*OFFICIAL* M15x Benchmark Thread

I ordered it and got everything ready to roll, I got all my other stuff( MX-3 and 940XM ) but this laptop is taking forever to get to me.
I basically got the base unit with a 5850 for a little under $1200 and will more than likely take the RAM and 120GB OZC Vertex from another laptop I have.
Soooo, just waiting for delivery, says 7/14/10 for a delivery date but I thought I would of had it by now, I ordered it on 6/25/10.
Waiting really sucks!Bad!

 

Ok here it is...

Asus G73jh


Alienware M15x

 

wow realy nice score

 

How do you that, Mandrake? That's incredible (shades of the famous Asus bios). My copy of Throttlestop (v2.54) does not include an option to manipulate TDP or TDC, at least not one I recognize. How about a lesson? It's hard to believe how much power you're able to feed that processor.

 

ThrottleStop 2.70
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStopBeta.zip

There's a minor issue when using SetFSB but this version does the TDP/TDC trick if your CPU supports it.

Just right click on TS for the new menu options.
The M17x has shown some BIG improvements in performance.

 

Thanks, Unclewebb. Off to get the new version.

 

Here's Vantage

 

Power of a desktop proc yet the power saving features of a mobile unit.

BTW I haven't seen my AC adapter pass 141W yet.

 

Does anyone have a Core i7 desktop CPU handy to run ThrottleStop on? I'm wondering what the default TDP TDC numbers are for one of them. I've seen one screen shot of a Core i7-980X 6 core with a 130W / 110A TDP TDC rating.

 

wow!!! 22k cpu geez, that incredible, looks higher than any M17x cpu score so far. how much did you oc the gpu. i find that everytime my cpu gets a really high score my gpu score would drop. waiting for my new heatsink to come in then i will start benching again.


btw do you guys think i can powered coat the laptop? just went to my paint guy and he gave me that idea.

 

GPU was at 915|1100.

 

wow mandrake you just killed all the high scores, in one day.
i still need to learn how to properly oc the cpu before i can gave you any competition.

 

Not gpu vantage, sooner or later. Time has been the issue as of late.

 

yea i feel ya, my work have been crazy busy lately too. when you have time i would love for some cpu ocing lesson, if you find me worth,lol.

 

Whoa, Unclewebb has opened up a whole new game. Throttlestop is rapidly becoming a one-stop overclocking utility. Going to need some care in the application -- or maybe another portable A/C.

 

till me about it from 17k to 22k high, thats insane. mad props to unclewebb. have you tried this out yet rev?

 

Playing with it now, Inap. Very powerful options in play, but we'll need to use some judgment re potential heat problems. Let me experiment a little more, and I'll get back to you. I'm moving slowly with it because I don't have much idea where the real limits of this laptop are once you give the 920XM room to breathe.

 

nice, looking forward to your findings. yeah i don't really wanna touch it yet cause i'm not sure what i'm doing, hahahah

 

the new throttle stop is awesome for people who need extra power mainly the 920/940 owners who have the highest power requirments

 

Here's a TDP TDC example from 5150Joker on his M17x.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6434200-post3507.html

It's like someone just pulled a cork out of the exhaust on these beasts.

tuenkamen: Does your i7-620M support this TDP TDC feature? Some of the Dual Cores are showing a boost in performance too. Just a sign that Dell sets the turbo boost TDP TDC a little on the conservative side.

 

does this TDP, TDC allow the turbo boost to oc more or would i have to use the method Joker is using for setfsb and have to find the pll on this machine?

 

You can only increase the multiplier on the Extreme CPUs. You'll have to use SetFSB to increase the BCLK on the regular CPUs.

The TDP TDC trick lets turbo boost stay engaged longer before turbo throttling.

 

Great additions to Throttlestop, Unclewebb. Thanks and +Rep (multiple times as available), but now I need a bigger power supply and active cooling (lots of it) to take advantage of the potential you have opened up for us.

 

Hold on, so what you're saying is that non 920xm owners can now OC their cpus with this, setting the FSB? i thot i7s dont even have fsb anymore? im confused :s Lol... But ima still rep ya buddy... awesome work.

Man nowhere else on the net do you find such quality on forums... you usually find most forums saturated with immature kids badmouthing eachother about nonsense... not NBR though!

Should be called Notebookprofessionals.com loll

 

The TDP/TDC setting within the Core i CPUs controls how long turbo boost stays engaged for. The M15x and M17x bios sets this on the conservative side so at part load, the turbo boost will start to cycle off due to power consumption. By using ThrottleStop and increasing the TDP/TDC limit, the CPU is able to use Turbo boost for a longer period of time before turbo mode gets throttled back.

Does your i7-820QM support this. Just right click on ThrottleStop 2.70 and open up the TDP TDC adjustment feature. If the adjusters are locked, then your laptop doesn't support this but if the adjusters work, it might be able to unlock a significant amount of extra performance as long as you can find a way to keep it cool. Gains of 4000 or 5000 points in the CPU part of Vantage is nothing short of a miracle.

