Upgradding Alienware m5700 series (parts-cpu/ram/gf card)

I agree 100%. Keeping up with the Joneses requires asking where they got their new toys so you can do the same.

 

all I want to know is if it can run Crysis better than the GTX 280m.

 

C'mon man we need some numbers
Is the system stable?

 

we'll have to wait until he gets his hard drive

 

I think he will not answer our question!

 

They were not obtained illegally and I resent the implication.

The BIOS did not need any update. However, when the machine first boots the screen flickers at about a 1 Hz rate. Programming the clocks clears it up. 100 MHz GPU clock and 300 MHz memory clock is the lowest it'll go. The right palmrest still gets rather warm. Idle is ~56* C. However, remember that this is with a cooling solution designed for a x1800, so it's sub-optimal. I did replace the memory gap pads, but I am concerned about the chips on the backside of the board. They have zero air flow.

The memory and disk drive arrived yesterday. Once I have everything up and running, I'll post some data. One thing that will help me do that rapidly is cloning the 80G drive I have to a partition on the new 320G drive. Could someone please tell me what's the best shareware (legally free) way to do that?

 

Hmm, there's DriveImage XML or HDClone.

 

The MXM support of the m5700 is why I bought it. Mine has had a wide variety of GPUs in it.

> all I want to know is if it can run Crysis better than the GTX 280m.

Does an MXM 2.1 version of the GTX 280m exist?

I have a copy of Crysis – that’s why I bought the 4GB of memory. However, real benchmarking will have to hold off until I have a better cooling solution – 100/300 numbers wouldn’t be very interesting. I’m hoping that with a better cooling solution I can push the GPU clock to 625 MHz and lay claim to the first TFLOP laptop.

I'm not very familiar with standard benchmarks for these things. I really wanted it so I can do development wherever I want - it's the only laptop GPU that will run my code. What are the top 3 benchmarks that would be useful that would not be limited by the putzy CPU I have in this thing? I'm leery of posting performance numbers for games which scale well with faster CPUs - it'd not be a fair comparison. Either way, I’ll only post maximum resolution / image quality numbers to help mitigate the issue.

 

Looks like HDClone FTW - thanks Kevin. I'll try to get to it today.

 

can you take a screenshot with GPU-Z? you can get it from the following link:

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6396/ati4870bothmxmtypes.jpg

An MXM 2.x version of the GTX 280M exists (Sager NP5797) but the HE tab will probably block the fan connector on your M5700's board

As for benchmarks, 3dmark Vantage separates GPU performance from CPU performance, though it may be possible that a slow CPU can slow down the GPU a bit.

You could try Crysis, Devil May Cry 4, Far Cry 2, etc. Far Cry 2 may be influenced by the CPU a bit, and maybe DMC4 to some extent.

 

Yeah 3DMark Vantage is the way you want to go if your CPU weary..and it was a joke man I don't actually think you stole one settle down sheesh.

 

The machine won't boot with the two 2GB sticks in. I can either:
1) Stick with the two-channel dual 0.5GB
2) Run 1 2GB stick
3) 1 2GB + 2 0.5 GB
The memory bandwidth (via Passmark's memory performance test) doesn't show any significant difference between any of them.

Is there a BIOS upgrade that might fix this? I'd really like to get both 2G sticks in.

 

Passmark's Disk Benchmark went from:
190 / 26 / 25 / 1.73 to
259 / 29 / 40 / 2.87

 

might need a BIOS upgrade, but try option #2 or 3.

 

Great work Bonsai! Really instills confidence in others that want to upgrade their mxm laptops, myself included.

+rep to you and can't wait for further benchmarks.

 

Crysis is installed, along with dual stacked fans under the GPU chassis slots. My code is stable at 625/1100 although the GPU hits steady-state around 86*C. Playing Crysis at 650/1200 seems stable. I've played the first ~10 minutes into the first level at 1920x1200, 4x AA and all settings in the advanced tab set to very high and the GPU never exceeds 65*c.

Remember this is with a 1.6 GHz T5500 CPU and terrible peak PCI memory bandwidth (2.4 GB/sec).

How do I benchmark Crysis in a standard way for comparison to other platforms, and where can I see the results?

