how will the i7 ulv improve Alienware M11x's gaming performance

Hi,
I have been reading the forums quite alot about the gaming performance on the Alienware M11x, and at the moment I am not impressed with its results so I wont buy it with the current specs. I want to know if when the i7-640UM is available for the M11x, do you know how much of an gaming improvement the processor will provide? Thank you

 

I doubt anyone on here will know the performance of a computer housing an unreleased processor, paried with a video card that is, for now, only in one production unit.

Coupled with the fact that many still have not received the M11x.... yeah.

And if you aren't impressed with the performance of the M11x in its size category and price point.... you are a hard person to please. It _could_ be better. but remember the cost of the unit. When it was first announced, most people assumed the sub $1000 price point would be $999. No one expected $799. And when you consider many of us got the unit for ~$650.... heh.

Consider its closest rival is the Sony Z series that has a base MSRP of $1000 over.

 

First, while we don't know when the refresh will be, we also don't know what the refresh will include.

Speculation is what you want so speculation you will get. An i5 or i7 would definately improve the fps and smoothness quite a bit, but at this resolution it is a bit of an overkill me thinks.

 

at the moment the price is 1000$, the insane discounts are gone.

 

If Dell goes with the i7-640UM for the next generation.......it would be absolutely redonkulous.

2 cores/4 threads @ 32nm and turbo boost to 2.26ghz.........no words.

One of the reasons I bought the M11x was because of the deep discounts. I got mine for $830 and intend to sell it as soon as generation 2's are announced.

 

I dont think it will be an over kill, I prefer games that run at 50+fps than 30.

 

nothing ULV though:

MCJ sells GT335M-notebooks with Core i5-520M and Core i7-620M:
http://www.mouse-jp.co.jp/m-book/mbt910/?cid=l03

GT335M & Core i7-720QM:
3DMark06 : 7536
3DMark Vantage : E13313
source:
http://nb.zol.com.cn/165/1657224.html
http://www.jldnc.com/item/Print.asp?m=1&ID=1135
http://tech.sina.com.cn/n/2010-02-03/08431239420.shtml

 

i imagine battery power would go down the pooper. and what would the point of having an ultraportable thats chained to an outlet...
a su9600 or ulv-i3 sounds more reasonable

 

think outside the box. at home / at work / in their leisure time most people have got access to 24-30-inch Widescreen LCD Monitors.

 

I remember for the area 51 m15x, the graphics card for the model changed so much, usually within 1month, where it changed from 8800m gtx, 9800m gt, some quadro card, and finally 8600m gt as the final option. So that mean its possible that the i5/7 ulvs would make an appearance soon right?

 

its been speculated that the soonest refresh would be around august-november

 

All 1080p monitors and tvs would run 720p just as well too though.

 

Since some internals of Dell call it the M11xR1, not just the M11x, [speculation mode on] there might be a plan for a refresh. [speculation mode off]

 

Where's it say M11xR1? Certainly not on any manuals or anywhere online I've seen

And that doesn't mean anything anyways, R1 just means model/refresh1 etc.

 

it will not improved performance as much as you you would hope. Since most games are gpu defendant (and certain software as well), processor doesn't matter as much.

 

theres no question that dell wont manufacture a remake, its a matter of when.

 

Having the m11x with the upcoming i3 or i5 UM processors won't make a big difference for gaming.

The i5 UM will be 1.06 ghz and 1.86 with turbo mode. The SU7300 is 1.3GHz and 1.73 as overclocked (which we now know runs quite well this way).

The only diff between the SU7300 and the core i5 UM is that the i5 has hyperthreading and 18 watts TDP instead of 10 watts TDP of the SU7300.

I speculate that the core i5 UM might be able to gain a 5% increase for gaming benchmarks at most over the SU7300.

 

Except the M11x is running at 1.6 ghz overclock as accurately reported by CPU-Z. Windows Index is reporting it incorrectly.

It's either a bug in the bios or they intentionally underclocked the multiplier as well as undervolting the cpu when it is in OC mode. Either way a bios update will fix/improve this.

 

lol no
its the architecture that makes it much more efficient,
about twice as fast.
benchmarks would vary pending on the game. but i really think the performance would increase drastically especially on those cpu hogging games

 

Can we OC the i3/5/7 ulv chips?

 

That's why I put speculate. I know the architecture is different but I don't know the numbers behind how much better it really is.

I don't think it could be exponentially better though.

 

HAHA, too funny. The M11x just came out and people are already talking about overclocking and performance of the mythical M11x-R2.

