4850's Finally out for the m17

Hi guys,

I reckon your X9100 will be here by tomorrow hopefully and Im sure you will be happy with the results, my notebook feels much faster and I already had a T9600@ 2.8GHZ. The gaming improvement is amazing

Can anybody else confirm what oARCHONo is saying about "2 weeks" for the 4850s.....I do believe him for some reason but I have never seen him on this forum before and he is not what I would call an active member....no offence intended mate but we have had people in the past trying to pull a blagg!
Could someone else confirm what Alienware are saying..........I wouldnt be able to afford the cards for a month or so anyway but it would be nice to know for sure what is going on.

cheers guys!

 

bear in mind we were told 2 weeks when they first released them...

be interested to see what can be done with these cards, seems abit of a poor release to me tho, no drivers seem to support them (well some do but with big difficulty)

 

Hi Pmanuk,

On the 3 occasions that I spoke to Alienware about this I was never given a given date or even a timeline like "in 2 weeks" thats why Im a little excited. I do agree a little about the driver situation but that could improve soon.

Lets see what happens anyway.

 

Not really that hard to use mobility modder now its out Im currently on some 9.8 early betas (6.34 vs 6.32 of the 9.7s) which seem marginally faster; the real 9.8s are due out next week anyway, all pretty simple to mod with the tool, its not like we've been stuck in a master/slave situation like the W90 (poor show Asus).

I wasn't expecting wonders from AW support; as I've seen Dell support before; and thier driver support is actually probably better than Fujitsu-Siemen's...at least the average driver is less than 6 months old

Still yeah hoping for that X9100 tomorrow, pretty shi** week at work this week, so will give me something to enjoy messing around with in the evenings; want to see if I can get 3.6Ghz stable overclock out the chip dependant on temps, as that was always my aim for my Q6600 and it could never quite get there without silly voltage for day to day.

The drivers on Alienwares site do actually support the cards; they're just outdated; the official ATI ones don't as, typically, they're a bit tied by the suppliers, much like NV have been up til recently where they just decided to release anyway.

 

That's awesome Marshall! I had to wipe the drool coming down my face here. I really hope AW comes through.

 

YES I AGREE
Alienware has my laptop sitting with them
for over 3 weeks now, they could have tolled me they dont have
the Cards in stock, just show they dont care for customers
just want to get there Money, & make people wait

It would have been so much better, for them to tell
customers the Truth

 

You should call and ask to have your warranty extended for the length of time that they have had your laptop and you couldn't use it.

 

^ +1 to that

 

Im sacred they will put a Bug in my System
& pull the Plug after my Warranty times up
Think they can do that ? lol

I did not get Extended Warrant cos My lm17 was not up to its mark
& am waiting to see how it performs after the upgrade to 4850's

I dont mind paying double for there services
as long as they Garantee the performance the say it will do
but sadly its not till now

 

ummmm AW will do what you tell them no more ... they haven't guaranteed any performance boost ...

i can't make heads or tails of the rest of the comment

 

Exactly 1 month ago i was on the phone with AW EU tech support.
We talked about upgrades possible for my M17 (age Feb 2009).
He advised me that my current GPU's (3870 XF) are upgradeable to Radeon HD4850 1GB XF (also known as M98).

As i was leaving for holiday we agreed that they should call me back 1 month later.

As promised they did today, and we spent roughly 30 minutes on the phone ordering the cards. When we where almost on the end, i asked what the deal was with the XF cable and if my current would fit or i need a new one...the REP was not sure and he went to check with his supervisor.

When he came back to the phone he said he was really sorry but he had bad news, he said the 4850's dont work because of heat problems. So i aksed how it was possible that they are offered as an upgrade on the website for the M17 then. He didnt believe me, opened his browser and checked...he saw i was right and didn know what to say. He went to check with his supervisor again and came back with bad news again, said the 4850's are only for new M17's... lol

Ofcourse i reacted very shocked and disappointed about his story and said how that was possible since we almost finished the order for the 2 cards...and besides, my M17 isn't that old.