EDIT: No Crysis patches installed yet - downloading all 3 now

 

I can imagine your CPU is bottlenecking the GPU so it can't work flat out even in crysis. I think there is a crysis benchmarking tool that can be downloaded but I have never used it.

 

T5500 @ 1.6GHz, GPU @ 650/1100
Passmark
3D GraphicsMark: 970
3D Simple: 1043
3D Medium: 590
3D Complex: 19.5
3D DirectX 10: 13.9

Passmark CPU results for the T7600 are 50-60% higher than the T5500 and the memory bandwidths are 70-80% higher. Not really worth the $300 for the CPU though.

 

650 and 1200mhz stable? Can you post a GPU-Z screenshot? It's not that we don't believe you, but we want to see proof of this, and to see if this is with a 1gb GDDR5 memory. That's higher than a desktop 4850, even if it were GDDR3 memory.

Also, you'll need to run 3dmark Vantage. I wouldn't mind giving you a CD key if need be.

 

I was told that the MXMs I have were 1GB GDDR5, but now that I have run GPU-Z (thank you ichime), I see that it reports 1GB GDDR3. The DRAM is HYB-18H16321AF and the only hits are for the GeForce 9600 GT, which means they are indeed GDDR3. Sorry for the error. I shall have to check the others to see if they all are GDDR3...

There is a bug in GPU-Z. If you underclock the device GPU-Z notices that the clocks have changed, but the displayed clocks are incorrect. I usually run at 100/300 (the lowest stable clock) to limit power. GPU-Z reports 550/888. Both the clock tool I have and the benchmarks I run indicate the clocks are 100/300.

 

hmm, well if the default is at 888mhz, that would suggest it's GDDR5 because that's the final spec for the Mobility 4870s according to ATi, and it could be an error in GPU-Z reporting it as GDDR3. The only way we'll know for certain if you run 3dmark Vantage and Crysis @ 1680x1050 high and very high to compare to the Asus W90's single GPU card run. If it beats the W90 single GPU at 550/888 by around 10%, then that it probably is GDDR5.

 

That older CPU would probably bottleneck a 4870, it's too much of a difference from the W90 to really tell if it's GDDR5 or GDDR3. If the memory is the same spec as another GPU with GDDR3, it's assumedly GDDR3. GDDR3 4870s in the W90 run at 850-900 memory anyway.

Congrats on making your old M5700 last much longer

 

Can't believe that older CPU would bottleneck a 4870 even if they are close models...

 

A T5500 will be the bottleneck for a 4870
A T7600 will also be the bottleneck, just to a lesser degree

The 4870 is a very powerful card, which can take more than any socket M processor can throw at it

Well maybe an overclocked T7600G can take it, but I am not sure about it

K-TRON

 

That statement presumes a particular CPU load. For the vast majority of what I do, the T5500 at 250 MHz would suffice - it just isn't doing anything significant. The 4870M is the bottleneck. Gaming is a different matter though - a much more balanced division of labor.

Which begs the question: is there any software that can re-clock (up and down) the T5500 and set up the memory parameters on the fly? The BIOS in this thing is useless. I'd like to get more than 75 minutes from a battery, even with the 4870M at 100/300, which is the lowest it'll go.

 

You could try RMClock, sorry dont got a link but its easily googled, or SetFSB in the Sager forums, im not sure how locked down your BIOS is.

Very Nice work by the way, this is the way MXM should have been.

 

so how high have you overclocked the 4870 and what numbers are you getting from the aforementioned benchmarks?

 

600/1100 is the highest I can go in this platform, and that's with significantly higher pressure at the air inlet under the MXM. 550/888 is stock. I usually run 100/300 to keep my right wrist cool.

This thing needs GDDR5 and more texture units.

 

I saw this thread a little late. You should have just bought a new laptop. For what u spent on getting a new gpu cpu etc, u could have bought a dell or any other low end laptop easily which could trash ur old one flat.

 

For my situation, upgrading the GPU was by far the best solution.

640/900 is the best gaming performance I can get out of this thing, and that's with the stock cooling solution. When I run my compute-intensive code, I have to drop back to 400/900 or the thing overheats.

Now looking for a replacement with dual MXM3.0b's and at least 4 cores, preferably i7 (see other thread on this site). # of cores is important, speed of each core isn't. I'd much prefer lower power over MHz. HMT (i7) is big win.