 

Here's what I am thinking as to why people are talking about the R2, since the M11x is the first notebook of its kind, there is nothing to compare it to. It is indeed amazing but I think it couldve been better. And that thought came into mind because of the i3/5/7 ulvs

 

It kind of sucks how fast tech moves. At least there's an exchange program, plus EPP.

 

Eventually their bound to come up with a revised model, or they won't be one of the most powerful laptop under 13". I doubt manufacturers like Acer would sit down quietly for too long if m11x sells well and knowing that they can produce something similar (Worst build quality) at the same price and cheaper.

Judging by the spec difference between SU7300 and i5 ULV, I'm betting my money on not more than 5% difference in GPU reliant game, and perhaps 20-30% on CPU reliant ones. Essentially the i5 ULV is still utilizes dual core, only thing is it can run 4 threads, which not all game may utilize efficiently.

If they gave the options to upgrade to i7 ULV (which I think they would if they refresh m11x), Now that's probably an upgrade that would have a more significant jump in gaming. Not to mention the price of upgrading to i7 would probably burn a hole through people's pocket.

I doubt there's even plan for future production of SU7300. When the parts runs out for dell, they'll have to revise their spec.

@diabiosx
Last I check there wasn't any i3 ULVS.

 

there's an exchange program

 

I can't imagine getting much of a performance boost out of the i5, and for the i7, there should be a boost, but then again its a 18W processor, and will kill battery like despite having a 2.13 GHz max speed with turbo boost (The base speed is a downgrade to 1.06 GHz). And I take that these upgrades won't come for free judging by the i7 processor upgrades on the M15x and M17x.
Referring to this processor BTW:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43562

!?!?!

 

I wanna hear more about this exchange program! If it's not too bad, then I may buy the m11x now and exchange it for the refresh.

 

I suppose if there is an exchange program, we'll need to fork out extra money to exchange what we have for what they have

 

lol the programs crap.
apparently my m11x that hasnt arrived yet is worth $97

 

>.> The laptop seems to perform just fine, the only issue seems to be that people were expecting performance= to a high end gaming machine in a laptop with only a 128 bit gpu. The laptop easily competes with 15" laptops that also use a 128 bit gpu. A more powerful cpu would help a little bit, but its not going to increase performance enough to compete with a solid gaming laptop.

 

Well said, Rorschach...

I think the CPU is matched fairly well with the GPU.

 

An i7 for m11x? m11x won't get an i7. It's an overkill for an 11" screen laptop. I can see i3's and i5's. Who wants to hold a piece of burning charcoal in their hand? lol..

 

That's true but i'm pretty sure they didn't have to change the motherboard for that, and i'm pretty sure they would have to for it fit an i5/7

 

I doubt the i7 ULV would generate that much heat.

@Rorschach
Apart from a few complains that their M11x can't OC to 1.73ghz, most owner doesn't seem to have much of a complain about it.

@Zlog
While it's undeniable SU7300 should provide a good battery life, the fact that it's weak relatively isn't going to change. It's strong point is in battery life, not performance.

Whereas the GPU (based on it's spec sheet), is a GPU that would deliver a certain level of performance. How are they matched fairly well? In terms of power efficiency in M11x perhaps. But in terms of performance, I disagree.

 

i bought the m11x and im gonna wait till m11x-3 is out think till then i will be happy with it

 

Actually, the performance is the strong point along with the battery life. That's the whole point of M11x is the good gaming angle on the go.

The whole point of a normal netbook is good battery life and not the performance.

 

Without having full access to bios options like a desktop asking for more than a 25% overclock on laptop cpu's is pushing it. Several people found this out already with the m17x r1 and this stands with other laptops as well. Considering the low clocks on the gpu, I think that's where people need to start tweaking and quit whining about the cpu. There shouldn't be any reason why people can't push the gpu to Core Speed 500 MHz Shader Speed 1250 MHz. This laptop will not be getting 60fps on high settings on current games no matter what you do. The bandwidth on the gpu just isn't there to do it, drop the settings to medium if you want higher fps otherwise take the 30fps and be happy your 11 inch laptop can even run it that well. Its a portable 360/ps3 not a portable 17" laptop.

 

It does provide a decent performance along with a healthy battery life. That doesn't change the fact SU7300 isn't one of the best of it's line. I'm sure a SU9600 would out perform it. I would call m11x a hybrid rather than a netbook. It doesn't live up to the title of a netbook it has too much power.

Further tweaking of the GPU won't do much if the CPU is bottlenecking it. If your game is getting dips in FPS due to the CPU lack of the processing capability, OC-ing the GPU isn't going to help much.

