M17x Refresh Discussion

If they are DDR5, I'm getting them hands down. If they aren't...then im back to deciding between laptops again. DDR3 would be a big let down for a lot of people too, I don't see why they wouldn't choose DDR5

 

I think many people here who followed the W90 believe they could be DDR3 because Asus got away with naming the card 4870 only it had DDR3 .Asus made those cards themselves though and could have used any name they wanted to since it was there own design.

The M17 got DDR3 4850s and they had more then ample opportunity to call those cards 4870s but that would have never flown with the Alienware crowd had they done that, though it may have boosted sales even more had they used that name.

So in the end i would feel confident they are DDR5 based on Strikers build sheet and what Darkhan has confirmed.

 

To be honest the 4850s may well have originally been meant to be 4870ms (with higher vcore and gpu clocks) on mxm 2.1, they use Qimonda RAM, who also produce ATIs GDDR5. Qimonda had some major issues, and have since been bought by Elpida who are getting them going again (hence incoming GDDR5 4870 for the M17x). It could well be that as these cards seem to use a late BIOS, that rather than wasting chips they just GDDR3'd them with a different vbios, as they had no GDDR5 available. The 4850 in the msi have overdrive access, suggesting a more final bios and the ASUS use Hynix RAM, unfortunately am not sure what RAM on the MSI to help verify this idea.
It could well be thats what happened, and would also explain the short supply, with them basically being stock clearing cards from the fab and AW.

 

Mmmmmmm I need prices for them!!!!

 

Seconded, I want a pair of these, and an upgrade availability date.

 

To Current Owners:

Even if they are DDR5, they are not worth the $800 upgrade you will need to pay if your M17X is already equipped with GTX280M SLI.

If you already have the GTX280M then just wait for the 5870 or GTX300 series those will be worth an $800 upgrade.

To Future Owners:

Get the ATI 4870's as they will offer better performance than the GTX280M BUT if your main game is WOW stay with the GTX280M. ATI has to date not fixed issues with WOW and as Gabe confirmed Nvidia is always on top of updated drivers compared to ATI.

 

They'll certainly be worth it if we can sell our current cards, those of us with SLI can take out both our dedicated cards to sell them and probably get around 400 a piece, and still use our laptop with the dedicated IGP which is what I might do if these things only cost around 800, but I'm going to wait for a couple months, rinse and repeat with the 5870's/GTX 360's if possible.

 

Yeah, then we are going to see a FLOOD of 260's and 280's. lol

Everyone will try and sell them eventually.

We are jumping the gun here because the 4870's might end up in short supply.

 

well okay guys his engineer in contact told him ddr5 which is awsome. he said he physically (the engineer) had a card in hand to check it out on

 

z

Could you get some prices from your people at Dell?

 

Thanks for the verification Z. Hopefully I'll have it in my hands in two weeks or so.

 

ill ask on monday

 

Well if anyone decides to sell their gpu to switch to the new ati's ... hit me a pm cause im looking for a secondary 260

 

that would be Moo if anyone haha

 

Thats awesome

I'm hoping the DDR5 statements are true, as they are likely to be. I don't think many people would be happy with AW if they resorted to DDR3.

 

Yep. Only nVidia is too backwards to use GDDR5...

 

if they have ANOTHER generation of cards without anything beyond GDDR3 they are done....ATI had GDDR4 on the 3870's and now GDDR5 with the 4k and 5k series. If Nvidia is still not using GDDR5 they are going to take a huge hit....and they already had a hell of a summer last year lol

 

Nvidia GTS 250m and 260m use GDDR5 paired with 128-bit bus. We'll probably see GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus for the 40-nm shrink of the 280m (which might be called the 380m).

 

So their answer for the 3xx series is...G92 shrunk?

..not kewel

 

haha

that is speculation, but ya, is what I was thinking lol. However, it is not likely. The G92 does not have a GDDR5 controller, so a new GPU would need to be designed to accomodate GDDR5 (maybe the same core logic as G92, but still a new GPU)

 

G200 die shrinks. Not the top end G200s though.

 

even if we get a mobile version of the GTX 260 that would be ok (the 192 OR the 216 SP versions haha)

There were only 6 cards made using GT200 for desktops:
GTX 260 (192SP 448bit 65/55nm)
GTX 260 (216SP 448bit 55nm)
GTX 275 (240SP 448bit 55nm)
GTX 280 (240SP 512bit 65nm)
GTX 285 (240SP 512bit 55nm)
GTX 295 (2x240SP 2x448bit 55nm)

It was a somewhat shortlived GPU haha

 

Yeah not that G200 tech. The 40-nm mobile GPUs are based on "refined" lower end versions. (GT216 & GT218)


Problem with Nvidia G200b based GPUs is even if it made it to 40-nm fab they're still huge (twice the die area of ATI GPUs) and in order to make them usable in notebooks they have to lose some of the shaders and cut down the memory bus to make the GPU smaller.

 

oh ok, was wondering how nvidia would pull that off haha

of course, ATI plans on doing it with the 5870.... (1600sp - 2.1 billion transistors!)

