New Alienwares 2016

haha yes, but really don't understand their answer, shouldn't 240W for the 15R3 6700HQ be sufficient ? last year they did the horrible 180W mistake but this year 240W that's more than enough and on par with other non hybrid concurrent no ? (talking about 15").

I think some extreme configuration : 4K + many SSDs + OC 6820HK may push the battery

 

Yes, 240W should be plenty. I'm not sure why people are making such a big deal about Hybrid BIOS. I'd much rather the laptop draw from the battery if it needs than not do it at all. And AFAIK no other brand with similar specs has a larger charger anyway.

Besides, I do actually believe there will be a larger charger available for the 1080, so if the 240W one you get isn't enough for your OC needs then you should be able to get the larger one and use that.

 

You can connect your laptop to a UPS and see how much power it draws. And simultaneously observe the battery's behavior. Push on with maximum load on processor / gpu.

And a high voltage eater as max OC'd 6820 will use more power than a wimpy 6700Hq.
And a more powerful Psu doesn't help if the engineers have created a power cap ready for their machines. Dell managed this for their AW18!!

Maybe @Mobius 1 have numbers on the maximum power draw from a heavy oc'd 6820 + 1070 in bench.

 

I am limited to 75w on the 6820HK, so I can't really say heavy overclock. On bench it pulled 65-70w (4.1GHz adaptive, -9.8mv)


The GPU draws less than 150w, runs less than a volt. Boost clock iirc was around 1670+

 

I dont know who coined the term hybrid bios. But you can find a lot of reviews of laptops where laptops are draining battery power under absokute full load. This means the battery is compensating for a too small powersupply. The only laptops where this does not happen are laptops with a failsafe because the powerdrae is so big it could damage the battery directly. Both scenarios are non existant when the powersupply is big enough.

 

well after analysing the thing thoroughly :

15.6" FHD led IPS
intel 6700HQ
nvidia 1070
one M.2
one sata SSD

CANNOT draw more than 240W it's just impossible BUT nvidia let the manufacturer choose the TDP, and since the AW 1080 is a freaking 180W, i guess the 1070 will also have a high TDP. But nevertheless I don't think my configuration will draw more than 240W. So AW back to the table, what's great is that the alienware in France and UK will be available few days after the USA so that will give us time to read some feedbacks and reviews.

 

Like i posted before. The 1070 desktop card only need 1x8 pin pci express external power. The laptop version is clocked lower. So the powerdraw will be around 125watt.

 

Thanks for the info i think 125 - 140W is a good approximation, I'm relieved.

I guess some configuration will have to draw from the battery ? I mean a QHD+/4K screen (I have one in my xps) is so power hungry add to that an OCable 6820HK and your already adding ~30W.

Since concurrent are giving 180/230/240W and AW 240W I guess there's no need to panic.

 

Noob here but what is Hybrid Bios and what is the problem?

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See the explanation in post #505 from @rinneh
Or in smaller words.... A unwanted feature from the OEM software engineers


Even some OEMs wouldn't let you have allowed Max power the Psu can provide!!!

 

Hmm that's bad. When does it affect gaming benchmarks?

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Either will hardware throttle or the missing power from psu will come from the battery. Some laptop models can have this unwanted behavior although the maxed power draw isn't more than what psu can provide!!! A safety reasons put in Firmvare so the power draw don't damaging the psu/motherboard components. Or give headroom for recharge an empty battery.

 

So let me interpret this simply for my ignorant mind to comprehend:

If this AW17 1080GTX has Hybrid Bios, it has to be played while plugged, right?

However, when plugged on playing games, the battery life dwindles down a bit. The performance is still strong.

Then when the battery dies WHILE PLUGGED, that's when the performance lowers or throttles...

Am I interpreting this right?

 

Its a bit different.

WHen you play a game on battery the performance will be lowered anyway. It is a safety for the battery. It is not good to pull 240watt all at once from a battery.

If the PSU is large enough you would never notice a hybrid bios function ever. You can game, benchmark or whatever and it would not affect your system in anyway. Hybrid bios kicks in if your PSU is too small for what the laptop is asking of it. Lets say the system needs 200 watts to fully run, but the PSU can only provide 180watt. It will take 20watts from the battery to compensate to keep the performance up. Thus using your battery and slowly drain it. However, with the current offered configurations 240watt should be sufficient.

