2010 Arrandale Studio Xps 1640 GPU OPTIONS

I’ve been holding out for a Dell studio xps 1640 WITH BOTH Arrandale and Direct x 11 discreet GPU for the best part of 6 months now, and now finally the hour of reckoning is approaching. The choice of which GPU I'll get IS DOWN TO THE OEM AND SADLY OUT OF MY HANDS but here are the pros and cons of of each outfits parts as I see it, in 2010.

ATI

1.ATI will be first out the door with 40nm Direct X 11 compliant GPu parts shipping with GDDR5 for notebooks. Im hoping within the March-April timeframe given TSMC’s delays. Nvidia NOTEBOOK Direct x 11 parts (Fermi based) may end up SHIPPING as late as q3 2010 as a GUESS! They will doubtless do some kind of paper launch before that anyway!

2. These parts should support switchable graphics off the westmere platform=Huge power saving gains. Means you only need to boot up discreet graphics when doing heavy 3D gaming! Light duty apps like browser flash accleration and google maps can be handled by the igp on the arrandale chip. Should mean longer battery life, cooler and quieter notebooks .

3. These chips will also support the protected audio path (PAP) which allows you to get the best audio DTS hd-MA from blu-ray out of your notebook. BAsically makes the notebook HDMI 1.3 compliant. Finally. Neat!

BUT THE NVIDIA GPU'S

1. Are still the only notebook parts to support mobile reference drivers direct from Nvidia. No waiting for OEM's to update to latest drivers. This is HUGE and ATI need to do some catching up here.

2. Are still the only parts to support hardware Physx acceleration and the list of supported games is growing guys! This can't be simply be ignored any more. CUDA is growing in relevance too. I know ATI has STREAM but NOBODY is using that.

3. Will probably outperform the ATI parts on a frame to frame benchmark for the same TDP-which in the case of the Dell xps 16 will be 30-35w TDP for the gpu alone!

This matters because these laptops will be the first to be able to run many modern titles comfortably at 1920x1080 on a (35w TDP gpu anyway). Im thinking MW2 here, New MOH (2010 release), BFBC 2 etc and many others.

4. The nvidia parts are purported to offer superior switchable graphics to to ATI's solutions, www.fudzilla.com/content/view/16228/34/
though this remains to be seen.

FINALLY I'LL SAY THIS,

Switchable graphics FROM INTEL is huge folks. It represents a paradigm shift and will change the way gaming notebooks operate forever.

Look at it this way. Arrandale dual core is purported to use 35w TDP. But thats the TDP for both the CPU and the GPU combined! (25w+10w). That means that at 32nm, INtel has got the CPU down to just 25w and the GPU 45nm using 10w (when maxed out). Comparable Centrino 2 parts use 35w TDP on the CPU alone!

Yes I know you cant compare Intel iGFX to anything even remotely recent from Nvidia, but if It can run my low level apps like google maps and flash acceleration for no more than 10w (maybe even 5-6 when idling) , who cares! I can always boot up the meaty discreet GPU for they heavy duty stuff! If the InteL, NVIDia, ATi and the OEM's get can get it to all work smoothly and properly, Im happy!

It shouldnt make too much difference if the integrated parts are from Intel or Nvidia, its the DISCREET PART that counts. But I see Intel's switchable graphics making a huge difference IF it delivers on its claims.

 

Arrandale sounds very promising.

I want full model change of Studio XPS 1640 in 2010.
Still no rumours?

 

yep,

looks like im waiting a little while longer

are there going to be arrandale i7's??

 

Yeah but they're not quad cores. Seriously, I hate Intel's new processor naming, it makes no sense.

 

I agree with you. Intel should exclusively use i7 naming only for quad-core chips.
Buyers will confuse between Arrandale i7 and i5 CPUs spec.

 

Yeah, the sXPS 1647

 

So... does that mean a dual-core Arrandale i7-620M (2.66GHz) will be faster overall than a quad-core Clarksfield i7-720QM (1.6GHz)?

 

Certainly not on multi-threaded applications. Intel claims the Clarksfield Core i7-920xm ramps all the up to 3.06 from 2.0ghz when running just 2 cores. But reviews seem to say its not all that its cooked up to be. Still- the clarksfield parts would probably be faster.

The point about arrandale is it will reduce power consumption drastically and while still give better perfomance than Core 2 duo. Imagine a cpu and GPu running on the same amount of power that it previously took to run a cpu alone (25w + 10w v 35w). Thats what arrandale should bring.

Secondly- you get to leave that power hungry discrete gpu off most of the time, with arrandale-if this switchable graphics thing delivers! Current discrete gpu's currently draw 15w -30w when IDLING! That goes up dramatically when playing-30W-75W obviously- ON THE GPU ALONE.

Arrandale iGPU should draw 10w max and maybe 5-6w when idling. Time will tell. But here's the trick- the Arrandale CPU should only draw 25w MAX!!

So thats a total of:
35w + say 15w= 50w (Core 2 Duo)
VS
25w +maybe 6w = 31w (Arrandale, Core i5 /i7)

Take your pick!



So under Core

 

Why could they not just have i7 as being exclusively quad core, have i5 being the equivalent towhat the core2 is at the moment (same idea as i7 but with only 2 cores) and have i3 as being the equivalent to the atom?

 

TDP is not the same as power consumption. While Arrandale will give better battery life it will be mainly due to more notebooks getting switchable graphics. But comparing say Lenovo's T400 w/ switchable graphics and slower P/T series C2D, the difference won't be that much, especially since you can undervolt the C2D.

