M15x and Nvidia GTX 560m

Hey guys,

I was wondering about the possibilities of upgrading the Alienware M15x from say GTX 260m to the GTX 560m when it's released?

Looks quite impressive (specs can be found here), as it's the equivalent to 5870/GTX 260m in SLI.

Should be a painless upgrade, and hopefully being a mid-range GTX card shouldn't have the fans going crazy keeping it cool. Shame that Optimus won't be supported, but that's part and parcel of using a notebook with an almost 2yr old motherboard design.

Otherwise is there a 6XXX series card from AMD which sits below the 6970m that would be worth looking at?

 

The 6870m will work as will the 6850m but they offer the same kind of performance as the 5870 and 5850 respectively. You could also upgrade to a 460m GTX

 

but is it (560m gtx) worth the price compared to the performance of 5870 and 460m GTX?

 

It's probably impossible to answer this question now, since we don't know: a) the price; and b) whether it will actually work in the M15x (or similar) laptops; and c) what the real world performance will be in said laptops.

We all saw one of our colleagues try in vain to get a 470m to work - without success. I think we'll have to wait till these cards are available, and some adventuresome soul gets one and tries it out.

Let's stay tuned - it sounds like an interesting card.

Joe

 

From Notebookcheck:
"The performance of the GeForce GTX 560M should be near the GTX 470M / 480M and according to Nvidia even beat the fast AMD Radeon HD 6970M"

I thought bigger number is better?

 

with nvidia the first digit usually refers to the generation so 560 is newer than 480.

however, the second digit refers to it's class, so an 8 in this case is high end, while a 6 is mid-range, a 4 is budget.
note i'm using mid-range and budget quite loosely here.

so when comparing a 480 to a 560, you're comparing a newer mid-range card to an older high end one.

ati have a similar naming convention, you get used to it after a while... but for some reason both companies like to pull a stunt now and then throwing the normal convention out the window.
anyone else remember the xt an ti suffixes debacle in desktop vga cards? one couldn't tell if they were buying budget or high performance.

 

OK I understand now. Thank you very much

 

Take a look here (and scroll down a bit for some more details ): http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/523936-official-all-powerful-m15x-benchmark-thread-part-2-a-101.html#post7553333

 

I stand corrected. It is possible, and you did it! Congratulations!

I had missed that post. You did provide a clear path - but it's a bit more bios manipulation than I would undertake. I note you've gone back to the 6970 - I'm assuming it's faster - right?

Joe

 

Thank you! It's still in my system, I only got it working yesterday and I'll do some more testing before I go back to the 6970m. The 6970m is faster, but the advantages of the 470m is that it runs cooler, draws lees power and fan control works fine. But it's not as fast as the 6970m, that's correct.
Hope I'll find out how to overclock it properly, then it will be pretty awesome.

Chances are that the 560m will work as well, since it seems to be simply a higher binned 460m, but I expect the performance to be about the same as the 470m... we'll see.

 

svl7 you installed a 470m and its working? Or am I reading this wrong?

 

Yes, indeed. Got it working. It's a long story, it all started with trying to upgrade the GPU of the Asus G73JW of a friend, the 6970m didn't work, then I got my hands on a 470m and tried it as well, unfortunately no success either... so I had a unused 470m laying around and before trying to sell it again I thought why not try to get it finally working in the M15x?

Some more details about the whole process can be found here. I'm still having some issues with overclocking, I hope I can solve them soon.

 

Thanks for all of the replies guys, looking forward to seeing people testing the GTX 560 when it comes out

 

If I manage to get an M15X tonight (ebay) do you guys think there is a pretty good chance the gtx560m would work?

I could also get a GTX 460 or 5870m for around the same price(300), you guys think this is a safer option? I like the idea of getting the most bang for my buck.

My plan is to get an m15x as cheap as possible (i3 370, gts 260) and throw in a new gpu and cpu.

 

Yes,, as mentioned in this thread, chances are that it'll work. It's almost identical to a 460m, only slightly higher clocked and probably some very small changes of the architecture.

But a 5870m will still perform better than a 560m, unless maybe in some of DX11 applications.