He said it was most likely some marketing strategy to allow the cards only with new systems for some months (or years).

Oh well..very disapointed...i will try again next week and ill skip the XF cable part...maybe then they will order them for me.

/cry

 

so close, yet so far

 

I sent another email asking about the cards since it's been a tad over a month now so see what they say this time. I'll throw a fricken fit if they don't start letting us upgrade soon.

 

they probably don't want to until the driver stuff is straightened out

 

If mobility modder supports them fine; and is made by one lone programmer in his spare time; I'd be amazed if AW can't do driver updates, even if they have to mod them themselves!

 

By the time AW finishes with the drivers win7 will be out and hopefully ATI will support them officially

 

Did the new mobility modder work without a hitch?

It is now a simple, extract, mod, install process that is very stable?

 

Yep, works perfectly, using some early 9.8 betas with it now flawlessly, as it performs all the inf and cat mods for you, all you need to do is accept during the install as windows tells you it's an unverified driver. Easy peasy and crossfire recognised perfectly on both 9.7s and these 9.8 betas.

 

nice....glad someone finally got this working, I am sure some readers would appreciate if you zipped and attached a modded 9.7 for others to use

 

I don't understand the AW driver issue. Are people having problems with the systems that have shipped with the 4850's as is? I'm sure one can get better drivers but people are making it seem like these cards aren't working properly.

 

Did they release these as an upgrade yet?

 

why would they do a silly thing like that and make so many customers happy....lol


no they have not

 

Not sure why they'd need be to do it; they dont even need to look for an INF folder anymore; as simple as installing the modder and waving it at some drivers

I can upload some drivers happily; but probably quicker for them to download the tool and drivers and do it themselves rather than downloading from rapidshare, it really is that simple!

 

I know it is simple, but removing every chance for user error is always a good idea haha

 

Haha, true. Still Im gonna be more focused on gettign my X9100 running cooler this evening; Im really hoping it bad core contact, but I've reseated 3 times now and still running hot, Im hoping its just the bolts not sitting quite right. A little worried if I do it too often, the mirror finish will end up so scratched, that that's gonna kill the cooling potential, the NB and CPU already have a few small nicks where they're not as shiny anymore where I've been trying to get the contact decent >.<

 

dam....ya I hope you can get those temp down. It seems WAY to hot

have you visited project freeze?

 

Alex whats your X9100 running at? I've got mine to 3.33 and right now just idling it's @46c

 

Am going to take a read through later after work. As I say I was hoping it was a quick reseat was gonna sort it, but unfortunately no luck on my lunch, so Im not sure if perhaps I have a slightly concave heatsink, the P8400 contact area was much smaller afterall so less susceptible to this than the X9100.
I mean I can live with it getting that hot linpack stressed, as nothing else takes it that high, but I'd rather it ran cooler...for fan noise if nothing else!

Was still this hot with the back of my laptop OFF though, so no case mods will help here; unless directly to do with the cooler.

Hi Frozen, mine idles mid 40s, but at load it shoots up to the 80s, which means my NB is running mid 90s/very low100s, and its the load temps which worry me a bit. I mean it doesnt seem to be throttling, but thats damned hot, and Tony's is runnign much cooler; presumably from the same set of chips as he bought from Shirley same as me, only about a week earlier.

 

Ok I'll see what mine is under load. Have to go to bed now, damn night shift kicking my butt

 

OMG do you ever read?



i talked to a rep as well every month AW has a meeting and decides what they will do as far as their marketing strategy a so you will have to wait another month to hear something definitive

 

Any luck on your load temps?
Since reseating X times, Im now running late 60, early 70s linpack full load on my processor and 80s on the NB. (Much better than late 80s CPU/NB 103 max!)

Seems to be a bit of an ar*e getting optimum contact with the heatsink assembly because of the annoying hook design of the blower meaning you can't just drop it directly on top, and are nearly always coming from some sort of angle.