 

Also Arrandale is going to come in special low-voltage versions with TDP of 17 watts. I think this is just intended for netbooks or ultra-portables though. Oddly enough it'll also be under the Core i7 brand.

 

What the hell? Putting processors that should be in the i3 category in to the top-of-the line category?! This is just backwards and confusing, that's like branding a hippy bug as a ferrari

 

Intel had a chance to get the naming right with the i-series. i3, i5, and i7 would be pretty good to keep the segment seperated.

I guess they outsmarted themselves again! lol

 

I wouldn't expect DX 11 GPU's in laptops until the start of Q3 2010...

 

Urm:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=438200

Acer Aspire 8942G with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850.

Due out in the next few weeks.

 

Double post.

 

Find it funny that they are saying it will be available then, but not even officially announced yet ?

 

Well ATI will be announcing DX11 mobile parts at CES in early Jan so it's not far away. Also new laptops using those parts will be announced at the same time, including the Acer I would think.

 

....... read through the thread


Resellers are saying its will be available 4-5 days from now... just find it funny ... for pre-order or sale .... just does not sound right

 

ATI will almost certainly announce in Jan-but I suspect quantities will be limited until TSMC improves yields. High end notebooks will get served with high end parts first. Hence Acer anouncing. (notice the mobility 5850 is only packing GDDR3???!!!) Although DeLL has favored partner status- they probably wont migrate from the 4670 on the studio xps range for a while still-prob March/April earliest. They may even hold out longer and introduce the succesor ( mobility 5750?)as their highlight summer upgrade for the studio xps 16 like they did last year. God forbid! Will have lost interest by then if it comes to that!

 

Sure its not- but its actually a damn good indicator and its accurate enough info that OEM's use as a basis to design cooling apparatus and decide psu designs when at the design stage before receiving test silicon.

I see Arrandale being a huge step forward in power-efficiency design. Just hope it does what it says on the can!

 

I did read the thread cheers.

I think you need to re-read it and check the links to the retailers on the first page. They are not available in 4-5 days time any more.

You also missed my point. 4-5 days, a few weeks, whatever, official announcements are coming very soon along with actual retail launches, not paper. Definitely not Q3 2010 and I would say very worth waiting for if you are into gaming.

 

Uhmmm, I don't mean to be a bore, but since when has acer been a very high end manufacturer?

 

Never said it wasn't more power efficient than the C2Ds, because it is (lower manufacturing process, more aggressive power management, etc). But what I'm saying is that the main benefit will be the switchable graphics in more computers.

The point I was trying to make is that actual power consumption varies quite a bit (while TDP always remains the same since it's a maximum value) and compared to an undervolted C2D w/ integrated graphics (T500 already has switchable graphics), I don't see a Ci7 w/ integrated graphics offering that much more battery life for those models (but for the Dell that doesn't already have this feature, it will be a nice upgrade).

Acer Ferrari line?

 

Just any other laptop except with a ferrari badge on it, they have about the same specs as inspirons

 

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=17466

Haven't heard about the details of this but when it was announced, the Acer Lamborghini was also pretty big news.

 

Dell pretty much has to deliver on switchable graphics on Westmere. they have been avoiding it for ages. In fact I think up to now, switchable graphics has only really ever implemented by Lenovo on the Thinkpads, Apple on their Macbooks and Fujitsu or someone else on their notebooks. There maybe be one or two other small outfits I missed there but my general point is that the OEM's have been avoiding it thus far. I remember this feature being launched way back in 2007 I think it was. Yeah intel wasnt part of it so it was hardly mandatory. Now they must stand up face the music and make it work.

Worst case is that it will be handicapped to begin with- as in the system may crash when switching from intergrated to discreet or vice-versa, necessitating a reboot. But thats worst case scenario. Hopefully we'll be able to switch at will between both without having system stability issues.

 

Dell has it on their sXPS 1340 and Alienware M15x. Sony Z has it too.

 

You are forgetting Sony as well.

 

And Asus....

 

Still-it was never as widely adopted as it could have been. Whats Dell's or any other OEM's excuse for not having it even as an OPTION on a £1300 notebook like the studio xps 16 today.
To be honest, we should have had switchable graphics yesterday. Its advantages speak for themselves.

The reality is that many OEM's could not be bothered modifying motherboards and with supporting it properly so they just left it out altogether.

Now that Intel is forcing it down their throsts they have no choice. Still, it would have been nice having a 9400m along with say a GTS 250M on an studio XPS even as an extra-cost option.

Sadly, Intel's launch of switchable graphics means Nvidia and co are going to be forced out of the IGP/chipset business. I think Intel has refused to even licence Nvidia chipsets for the new DMI. That means less, or should that be NO competition for Intel in that arena.

Nvidias parts are far superior to INtel's igp's and I really hope that the courts force INtel to licence other outfits for the DMI interface. Intel would then have to offer a CPU WITHOUT an intergrated gpu as option to OEM's, giving them an consumers (indirectly) a bit more choice.

Competition is good for everybody-INTEL INCLUDED!

Going into 2010 though, and until all this b.s. is resolved, I'll gladly settle for an intel Igp and a DX11 discrete part from either ATI or Nvidia on the Studio xps 16

 

If the IGP with Arrandale only supports DX10, would that mean you would be limited to DX10 when paired with a discrete card?