 

Well let me repeat the question, on the same scenario I just posted, when will it affect the performance, while playing on plugged or when the battery is zero yet laptop still plugged?

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If the hardware must rely on the extra power from the battery, you will notice this when the batteries are on a lower level like 30% or so. The Hybrid functionality will stop the extra power draw from the battery before it's empty. And will lower the power to hardware, and start charging the battery instead... Without a battery in your laptop, you will get throttling(some people want to save their batteries outside the laptop for longer lifespan - or want lower weight will notice the throttling). Notice... OEM's will have their own way to tune the Hybrid functionality in Firmware for the effected models.
The next level for crippling power draw is to put in a power cap in Firmvare level or motherboard. Dell did that for their last Aw18 model. 330w was the maximum power draw before the laptop Firmvare turned of the machine or throttled down the hardware performance. The former Aw 18 models could use 2x330w psu!!

 

So meaning it will START affecting performance when battery is zero while plugged, right?

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It is quite odd that the tweet with the monitor refresh rate came because I just talked with dell support and they just confirmed the monitor for the new alienware 15 FHD is 120Hz.

edit: they also said if I ordered today I should expect it in one month tops.

 

They are having some serious communication issues it seems. Someone at corporate didn't get all of their ducks in a row...

 

It's simple as far as I'm concerned, if 120Hz gets delayed to november I'll have to consider other laptops tbh. Alienware is pricy enough as is. I'm not complaining or anything, just stating it.

 

Honestly I don't get this IPS love and wanting a 120Hz tech, To let you people know there's no panel in the world in Notebooks that can do 5ms with an IPS tech, TN only can do that thus QHD 5ms accross Clevo and Alienware from AUO is going to do that, Rest 120hz all are 25ms will cause ghosting, that depends on the eye of the user.

Also the " ONLY" 17" FHD 120Hz fastest 5ms panel is in the MSI GT73VR that laptop only has the LCD (TN) from Chi Mei Innolux, No other OEM has it as of now.

And TN deosn't mean It's trash, I think this norm is like thin and light fest TN = crap and IPS - glorious panel, that's not like that, TN panels also have superior colors & why bother with viewing angles (They are not that bad imho) when you sit and game in-front of it, It's not a TV or a giant arse monitor or maybe dual / triple display setups right ?

 

When they are true 8 bit panels they are fine. If we could have something like the PG278Q in a laptop that would be great.

 

The page to configure the new Alienware 17 is here.

GTX 1080 not available yet.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-17-laptop/pd

 

The only good TN panels nowadays in my opinion are the AUO panels in de 27inch 144hz gsync monitors and the new 24inch version of it. These are 8bit color panels with no dithering and thus can come close to being an actual accurate color panel. The rest is pure trash from what i saw. The old sharp tn panel in the sony vaio z13 was good too though. Even a mediocre ips panel blast most better TN panels out of the water. The ips 27inch 1440 AUO panel has actually better speeds than the TN version.

 

Because TN is garbage.. I notice the color shift.. I hate reading web sites where the top half is a totally different shift from the bottom part of the screen. IPS resolves that completely. I don't need amazing response times, but a 120hz IPS + G-Sync is still good.

And if you've read the review on the Asus PG279Q and compared it to the response time of the TN PG278 you'd see they were pretty much neck and neck. IPS tech has come a long way, especially when overdrived.

However, when you consider "laptop" panels are very thin, being able to overdrive them like desktop monitors becomes a big problem.

 

Yeah, Zero extra power from the battery means hardware throttling if the laptop use Battery boost(no extra power if the battery come down to around 30%). You can even expect throttling if the hybrid functionality isn't tuned correctly!! You know... Engineers often also don't manage to developing the bios/correct so the computer can work as intended. This isn't first time they screwing up Firmvare!!

 

Is it confirmed this will have Hybrid Bios(AW17 with 1080)?

