4870's confirmed... for M17X none for M17.

So all this talk about 4870's got me to be a little skeptical. So I did some digging and calling.

I talked with AW tech rep Johnathan and he told me that there are 4870's yes, but they are for the M17X, the reason they are not offered for the M17 is because of the heat solution for the M17 cannot handle the 4870's.

So hopefully this lays it to rest. I also asked about codes, he said no, they are for the New system the M17X.

If anyone else is curious give AW a call the number is 1-866-287-6727 then press 4 then 3.

Hopefully someone can prove me wrong, but this is what I've heard from AW.

 

On the phone with another rep, waiting to see what she says.

 

that means the m17 is going to be cheaper or stopped.

 

Just got off the phone with the second AW tech rep pat, she told me that she checked with their second level and they said they did have 4870's but only for the M17x, however, and which could provide some plausability to the claims made in other threads, she mentioned that AW Tech reps do not find out about upgrades until a day, 24 hours she said specifically, before it launches on the webpage. So, that could mean 1 of two things,

the first being, the AW techs the other guy spoke to had no clue what they were talking about OR the techs had some leaked info they gave to him, which wouldn't be smart because he would just be risking his job. So either or, but for now I have two different reps saying there are no current plans for an M17 upgrade because no upgrades are in their notes, also she said we would need a new mobo because of the tech change made with the two different cards, so i dunno if that would increase the cost by a lot or make any upgrade impossible.

 

What a mess lol , this stuff has been going on for months now . No one has a clue as to whats happening. The M17 and M17x are so closely named that i think alot of the confusion is stemming from that alone.

 

mmmmmmmmm i see. well we will wit the 24 hours we already waited this long so another day won't hurt. lol.

 

Haha they have been talking about these Elusive cards since december so yes whats one more day . I remember being in the OCZ forums when these were mentioned the first time, then RK computers had them listed as coming on there website , then the SKY fell.

 

Sorry, I think may have read it wrong, I meant that they don't find out until 24 hours before an upgrade is released, not that in 24 hours they will find out, sorry for the confusion.

 

Yeah, and I think words like "confirmed", "official", and "sources" get used way too loosly around here too.

No offense poliuy.

 

Meh, I give up. I won't be surprised if ATi or even nVidia releases a DX11 mobile GPU before anyone gets their hands on these 4870s. haha. 6 months of speculation usually means that it's not coming. If the 4870s were available, even for the M17x, they should have been advertised with the unveiling, seeing that it was announced well before nVidia annouced their GTX 200M series...

 

Yea i understood what you meant but i was thinking in 24 hours there will be another confirmation they are or arent coming again , that seems to be the norm around here lately , i think though dondah didnt understand what you meant and thought tommorow they will know for sure .

 

No offense taken. I was actually really excited about hearing "CONFIRMED" that I was overjoyed until I let reality sink in and decided to do a little snooping. So the only things we can confirm is:

1) 4870's will be coming out for the M17X

2) If the 4870's are released for the M17 we will need an entirely new Mobo.

 

I'm still happy with my M17. Besides, I'll be buying what replaces the M17X!

 

The new motherboard thing would never happen IMHO , they would just let this machine ride it out with the 3870s until they have exhausted all the supplies. it would do more harm then good and the cost of 2 cards along with a new motherboard ? you could buy a whole new machine by then .

 

I wouldn't be totally surprised if the ATI M17x had a different mobo then the Nvidia M17x....at least a different chipset.

 

Yea, cheaper to sell one machine with the option of different cards then carrying stock of two seperate machines.

I'm in the same boat as rob though, im saving now for the machine that replaces the M17x lol.

 

Its a great machine man and you dont need a new one at all + like you said just wait till the next revision comes out and by then you would actually need one.

This thing really has exploded since then official specs of the M17x came out and left the M17 owners freaking out as when the cards were coming even worse then ever before.

 

well AW just shooting themselves in the foot then, as i wont be paying over £3000 for an m17x but i would pay say £500 for the gpu upgrade.

I will wait for the 17x's replacement in 2/3 years

 

Why dont they release single 4870 ?
i dont have money for crossfire anyway...

 

if/when they do release them, they will offer a single card option

 

I have to agree, but I think the 4870 GDDR5's will probably be a hold out to compete against Nvidia's next mobile card due out in Q4 this year, the GT212M/GT300M, if this is the case ATI just may put out the 4870 GDDR5 and re-brand it a 4890 at least this is what I think might happen.

 

thats what i want


ALIENWARE , I WANT 1 4870 !! ... NOW

 

They have spoken about them, so have the makers of the whitebook, the problem hasnt been IF they are doing them, its CAN they do them. Heating has been a widely known problem with them which is what has been holding them up.

When i spoke to tech support at least EU side they knew about it and gave me the stock codes and upgrade path, I know they were talking about my M17 as they called up my AW support number and they said they would keep my 3870's. So we know they have been working on them and they have had previous problems. The devolpment has prob had problems due to allpowerful coming and the merge of facilities with Dell.

This doesnt mean that it wont be coming.

 

They aren't coming for the M17. Just give up on it.

 

i did. that was the only reason why i bought mines.

