, I wouldn't buy a gaming system that can't game properly.

 

@Laxxi: The M14x can't game properly? How so? I'm not planning on getting one but it does appear to be a highly competent gaming notebook to me.

 

Low to Medium settings on the latest games doesn't qualify as a proper gaming machine in my opinion.

 

a lot of people are buying the hd6970m for their m15x so i think the m15x will last a bit longer the m14x does have a better cpu,the gpu in the m14x i think its soldered so you can't upgrade it correct me if i'm wrong.

 

Low to medium settings? Absolute nonsense. I can run most of the latest games mid/high on my M11x R1 whilst sustaining a smooth framerate. The M14x is a solid system undeserving of the negative sentiment it's been given on this thread.

 

And the M15x is a much better machine, undeserving of the negative opions you seem to have of it.

Why do the majority of M11x owners feel the need to troll the other Alienware forums? Little man syndrome maybe?

 

Resorting to ad-hominens to beef up your argument? Getting desperate aren't we? Anyway, I've said nothing bad about the M15x; I think it's a great system. You, however, should not be advising the OP by trashing a system you know less than nothing about.. he came here for an impartial opinion afterall.

 

I think that's uncalled for. Bendak wasn't denegrating the M15x, merely saying that the M14x seems to be undeserving of the bad rap it's getting.

I also don't believe anyone is 'trolling' in a forum specifically designed for M15x owners. I sold my M15x R2 about a month ago but still peek in here (despite no longer owning one). My allegiance is with the brand itself so I'm always watching out for new developments, particularly where it relates to sub-monster notebooks like the M14 ad M15.

Anyway, sorry if you believe I'm trolling now too, but your 'little man' comment, among others, was uncalled for, immature, and not fitting of notebookreview.com IMHO.

 

Ok, my apologies for the innapropriate statement. But as far as the OP is concerned the M15x is a better system than the M14x, discontinued or not. The GT 555M is a GDDR3 card and (albeit the highest offering) part of NVIDIAs mid level range. Not to mention the fact that according to some it appears to be soldered. At the end of the day, while the Sandy Bridge processors are fantastic, they don't have such a great impact on gaming application. The Clarksfield XM's can be overclocked to offer comparable performance to the lower Sandy Bridge options and the prospect of a 6970 is proof that the M15x will be a strong gaming competitor for some time to come.

So really the "buy an M14x because the M15x is EOL" statement is a pretty invalid point to bring up.

 

The OP has not voiced any intention of manually upgrading to the 6970. The baseline model offering the 5850 is more or less equal to the M14x. I mentioned EOL because getting hold of certain OEM components in the future to carry out repairs- if the M15x broke down- will not be easy. I've just made a price comparison between the two and have found that for an extra £125 (over the M14x) the M15x can be kitted with the GTX460M which is undeniably more powerful. I'm starting to side slightly towards the M15x..

 

The 5850 is NOT inferior to the 460m GTX. No fan boy speak here as I have the 460m and I know for a fact that the 5850 is quicker. Just look at the benchmarks. Comparing the M15x with 5850 to the M14x is like comparing a renault meagne to a ferrari. I think you mean 5730 which is slightly slower than the 555m GT.

 

I am looking at the benchmarks and the GTX460M is quicker than the 5850. I think there's a certain amount of hyperbole when you speak, there isn't a huge gulf between the GT555M and 5850. The 5730 is a budget card that is on par with the GT335M, why would you compare that to a mid/high level card?

 

I currently hold the top spot for the 460m GTX in the benchmark thread with 8631 vantage GPU points. The highest 5850 ones are more than 10k. Now you tell me which one is quicker.

 

There is a massive difference. The GT 555M won't even come close to the HD 5850, which performs better than the GTX 460M also. There is absolutely no doubt about it.

 

Well the 3DMark scores for the 460 outstrip the 5850 if the cards aren't OC'd. It won't be long before we see the M14x thoroughly benchmarked; it'll be interesting to see how it stacks up against a 460/5850 M15x. I'm pretty sure the difference in performance will not be as extreme as made out.

