m6700 vs m17x

Hi all. I've currently got a m15x that I love. It is getting a little long in the tooth tho, and i will probably be looking to upgrade at some point. I do a lot of gaming, but I also do a lot of photo/video editing. I have loved the performance and looks of the Alienware, but as I am about to graduate and soon be in the real world, the appeal of a big flashing, christmas tree of a laptop is losing its appeal. My question is: will a m6700 workstation with the firepro m6000 offer good gaming performance or should I stick with AW? Thanks

 

The M6000 will give you roughly the same performance as a 7870m (a little less for gaming). Is it decent performance, yes, but it's not the performance of a 7970m or a GTX680m.

 

Thanks for that. Do you know if it can be overclocked or if overclocking even noticeably helps performance? Also, would the nvidia option (k3000m or k4000m?) provide better gaming performance?

 

I'm not quite up on the current AMD vs NVIDIA performance stats. I do know however that the K5000M is pretty similar to a GeForce GTX 680M in terms of performance (though it is clocked a tad lower, you can overclock it without issue because of the M6700's overkill cooling solution). K5000M costs quite a pretty penny, though. The K4000M should perform similar to a GeForce GTX 675MX. The K3000M doesn't really have a consumer-grade equivalent as far as I am aware, but it is between the K4000M and K2000M (which is similar to a GeForce GTX 675M).

With this information maybe you can look around at benchmark results and get a general feel for where each card would fit.

If you don't mind getting your hands dirty you can drop in your own graphics card and save a little money. Other people have reported success with consumer-grade cards (Radeon/GeForce) in the M6600/M6700.

 

If this helps, I overclocked Quadro 4000M from M6600 60%.

You heard me. 60%. No throttling, no temperature issue.

I achieved about 40% if I remember right from Quadro 2000M in M4600. I think Quadros are really under potentiated from the beginning. That is why I recommend them too. Optimus + heck of a overclock.

 

60%?? That is insane. The cooling system in these has to be unbelievably efficient. That sort of makes me wonder tho, could I put a 7970m or 680m in it with relative ease? My current m15x has been so easy to upgrade and very gpu compatible too.

 

For M6700, would be bios that would determine.

Quadros have consumer counter parts. So heat wise, they are not too different. From hardware perspective that is. Some say different drivers make it hotter or cooler.

 

Yes, the cooling system in the M6600/M6700 is top-notch. You can check out pics in the first post of the "M6700 Owner's Review" thread (many of them are hidden in a "spoiler" section).

Some people have tried doing GPU swaps with mostly successful outcomes. I haven't done it byself but I will recount what I remember from other threads on this board:

- If you swap AMD to NVIDIA or vice versa you will need a new heatsink. The heatsinks are slightly different for the two different types of cards. So best if you order the laptop with a card from the same company that you plan to swap to.
- Cards may require a firmware flash to get working completely. In particular cards for Clevo/Sager systems might need to be flashed. Cards for HP systems should work if you drop them in. If you're looking to get a consumer-grade card and put it in, I think your best bet will be to get one made for Alienware but there is no reason cards from other sources won't work necessarily.
- It is typical for the BIOS to report the video card as "unknown" if you put in a card that is not normally available with the system that you have. However, in Windows if you install the correct drivers the card will work normally. The BIOS is able to detect whether or not the card supports Optimus and offer you that option, even if it thinks the card is "unknown."

I know for sure that there's a thread on here where someone got a 680m working in the M6600. I think it should work fine in the M6700 as well. But the only way to know for sure is to try it.

As for the difficulty of the actual installation, it's not the easiest upgrade to pull off but it is certainly doable if you have done this sort of thing in the past. All of the tear-down instructions are in the support manual which can be downloaded from the Dell support site. You may want to re-paste the heatsink while you're in there so it is beneficial if you have done that sort of thing before.

 

There is difference. Alienware will always outperform M6700 in gaming performance because M6700 cannot be overclocked even using extreme CPU. Alienware can.

Video/Audio editing does not require workstation graphic card isn't it? Only CAD or some special programs benefit from that.

I choose M6700 over Alienware because of 2 reasons, Docking station and presentable outlook. (Alienware is not presentable in business meeting.)