 

My M17 with 2 x 4850s and an X9100 is on the truck for delivery so I'll have mine today and will be able to post up some temps tonight for you to compare.

 

Excellent, Im out tonight but I'll definately take a look in the morning
My load temps came from IntelBurnTest2.2 running standard stress, 5 runs, and me monitoring with HWMonitor.

All I can say mate is you'll love it; its a beast of a machine. Not quite 280SLI/Quad level, but damn close for the price difference (especially in the UK)

 

Thanks Alex, I really like it so far. I ran the test and this is what I got. It looks like you're running cooler than an X9100 provided directly from Alienware so good job.

 

Sorry Alex, it gets to bout 60 when gaming. Not too shabby. Thats without the cooler but I do have the back propped up

 

Lol...I was gonna reseat mine again now I've just come back in, however seeing your linpack scores I think I'll leave it well alone as Im running a few degrees lower than yours; which could be thermal paste. Guess recent X9100s are a little toasty.

Make sure you're running the latest drivers you can mate; they make a difference, especially for newer games and crossfire

Just reran the test and my rooms pretty warm, my chip is overclocked 300Mhz and I still scored 2-3 degrees lower than your one, so Im happy hehe

 

Yup, I'm using 9.7 and smiling as I watch it play everything very well. I downloaded the Batman Arkham Asylum demo last night and it slices through it like butter all maxed out at 1900x1200. It's a great leap forward from my M9750 that's for sure.

 

Anyone noticed that DMC4 runs REALLY hot?? All my games including crysis don't go over 90C even w/ crossfire, installed DMC4 last night and it went up to 105C with a 91C Average

might have to run this one w/out crossfire... :/

 

Anyone actually used a cooler on the M17? worth $70? I'm still not comfortable with my temps

 

I'm using the Zalman NC-2000, but I really don't know how much it is helping my temps since I can't get GPU-Z or Everest to work.

I suppose I could test how much it helps the CPU temps by running the Intel burn test again.

 

just disable crossfire before you open everest, it will work. make sure you go to sensors first, then go to tools, system stability test and tab over to statistics, then re-enable crossfire

 

Thanks, I got it working. I had never used Everest before and I had downloaded the home edition, which does not provide the GPU sensor data. After installing Everest Ultimate Edition I'm finding that my cards are peaking out in the mid 80's while running Vantage or gaming. I don't have DMC4 so I don't know how much of a difference my cooler would make, but not much I don't think. I've been disappointed in the Zalman 2000 performance for this and the M9750. I just don't think the airflow lines up with the air intake of the computers very well. Someone with a different cooler may have better results.

 

Yeah I wasn't impressed with the Zalman even though people rave about it. The fans don't match up with the intakes on our laptops. I've got this Cryo and it works great!

http://www.amazon.com/ACC-NT-CRYO-B...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1250424131&sr=8-1

 

I have that one Frozen and agree, best cooler on the market

 

How does this cool the laptop ?
I mean the m17 Fans blows heat from the Left side I belive

 

Yes, but the intake vents are on the bottom. Basically, it blows air into the laptop, meaning you've got more air flowing through it, meaning it runs cooler. It's how nearly all notebook coolers work.

 

Yuppers. It works awesome, the adjustable fan is very nice. It is a little heavy if you have it in your backpack with your laptop

 

I'm considering getting one but it would be a while and I'm reluctant as my temps are already fine. (Q9000 runs below 80C overclocked, max load, below 70C max load normal clocks, both GPUs hit 84C max)

 

The M17 uses an Intel PM45 chipset; not an Nvidia one...no crossfire issues with this machine.

That Alienware gave you a machine with an SLI mobo not Crossfire compatible; and then refused to help is a little laughable though, Im pretty sure legally you'd have some grounds to give them hell.

 

Yeah, if they seriously sold you a desktop that wasn't Crossfire compatible but with a crossfire configuration, then you should take it to the law. You could seriously do some damage to them for this, and get compensation.