I'm very worried!!!

My new alienware m9700 (topped out with dual 7900gs 512's and 2.4ghz turion and so on...) will soon be here. But my real question is about games like crysis. I've been hearing your gonna need a dual core cpu to do anything decent on new games like crysis becuase of all the new physics and stuff in the games. Does this mean my laptop will do horrible considering it's only single core? What kind of problems should I expect? Lowered graphics since my cpu is getting overloaded and can't keep up with gpu's enough to get decent fps? I get really odd pathetic physics? Or the game just spazzes out and I get a 2d gameplay? (last one was a joke)

 

did you just get a turion 64 or a turion 64 x2?

 

Just the turion 64. SLI laptops only come with the turion 64. No company or anything has any other processor with SLI.

 

oh hmm maybe you can cancle ur order.

 

The question I am asking is what will be the big downside if I'm gonna really notice any at all.

 

anyway did you see that post they put in the alienware forum about the company only allowing people to give good reviews of their products? you might want to reconsider it and find something cheaper and better... i'll probably get bashed by someone for telling you that but oh well.

 

I would Cancel. Every reviewer of that machine said it's a dumb combo, a 2.4 Ghz Turion with sli 7900s....and it is.

A Strong Core 2 Duo with a single 7900GS might be slower but I'd rather that anyday.

 

CANCEL

CPU is the bottleneck for sure. Wait for the new notebooks with Dual Core.

Charlie

 

Yeah I'm concerned with Alienware's good-news policy. SLI on a laptop is an unproven technology anyway... You'll probably see a better design in a year or so.

Personally, I'd cancel it and get a really sturdy dual-core system with a 7900gs, you won't suffer a huge performance loss frankly, and you'll be more future-ready for optimized dualcore games... Or just wait if you can- Remember this:

"The next best thing is only released after your return policy expires."

 

So lets wait for the next best thing?

You'll be waiting a good long while...

My Alienware m5750 hasn't given me any problems... Although it took awhile to get here... And I can see why alienware would bother people...

But I love my Alienware..

OP, if you really want a great exp., either choose this laptop, or chose the sager m5760, both are top of the line. The sager may be a bit more portable and have less heat, but...

If your in the market to get something now, get it now. If you're gonna wait, their are gonna be better deals, but the truth is, you'll be waiting forever. I suggest either going for either of those, or it you wait, SET A TIME PERIOD for when you wait, IE 3-6 months, not when the next best thing comes...

 

Now we have laser television.

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/6216/52/1/0/

Why should we buy plasma or lcd, when we can wait for laser... But then when laser comes something else will come, so should we wait for that?

EDIT: I didn't mean to come across like this, I only meant to say that with technology moving so rapidly, waiting for something only leaves you in the stone age. I didn't mean to make it sound so mean. I'm very very tired. Apologies.

 

But in all honestly, personally I'm a huge fan of the core 2 duo, even though I've become a bit of an alienware fan I must recommend the sager m5760. You may wanna cancel your rig and get that.

EDIT: But if you must wait, Vista may or may not drive down the cost of laptops, and pretty soon we'll get core 2 duo sli notebooks, so waiting may have benefits... But like I said, if you're gonna wait, 3-6 months. Tops.

 

I've already been waiting about 6 months so I did set a time line like that. Since I knew that they would not release g80 for the notebook for probably atleast a year I decided to go with SLI now and considering it's way overkill right now I thought it would have enough buffer room for the future. I had also read alot of good reviews about this laptop (I've seen bad but most of those were from problems that could have been easily fixed if you know what your doing). I'm also curious what there planning to do with all these people who have processors like the fx58 or athlon 3500 and all those other single core good cpu's. All ya'll have been saying is "DON'T BUY ALIENWARE, IT'S SO BAD AND HORRIBLE. OHHH NO!!! THAT'S REASON ENOUGH TO NOT BUY IT!!!". I don't care about how ya'll "feel" about alienware or this laptop. I want to know what kind of problems should I be expecting from using a single core cpu on something that "supposedly recommends" a dual core cpu. Is it gonna be like F.E.A.R. where you just turn down the physic calculations and in turn you notice no gameplay difference but you get performance increase? Are they gonna do the thing like ATI is doing where you can give your gpu's the ability to do physic calculations for the cpu? I know most of the people out there are still running off high/mid range single core cpu's. Another reason I chose SLI is becuase I don't really care if I get 90fps on something or 50fps. If the single card gives me 90fps the framerate is gonna jump around like crazy possible even droping below the 30's into the 20's at times for short periods of times. With as SLI you get thet 50fps and you might drop to 45fps or maybe even 40fps at crazy times but you won't drop any lower. I want a consitant framerate above 35fps so I can have smooth gameplay.

