New M17x R4, M14X R2 and M18X R2 are coming - Speculation thread.

I brought it into photoshop, changed up saturation, brightness, and contrast to make edges a little more visible. It's clear that those are dome-headed, slot(flat) screws. The directional cast from the light in the dark picture simply made it look like aliens. Not to rain on the parade, but the GTX 690 or something else non-alienware related makes more sense.

 

Ivy bridge with WC option... This is the most logical bet. Ivy by itself is just expected for all brands. 680m is not ready, but we know asetec has been proposing this to dell a long time ago. If I am right, dell got my 4 grands on tuesday. Also sergeant schultz keeps saying he knows nothing about it .

 

Thanks Bill Ill order tonight or tomorrow

Quick HD question guys whats better SATA + mSATA raid 0 or single SATA at 6gb/s?

 

Man, just gotta say that I can't believe I've read every post since page 1. X-X

That aside, I'm excited to see what Dell/AW brings and compare it with other notebooks.

 

Just ordered

 

what are your order spech's please.
I will be ordering later this year I want the higher end GPU's.

 

you got the 580m anyway, same thing as a 675m.

 

Overhype??? It's as underhyping as could ever be, lol. Ivy doesn't impress in the slightest and if that's the only "surprise" up Dell's sleeves - I'm bored.

First, Nvidia plays it "cool" and pushes a year old tech as a refresh (nothing new but still....)

Then comes Intel and feeling no real competition from AMD this year, makes a slow and uninteresting refresh. At least it's a refresh and the clocks are bumped, die is shrunk and IGP is improved. Still, nothing to run home about.

AMD apparently joined the "fun" and is about to announce their own "refresh" - the 7970m which while being a new tech, is supposed to be around the 580M/6990M speeds, at least based on some es tests.

Also, - Dell apparently decided to replace the WiHD slot with a mSata and kill one the most interesting features of AW laptops. If anything, they should have added mSata and broadband to the WiHD and Wifi slots. If that was a result of lower sales of WiHD transmitters -> poor marketing, IMHO. BTW, this feature alone saved my family over 1000$ in the past 8 months.

And of course, the screen. Same mirror...Well, at least some of you guys can use it to shave your beards while talking via skype, lol
Same mediocre gamut - why bother pushing something in the 18" sector, it's gonna disappear anyway in a year or 2. Such an investment to please a handful of "enlightened" guys would be ridiculously inefficient for one of the biggest players in the industry. Yeah, we all know that but we also thought that maybe, just maybe, the was a special system on the market to incorporate the best features and best technologies of them all and become the #1 on the wishing list of each and every enthusiast out there. Sad....

 

Judging by the specs from dell, akimox, the 7970 is going to be significantly faster than the 580/6990. It's a desktop 7870 bumped down to 850mhz.

 

Aha, just don't tell me you really believe it has 1536 shaders, hehe. Anyway, the ES samples didn't convince. Hopefully the production units would fare better.

 

What tests?

Unless Dell is posting fake specs, the 7970M, being a downclocked desktop 7870, is a good 50% faster than the 6990M/675M

 

No sir, I do not believe it has 1536 shaders. If it did, it would be impossible for it to even be derived from a desktop 7870. It has 1280 shaders.

Here's your confirmation(as close to it as you're going to get):

Help Me Choose: Video Cards | Dell

The 7970m @ the stated 153.6 has roughly 63% more memory bandwidth than the 675/580.

 

Do you have a link to Dell's specs? I know an SI who received ES 7970ms recently and according to their tests the performance was around 5-10% of the 675M. Again it's a ES and as such has to be taken with a grain of salt. Now, 40% sounds like something I'd expect but nowhere near the preliminary tests.

 

See above.

 

Ok, I see the specs and they look real, at least in tune with the ES cards and based on desktop 7870. But memory bandwidth can't be taken as a linear function of performance. Though, at 100W and with those specs the 7970m should be kicking it, no doubt.