 

Great another thing to play with once I get my laptop.

 

The 820 did not support the TDP TDC .... The numbers were there but the up down arrows are locked out ... Just letting you know since you were wondering ....

Either way though Great work on this app and if i still had my 920xm i would be tinkering with it for sure...

+Rep

 

That's what I was expecting. I was surprised to hear that this worked on some of the Core i5 CPUs. Maybe the adjusters were locked on these CPUs too out but the user just thought that it was working.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6433956-post3499.html

5150Joker was up to 95W/76A and if he had better cooling he probably could have went a little higher yet and increased performance some more.

What are the default TDP/TDC numbers for your i7-820QM? Intel lists the TDP at 45W. When you see how much power and current these CPUs really need to maintain turbo boost, you start to understand how throttled the Core i7 mobile chips really are.

 

I have a sort of dumb question is this program bottle necked with how much power a PSU can output?

 

TDP 45w

TDC 37a

There is no load on the CPU though so im not if that should be different ?...

 

Thanks Quadzilla. I think those are typical default numbers for the 720QM and 820QM. Load or idle, ThrottleStop should report the same thing for these numbers.

This is the reason why when you run 8 threads of Prime95 Small FFTs, you don't get any turbo boost and your multiplier throttles back to its default which is 13 for the i7-820QM. If these limits were higher, turbo boost could be maintained for a longer period of time.

IKAS V: Basically your CPU is bottle necked by both this setting and how much power the adapter can deliver to it. The i7-920XM is a crazy price but now that it's possible to use its full power, its almost worth getting one. It's a big step up in terms of performance with the help of this trick and the adjustable amount of turbo boost that it can deliver.

 

Agreed, thanks to the TDP/TDC unlock (which I pestered Kevin about for months now) the 920/940xm chips are finally worth the price tag. Before all you got was a marginal increase in performance with a bunch of added heat and power consumption. BCLK overclocking changed things up significantly and now with TS's TDP/TDC unlock, it's very much worth it. I was playing Mass Effect 2 today with the TDP/TDC at 80/65 respectively with everything in-game maxed out at 1200p and the framerates never dipped below 60.

Source games never stutter one bit now where before L4D 2 would drop fps in very heavy scenes because of the CPU scaling the turbo back. I'm loving it!

 

Gotcha and + rep bro
Is there a simple step for step guide on how to use it correctly.
I don't want to destroy my laptop the first time I try it

 

Im sure Joker can punch up a step by step guide on how to use everything ... Right joker ? ...

 

All the guides are out there already. I think CodeBreaker has a general OC'ing one.

 

Thanks a bunch for Throttlestop. My i7-920 desktop has the same 130W / 110A rating (currently not overclocked).

 

Step 1 open your freezer
Step 2 place box fan in freezer
Step 3 chuckle a bit that you just put a box fan in your freezer
Step 4 eat all ice cream before turning on your M15x since it may melt the ice cream



In all seriousness all you are using is throttlestop with EVGA eleet. Mixed that in with your own OS tweaks and plenty of cold air and then you can keep raising those turbo mode multipliers.

Understanding how your CPU, memory and GPU adjust to the added heat/cooling is key. So that involves lots of testing. If you have specific questions I will be more than happy to help. Also this thread helps:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/476426-m17xr2-overclocking-guide.html

 

Very nice guide
Is the FSB PLL the same for the M15x?

 

Nope....to be honest setfsb is not needed with the options throttle stop gives you now. It was the systems thermal/power limits limiting the OC'ing, not the bclk frequency.

 

Good to know.
So just throttle stop,Eleet and the AMD OC tool is all you need?

 

I don't use the AMD tool. Seems flaky to me. I normally flash the vbios but I've had some good luck with RivaTuner.

Soon throttlestop will include it and be a one stop shop for OC'ing.

 

YAY!
My laptop is finally shipped and on it's way, now I'm almost a official member of AlienWare nation!
I'm so excited

 

Congrats IKAS ...

 

first it was steaks, now ice cream,lol. thanks for the awesome link mandrake. will definitely let you know, when i run into something i don't quite understand.

sweet, congrats bro. with everything your gonna add its gonna be a beast.

 

I just hope everything goes smoothly.
How hard is this thing to take apart?
I've swapped CPU's in other laptops so I'm pretty familiar with the whole procces of pasting, going to do the GPU and CPU since I'm not familiar with the setup anything I should look out for?
Thanks guys for everything and yes it should kick butt!

 

the cpu and gpu are pretty easy to get too. i'm working on a new guide, but have been busy lately. but here is a link to the service manual.

Alienware: Online Documentation

 

This is all you need.

YouTube - Alienware M15x Teardown 1 of 3 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video)

 

Awesome!
You guys rule
After watching that video it all seems relatively easy just one question to replace the GPU and CPU do I have to take the vents off first?
I don't have to do most of the other stuff before hand do I?

 

Yes, you do. It's better that way too. Easy to remove HS.

 

yup the vents is a must to take off or you will end up like this dude.

Alienware m15 R2 Upgrade