M17x refresh buyers- why not wait for ATI 5870's??

Guys, think about the heat. 5870s are scratching the ceiling of the famous alieanware cooling. Even the current 4870s are not very cold . The desktop Fermi is hot and much more power-hungry than the desktop 5870.
I don't see a room for mobile Fermi without complete redesign/improvement of the cooling system.
If Alienware chooses extremely innovative path and let's say, creates a single GPU 17" notebook with a huge heatsink and fan/s to land a 100W+ Fermi card that will be close to a 5870X2 config in performance - it might work. No more micro-stuttering! No more failing CF cables/connectors! Many gamers will be happy.

 

Yeah I'd be shocked if they were released this summer.

 

Well actually now when you guys named Fermi, I'm pretty sure the rep I talked to actually told me that Fermi is going to be released. At the time I did not know what Fermi is and so I did not understand what he said, I thought he meant "thermal" or something, but did not ask what he meant since his english pronounciation was quite poor.

The rep said something like:

"I see plans to release the new NVIDIA Fermi series cards, I'm not sure if you have heard of this thing yet. "

Damn I wish I investigated more... Might try a different rep tomorrow just in case

 

Don't get over excited there is no way that Fermi is coming out anytime soon in an AW laptop. Plus don't forget Fermi is currently heating a lot and performance are on par with ATI 5870.

 

about the micro-stuttering could it be eliminated if a fiber optic cable (or a derivative of light peak technology) was used to communicate between cards

 

I think it's wrong to assume that they won't release the 5870's due to lack of competition. First of all they have an image to upkeep as constantly on the "edge" of performance. Also, try to find someone that has the Asus-G73jh-A1 in stock, it's near impossible atm, they're flying off the shelves. Different product, but the card is very in demand. It'll be interesting to see if they do a bios update and then make people wait and see, just like what's happening with the M15x..

 

my best buy has quite a few of the G73jh-a1 in stock

 

who wants a Asus laptop anyway, LOL

Anyway, unless AW releases better video cards for the I7 M17x i see no reason to abandon my XPS M1730 since the dual m9800GT are on par with the gtx280's and 4870 (benchies show only marginal differences in fps)

 

I' m half way tempted to go buy one

 

Nah, from that Asus you'll get half the satisfaction you would get from an alienware

 

[rant]
My G73 is sitting at a Asus repair depot for 3 weeks with a bad keyboard. They never offered to send me a replacement. I'm not allowed to talk directly to the techs and need to use customer service to correspond with them. Any reply from them takes 2-3 business days. This is the worst warranty service I've ever experienced thus it will be my last Asus.
[/rant]

Other than that the 5870 is nice and it should be great in a M17x.

 

whelp there goes any desire for me to get it or any asus product for that matter

 

Thats not what you need when you buy a new machine.Dell nbd warranty takes a lot of beating thats for sure.Cant knock it one bit.

 

there is one thing that i really would like to have in the alienware lappies and that is the creative sound chip. though how is the alienware sound chip and speakers stand up against other laptops?

 

you can always get an notebook xfi card if you need it.

 

you can't run it through the internal speakers though
and it blocks the disc drive

 

See....I have an issue with that lately. Sure, you get a nice fast system at a super low LOW price. Then you start to have problems...the repair will ship in 7-10 days AFTER the part becomes available.

Although I spent a lot of money on my Alienware M17x R2 and am having problems, I have had my issue worked on several times within a single WEEK.

I often wonder if people these days understand the phrase "You get what you pay for."

My friends say "I would never waste that much money on a laptop" to then start complaining on how they spent $600 on theirs and it's too slow or the repairs are taking too long and computers should cost so much less, blah blah.

It's like a fantasy land they live in. I spend the money to avoid BS like this.

This is in no way directed at the OP in the post that I quoted. Just reminded me why I let go of my Asus G50VT-X5 and bought an Alienware. Build quality, almost world class service, benchmarking performance for a laptop. Meanwhile the rest of the world thinks "For a laptop?!".


/end rant

 

But Mobile Fermi aren't going to be based on the GF100.

Look into the GF104, which is coming this summer. That's absolutely what the mobile chips will come from.

 

i agree with Psipro and "for a laptop?!" comments those people are idiots because when it comes to carrying something around you need the best materials possible so less chance of it breaking and all your information going by by due to casing integrity failure.

 

Still... for a solution that should sound better.... I doubt I would want the internal speakers in most cases.

