ichime

6 Grand eh? That's going to leave a mark The total for my setup (2 SSDs + i7 920XM ES) was about $3000 since I bout the system used. Now it's probably worth a little bit less than what Brian is selling his for since I got rid of the SSDs. Also, I'm thinking about keeping the card a little while longer to test something (or maybe Brian can test it if he keeps his R2, sells the R3 and gets an M18x. I have a feeling that the 6970M in the M18x uses a slightly different VBIOS than in the R3, which would allow it to work on the R2s without the fan and shutdown issue. They probably used the same mods they had to do to the 5870Ms in the R2 after the new Catalyst driver design wouldn't work properly with the older VBIOS.

To help pay off bills

If anyone is interested, I'm selling my 6970M (yes, the one with 1120 shaders). PM me if interested.

Apparently there's a more updated version of the 11.4 preview drivers that's supposed to have a bit more performance over the original 11.4 drivers. Has anyone tried those yet? Link can be found: Cat 11.4 Preview (.dlls, etc dated 3/22/11). Website Dated 3/29/11 - Guru3D.com Forums

Great day to be an M15x owner... The M15x never had compatibility problems with foreign GPUs with the exception of the 4870. The M17x on the other hand...sheesh

Depends on how you look at it. The fact that it can go from 680/900 to 850/1100 and possibly even 875/1150 (basing this on max reference desktop 6850 clocks) on stock voltage is pretty impressive. 1.15v would allow for 900mhz on the core and not much more on the memory.

Reminds me of what I did to my whitebook/AW M17. Awesome Job!

I've heard some problems with quality when it comes to Compal notebooks. I hope this isn't inherited on to these new Alienwares...

That works I guess, haha!

Well, I'm not that lucky I did pay about $580 for it and I'm sure future retail versions will be cheaper. Also, this could be the 6990M Eurocom mentioned in an e-mail to someone, though I think a card with that name should be based of a desktop 6950 (which BTW consumes less power than a GTX 560 - what the GTX 485M is based off of). Let's call this card, the 6970M XT? EDIT: BTW Brian, what games are you going to test for your R3 review?

Here are some Vantage benchmarks that could be of interest: M17x R2 with i7 920XM (Turbo boost to 3ghz) paired with a single Radeon 6970M using 11.4 Beta drivers: Result Same setup with the card overclocked to desktop 6850 speeds (775mhz Core, 1000mhz memory): Result I think these 11.4 drivers could make this card as fast or a bit faster than the GTX 485M based on the other games I've tested with them as well. Also, I ordered a new set of thermal paste and pads. When that arrives, gonna try Vantage @ 850 core / 1100 mem then 3dmark 11 with the same settings.

aha! So this is where all the action is...It sucks how they closed the M18x (and the M14x) thread. It seems as if NBR is being over-moderated/over-regulated as of late to the point where people are even scared to post stuff. As to the specs of the M18x, looks to be what is expected. Of course, not a big fan of 16:9 (though I didn't mind the screen on the Asus W90) and I hope that they give more headroom for the extreme CPUs. If the 15 hr battery life thing holds true, then that'll be huge. It's possible too if you think about it: since the M18x will be huge, there'll be enough space for a large battery. And if the M18x supports the integrated GPU in the intel chips with switchable graphics, then it starts to make sense.