m9750 Video Card Choice

All,

Getting close to ordering my m9750...... Can I have some more (free) advice, please?

8700 versus 7950?

Single or SLI?

I plan to play the CoD series from UO upto 4 and Company of Heroes. I also want something relatively future proof as I will not be spending this sort of cash again for the next 3 years or so.

Thanks for your help in advance,

Clean.

 

7950GTXs ftw, and get XP for now unless you want to wait till drivers get mature, i have tried Vista VS XP several times, and the difference is like 14 FPS for the XP. what i'm personally gonna do is shut down my brain and sleep for a few months till Vista gets more optimized, SLI gets better, then i'd go back to some gaming

 

Wow..... reading about all of the driver issues and vista issues people have I am not too confident about spending $4k on a machine that is going to crash and need constant hunting for drivers!

My current Sony has never ever crashed in 3 years, not one blue screen, and all driver and software updates are managed automatically. I really fancy the m9750, but I am starting to doubt.....

Please give me some confidence.... someone.... anyone????

 

1.) 9lbs is not too heavy compare to average 17"
2.) $1700 is not pricey for SLI 7950 GTX
3.) I wouldn't call 1.5" bulky
4.) it's 2007 model, not 2006

 

Definitely get the 7950GTX. The small benefits you get from DX10 (If you can find a game that uses it) are not worth the slower speed of the 8700.

There is nothing wrong with Vista now with SP1 having been released. XP is an outdated OS so there is no point in getting XP only to be migrating to Vista in a few months anyway when driver support for Vista is up to date.

 

you should try to pm stone825. he always has helpful advice. im sure he will try to help you anyway he can when it comes to a m9750

 

some added note to nirvana0001 post,

the sager/clevo's version are heavier than m9750.

 

the m9750 was release around june 2007 i think...

it was announced in 2006

 

if you want to play cod4 here my stats with 8700sli

70 fps full settings AAX2
85 fps full settings no AA

wow = 60 fps( i got 60fps with one card too)
UT3 = 47 fps full settings
Crysis = 45 medium ( drop 25 WHILE GUNFIGHT)

 

Cheers for all the feedack peeps.

Am liking the futureproofing of chosing a DX10 compatible card as DX9 has been around for a long time now so will become outmoded before I upgrade my Lappy again.

Looks like twin 8700s it will be. Now just need to decide I have any confidence in Alienware having read all of the nightmare posts for m15x AND m9750.

Are there any of you 9750 users having trouble free computing?

 

last call for you Clean from someone who tried both.. i tied the dual 8700 on my Brother's Clevo, and believe me dual 7950GTXs are better, dont get fooled about the dx10 thingy. with dual 7950GTX you can get and average of 60FPS in UT3 and same score in COD4 as guigz mentioned. but.. its all about your choice now

EDIT: and sorry about confusing you with the machine, its really a great machine , and my issue will not happen with you cause mine is about the pirated software being sold in my country, which you cant use updates from microsoft on it.

 

As of today the 7950GTX is no longer offered for the M9750 so looks like your choice is an m9750 will SLI 8700m or another brand.

In response to your other question, I have two M9750's and they both have worked great so far.

 

I have had my m9750 since December and have done quite a bit with it and to it. It has yet to fail me and has taken everything I have thrown at it. I am using the Dual 7950's by the way.

 

2 people said 7950's, one person said 8700's
It's your choice though

edit: nvm I guess the 7950's ARE gone
my computer is turning to crap

 

Didn't you return it?

 

Hey man I am finally here to help you out if it is not too late. Sorry I saw this but I was working on my friends class president poster so I was busy doing that.

Anyways. I have had trouble free M9750 computing. The games run properly, the drivers work great, and I output to an external monitor just fine as well. The ONLY problem that I have is the gray screen when I resume from standby which can easily be defeated by just pressing enter to log yourself in. I haven't had any problems yet with it.

I have the SLi 7950GTX cards, not the 8700GT cards. However, with the new 174.16 drivers the issues in games that many were experiencing were fixed. You do get a very powerful laptop for a good price with the M9750 though even though it may be a bit dated.

Also, you can look into the gateway laptop with the 8800GTS which is another alternative.

Good luck whatever your choice may be and sorry I didn't post sooner. One more thing, look into your credit card company. Some credit card companies will double your warranty just for registering the product with them for free. That means your 1yr AW warranty becomes a 2yr. If that is not an option, I would recommend getting a 2yr or 3yr AW warranty just in case anything happens.

 

I've had 4 months of trouble free m9750 computing. I had to tweek the drivers to get the performance I wanted out of UT3 but aside from that its been flawless.

 

NVIDIA® Quadro® FX Series: Powerful mobile solution for the 3D creative professional

Is that any good? all i know it is raised the base price of the m9750 by 100

 

No the performance on it for gaming is worse than the 8700GT.

 

hmm.. perhaps I should revisit the drivers on my m9750. I've been really annoyed with my m9750 as it runs games 'ok'. Maybe I'm just being picky, but I've NEVER seen a steady 60fps in CoD4 at 1920x1200 res with x2AA enabled nor have I been able to play UT3 at the res mentioned earlier with max eye candy.

Are you guys sure you're running at a smooth 60fps and not exagerating? I do have fraps and use it to check framerates.

 

Hey clean whats your budget and are u 100% AW dedicated at this point. personally the sli 7950's were the only reason i was looking at getting the laptop . but i would hurry cause the m9750 wont be around much longer.

 

@Clean - I would just wait and get the 15" Clevo with the 8800GTX if it falls into your budget.

 

In the interest of future-proofing your system, I would advocate dx10 and Vista. Granted, people have issues with it now, but you can only use an older OS for so long. Think about windows 98 in the xp era. It's your choice, but in the years to come, more and more software will have compatability issues with xp, and more games will come to utilize dx10 technology. That said, the dual 8700s will offer you pretty solid performance, i should think. my m15x is on the way with just one of them, so if i ever receive it -.- i'll let you know how i like it.

 

it seems that alienware is taking the m9750 off the market soon. if you buy it, you can still upgrade your video cards to the 7950 gtx cards.... 1299 gets you a cheap base model, and you can upgrade everything later. i'd say 17" sli capable notebook with c2d is a fair deal at 1200 bucks. not to mention this thing is built very nicely.

i've had mine since novemeber of 2007, and let me tell you, i am glad i spent every penny on this machine. this laptop despite that it isn't the freshest technology will last you quite a long while. i run every game i play on at high settings (besides crysis... though i don't play that game), and it's smooth as silk. the notebook is pretty light for its size, and slim too. the built in camera is so so, but the rest of the features are awesome.

the notebook already has its tweaks worked out and it has many help guides for many things. it's a very good notebook, so i would reccommend purchasing one if you're looking to. there is a possibility that this notebook will be compatible with an 8800m card, though, don't put all of your money into it if you're banking on that. that said, if it does allow 8800m cards, then you'll have no problem running games for good amount of time.

 

if it was me i would get windows xp and dual 7950's. the 8700 gt cards are not good engough to run the latest dx 10 games anyway.

 

Don't forget that the 8700's only perform less then 7950's when used at high resolutions. This is something that doesn't affect me because when i'm at home i use an external monitor which has 1280x1024 max resolution. At this resolution the 8700's perform just as well as the 7950 + they'll be able to do dx10 content should something in the future require that. I only use the portability aspect of my laptop for working, browsing, watching movies and moderate gaming when on the move. If i do play when not at home i tone down my settings or resolution to ensure smooth gameplay. I absolutely love my machine, it hasn't let me down yet.