 

thats exactly what i ment with who wants an ASUS

I specifically buy Dell/AW with next business day warranty,
because all other brands' warranty service is pants

 

That's too bad, IMO. The fastest of the 104 desktop chips is only slightly (if at all) better than a desktop 5770 and that's exactly the level of the mobile 5870. The Green's will need to work hard on entering the niche here.

 

Nah, if they're sporting GDDR5, they all look faster than the 5770.

The GTS 430 is the best candidate for the mobile segment.

 

I was thinking about 430 as well. If they keep it GDDR5+192 bit it will be faster than a 5870 but at the same time it will run very hot. I still don't see a room for such a card even in M17X.

 

Still, are the 5870's going to be that much faster playing DirectX10 games?

 

Honestly, I still predict that Nvidia's next mobile chip will be a GTX 300M based on the G200 core, with Fermi in Q4.

 

We will see Fermi in a notebook 6months to 1 year after it comes out on a desktop. so i'm not even expecting to see it this year. maybe summer next year in a notebook.

 

There were those rumors of a GTX380M with the 100W TDP, that I personally thought sounded like a Quadro FX3800M, but now that we know how hot Fermi is I could believe a GTS 430 level card having those thermals even at 40nm.

That wouldn't make for a very promising card though...twice the thermals but not twice the performance (if the comparisons to the desktop HD5770 are accurate).

 

So how much longer are people going to wait for the 5870's??? I'm pulling the trigger on the 30th, probably going to regret it but thats the way it goes.
LeeU

 

Allow me to disagree.

There are no announcements yet from Nvidia and even the 285M is still very fresh. Do you think it's profitable to refresh the mobile sector every 2-3months?
IMHO, Nvidia will skip the 300M GTX line focusing on fermi instead. Even there there's a lot of problems to solve. They need a better cooling to compete with mobile 5870s. Meanwhile ATI is lazily going for Hecatonchires.
So in a few months there could be a new winner from the RED's, while the GREEN's are still trying to justify their power-hungry desktop GPUs. With Fermi, they ended up having 5-30% advantage over 5870s, which is not too impressive as I don't think there's any point in having 80FPS instead of 60. It's far more important to have a better min FPS and here Fermi doesn't really show a huge improvement, at least not consistently. So, minor performance gain, huge power consumption and heat and higher price - Egegegegey, Nvidia! You suk! :yes:

 

considering the 285m is based off the g92. i don't think so. its been more like 4 years or something. time for a refresh

 

NV needs mobile Fermi because chip sales are on the rise and letting AMD rule the speed bins for too many months will not do wonders for their sales.

NV is moving, the question is how fast. They've become so slow lately the world expects them to be months and months behind the 5870 releases.

Must be pretty depressing to be a NV employee right about now.

 

The tech is old but the 285M only appeared a few months ago. So it is a refresh, kinda...

Yeah, they should move fast, but there are no tricks up their sleeves available, AFAIK. Unless, there's a new cooling tech looming on the horizon....

 

I don't think the NVidia Guys really care, I mean I highly doubt they're soiling their pants going OH NO!!! ATI IS AHEAD OF US!!! Designing that stuff is difficult and you can't really rush it, the last thing you want to do is to rush it and then to run a recall. You want to talk about ending a companies track record entirely. Give 'em time they'll get it going plus they have high brand recognition. How many people out there buy nvidia over ati just because of brand recognition and not the numbers or benchmark? I'm sure you have a gamer friend that's just like that, you gotta.

 

That's me. lol

I preferr NVIDIA over ATI any day, even if benchmarks maybe a little more in favour of the ATI.

 

There are a TON of nvidia fanbois, just like there are a TON of ATi fanbois. lol

Me? I go with best bang for your buck usually.

 

hey ya Dave. How has the latency been since the bios "fix"? Notice my sig, I'm joining the invasion

 

Well, SemiAccurate were the ones who reported getting a behind the scenes glimpse of a power-sucking GTX 400M notebook, but they couldn't say whose it was, or what the card was based on.

It's fair to surmise that it was either Clevo or Alienware, but what kind of card it was is still up in the air.

 

I don't mind it being hot as long as its not so hot that the keyboard heats up or i can feel burning up heat on the bottom

 

were did you get this 5870 ati card

 

His sig says 5870 Crossfire.........

so yeah care to elaborate on things desu?

 

but ATI is better than nv, trust me i'm using nv 9800

 

Lol, humans can dream

 

Are we now reaching a time we're so desperate for 5870xfire we're making fake sigs?!

 

i dreamed i had it already

 

Thats what she said

 

Well if he can change his sig I can change mine!

 

Lol Ren, good one.

 

nevermind.......

 

It looks like it, look at mine...