Necessity of 3720QM with 680M

As far as gaming goes, a 3610QM wouldn't be bottlenecking the 680M would it? Everything I've read leads me to believe, "no." But as far as compute tasks, since I would only get the 680M because I need CUDA support, is the 3610QM still sufficient? I know the 3720QM isn't a huge jump up, but is it worth it if the 680M will be used for more than just games?

 

Stock for stock, it isn't that big a diff and the 3610 wouldn't bottleneck you in games no. however, i'd get the 3720 and overclock it to 40,39,38,38 (intel allows you to up the multi 4x on the 3720 and 3820). Now it starts to make a difference

And if compute is your thing, i'd avoid kepler all together. Kepler has extremely weak compute...nvidia has pushed that off to Quadro

 

Well I'd like to be able to play games, and quadro cards are even more ridiculously expensive than the 680M. It's just that programs like MATLAB and Mathematica can make use of CUDA to speedthings up, and I know I will be using them heavily in the near future. At this point I've never actually looked into Quadro cards though, so correct me if I'm wrong about their price or performance.

Also, do you know if the multiplier is partially unlocked like that in the P150EM bios? I will be using these components in a clevo machine, that's already determined.

 

Don`t worry. 3610QM will be enough for gaming. It won`t bottleneck the GPU.
You don`t have to overclock it or buy any faster.

Note: Faster CPU is always a plus since some games are also CPU dependent, not just GPU dependent.

 

Yes, but, you see, I asked about using it for more than just gaming.

 

i have no idea about the clevo bios...but partial overclocking in the Ivy Bridge is an Intel feature, so hopefully it should be supported. i would post this question in the Clevo/Sager forums for a faster response.

In the Alienware bios, the overclocking of 3720 and 3820 is supported natively

 

GTA IV needs a good CPU, perhaps invest the $150 (3720QM) on the odd chance GTA V does as well.

 

Ok thanks guys, I think I'll be going with the 3720QM then. I don't believe the Clevo BIOS supports it nativeley, but I'd be willing to bet a modded BIOS will emerge sooner rather than later to solve that. One of the guys in the Sager/Clevo forum has completely rehauled the W110ER BIOS to allow all sorts of extra features. It's pretty neat actually.

Thanks again.

 

Tell me more about inventing money...

 

You also have another option that may work...google "Intel Extreme Tuning Utility" or XTU

 

Haha I didn't catch that. Yes indeed, share with us!

EDIT: Thanks slickdude, I'll keep that in mind.

 

I think you (and I do hope that all of us) know what he meant... please troll somewhere else.

 

Tell more about sarcasm and typos . Hhehe.

 

But with a name like HookerLips, you'd think he/she would know how to make money?

 

Not in this economic state .

 

Oh sorry for confirming/answering your gaming question then. It won`t happen again

 

Good. I'm glad.

 

Any special reason for not overclocking/flashing your RAM into 1866MHz? seems a bit with such a machine

 

Quadro? Would those cards aid in the use of graphics tablets? As I shall be utilising a graphics tablet for my clothing lable in the near future. Sorry for thread highjacking.

 

just as a side note the 3720QM supports VT-D where as the 3610QM does not

why is this important? well if you fancy running virtual machines on your laptop then VT-D is fairly useful.

An example is that there is then the potential to run VM on Linux where by you only lose 5-10% performance through emulation of windows 7 and pretty much any game you can throw at it, so if you big into Linux and still want your steam games (if you don't want to wait until your 80yrs old for a native client) then go for the 3720QM

http://www.overclock.net/t/1205216/guide-create-a-gaming-virtual-machine

^ how to guide.


also as mentioned it can overclock thus helping any GPU you select with it and of course some game like BF3 do use the cpu quite heavily.

a thought

 

The multiplier is partially unlocked in the p170em but not the p150em due to it lacking XTU and having it locked in the bios. Also, Malibal stated that you cannot OC their p170em systems but Mythlogic said you can partially OC (+ 400 mhz for the 3720/3820, unlimited for 3920) in their system. They mod their own Bios/EC, though. There isn't that same mild OC capability for the 3610 as well.

This thread over in the Sager/Clevo threads goes in depth with this.

Like others have said, the 3610 will not bottleneck the 680m in gaming. If you're getting the p150em you can't OC anyways so there really isn't a need to get the 3720 IMO.

 

I appreciate the plug for that thread. I have been trying hard to find someone with a P170EM and a 3720QM or 3820QM that would be willing to try XTU, but no go.

Although Malibal originally said OC is not possible on the 3720QM or 3820QM, recently in live chat, they admitted to not trying it. So no good answer yet. Definite yes for a Mythlogic NYX 1712, maybe for all other resellers...

 

Mythologic got it working, as you said, so I don't understand why the others can't? Is it not possible to get the BIOS they use?

EDIT: Also I think the virtualization help from the 3720QM will be useful, so I will most likely go with that, even if I can't overclock it in the P150EM.

 

Just out of curiosity, what exactly are some real world applications of Vt-d?

 

I asked Mythlogic for the bios, even offered to pay. They only allow their bios on their machines though. I guess I should probably leave it at that.

The P150EM does not OC at all yet. Maybe if we get more advanced bios hacks in the future though.

 

Well I know you can't flash the P150EM with the P170EM's BIOS, Mythlogic said they bricked their mobos doing it.

As far as BIOS hacks, I bet Prema would be the one to look for, he's great at this kind of stuff.

 

From what I understand it essentially provides a hardware connection between an assigned PCI-E device and your virtual system rather than relying on software for transferring dating to and from the virtual system to the PCI-E device. This reduces latency quite a bit.

This article explains it much better than I can.

 

Right thanks.

 

I have this screnshot of XTU from a P170EM owner with a 3720QM. From what I understand, this means that it can OC the 3720QM, am I understanding correctly?

AFAIK, still no OC at all for the P150EM. Hopefully bios mods will come out.

This kind of madness makes me start to think about gettin an AW lappy next time..

 

perhaps Clevo feels that the temps will get too high in the p150. I'm sure they have tested it. We have seen in aw how a little more space and air flow inside the
M18x makes a difference in temps

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2

 

wait so the 3720 can be overclocked? on the m17x?

 

yes...it has limited overclocking in the bios...you can set the multiplier to
40,39,38,38 on the 3720qm.

i.e., 4ghz with single core in use, 3.9ghz with dual core, 3.8ghz with 3-4 cores

 

cool..i am glad they started doing this

 

Likewise, the p170em can be overclocked with the 3720/3820qm.

 

In your guys's opinion then, is it worth it to take a stock screen (matte) 17" laptop with 3720QM over 95% gamut screen (also matte) 15" with 3720QM that lacks the OC ability? I want the machine to last 4-5 years. I understand that it will NOT play games maxed at 1080p (most likely medium by then, but I have a Mobilty Radeon HD 4650 now and it works fine for me in 2012 soooo), but is the OC ability that significant?

 

None for gaming. Even in 4-5 years the 3610QM should be more than adaquate, likely. I'd spend the extra money on the 95% gamut rather than the 3720QM.

 

Hmm yeah now that I think about it, instead of maxing out 2 of my cores, maybe in 5 years games would actually use all 4 lol. Good thinking, I hadn't really considered the past.

 

you could just save some more money for a little longer and get both ??

 

Nah the problem is that my reseller doesn't offer a higher quality Matte screen on the 17". That's why I was wondering. Otherwise like you said, it would make more sense to save a bit and get both.

 

always after market