M15x now with the 5850!

Its $50 cheaper than the 260m? Does that mean the new 5850 is inferior to the 260m? And how does the 5850 stack up the with the 5870?

 

M15x now has an ATI 5850 available as an upgrade for $150. i guess this is a bit of the news we were supposed to get on may 5.

im a bit disappointed that theres no 5870 option though.

 

haha. i just made this exact same thread.

 

The specs and one benchmark that are on notebook check would indicate that they are very similar, with the 5850 having a slight edge over the 260. However, I have not used a 5850, so I can't be sure.

 

Huh you're right. Well if we needed anymore proof about the release of the 5870s for the M17x, here it is.

 

The ATI will most likely not throttle, but we would have to see. I am also curious if Dell has gotten sound over DP to work with the ATI cards. I know that I cannot get sound over DP to work :/

 

Ha ha yeah we must have posted it at nearly the same time.

 

why wouldn't they use they 5870 the bios supports it?

 

what's interesting is the difference between the upgrade cost on dells site v the epp site.

on dell's site, the 260 is $200 and the 5850 is $150
on the epp site, the 260 is only $180 and the 5850 is $135.

kinda interesting.

 

EPP gets a 10% discount...

 

simply by participating through the EPP program (even if you don't qualify) you get a discount. It's why you should *always* order by phone through an EPP agent.

 

i guessing heat management, 5870 run hotter then other cards.

 

yeah, i just never noticed before that they actually take the %10 off the upgrade cost. i always just thought it was off the final price. i never looked at them side by side before so i never noticed that they post a different price.

 

Two ideas:

1. Heat requirements too great (possibly, but, look at the amount of people with baby hemi's cards that are fine)
2. They don't want to tread on the m17x's toes (most likely).

 

not up on the canadian site yet. Interested in the prices for canada.

 

it's the same amount either way. however if you checkout it should give you a pre and post discount price to know how much you saved.

 

Ha I called it. I knew the M15x was going to be offered with the 5850. Hopefully these will be the GDDR5 variants.

 

i am on hold checking that now.

 

let us know what you find out

 

If the 5850 has GDDR5 besides stock clock speeds its the same as the 5870 right? I'm assuming they should be able to overclock fairly easily? Maybe save power as well? I wonder if thats the reason they didn't use the 5870? The MSI GX640 can get around 3 hours of battery with an i5 and a 9 cell. Wonder if the M15x will finally be more mobile with a 3 hour battery life.

 

let us know what you find out. thats kinda make or break.

 

its gddr3 ^10 char

 

its gddr3 ^10 char

 

Thats lame

 

i'm really starting to get pissed off with alienware's choice of components.

 

^^^ thats disappointing. i hardly seems like an upgrade. more like just another choice.

something new to think about before i order. at least i can pretty safely figure at this point it will be while before they add another GPU option.

 

I don't know if it's alienware so much and not dell.

 

i think the only way to go at this point is order one with the 260, and transplant a 5870 into it.

 

that route is very tempting. that may be what i end up doing

 

That route can also be expensive.
I mean it's great that it works but paying for a system and then shelling out another $400-$500 is way more money that I want to spend.
Why AW!WHY!
No clue why they added the GDDR 3 version either.
Isn't AW supposed to be all about performance?
This is slightly disappointing

 

^^^^i know what you mean. im on a budget too. for me, id have to get a system and then save up for a while before i could do and upgrade.

i just love the design of the M15x. its perfect for what i want. i've been looking at some benchmarks on the 5850 and it doesn't seem like a bad card. it looks a little better than the 260m, but not at the level we would get with the 5870.

it may be a good option for me. i want a beast of a system, but i dont necessarily need it to be absolutely top of the line across the board. a slightly inferior GPU probably would affect me too much as gaming isnt my primary focus. i just want a good system that will last a while and i can upgrade it pretty easily down the road.

 

why not just opt for an m17x

 

That's slightly a slight understatement.

 

Sadly, the new AW is about cutting costs and flashy looks it seems like. They haven't been at the top of performance parts for some time now. I love my M17x-R2 but I don't like the direction they are heading in.

 

Yes!
I am a master at that.
I'm glad AW is releasing new GPU's but not exactly what I was hoping for.

 

im on a bit of a budget of around $2000. i can get to that with epp and a few other discounts on a well specced M15x whereas to get an M17x for that id have to sacrifice most of the features that make it worth getting.

i just hope that they aren't trying to gimp the M15x so it doesn't take sales from the M17x. to me that makes no sense. They are going to offer dual 5870s for the M17x soon enough. The M17x has enough other features that make it appealing to people for it to sell on its own without having to nerf the components options of the M15x.

i just hope that this wasn't the reason that they aren't offering the 5870 as an option.

 

Wouldn't it be more cost efficient to just get the one with the 240m then transplant the 5870 into it? That seems to be the best route

 

In that case it's better to go for the 240 and put in the 5870 for yourself. At least it saves you a bit of money.

 

A little to big( even if they are almost the same size ) and a little too much out of my price range.

 

my thoughts exactly. couldn't say it better than that

 

Apparently, the only heatsink that fits the 5870 is that of the 260m gpu. So that's why the 240 is out. Arghhh dell and their nerf bats

 

BOOOOOO!
Not a good idea on AW part.

 

according to the thread with all the people doing the switch themselves, you need to get the 260 because the 240 has a different heatsink than the 5870. i guess you cant just switch out the 240 for the 5870.

 

Thats not true, its been said by a few users that the heatsinks are identical.

 

hmmm. good to know if thats the case. i wonder if the heat-sink is the same for the 5850.

 

Wow Dell, way to let down your customers. I honestly don't get why they even bother with the m15x. Just kill it off already. First they gimped it with throttling and now this.

 

It's the same reason Porsche created the Cayman.. it's perfectly in the middle of the 911 and Boxster. For the people that have a little more $$$ for a 15" laptop, but not enough (or don't care to carry around) for the 17" laptop.

 

That's what the m11x is for. Nerfing the m15x is counterproductive. If I was a manager at Dell, I'd fire the guys that made these stupid decisions. Let them go work at Apple where they can charge a premium for a flashy underpowered machine.

 

well all i can say is i dont want to 'downgrade' so in a few months a 5870m is gonna get throw into my sig.

im with you too on that Lozz cause i wasn't able to afford the M17x with what i wanted so i went for a loaded M15x and im really happy with it so far.

the 620m is the cure for throttling because it has a lower tdp, less power draw, far less heat, etc. and doesnt stress the system like the quad i7's

 

i agree with this but at the same time, giving a better gpu would still put it squarely in the middle of the spectrum. the M17x has would still be the best of the best.

the problem is that alienware is supposed to be the top of the line systems, and while the M15x is still a good system, its not the top of the line that alienware proclaims themselves to be.