 

I'm just waiting for a 7970 system to land and get thoroughly tested. then we shall see if its worth the upgrade from what I have now or not.

 

aye, I will wait for real life benchmark results first and see. If it stay true to what we speculated, then I will upgrade

 

Definitely didn't mean 63% memory bandwidth= 63% increased performance. Simply stated to support the argument that it should be at least significantly faster than the current "flagships".

 

Looks like it's gonna be another neck-and-neck race between the top-end cards. However, this time it looks like performance will go to 7970m (just barely) and 680m will use somewhat less power. The real winner, I think, will be who can price more competitively - the card that costs less is likely the one I will be buying, especially, if the difference is as big as it was with 6990m vs. 580m.

 

Yep, gotcha. Based on the posted specs the performance should be somewhere between the desktop 7850 and 7870...

 

I'm basing it on 3DMark 11 scores. The 7870 gets 6600 P score. The 6990/675M gets ~3300. If we take say 80% of the 7870's score, that's still 5300 or 60% higher than the 6990M/675M.

Can't wait to see benchmarks.

 

Since AMD card don't support optimus (as far as I understand the whole thing) then I guess that if I choose an AMD card I will get much worse battery life (when not gaming of course)?

 

That is absolutely absurd, if it turns out that way. Luckily for AMD, I'm sure we're all just fine with absurd.

 

+1 to that

Only reason I went with a 6990m was because I got mine for around $300. Good luck getting a 580m for that price anytime soon.

Nope we got manual switching. Just have hit a function key on the keyboard to switch between integrated and discrete.

 

Great, I was hoping there was a solution like this. Then it's a no brainer for me I am going to be glad to get rid of all of that whitelisting business (that certainly hasn't worked great for me many times).

Thanks for the quick response +1

 

I still can't believe the 7970m being 100w. The 7850 with less SPU's but similar clocks (10mhz more core) is 130w TDP. That entire 30w can be eliminated by 10w less core and higher binning??

 

The only thing I really don't like is AMD's Drivers, but other than that this 6990m was a great upgrade from my 460m.

 

All of you guys are discounting PowerXPress (the amd version of optimus). I can't figure out how to use it, but it's there still

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

 

I can see where you're coming from. I am still glad that there is an option to switch the graphics (even if it's manually) so that I can have better battery life when I am not gaming.

I actually love all of the extra functions that nvidia offers with the physX and cuda, but in the coming lineup I still feel that the AMD card will be woth it with the better gaming performance.

 

Works fine on mine, just automatically switches GPU's If I unplug it. Other than that its pretty much manual.

 

I'm going toss in my wild guess and just say that they are going to announce the return of the m15x

Realistically though I think it's just the Ivy Bridge CPUs and an unannounced GPU option.

 

With the M14x around, I don't think a M15x would make sense :/

 

I find it strange that Dell would choose to discontinue the m11x now if they are not planning to replace it with something in the coming days.

Why stop selling it now rather than wait for its successor to arrive ?

I'm hoping we will learn more about this on Tuesday, but I'm prepared to be disappointed too

 

I can bet you good money that there will be something in the ultraportable space from Alienware (it has even been hinted in this thread).
I am guessing some kind of ultrabook-ish device or maybe a gaming tablet like the razer fiona, who knows. But I do belive ther will be an option for people wanting pc-gaming on the go

On another note, i just talked do a Dell sales rep and asked about the 7970m card for the m17x and even if he wasn't able/allowed to say anything he recomended me not to order anything right now but get back next week instead. He said that I would then have "even more options to choose from" for my system. The plot thickens

 

Just spoke with a sales rep and he said that some dell laptops/desktops will be getting ivy bridge proccesors on the 23rd but not the alienware line, they should get it around june time
Unreliable source, he could be wrong!

Ive just ordered an m14xr2 as i cant wait til june as my 5 year old dell 6400 died! I managed to get 18% discount off my m14xr2
If there is dramatic changes i could always cancel or send it back!

