No more ATi 4870s for m17x only for m17x-R2

You'd pay that much for a small increase in performance? My max spending cap is about $100. Sell my 4870s for $1000 and get the 5870 for $1040

 

$400 is ok. Just similar to (or better than, I hope) what people are doing with 280M and 260M.

But if 5870M is actually just a tiny improvement I will pass it.

 

Whoops lmao, forgot to mention who i called

anyway it was 1-800-ALIENWARE

 

A thousand bucks for a pair of 5870's sounds about right, usually new releases of dual mobile cards go for around that price from my understanding. And yeah Scook I don't like Eurocom lol, and I'm not the only one, pretty much anyone who has experienced their douchbaggery feels the same as I do, best advice for people is to just avoid them altogether, and save themselves the hassle.

 

Agree with you 100%, even though I never had any deals with Eurocom. They are known for false advertising and many people had issues with them in the last couple of years.

 

If you called that number and went through the process of talking with sales that would have been the Dell sales team. I'm sure you got quoted for desktop cards. Get the Dell part number for proof.

 

I called Dell sales department.
They told me it would cost me $1400 to get two 4870 with the crossfire cable.
what are you guys talking about?
where can i get them cheaper?

 

ha ha...LOL!

 

That was response to SillyHoney. Still getting use to this forum..It is tough being a Noob.

 

I think you might get the Valentines Day special - all red with a heart-shaped Alien head on the lid

Don't forget the default pink lighting setup!

 

not sales, i asked a tech about 5870 in crossfire for the M17x and their release date. i dont remember what he said about release date, only that its $550 for 1 and $450 for the second, making it $1000

 

Hmmm, so about £600-700 for the upgrade. About what I was expecting. Ideally in the future these cards SHOULD be cheaper than previous cards to buy as they use a lower bus width (aka cheaper PCB design with fewer layers) and a smaller core die.

 

If so we would have lived in a perfect world where dogs dont eat dogs

How much do you guys expect the premium of HD 5870 over 4870 when we config an M17x R2?

 

You use the QUOTE in lower right of the post lol

 

I think I got it down now. thx

 

That's nice, but doesn't market demand and hype also drive up the price of a lot of things that are technically 'cheaper' to make. It's not like I can pickup the phone and argue with Dell for a bargain on the 5870s, citing cheaper engineering. I'll get the smackdown with something like, "Sir, we cannot comment on the factory costs of these cards. What we can tell you is that they are newer superior products on the market, which determines their value."

 

lol I know, HOPEFULLY better production costs will translate into a higher takeup and availability however; which often leads to greater competition and more interesting prices! What Im saying is these cards are cheaper to produce, so whilst it won't straight away, eventually some of that cost may partially filter down to us, by means of cheaper laptop models/slightly cheaper upgrades.

High PCB complexity and large die size directly lead to more expensive cards though (wasn't there an 8800 card that was about £500 to buy alone, IF you could find one)

 

You are correct about the 'technical side' but the economist in me is always skeptical.


Another example:
Dell-lovers hate people calling out these kind of flags, but there have been moments when they have tried to pass off the 9800m GT as the more 'expensive', 'newer', 'upgraded' product over the 8800m GTX. With your knowledge of the cards, you already know what a crock that argument is in hindsight. It is the implications that annoy me, because when we buy the parts, most of us are limited to the option of ebay hunting and actually going straight to the reseller or company for the parts. I just hope the company in question doesn't rip me off, because as you put it, the cards should be cheaper to produce than even the 4870s.

 

Although the factory cost is less for these new parts, the company (ATI here) has to recover spent R&D costs on redesigning the chip for 40nm lithography down from 55nm. That combined with the fact that they do indeed perform sort of justifies the price...

Intel is a perfect example, when they die shrink an architecture (they always die shrink in the middle of an architectures lifespan) the new part is always more expensive.

 

lol slightly offtopic Scook, but I see from your updated signature those 4870s are really flying for you!
Hows that translating into games performance for you?

Plus! Imagine what the 5870s, which MIGHT overclock better and should perform about 20% better will probably be like (providing Dell aren't idiots and use GDDR3 again).

 

they cannot do GDDR3, those cards are 128-bit, the 4870s would slaughter them

Ya, I am doing ok for myself Embarassing to admit, but so far I pretty much don't game on this laptop lol. I do that in my desktop for the most part. I do plan to actually load my games onto my laptop though