 

Look at it this way: You wouldn't buy a Pentium 4 new now, would you? No.

But that doesn't mean a high end Pentium 4 isc crap, in fact, a high end P4 is still fine for playing new games, even maxed out.

My point: There just isn't any point going with old tech for such a high price, even if it still does the job, when better is available and Dual Core is going to feature in most big new games and already features in a few like Quake IV and gives a good boost.

Again, I would much rather have a good Core 2 Duo laptop with a single high end card then that single core Alienware with SLI. And its not because I have anything against Alienware. Its just a bad combo.

 

Although the AMD Turion 64 is not a weak processor, it is not ideal to pair it with two of the fastest video cards on the market - it does not have the horsepower to let them reach their potential.

Ignore those comments unless they come from owners. Alienware is the number one "boutique" notebook seller for a reason; some people get good laptops, others get lemons. It happens to every company. I've never "owned" an Alienware but I have used a few of their machines for extended periods of time while doing reviews, and they were excellent in all aspects (as far as Alienware can be held accountable that is).

Now back on topic:
Just because your processor is single-core does not mean it cannot play the latest games (and next-gen ones like Crysis). Notice that it is recommended that you have a dual-core processor. As long as you have a reasonably fast single-core the game should run without issues.

As other posters have said, you should think about canceling. Although the m9700 is not a bad laptop at all, there are more powerful machines that can be had for a similar amount of money. The single Go7950GTX in the Sager NP5760 is actually faster than dual Go7900GS cards, and it has a Core 2 Duo. The Go7950GTX is more than strong enough to hold a stable framerate, so don't worry about having it jump from 90FPS down to 25 all the time. The dual Go7900GS cards can hold a more stable framerate, true, but with a Go7950GTX I doubt you will be dissatisfied.

 

I think Chaz is the only reasonable person on this entire forum. (No offense to everybody else) The 7950gtx is just a somewhat oc'ed 7900gtx. After you really crank on the graphics to insane res's and really cranks on the aa and af the 7950gtx starts getting the same problems I said before. It will lose against the SLI after you crank up the graphics that much but I'll say the same point I said before. SLI will have the lower framerates but will be more steady of a framerate and will have higher "lowest frames". As the 7950gtx with the duo core might get higher raw fps but it will not be a very steady fps. The sager is faster in raw fps but after you crank on the graphics the sager falls fast and hard as the alienware holds its position. Next time I create a thread here I'll be sure to only read Chaz's replies. I thank everybody for helping me but I do thank Chaz the most for making a real answer.

 

AlienWare wouldnt choose AMD Turion if it was a bottleneck because its not. It offers enough performance for modern games and will surely run Crysis like a dream. Dont let this lot confuse you with you choise.

 

Why did you even post on here if you weren't going to listen to anyone? You asked if you thought the CPU would cause problems. We said yes. In the day of the dual-core, it's stupid to pair two 7900s with a single-core Turion. The better idea would have been to do your research and buy the Clevo (the company that makes your alienware) that has the same dual 7900s with a Turion 64 x2. In fact, it's pretty much the same laptop, just with a dual core processor.

The fact of the matter is, like Chaz said, the Turion is not weak. But it's not the best either. It's a very strong single-core, but single-cores just can't hold up against a good Core 2 Duo. And if you think a 7950GTX is gonna make you drop below 25fps in F.E.A.R. at max settings, I've got news for you. My 1500M (~7900GS) handles F.E.A.R. at max settings at 1440x900 res (like your computer) and never goes below 25fps. And I only have 1 gig of RAM. So if a 7900GS can take it, there's no reason a 7950GTX can't. You may notice more stable performance with SLi a year and half or two years from now, but by then you won't be playing any games at max and your CPU will DEFINITELY be a bottleneck. Quad cores will be out by then.

 

I'm not the only poster on this forum who gives good answers remember. notebook_ftw and several other posters in this thread have given good feedback.

Many games that come out in the future will be multithreaded - right now, the vast majority of games are single-threaded and even if you have a dual-core processor, only one core will be used for the game. In a multithreaded game, all available processors are used, and the potential performance increases are huge. Right now, both Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4 have patches to make them multithreaded, and you can get up to an 87% performance increase. That will definitely help keep stable framerates.