Heres the main bits of my configuration just for those who are interested!

Intel Core i7 2760QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
14.1in Widescreen High Definition + (1600x900) WLED with TrueLife
8192MB (2x4096) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
256GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive 6Gb/s
Blu-Ray Disc (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM) Drive including software
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
Integrated High-Definition 5.1 Performance Audio
Intel 2230 Wireless Card + BT 4.0
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT)
3 Years Next Day In-Home Service with Premium Phone Support
3 years Accidental Damage Protection

Seems that it all kicks off next week tho...oooh!

 

Nice specs, congrats on the new system, looks great

 

I would really hope that they add this feature back eventually. When I bought an M18x last year, I never got to use this feature before I returned it, but I knew it would be awesome to use once I eventually purchased the receiver for the TV.

Having the option was nice. Using an HDMI cable can be annoying.

 

Really hope they have some alternative for the M11x. I am still shocked they discontinued it. Especially with the reason of "people want full sized keyboards, and optical drives". Optical drives are on their way out. M11x keyboard is fine. Just doesn't make sense to me. One can always hook it up to external keyboard and screen.

Was a charming little machine... Again, discontinue it doesn't make much sense to me.

 

Thanks!!
The bonus for me was that rep let me keep the discount I had on my previous order the m14xr1 =)

 

Not sure because Bill said that we won't hear from it for now but only in few months (even if he didn't speak on the behalf of Dell on that one, but I believe him )

He also said that they discontinued it because the m11x sales dropped after the release of the m14x. When the sales are too low it's not worth to keep producing a laptop. (by the way the French Alienware website is still selling the m11x r3 if anyone interested )

Maybe this autumn with win8 (to compete with the other Ultrabooks) or next year with Haswell (more probably).

But I'm quite sure it won't be an 11inch laptop anymore but a 13inch ultrabook.

It will have the same spec that the m11x would have had if it hadn't been discontinued but in an ultrabook form factor.

In the other hand with Haswell next year we will have Thunderbolt on pc so maybe we will see more and more external gpu solutions as the MSI GUS II.

Anyway for the Nvidia picture my guess would be the gtx 680m exclusively for Alienware as someone stated yesterday.

You can see two Alienware logos which would refer to the m17x and m18x, the two machines that can receive this beast.

It would be a good marketing strategy for Alienware to have this exclusivity even for few months.

All gamers want the best for their notebook so if only Alienware provide the gtx 680m for now they will buy from them.

 

how much u paid for that setup?

 

Bit pricy, around £1850 with 3 years warranty and accidental damage (Less than a lower spec MBP)
Probably could of saved some more £'s by doing the ram and ssd myself!

This was around £400 more than the r1 set up with similar specs!
But paying the extra £400 i got the i7-2760qm instead of the i7-2670qm, blue ray player, latest nividia graphics, wireless card inc bluetooth 4.0 and their new sound software (Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software)
Your bound to pay a bit more for a new refresh on a system

 

that would be 2,445.66 USD hmm a little too pricy for me but i want a similar setup...
but its a kick setup grats on it

 

I made a similar m14xr2 with similar specs on the american site and it came out cheaper than mine!
Theres a hefty difference between us and uk, no idea why :S

 

Don't know why, but there's ALWAYS a huge difference. It's not only UK, the rest of Europe is also more expensive as well.

 

It has always been like that, unfortunately.

 

Don't forget that in the US the prices are WITHOUT taxes
When you add the taxes it's still cheaper than elsewhere but the difference is more reasonable.

 

Alienware site down for me they may add 7970's to the M18X today

 

For me, it's actually good. I don't *need* to buy an Alienware laptop, and the steep prices combined with the need to buy through a reseller have kept the money in my wallet.

"Alienware: gaming laptops that help you save money."

 

though with ivy couldn't you go to the low end i7 (2670 atm, w/e that is for ivy) and have a better processor than the 2760? Since intel has been claiming that ivy will be at the same pricepoint as sandy.