Mobility 4870 GDDR5 Spotted in the M17x?

A max 20-30% increase for sli 280 in games id say from the crossfire.
The 260 sli shouldnt outperform the crossfire.
And ill tell you how the build quality of the clevo is when i get mine but if you look under rewievs its solid.

 

I don't know if it has been stated yet but the new M17x is CrossFireX-capable; Alienware will release dual HD 4870s for it at some point.

 

Yup. I already sourced you in this thread you for finding that out for us Chaz.

There also seems to be options for single 4800 cards. I wouldn't be surprised now if AW offers single HD4850, CrossfireX HD4850x2, and CrossfireX HD4870x2 options.

 

Do we know if the M17x with red color will be available?
Also, do we have any guesstimated time when the 4850/4870's show up? 1 month? 2 months?

 

the guesstimate for the ATI cards is indeed a month or so. no info on the red version, my sources say it's ultimately been dropped.

also, i don't think we'll see both the HD4850 and the HD4870. the cards are too close together in terms of performance. maybe something much lower, like the HD4650 or so.

 

I still think those people selling their M17s for the M17x are nuts. 3870 CF is still very powerful, I'm playing Crysis on High, 1440x900 with near constant 30fps+.

I can really see the appeal of the M17x over the M17, but the M17x has about THREE advantages and only 3 over the M17, two of which are minor.
1. Better graphics cards, which even then aren't THAT much better-as stated above around 30%.
2. Better design.
3. Integrated 9400M-and this is in a way balanced out by the fact that it has a smaller 9 cell battery.
And the M17 STILL has advantages over the M17x-it's significantly cheaper, thinner, lighter, has the skullcap for those who like it (imo, the styling on the M17 is actually nicer, but the M17x's AlienFX puts it on top) and has a 12-cell battery for longer on the go gaming.

If someone manages to get the 4870s into the M17, then they'll actually be near equal in performance. Sadly I think they aren't that compatible and we all know that Alienware aren't going to offer them, compatible or not, to increase M17x sales.

 

When the M17x first launched someone (I forget who) mentioned that ATI cards would be available in a month or two. That's not an official website showing a countdown clock though so take it with a grain of salt.

My plan is to wait 2 more weeks...if I don't hear any set release date on ATI cards with GDDR5 for the M17x I'll buy Nvidia. At the very least the wait should get me a free Win7 voucher as compensation.

 

yeh i agree with whizzo

personally i believe they will offer 4850's for m17 and 4870's for m17x that way giving people a chance to upgrade the m17 ( we know they have them in testing just not ready for release so safe to assume after time and cash they spent they wont want to bin the idea if they have any option)

 

Heh if the 4850 has 1G of GDDR5 like the sticker is suggesting it will be a 4870.


I would get such a kick out of that. ASUS builds a fake 4870 that's really spec'd out like a 4850 and Dell/AW builds a fake 4850 that's spec'd out like a 4870 should be.

 

I reckon that there's very little chance of us seeing a graphics upgrade for the M17. Remember they offered the 4850s and then canceled them? However, considering they were taking orders it probably isn't that they aren't compatible. It's probably that they want to boost M17x sales.

I really hope that I'm wrong and that 4850s or possibly better will be offered in the future for the M17 but I doubt it.

 

thats what i think will happen

the 4850's we could get will be the same cards from the asus and the 4870's will be the DDR5 ones.

This way they keep us happy with nice m17 upgrade and offer the best of the best for the new m17x

we know they have 1gb 4850's in test but the release has been "postponed"

 

I seriously hope you're right in saying "postponed" rather than "canceled".

 

according to the technical manager i have been talking to after my order got cancelled there is one specific problem they are trying to over come although he wouldnt tell me what it was and once that is done to expect an announcement

this was regarding the m17 so i can only speculate regarding the m17x

 

i think everyone within 10 miles of this forum knows how much i want the m17 gpu upgrade, and suffice to say i have regular contact with this manager regarding the issue

im waving the flag for all us m17 owners

 

That's brilliant if that's true. I reckon though that the specific 'problem' is that offering the 4850s would cut M17x sales...rather than an actual hardware problem

 

not if they offered the 4870's with ddr5 for the m17x which is a 15-25% increase on the 4850's

look at it this way, how many m17 owners would stump up for the gpu upgrade but refuse to buy a whole new laptop?

 

These are sample model.
We have one in Japan with a HD4850 videocard. I took a picture with my phone.

 

you, uh, gonna post that picture?

 

Nice thanks.

Too bad it wasn't a GPU-Z screenshot though....review sites should be required by law to post those when they do an article.

 

So ATI single card HD4850 on M17x -> Confirmed.

However this is for sample only, there is no option for ATI card in Japan.

 

Yeah we're all just hoping it gets released at this point.

 

updated the link

 

If it's a 4850, it will be DDR3 no doubt. We know 1GB GDDR3 4850's exist already, there's a new MSI that has it. 1GB GDDR5 4870 is a dream for now...