 

Chaz is rite about the 7950GTX on par or even faster than the SLI. Considering this, it's better for u to get Core 2 Duo. Simple math, 7950GTX >= SLi 7900Gs, but Turion 64 will never be equal to a C2D.

 

http://www.clevo.com.tw/products/M590K.asp

I don't see x2 anywhere....

 

Its called the Clevo M590KE...its only been released in Japan so far, but there are a few others that have them up on their website. This one, for example
http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au/products/configure.asp?c1=89&c2=92&id=1662

 

5 Grand is a little out of reach

 

I got this alienware cheaper than I would have gotten a dell with a 7950gtx

 

People, that is not his question. Your all telling him to cancel cancel, he can't. It is irrelevant to tell him to cancel. And to answer the question, you might have to lower some cpu settings, but it won't be that bad.

 

I never told him to cancel his order. He's still got a hell of a machine there. I'm just saying that a single core Turion isn't exactly the best match for an SLi machine, and it's probably going to cause him a few problems down the road if he wants max settings. That's what he asked. I'm sure he'll get a lot of awesome performance out of the machine, and I'm happy for him.

 

I don't mind turning CPU options to the bare minimum because I can never notice a difference anyways with them. I want to beable to run at native res (1440 I think it is) and have the textures at max. Than if I can still crank on aa and af I will.

 

oh your native res is small?

No worries then.

 

The only issue I see here is, it does appear you WILL notice them in Crysis. The physics in that game are amazing. I couldn't imagine playing it without being able to experience one of the best parts of the game, and I have my doubts about how well a single core CPU could handle that.

This is just a guess of course though. There is no definite answer till it's released

 

There maybe a difference with it being 64bit and physic calculations.... I'm expecting that game to push my cpu to the max and my gpu's fairly hard. If they optimize it really well it should still do very good even with all that physics calculations going on and it should really help when I turn down all the cpu options to the bare minimum. Also considering I'm running at a "low res" of 1440 (I think thats the correct res, not exactly sure on all the numbers for the wide screens) the computer won't be near as stressed.

I should still beable to run it at native res, max textures, and 2aa with 8af.

 

It ll be pushed to the limits, i can guaranty u that. I myself use a single core, and i do know when u hav a lot of background programs running(which u ll hav in a few months time), will bog the notebook down. Smooth framerate wont be that big problem unless u hit some big physics stuff but wat u ll notice is the loading time.

 

WidowPC had their orders up for Sting 919 SLI laptops for quite some time. It's their branded version of the Clevo m590k. However, if you choose any of the Turion X2 (dual core) CPU options then you're actually pre-ordering the Clevo m590ke. Andy from their site quoted me early December for shipping of my order.

I notice you mentioned Crysis. Since it will support DirectX 9 and 10, you'll be okay but you won't be able to appreciate the performance backed by D3D10 api. That's the big hitch about buying a laptop now, is that it won't be able to play the future games that require DirectX 10. Since there is no mobile gpu out which is currently spec'd for compliance.

However, you should already be prepared to not play games at the performace of a desktop machine with the same budget. That's because you're paying for the portability. I refer to it as, "taking a hit when I'm not at home". Like many have said, you'll get better mileage off your dollar by spending the money on a dual core system and the fastest single GPU, as opposed to a single core CPU and dual GPUs. This is because some games are more CPU intensive while others are more GPU intensive. Gaming aside most of your desktop apps should already be able to take advantage of the dual core.

While there are very few game titles available today will take advantage of multiple cores, expect more titles coming in the following years to take advantage of it. With multi-core processors becoming more prevalent, software developers are going to take advantage of multi-threading.
Valve for example has been working on finishing thier multi-threaded Source Engine. If you don't know by now, Half-Life 2 runs on the Source Engine and happens to be one of those games which are more CPU intensive.

Anyways, congratulations on the purchase and happy moblie computing!

 

I urge you to cancel and stay away from AW. They have serious issues. I ordered an m5550 from them that came to me defective right out of the box so I returned it the following day since their tech support was just giving me the run around. Now the SOB's are trying to hit me with the restocking fee for a computer that never worked. They also admited to me on the phone that they will resuse the parts from my returned order in other computers. So I ask why the restock fee? Plus other who are buying a "new computer" are actually going to get used parts from my old one lol! Just cancel and take your money elsewhere. Trust me I am not the only one to have had serious problems with this company. There are gobs of threads with people that have had similar issues. Just stay away please.