9800GT/GTX VS Dual HD 3870's

Well, after tons of time spent figuring out what i want for a gaming laptop, i'm just about ready to order a 5796. Then after checking out Digital Storms website, i noticed they added some sager/clevo and what looks like another great alternative, the Domniator. This looks like a redone Alienware M9750, and i believe Engadget posted information on this being an OCZ whitebook.

Now, I really like the look of the 5796 and this laptop, but after checking notebookcheck.net and various other sites, i couldn't find anything in regards to benchmarks on the 3870's, but the price they're at for dual cards is tempting.
Does anyone have any information on this? I'm really interested to see how it does against the 5796.

Also, any chance XoticPC will offer this notebook? if Justins listening


http://www.digitalstormonline.com/laptopgamingdominator.asp

 

digitalstormonline.com seems pretty expensive for clevos. id stick with one of these two retailers or sagernotebooks.com

 

5796 only support 1 card.

 

Let's look at this from a couple of different vantage points. The 5796 is a single card system, if you instead meant the D901C SLI, then continue on (there is some pertanent 5796 info in there too though)...

First: nVidia vs. ATI- nVidia has been doing SLI forever. They have perfected it through a lot of experience from desktops to notebooks. ATI on the other hand, being bought by AMD went through a period where switching GPU names around endlessly seemed like the order of the day. There haven't been (comparatively speaking) many ( any) ATI Crossfire systems utilized in notebooks. Of course I am exaggerating, but not by much. AMD is notorious for making claims of superior performance that don't pan out, or the data is so customized, or curb fit that it's just silly.

In this category, I think the hands down winner is nVidia.

Second: Notebook vs. Desktop Processor. This is a little trickier as there are trade off's in each. Wattage and heat vs. Power. I am going to leave all that up to the reader because they are the ones that know what they are using it for. I will say the top of the line Quad Core q9550 at 2.83 Ghz vs. an equivalent notebook Extreme dual core like the 3.06 X9100, is about 75% of the cost, and it's a quad core.

(570-RU / 5796 info)
The current Montavina chassis are probably not going to support the quad core Nehalem processors that are going to be out in 6 months or less (probably 3-4). I have a brand new Montivina chassis (2 weeks old) and a q9100 Nehalem quad core, the system does not work with it. Nehalem's are reported to be up to 50% faster than equivalent current gen processors at the same clocks. That's absolutely insane! Even if it's a complete overstatement and hype, if the numbers are 25%, 20%... even 15% better... you're talking about a quad core almost ( or) as powerful as current Extreme class dual cores at half the price (estimated $280 street for a Q9100 @2.33 Ghz, the QX9300 is 2.53 Ghz)

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The head of R&D at Clevo told me it isn't going to work in the existing (570-RU / 5796) chassis, so I would take that as many if not all the existing chassis will probably need a refresh in one way or another. That is something you may want to consider as the Domniator also uses a notebook Montivina based CPU.

It would appear there are two strikes against the Domniator, the ATI video and the notebook processor upgrade-ability. The desktop based CPU's use the socket 775, which has been a mainstay for Intel for a long time. The Clevo chassis (D901C) has been around for a couple of revisions (900/1-C/K/T) so the bugs are worked out of it.

That's my take, and it may not be worth a grain of salt, but hopefully this post helped you make the correct decision on your notebook investment.Which could be go with the D901-C or wait on an refresh or confirmation of next gen processor upgrade-ability in the notebook CPU based chassis you want to get (especially if it is an SLI - read pricey and would potentially last for a long time gaming-wise,,, you definitely want the ability to go to the new processors... you just want it!).

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@KillerNotebooks, isn't QX9300 belongs to Penryn?

 

Nirvana There is so much confusion about these chips, and bleeding edge stuff is like that. Here is a processor family page: http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/intel-releasing-15-montevina-cpus-in-may/

Clearly the quad core's (the q9100 & QX9300) are lumped in with the processors that work. That said, I have a q9100 and it does not work. Clevo R&D confirmed it will not work. I am speculating that the QX9300 will not work either in the current configuration.

That said, if it works or not, it is always better to err on the side of caution when you are talking about an investment of this size. I am telling you so you know all the potential pit falls... as you yourself posted, "My 3 month old notebook lost 50% of it's value already?!?!"

Here is another link (albeit Wiki) showing the Q9100 actually being released before the QX9300... If I got it, I would say that time line makes sense (Q9100 before the QX9300) and if one doesn't work, more than likely neither will. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors#Quad-Core_Mobile_processors

 

are you saying QX9300 is a desktop quad as well? for the whole time I thought it's mobile quad.

 

Well, my post wasn't asking if digitalstorm had good prices, and i'm pretty sure i didn't imply that the 5796 had a SLI configuration. I'm also not worried about desktop processors. The main question i had was performance numbers of the Dual 3870's considering the single 3870 is supposedly weaker than any of the 9800m cards. My main reason for this is because the dual configuration of the 3870's seems like a pretty good price, depending on its performance.

Does anyone know of any performance numbers of the 3870 single or dual cards besides the notebookcheck.net information?

 

Let's just keep it to notebook processors to keep it simple.

Believe me, I understand your confusion.

The Q9100 the QX9300... they are quad core mobile processors.
They are in the same family as the P9500, T9600, X9100 etc.