 

What a dumb, misleading, and totally illogical comment.

Some people are so ....lets just say they have their heads up their own behinds.

 

Also, I game on "low to medium" settings, scratch that, pretty much medium settings on a 5650m. The 555m is much more powerful. My Envy 14 is also 16x9. I'm failing to see where this "low to medium" thing even came from.

Makes no sense.

Oh wait, you're probably one of those people who thinks 30FPS is an unacceptable framerate.

 

@Bendak, I get your point, but from what I know the 5850 in the M15x is the GDDR5 version which can easily pull 7000 GPU points on stock. The GT 555m can perhaps do 5000 on the DDR3 version and 6000 on the GDDR5 version. I am not for one second saying the 555m GT is bad, I'm just saying the 5850 is still better. This is my opinion, no one needs to agree with it.
Edit: If you are looking at 3DMark 06 scores, they can be misleading as it is extremely CPU skewed, seeing as most 555m's are in Sandy Bridge machines, they have an unfair advantage.

 

Well, the GT555M was never acknowledged as a better card than the 5850, I certainly don't think it is. However, the i7 2630QM in the M14x should make the gap negligible between the two machines. I still think the M15x is going to come out on top but I'm not sure if the performance increase is cost effective against the M14x.

 

M15X just went down to 999 starting price

 

A solid M14x build will cost £1100 compared to £1333 for the M15x with the i7 620M/GTX460M.

 

Well the M14x has been benchmarked where it attained a PCMark Vantage score of 9293 and 12,553 in 3DMark06.. So much for it being a system that can't game properly.

 

I'm probably going to get an m14x, might aswell seeing that i own an m11x and m15x

 

@Nivaku: Someone's got money to burn ... I really wouldn't bother with the M14x if I already had an M15x.

These measurements are taken from another post:

M14x - 201 cubic inches
M15x - 347 cubic inches

I'm guessing that the M15x will be at least 2-3lbs heavier than the M14x. I think the OP should also take these dimensions into consideration when choosing a notebook.

 

I wish they had m14x at best buy or at microcenter so I can see it first hand to hold it and see if it can be lugged around the campus. the m15x, well for me isnt really a portable system. that's why i got the m11x, but the screen is too reflective and small in my liking. so by default the m14x should be a good center ground in portability. hopefully they dont have a m12x or m13x.

 

Stock-wise, the 460M is much quicker than the 5850
ALTHOUGH, that's only at stock speeds.
OC'd, the 5850 blazes past the 460M with ease.
I'm no fanboy either, I'm running a 460M quite happily.

 

I don't see the 5850 in the M15x? I see the 5730?

With the discounts and coupons I bet thats all they will be offering...5730 is probably all of what they have in stock.

 

Its too bad, if they discontinue the M15x, and don't give the same GPU options to the M14x as the M15x, then I think the choice between an M14x and the M17x or M18x becomes harder, since you're really compromising performance for the size and vice-versa.

 

Once again... Disinformation at it's finest. The nvidia 555 is going to perform close to the desktop 440 with DDR3 (as this matches closely matches the fill rate and memory bandwidth).

The notebook 5850 IS the desktop 5770 with lower clocks (625/1000 vs 850/1200)

So.. Google benchmarks for each to start, add 5 to 10 percent for the 440 to get the 555.

Then come back to the forum and I will be happy to give you benchmarks for the 5850 at gaming levels. My 3dmark11 score is consistently 27xx. The 555 in the xps17 is 14xx stock and 17xx at max oc.

3dmark06 is no longer valid. It offers no value. You will score about a 1000 points higher than me with the m14x and I promise you 100 dollars that my m15x will get 'at least' over 10 percent higher frames per second in any game at the exact same settings (in game).