If you look back at the more recent post, there's hardly anyone whining about the CPU itself anymore. Whining about how the CPU OC is a tad bit messed up yes, but that's about it.

I din't say I was unhappy about the performance m11x deliver. Neither am I complaining about it's performance.

 

That doesn't change the fact SU7300 wasn't one of the best of it's line:

 

"i" series ULV's will come at premium, but are also contradiction in terms, when running at their peaks

We may see a "super" level M11x at the end of the year, but my guess is we are more likely to see a SU9600 for the M11x and a "i" series for a "M13x". Why?

1. SU9600 by the end of the year will be at the current cost curve point as the SU7300. The "i" series will NOT be.

2. The "i" series has a low watt draw, it also has almost twice the draw for the high-end clock speed. Needs a bigger form factor, unless we want a hovercraft level fan and perhaps another .25" height

My bet is we will see a M13x, and it will be more expensive (duh).

 

There is an ulv i5 and two ulv i7s - there is no ulv i3.

The ulv i-series has is at 18 watts, versus 10 watts for the current dual-cores. HOWEVER the motherboard+cpu combinations of both have roughly the same power draw (in fact I think the i-series is slightly lower - the numbers are floating around on this board somewhere). So battery life is theoretically roughly equal.

The ulv i-series has better integrated graphics. This is important for battery life conservation - you could run wow on the integrated graphics on the i-series, for example.

CPU speed of the i-series is higher - this is important for cpu dependant games such as strategy games and the like.

The price of the i-series is much higher - a few hundred higher at the moment, I believe.

So - currently the ulv i-series offers roughly comparable battery life, better performance, and better integrated grahpics at an increased price. It uses a completely different motherboard than the current processors, so I doubt we will see it as a simple upgrade option.

That means one of the following three things happens:
1) It just isn't offered as an option at the next refresh. (possible)
2) There is the 'budget' m11x line (dual-core processors) and the 'premium' m11x line (i-series processors). That way alienware can tout its low-price point while still offering the higher quality option for those willing to pay. (possible)
3) i-series replaces dual-core at the next refresh (probably not due to pricing concerns)

 

impressive little beasts they are indeed:
Core-i-ULV : 25 Watt / 18 Watt
Southbridge PM55 : 3.5 Watt
VS.
Core-2-Duo-ULV e.g. SU9600 : 10 Watt
Chipset GS40 : 12 Watt
ICH-Southbridge : 2.5 Watt

BTW, noone would have bought the M11x if Alienware released the M13x with the Core-i-ULV beforehand, wouldn't they?

 

@zarzak = Still missing point about cost curve. Unless they will offer a more expensive option, the "i" series ULV's will be too expensive. My guess is the main chip update would be SU9600 and perhaps a "premo" option with an "i", but my guess is the "i" chipset would be too much heat, along with a 335m.

M13x seems more logical for both form factor and price, but when has logic ever mattered?

 

You're right about that - unless there is a price drop the i series certainly won't replace the core 2 duos. But I don't think a 'premium' option is out of the question.

Heat wise I don't know that there would be an issue. Yes, the processor generates more heat, but the motherboard generates less. You'd just have to manage the cooling a little differently. I might be wrong, and the increased processor heat would screw the whole thing up - I'm not an expert in this by any means.

 

One thing is for sure- if they think they can make more money with a "premo" M11x option- there WILL be a premo M11x option

 

When the i7 was introduced with the M15x, the M17x came with that refresh pretty fast afterwards correct?

 

Both those files are available from DELL:
M11R1A01 for 64 bit Windows 7.exe (once installed you get the Winphlash-application for updating and the current BIOS.ROM)
M11R1A01.TXT:
Alienware M11xR1 A01 System BIOS
1. Initial Release

You're right.

 

Well guys I suppose people get unimpressed by the m11x becausee they were expecting normal overkill performance like the m17x or the alienware desktops. You souldnt be looking at it like that I think. I think with this laptop gamers finally got the psp they deserved. Personally I think the psp is because there was never a good game on it. On the m11x you can play all the emulated games like mame or whatever and also play 90% of the latest pc games in max details. But I would also be very happy if AW did give ( even a ripoff ) option for an i7 u series.

 

It looks like you're wanting a ~11k 3dmark06 score in a sub 14 inch notebook, and you're not going to see that this year. There's the sony Z with a i7 and a 330m and it's in the 7000 range. If you're waiting for an ultraportable with m15x performance i think you'll be waiting for a long time.

The only possible exception is the macpro 13", but my feeling is apple will probably neuter it in comparison to the m11x.

I've modestly overclocked my GPU and get close to 7000 in 3dmark06 with no heating or stability issues whatsover.