How do the dual 4850's in the m17 compare with the dual 3870's?

Haha, well originally I was planning on an MSI GT725 with a single 4850, however they've gone MIA and MSI doesn't seem to know when more are going to appear, so if I can get a dual alienware model for a few hundred more that much sooner, Im rather tempted to accept, especially as it'll be even closer to the 4870 512 in my desktop (as a m4850 is about a 4830, along with the 1GB, a crossfire setup would probably be very similar to a 4870 1GB in games that really support crossfire. Still pretty nippy without too for a laptop)

 

What drivers are you using dadah?

 

it did beat the 9800m gtx in vantage. here's fasial heros


here's mine i can sqeeze some more out of it.

here's the 3870 crossfired stocked

the w90
is 10,000 stocked.

 

182.06. i find to be the best so far for 3dmark06 but i haven't tried vantage on it.

 

and are they good for gaming?
I cant get my shader clock that high with any drivers... but im xfired... shouldnt have anything to do with that though. driver just dies on me.

 

what are you trying to push it to. and yes i would recommend these drivers but i don't know how sli will do with them.

 

was only trying to get 600/900/1500 very mild... but the highest i can do for the shader right now is 1425. havent tried 182.06... havent gone below 185.68 honestly

 

yeah that's low. what is your voltage in your bios?

 

1.05... so i should be able to do those clocks no problem. I wonder what john was clocked @ when he had it... but then again, he was probably only benching since he had the desktop.

Anyway back on topic... I will flash the cards in the W90 and run some benches to post here for comparison. Should give you a decent idea of what to expect from the 4850s

I will start off with the q9000 OC to 2.7 and then drop in the E8435 and OC to 3.2 since thats about the highest clock most people are getting... Let me know if you want me to bump it up to 3.7 or 3.8

 

To give you guys a comparison of how fast these dual 4850s are, here are the testing results of my desktop machine, with the Catalyst 9.7 beta drivers set to balanced.



3DMark06
Score 15043
SM 2.0 Score 5829
SM 3.0 Score 6959
CPU Score 4511

This is with a [email protected], slightly overclocked DDR2 and a 4870 512MB.

 

what clocks are you at. the w90 is 550/850 stocked.

we don't know what this one is going to be.

 

If you mean me, my 4870 512 is currently at stock. My results were just so you could compared to a 'moderate-high' gaming desktop. I posted Vantage as well as 06 as 06 will be heavily influenced by my Q6600s overclock. (3.2 up from 2.4)

As you can see from this, a single mobility 4850 seems to get a score of 5500-6000 on vantage, in comparison to about 9000 for a desktop 4870. It'll be interesting to see how the crossfire setup compared in GPU score.

 

Dual Crossfire 1GB 4850s are now showing on the alienware UK site...anyone happen to know any discount codes? Am very tempted to splash the cash [by finance of course]!

 

AW doesn't have code

 

Ah shame, figured they might do given that Dell do as well.

 

There are however student discounts aren't there? If you are a student.

 

they may have started it again last i heard they weren't ...

 

Alienware University?

That offers 5% off.....

 

o they started using it again ?

 

Does anyone know if the 4850's can be purchased seperately from the UK site?

 

Couldn't see them on there mate, might be worth ringing them up, as sounds like they;'re offering it in the US.

Bizzarely whilst looking at spec costs, I also noticed a lot of options like screen upgrades are more expensive for the M17 than an M17x off the Dell site.

Anyone know if you can buy the M17 directly through Dell somehow?

 

Is it still possable to buy the 4850 for my M17 from AW? Or is it too late.

 

As far as I know they were only available for a really short time. And only for new notebooks. The upgrade path did not really work.
They only wanted to clear out their stock of remaining M17 bodies.

 

they are well gone mate. they were very very limited in supply and appear to be breaking left right and center so i dont know if i would reccomend it anyway

 

I just called AW/Dell today and they said they still sell the 4850s crossfirex for the M17. I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but yea...

 

i havent seen you in a while. How have you been.

 

Did they give you a price ? and are you in the USA ?.

 

and why didnt you order them then!?

 

Is this in the US or Europe?

(By the way I'm bumping this, because if they are selling 4850s that's big news)

 

Hi there new poster, long time reader.

I just got off the phone with AW tech support, Dual 3870's is the best GPU options available for the M17, no other GPU (Higher, such as 4850) options are supported or available for upgrade.

 

AW tech support sold them to me a couple weeks ago.

 

and you recived them?

Greetings
Julian

 

How much $$$$?

 

Actually, that's not true. During the last month or so of the M17's life cycle Alienware offered 4850 ATI graphics cards. It was very limited in time so if you didn't get the deal early you didn't get it.

I know this because I was thinking about getting an M17 with Crossfire 4850's but didn't act quick enough and lost my chance.

 

Mandrake, get a load of this sh*t...

Had AW tech support on the phone. 4850 Master/Slave plus the crossfire cable ORDERED. Then the guy tells me that the Alienware Titanium account no longer exists. They were terminated in November. Thursday is payday, so we'll see how the dice land then. $435 SHIPPED. Two techs have told me they weren't in stock, and one let me order. Sitting at 33% success rate. You can sell the old 3870s on Ebay for nearly what it costs to get the 4850s. Man, I'm heated.

 

Yes. I was able to hit 11.5K GPU in Vantage with them.

Cost me $470

Wow that sucks. Hope it works out for you. I put my 3870s on eBay for $500 OBO. Worth a shot to see if there are any bites considering availability is scarce.

 

Is the 9750 the only laptop that will accept them, or are there others?

 

There are others but I'm not sure if there are any other crossfire configurations out there.

 

So the 9750 can use them in CF? That must have been a God send for those owners.

 

Yes it was haha. There is someone experimenting with putting an 8800m GTX into one, but so far has not been 100% successful

Pair 3870 CF with a T7600 and you have a STRONG notebook for its age

 

AW tech support gives me the big middle finger when I try. I tell them I would like to order the 4850 cards for my M17 and I am told, sorry they are not an option for your laptop.

Guess I will just keep tring each day and see if I get the right person

 

Gotta love AW support. Talked to a new tech today who verified you can indeed purchase the 4850's however they are not in stock at the moment and I can check back in a few weeks and see if they have them back in.