StevenX

 

Here's from the dell xps forum. xps17 plus 2630qm plus 555 nvidia.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/566206-overclocking-gt-555m-card-11.html

 

Those 3dMark11 benchmark scores for the 555m are very enlightening. P1335 at stock clocks; P1687 o/c'ed (the"maximum o/c"), using a 2630 CPU? My 5850m in the M15x scores about P2300 at stock settings and about P3100 at max o/c, using either an 820qm or 920xm CPU. That's a considerable gap -- more like a chasm. Why would anyone argue that the 555M in the M14x is remotely comparable to the 5850m in the M15x? The M14x looks like an excellent addition to the AW family, but anyone expecting it to provide graphics/gaming performance at or near the level of a well-equipped M15x is going to be sorely disappointed.

 

@Rev - It's the same thing that happened to the XPS17 crowd. When it's the "new" video card it can part the heavens, turn water into wine, etc... you know what I mean. In this case I am doing my best to get people feet planted firmly on the ground with realistic numbers and ideas of performance. Otherwise in 3 weeks we will see this a lot in the forums "M14X, NOT WHAT I EXPECTED".

Just keeping it real, others should do the same.

StevenX

 

New true believers never want to hear about the reality that awaits. What's peculiar here is that none of these folks have an M14x or have even seen one, yet they defend the misinformation and hype surrounding its performance like a lioness protecting her cubs. How do they get so personally invested in something they know so little about??

 

I know! Its really stupid. I will heed to all the praise and glory for the M14x if it turns out to be quite the performer. Heck even if it isn't quicker than the M15x but exceeds my expectations I'll take back everything I said but right now people should take a deep breath and take a step back and examine the facts, there hardly are any at all.

 

Like I posted in the m14x forums.. I have dell credit ready to spend. I was hoping the m14x had a stronger card. If it did, I would have already ordered one. (I don't want a m17r3)

StevenX

 

What do you do Rev ?????? Just sit back and watch these guys flame each other. I thought these forums were a community where there were constructive PROVEN/BACKED UP comments so we can all help eachother. Never mind some things start poorly and turn out great.

 

Maybe I'm crazy, but I just went to spec out an M15x (for the heck of it) and all three configurations, when customized, left you with the 5730 and didn't even have a place to choose the video card. Is it just me? I hope so

 

Yeah bro, you cannot customize the video card of the m15x for some reason.

 

Not on the Dell site but you can do it yourself. There is a whole host of cards you can change to in the M15x but not the M14x.

 

What, you find my comments lacking or non-constructive because they are not sufficiently PROVEN/BACKED UP? I humbly apologize. Perhaps the following will address your concerns and contribute to an understanding of the terms "about P2300" and "about P3100" when referring to scores returned by 3dMark11, a popular benchmarking program. I was trying not to over-post or over-prove the point, given that the performance of the 5850m is well documented in this forum, even if not well understood by the more avid proponents of the 555M. You think I make those numbers up?

". . . 5850m in the M15x scores about P2300 at stock settings"

Exhibit A: P2299


" . . . and about P3100 at max o/c [maximum overclock] . . . ."

Exhibit B: P3134

Exhibit C: P3117

Exhibit D: P3055 (With 820QM CPU)

 

Ok! On to the next thread comparing M14x to M15x!!!

 

Crickets... chirp chirp chirp..

OK REV! (Takes chain mail glove off and gentle whap on the cheek). I will accept the m14x challenge... lol.. J/K ... I will be optimizing the h3ll out of it.

I just ordered one. m14x Basic 2630qm with 1.5 555. Now.. I went for the lesser screen and here is why.. I need FPS. and...

From what I can tell the fps at native rez 720p is close to the same fps as the 460/5850 @ 900p. (I said close.. not exact). OC the gpu and it should be very very close.

And that's good enough for me. 720p is a step down but getting some battery life is a step up.

BW, StevenX

 

Congratulations, StevenX. The M14x looks like fun and is a great size and weight. Look forward to your reports on its performance. If anyone can make it sing, it's you.

We're going to miss you around here. But I'll probably be heading out as well before too long -- trying to decide between the M17x-R3 or going whole hog with the M18x. Plan on keeping the M15x either way.