 

I was reviewing the benchmarks of the 5870 vs the 4870, and I believe it was two times the performance in most games

 

yes it was, which is a pretty awesome jump between generations...100%. Not the usualy 10-30% increase

 

New low 27W idle power usage is pretty cool too, shame they suck 160w peak (although some of the reviews mentioned this was closer to 100-120 in most games)

 

well I rechecked and it varied from game to game.

Some games it was around 40-50% increase, while others it was well around 100%

Either way, I was very impressed. Though im not too sure how useful eyefinity would be for laptop users?

 

eyefinity isnt meant for laptop users really, is meant for workstations (thus the use of display ports, which are virtually non existent on consumer monitors)

But ya, the performance increase is awesome, as well as the low price

 

Aye, my two choices providing everything goes smoothly are a new Kobalt machine, or a beasty 5870 setup or a 5850 crossfire setup; which I will eyefinity up just to try if I can find some reasonably priced (sub $800) monitors with display port on.
The 5870 Six edition just looks mental haha.

@Scook have you seen Ktron's laptop project...how mental would that be with triple folding screens and eyefinity

 

I have not seen the thread for it, got a link? I know he is doing something ridiculous haha

 

Think you've seen it already now hahah

 

Was thinking about adding Touchscreen capabilities or included as an extra option(if desired).. under the debatable section, what do you guys think?

I'm assuming gamers aren't really touchscreen-focused, but the way most laptops are moving towards some type of touchscreen ability(not to mention a good amount of apps), I thought why not an AW, would be a nice luxury.

There was a discussion about this a while back when Alienware hinted at touchscreen in a video interview:
Alienware Looking Into Touchscreen?

 

That is a REALLY bad idea. Makes it more likely to explode.

 

Maybe a small oled touchpad so that you can change the use of it, touchpad, colorpalette, game use and so on

 

That...actually sounds like a fantastic idea.

Didn't intel make something similar? 3 OLED touchpads of some sort..

 

Here it is:
http://gizmodo.com/5365162/intels-t...3-oled-multi+touch-screens-above-the-keyboard

It's a prototype Intel made for a 3 OLED touchscreen laptop. Would be interesting though if AW incorporated similar technology into the touch-pad..where it can be multi-use..

Lets say the touchpad is OLED..when in use (as a normal touchpad) and/or idle, it'll be an alienhead..by default, most probably customizable. As a primary feature though, it'll be able to act as an interactive screen.
Running passive apps/widgets (color palette, game use, etc.. as 3vilGenius points out) while still integrated with the main screen, flicking content to full size (as the intel prototype does).

Not a bad concept?

 

Would be nice if they could shove in a desktop i7 like the Sagers. While the 920xm is a nice bump from the qx9300, the i7 975 is just a beast compared to it. It can be done!

I really don't care about battery life, just want the slickest, fastest, notebook out there!

 

Thats not really..doable
There wouldn't really be a gaming improvement from the 920xm to the 975, mostly since you already get the benefits of the i7 architecture.

Not to mention you'd need some extreme ventilation if you plan to pack that desktop proc with 2 GPUs...which would make the laptop the opposite of slick. The sager has just 1 GPU, and look how disturbingly bulky it is..imagine 2

 

Does anyone have any news as to when Alienware are going to add the new mobile Core i7 processors to the M17x that are available in the M15x?

Also i wonder if Alienware will upgrade the wireless card in the M17x to the better intel wifi link 5300 that's available in the M15x. I found the current wireless card in the M17x to be pretty poor in comparison to the Intel wireless card. I guess that's why Alienware didn't use the same wireless card in the new M15x and decided to replace it with the better Intel wifi link 5300 card.

 

Soonest would most likely be Q1 of 2010. Core i7s would mean new hardware for the m17x

 

I say this holiday season

 

This is the part that I don't get. If Dell was going about a redesign for their M15x, why would Dell not do parallel development on the M17x? It makes no sense. Anyone remotely informed is going to look at the 17x vs. the 15x and see that its getting its butt handed to it by its little brother. My guess is that the 15x will stall sales of the 17x this fall as people are waiting for that refresh. The only thing I can think is that Dell might be hoping to clear out the 17x's this fall prior to a refresh. But again anyone really looking for the top of the line (And lets be realistic that is exactly what the 17x is.) Alienware mobile is going to wait.

 

I hope that your right about them clearing out the M17x's this fall, cuz that might mean great e-value codes

 

When the dual ati will be released for AW Europe???? rightnow in Italy only available option is dual 280!

 

Actually now I see they sell the following:
CrossFire™ ATI® GDDR5 Mobility™ Radeon™ HD 4850 doppia da 1 GB
?!?!??!?!

 

I see the 4870s on the UK Site, but you're right it says 4850's GDDR5 1GB on the european site.

 

I wonder whether these 1GB GDDR 5 4850s have lower core speed than those GDDR5 4870s. Might turn out 4850 still has 500 mhz core speed, and 4870 of 550mhz.

 

I would doubt it, the UK site says 4870 GDDR5, I cant see them bothering to get 2 chips made! I would expect it to be a typo, as I cant imagine UK getting a better card than Europe, plus GDDR5 pretty much guarantees the better card.

 

Same GPU. If it's got the GDDR5 that's all that matters.