 

I'm going off what's on that sticker and it's not at all far fetched to think GD5 1G is GDDR5 1Gb. We'll see if/when it happens though given that ASUS made a 4870 with 512Kb of GDDR3 I wouldn't put it past Dellienware to make a 1Gb GDDR5 4850.

 

lol i second that thought as well as a specific problem

deffo sales i think theirs about 4-5 people on here who want the new one because the 4850 wasnt being released/ cancelled /delayed ect... well thats 4-5 m17x sold that otherwise wouldnt be sold.

might be a xmas present from me to me i think i cannot see any upgrade before then if any.

 

but i bet there are 15+ people who would order the upgrade but will not get the m17x

 

hell yes id be one of them. i managed to find some site today that sold them i waiting for them to get back to me only thing is their 512 not 1 gig.

we can only wait tho bud..

 

Same here...patiently waiting for the much rumored red ATI version, and the few screenshots of the red chassis are stunning. I know it's best not to wait on rumors but I know I won't be able to forgive myself if I buy now and 2 weeks later 4870x2 with a beautiful red chassis comes out, itd be too much ;(

 

well the ones aw are trying out are 1gb, let me know if those cards are available as i will order them there, tbh 2x 4850's 512mb each will still beat the 3870's

 

wath wold it be in termos os % the diference of 2x 4870 gddr3 vs gddr5 ? and in thermos os mobility 4870gddr5 vs 280msli 3dmakr 2006, vantage, and games like farcry , crysis war head etc

 

GDDR3 will run cooler than GDDR5 - the difference won't be huge though. as for performance, the Nvidia cards will be stronger than the ATI set in almost all applications.

 

GDDR5 runs cooler than GDDR3, and as far as performance goes, it depends on the application/games seeing as some of the newer games that are coming out seem to be favoring ATi cards.

 

why did asus use GDDR3 for the W90 then, if not for heat reasons?

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

those cheap b****rds...

 

My guess has always been a supply issue and they wanted to rush the W90 to market. Qimonda was facing bankruptcy filings at the time and Samsung (the manufacturer of the GDDR3 ASUS used) had just started producing GDDR5.

I remember in the ASUS forums when the W90 first got released debating the issue and Striker got an email from an ASUS rep citing Samsung annoucnment of starting production of GDDR5 and at that time no one was producing GDDR5 Mobility 4870s.


The email definitely gave me the impression that they were saying, "you have no way of proving it's not a 4870."

 

Don't know, but I doubt it would be for heat reasons. The core itself might generate a bit more heat due to the increased bandwidth, but that would be offset by the voltage required to run the GDDR5 memory modules stable (1.5v) compared to GDDR3 (1.8 - 2.0v). There is a description about this here:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2309870,00.asp

 

bump

i saw the logo on the review chaz made so know the 4870 ddr5 label is legit

 

Sow The_Moo you confirm that there will be a 4870 gddr5 cross-fire version of the m17x ? that wold out perform the 280m sli in 3dmk 06, vantage AND GAMES i belive.... it wold be really ALLpowerful

 

oooo no.... i hate to say it but the W90 has a really good cooling system, that said, it should have no problem handling GDDR5 so my guess is that they wanted to save money...

 

hope so

i don't think my service manual lies to me

 

it may be powerful, but anyone that bought a gtx 260m sli or gtx 280m sli, i would highly recommend you wait for the gtx 300m's and skip the ati's.... i cant wait to see how those perform...

 

they did not have ddr5 ram for them @ the time because it was just going into production ...

they just want to be the first in the pie

 

GTX 300 series cards aren't launching until Q4 '09/Q1 '10....and that may just be desktops first. It should be late spring or early summer 2010 by the time the mobile cards actually go up for sale in a laptop. Maybe longer before Dell/AW offers them as upgrades.

 

oh man.... i was expecting them much earlier than that... is it possible you are wrong?

 

That would depend on how well the chipset used on the motherboard scales Crossfire. Different chipsets scale crossfire differently, and in different games. For instance, the P45 (which is related to the PM45) chipset scales in Vantage a bit better than the X38 chipset. But in most games, the X38 chipset scales better. If the ATi version of the M17x uses the same MCP79 based motherboard, we wouldn't know for certain; it could scale very poorly, or it can scale even better than the intel chipsets.

 

It's what Ive been reading on news sites for awhile now.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14350/1/

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14425/1/


ATI however will have it's DirectX11 40-nm RV870 GPU ready by Win7 launch in October. RV870 is said will be used in the 5800 series cards. ATI Desktop and Mobile cards use the same GPU.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14351/1/

Launch doesn't mean they're up for sale though...may be months to a year before you can buy a laptop with a 5800 series card in it.

 

I honestly dont think they will be different laptops... i think they will just have added components to the mix... i think they will keep the hybrid sli with 9400m and find a way to make it work with crossfire... i think they will release single 4850 or 4650, crossfire 4850 or 4650, and crossfire 4870(gddr5) along with the new mars red casing which according my predictions will NOT be narrowed down to ati cards... note that these are just my predictions...

 

i don't think he said anything about new parts