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Read carefully the post one more time. The first line in the reply from Aw team http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-alienwares-2016.795625/page-49#post-10348159

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-alienwares-2016.795625/page-50#post-10348184

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/configuration-for-alienware-17-now-live.796386/

 

So I just got off the phone with Alienware, because live chat didn't know anything about the different screen options. So he said that the FHD screens are 90Hz (i dont know if he didnt know what he was talking about or not) but the UHD screens are 120Hz. And he never answered if any of the screens had gsync (most likely not though)

 

Are you sure? UHD or QHD? Thats a BIG difference.

 

From here: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/alienware-17-laptop/dkcwg01h






Also try to open alienware.com on mobile device (iphone f.e.). For some reason desktop version does not show vending options.

 

So what the alienware support rep told me is that :

It looks insignificant ^^ and not ALL configuration will draw extra power from the battery.

This feature (as they told me) is not de-activable.

Hope that could help. For me I will go for an AW15 i think that the 240W is more than enough and it won't draw from the battery pack without a 6820HK and a 4K screen ^^

 

don't buy anything less than 6820HK, it'll bottleneck the cpu

 

UHD, there is no QHD listed. At least for now. The configurations are on the website now, but it didnt list the refresh rates or if the screens had gsync or not

 

The UHD screen is definitely only 60Hz. The sales consultants really aren't reliable sources of information about specs. They get basic training at best.

 

so yes, 120hz only with crapy TN and QHD max (not UHD):

А17

17.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display (Standard)

17.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display with Tobii IR Eye-tracking

17.3 inch QHD (2560 x 1440) 120Hz TN+WVA Anti-Glare 400-nits NVIDIA G-SYNC Enabled Display with Tobii IR Eye-tracking (Coming soon)

17.3 inch UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display with Tobii IR Eye-tracking


А15:


15.6 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display (Standard)

15.6 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 120Hz TN+WVA Anti-Glare 400-nits NVIDIA G-SYNC Enabled Display (Coming soon)

15.6 inch UHD (3840 x 2160) IGZO IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display

 

Sure. There are no interfaces available to allow 4K@ fps MORE than flat 60fps. Even latest DP and HDMI suck.

 

Yea, I didnt believe him. I had to repeat my questions multiple times, but he said he was sure.. just dont know who would be able to know this info unless they actually get their hands on one.

 

I don't know why there's any reason to doubt the specs as listed on the mobile site. It quite clearly says the IPS panels are 60Hz, with 120Hz TN G-Sync (15" 1080p and 17" 1440p) panels coming later (which according to their official Twitter will be mid Nov). This has been in line with their official product launch details from the start.

 

OK, Seems like much of a personal preference & YMMV stuff.
I can understand it, But I feel on a 17" Notebook you won't see much of the issues that you are expecting from a TN panel, Yeah If It's the 20"+ range then It could matter I presume.

Also maybe with some Color calibration one can drive the TN to a more comfortable color reproduction workspace.

 

Not long ago newegg sent to me by mistake 15" Acer with TN screen. Man, its so horrible I can't describe to you.

 

The contrast will always be lower on a TN panel.

 

TN panels are absolute horrors, they should be extinct, if you want quick response time just go OLED . But TN for response time you're giving up on so much imo, whereas AH-IPS offer 75Hz refresh rate and great contrast + viewing angle and it's way more color accurate, it's an excellent compromise.

 

The colors arent really the problem if you got an 8bit TN panel. The current 27inch offerings are good regarding colors (tested it myself with a calibration tool for my work).

Contrast though is not awesome, viewings angles are not awesome. 144hz is awesome though. Its a huge difference compared to 75hz. But in a laptop TN panels are often worse.

Oled lacks the brightness and still has burn in problems.

 

I'm guessing that these laptos doesn't have Optimus as they have G Sync? Was looking for a powerful Workstation laptop for gaming sometimes, but I don't really fancy the "typical" overexpensive Workstations with Quadros etc.

 

They should be sporting MUX (fully user switchable iGPU - dGPU or dGPU) like the machines until 2013.

 

Will any of these laptops end up in a retail store where I can see it in person? Microcenter or best Buy for example?

 

The Microcenter in Clev Ohio always has the new gen of Alienware laptops...

 

Best Buy will be carrying them.


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