 

well at this point i give up on aw. they specifically told me they were for the m17, i asked repeatedly are you sure its not the m17x the new "allpowerful" one that just went on sale they said no its for the m17. i spoke with three different reps including a area manager i know who is with dell in the florida area.. so either the upper levels are giving the rest of the company bunk to tell the customers or im not sure why they would be doing this.

 

This is starting to get both annoying and confusing. One day, they are coming out, the next day, they aren't.

I guess we'll just find out if they're coming when they do come out.

My speculation is that AW reps are saying that they ARE coming out because they're working on it, and others are saying that they AREN'T working out because they've got a problem with the cooling.

If they're not compatible then that's a different story, but from what I've heard, they are at least compatible, even if they overheat.

 

flex themselves said specifically they have them but they were running to hot in the system that was a direct response from flex. so as i said im done with the mess. i dont have a whitebook anymore or a m17 so ill just wait and see and take my chances with the m17x..

 

Then it definitely sounds like the main reason that AW are saying yes and no at the same time is that they're trying to find a way around the heat issue but so far nothing's worked, so some obviously think that they won't get it to work, whereas others think it will.

Or something along those lines, anyway. Maybe some AW reps are poorly informed or something.

All we can do for now, really, is speculate.

 

what's your next notebook gonna be. the new sager and the new alienware has the same specs. the only thing that's going to be different is looks, features, and cooling.

i would choose the sager. cause they can cool desktop cpu(core i7 130w) so they should have a problem cooling a laptop cpu.(qx9300 44w)

 

I think they may be balking at the case mods that would be required to pull this off with a redesigned heatsink and fan(s).

Its going to come down to someone from around here showing them that its possible and a viable way to sell a lot of cards, as long as theres an understanding that your warranty and support terms may change as well.

Could they just be stringing everyone along for a little while to sell as many Allpowerful as possible, and then release them around the fall? Blame it on company merger and reorganization priorities.

If I know one thing, they have been seriously hampered by the heat.
But things are changing fast. Who knows what will happen next week, let alone in 3-5 months.

Also, i dont believe a word of the motherboad compatibility and replacement needs. It was designed to work on that board originally.

 

ATI has the 40-nm RV870 GPU in the works for the end of this year for the 5800 series of cards.

Though 40-nm production yields have been garbage (why we haven't seen the 4860 yet) so don't be shocked if there are delays from Nvidia and ATI since both companies use TSMC for manufacturing.

 

that's suppose to have dx11
http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-Demonstrates-World-s-First-DX11-GPU-at-Computex-2009-113199.shtml

 

just spoke to AW reps. they told me that no heatsink should be required to upgrade to 4870.

 

I love this "call 10 reps, get 10 different answers".

Drives me crazy...

 

Nvidia's 40-nm will have DirectX11 too. Also seems Nvidia is finally picking up DirectX10.1, but only mentions it for desktops.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14034/1/

 

Surprised Alienware chose to call the new M17X instead of M18X or something else. They already used that name and it is too close to the M17.

 

Hmm. Yes, but the M18x would be an 18-inch gaming laptop. the "17" in M17x and M17 refers to the fact that they are 17 inch laptops...

 

True. Guess they had to keep 17 in there. Hopefully Alienware will have some upgrades for the M17 this year. But like others have mentioned on this forum think i will stick with the M17 until the next generation comes out unless the new M17X is really "All Powerful". Other than the occasional stutter in some games my M17 performs quite well.

 

i think maybe m17x2 or something else would have been better to see a difference between the old and new m17x or m172 but with the 2 like a squared 2 or something along those lines

 

Yeah, I see what you mean.

 

you guys crack me up.

 

Haha I noticed that too!

I'm confused about which topic I should even be posting in more.

 

lol I just noticed that.

 

i knew the m17 people would get screwed like us m9750 people.

 

believe me if we do i wont buy AW again i will place my cash elsewhere, esp with the MAD MAD MAD pricing of the m17x in UK

 

yep i just asked how much another 3870 was gonna cost me and where why no 4870s 180euros for new 3970+ cable by the way, no 4870s because of heat and asked him is up with quadcore

, their is a known problem with the heat on the northbridge which we all know about, is asked can we not take it back as its not fit for pupose ( you wouldnt buy a car but be told dont do over 65 or itl rattle i asked him) he said i know but you can change the motherboard, i asked whats different about the new motherboard he said nothing its just new,

ffs need to contact that fella at killer notebooks. ive seen somewhere on here he can get 4870s into m17 whitebook.

 

It's a shame because a lot of people bought the OCZ/M17 based on the rumor that the 4870s were coming. Some people were trying to line up potential buyers of their 3870s even before they had the notebook in hand.

 

The words 'confirmed' or 'official' have pretty much lost all meaning on NRB.

I am just waiting for the thread that says "CONFIRMED - the M17 may or may not be getting the 4870s.."

 

Well for business/marketing standpoint, what's the reason to refresh the line of M17 with HD4870 Crossfire? If you really make it, of course it would increase the sales of M17 a little, but it will dramatically make the new M17x VERY unattractive. I can already barely live with Alienware M17/OCZ Whitebook, and the Allpowerful is even more bulkier. And all people know HD4870 Mobility Crossfire can/may suppress the SLi GTX 280M performance.

The answer is simple, they probably won't do it, unless a lot of people (including the higher level of AW/Dell admin) ask them to do it.