Best GPU option that'll work for sure is the AMD 6970m.

 

Wow, thanks for the quick reply!

I think I will settle for the 5870m then (the 6970m would go over budget).
I have one final concern though, because I am buying from "upgradeyourlaptop", the card is a eurocom/clevo vbios correct? Would this cause any problems? (mounting, vbios)

Thanks again +rep

 

Yes, this will be a Clevo card... and Powerplay doesn't work with it as far as I know. Besides from this the card should work fine, though I'm not sure about audio through HDMI/DP.
Take a look at the marketplace in this forum, someone's parting out his M17x r2, he might sell you a Dell 5870m.

 

As a former owner of both a Clevo 5870M and a Dell 5850M, an overclocked Dell 5850M runs circles around the Clevo 5870, plus all the bells and whistles (fans, PowerPlay, Overdrive) work as designed. A Dell 5870M is virtually identical to the 5850M, except for stock clocks.

 

Well, the 5850m seems a lot harder to find for sale. Would it be possible to flash a 5870 to a 5850 to gain the lost features and then overclock back up?

Just throwing out an idea. I know my 9800m gs can be flashed to 9800m gts

 

No there is some kind of hardware limit. Flashing the Clevo card with a Dell vbios is counter productive and perhaps lethal. I do however, have a brand new 460m GTX up for grabs.

 

A Dell 5870m should work very well (with VBIOS A00), and as I said, someones's parting out his M17x r2 in the marketplace, so you might be able to grab one. Check it out.

 

Will I be able to get > 15,000 3dmark06 with any of the above mentioned cards (5850,5870,460,560) + overclocked i7 820m ? Just wondering what kind of performance upgrades I can expect over my G50vt . It gets 9,000 overclocked. (I am using 3d06 cause it cant run 11 or vantage)

 

You can't really overclock a 820qm...

 

Really? I thought SetFSB works with the M15x?

 

It works with some, not with all... it's hit or miss.
I was able to get 18k 3dM06 with the 5850m and the 920xm, but 3dM06 is highly CPU dependable...

 

OK awesome , I found the tread I remember : http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/499768-m15x-fsb-overclocking-not-only-920xm.html

I've been using setFSB for years on my G50 so I'm used to just using that. Thats good news about the 3dmark.

Can you link that dell 5870 FS? I found one that said they wanted $340, and honestly, if I were to spend that much I would rather buy from upgradeyourlaptop, 6970m for $400.

 

Here, just PM him and ask.
And remember, this 18k was a hardcore overclock... really hardcore

 

Back in the day, I had an 820qm/5850m setup in this M15x. The highest '06 score that I still have a screenshot for is 14,488, using 10.8 drivers and with a strong (but not extreme for that card) o/c at 900/1100. I thought I had some higher runs, but maybe not.



The Catalyst drivers have improved substantially since then, so that should give you a somewhat higher score automatically. Plus, that 5850M could overclock as high as 950/1200 with auxiliary cooling (AC). The combination of the new drivers and increased o/c should get you at or near 15K with a Dell 5850M/5870M, even if it requires a little help from the air conditioner. LOL.



Slap a 920/940xm in it, and it will fly.

 

You kill my 18k score and I'm just about to sell my 5850m... arrgh, bad timing, very bad....

Well, I'll get back to this in case the deal doesn't work out...

Congrats anyway!!!
Edit: Ah, won't let me rep you...

 

Ignore it. I don't think it's ever been submitted, and I'm happy with the way things are. Gone on to the 6970m. Selling to a member? Someone will be getting a golden sample. Ought to sell mine, but still keeping it as a backup for the moment. Plus, it was just such a good sport about all the abuse it's been subjected to, I hate to abandon it now.

 

Hehehe, no, please submit it, I wanna see a second 18k score there! Though your tie with Inap is great as well!

I'm selling it on a forum in Europe, will bring me some more cash than here, if it doesn't work out I'll sell it here. 5850m is a lot of fun for benching, but since I have the 6970m I probably won't ever put it back... as you said, it's all 6970m now.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/602655-m15x-gtx-560m.html