 

no, it is supposed to be between GTS and GT. by looking at this laptop, i slowly giving up the thought of switching to toshiba x305

 

geez, digital storms website looks like the alienware site so much

 

I think KillerNotebooks is causing some confusion and I wanted to clarify:

First he said:

Instead, as you can clearly see from the link QX9300 will be released in August 2008 (which is in 3rd quarter) while Q9100 in the 4th quarter of 2008. And this is the same marketing technique used in the past. First Intel gets the money from the enthusiasts and then release a more reasonable (and less consuming) version (35w compared to 45w).

- And then he says:

This is clearly not possible as q9100 is not even released yet. Why confusing people with false statements like that?

And this:

This is also clearly unreasonable, this processor will be released at $750~$851 for 1000+ cpus (wholesale price) so retailer price will be higher, and will only decrease with time.

I will be waiting the end of 2008 to upgrade my laptop so I'll buy one of these Q9100 beasts

 

the qx9300 quad is not nehalem man.
It does not have 4 on die single core processors.
Nehalem in dual core will not be a true quad core, and the octo core hype is all BS. It's just hyper threading that's built into the SMP of the chip.

But anyways, nehalem will not be out in notebooks for a long time. It has too many features montevina is not for me to support this but I'd rather not get into an argument about this since I Think Killer is confused.

Making this short and sweet, the quads are NOT nehalem and NEHALEM is a LONG way from notebooks for a LONG time since it needs a NEW chipset which ISN'T montevina.

 

What's confusing about the statement that "I have a brand new Montivina chassis (2 weeks old) and a q9100 Nehalem quad core, the system does not work with it" other than that I have no idea whether or not the speaker actually does have a Nehalem quad-core?

Clearly, the speaker is saying (assuming that s/he does have a Nehalem quad-core) that the Nehalem quad will not work with the Montevina chipset.

That is a completely true statement (once again, assuming the possession of a Nehalem) because the Nehalem-class CPUs are based on an entirely new architecture that does not use an FSB and that has on-die memory controllers and, as a result, will never work with a Montevina chipset which does have an FSB and has off-die memory controllers.

 

Thanks Shyster. Wow, you may have saved me from being lynched and burned at the stake! The Q9100 information is all over the place, and I don't mean internet~wise, I mean in the differing information available. I had read several things prior to posting that called it a Nehalem. Please do a Google search with Q9100 and Nehalem and you'll see the confusion. In researching the Q9100 you will find far more information calling it Nehalem than anything else.

First of all Nehalem is Intel's codename for their next-gen architecture.
45nm high-k technology link.

Whew, ok. Now, Penryn is a processor family (as in 45nm Next Generation Intel® Core™2 Processor Family (Penryn)), Montivina is a platform, and Nehalem is a micro-architecture. In the image below you see that Penryn is inside the Montivina envelope...

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I (as well as zillions of internet sources) was in error as the Q9100 is a Penryn. Regardless, I think the point was, it isn't working at this time in this chassis.

The Q9100 is supposed to work in Montivina platforms, I have one (which the poster above disputes in the face of picture evidence)

I think anyone that has read these forums and seen the pictures can draw their own conclusions on that one.

I am quoted as saying the Q9100 is supposed to retail about $280 or so. Listen, go read up on it yourself and see what the price points are. I did not pay anywhere near 800 or 1,000 $'s and my CPU is pre-release!

As to the availability, as I said, "Usually I can get chips 3 months early. I already have the Q9100 and I am awaiting the QX9300. If I don't have a QX9300, it isn't coming to the retail chain in August. If it does, it will be a first since the Core-Duo that I didn't get it 3 months prior.

As I've posted in several threads, here is the 570-TU with the Q9100 quad core I have and it doesn't work in it. I am getting word tomorrow on a BIOS that may support this CPU, which I think the whole point of this was?!?!?

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At the end of the day all I can say is, "You don't need to be accusatory or angry at the information you read on a forum, in fact you don't need to read it at all. You have the ability to go out and do all your own homework . Your post started that you wanted to clarify, I felt it just slammed my post and contained no new information or links to sources. I'm sorry that I called a Q9100 anything other than a Penryn."

I humbly apologize to the forum that I made a mistake.

 

Apologies accepted

My post wasn't angry, all 3 points would make perfect sense addressed to 99.99% or people. However, you are in the exception group that receive a cpu 3 months in advance and have his own shop to sell cutting edge technology.... So apologizes for saying "false statement" as I didn't know it was possible to receive technology before being released, but instead of "false" it could well be substituted with "very confusing" statement. And I'll explain here:

There are 100s of forums that report this info, the original source should be this one:
http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-4600-view-Core-2-Quad-q9100-and-Core-2-Duo-E8100.html

This model with a 1333 MHz system bus is not in any wikipedia list of current of future models. I guess (please someone correct me if I am wrong) this was an attempt to do a low cost quad core for DESKTOPS. And they choose the same model number (Q9100) as the future mobile processor (Q9100 Montenevina). In your website you install normal desktop processors in mobiles... so could it be that you own this model instead? That would explain the price that you state. Every source I found on the Montenevina Q9100 state that the price will be much higher on the $750~$851 range.
Does it have "SLAPE MALAY" written on the CPU? Does it have a 1333Mhz system bus? if any of these are true.. than you should CLEARLY tell your customers what they are buying. With the same model number you could fool most people.. (I'll be checking on you )

For the other point about release date of qx9300. It is stated in zillions of websites that this will be in August 2008 (or in general in Q3) (i.e. http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080313PD219.html etc) so let's just wait and see when it will come out.

ps. The following graph seems an accurate roadmap with prices of Intel processors in 2008-2009 link

 

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If the OP needs more help he/she is more than welcome to create a new thread. Sorry for the trouble.