Brian

On July 5th they will supposedly issue a driver level fix. Anyhow, with some sleuthing I found a rogue AMD engineer discussing Polaris, enjoy:

Indeed but AMD has pretty much acknowledged the issue and said they'll address it in a driver update. I'm not quite sure what they will do via drivers to accomplish this and whether it will affect performance in anyway.

AMD's new RX 480 $200 graphics card is out and delivers GTX 970/R390 performance as promised. However, there are some conflicting reports of the new Polaris GPU drawing more power from the PCI-e slot than it is rated. According to Tom's Hardware, the RX 480 draws 86 watts peak from the motherboard's PCI-e slot although the official ceiling is 75 watts. After Tom's Hardware published their report, other websites such as PCPer followed up with their own testing and reported similar findings: Additionally, there are some users that reported potential issues with their motherboards that arose after using the RX 480 in their systems: Keep in mind both of those reports do not 100% confirm the problem is the RX 480 but given the reported issues with it's power draw and these users boards experiencing problems after installing an RX 480, there is a strong possibility that it is the cause. There is a reddit thread in r/AMD on this topic and AMD's Robert Hallock has issued the following response: We're awaiting AMD's full official response which should hopefully be coming soon. UPDATE: TechPowerUp contacted AMD and received the following official response: View full article

Why would you even want it on OSX though? It's not like OSX is known for gaming.

This man speaks the truth, Alienware became trash shortly after the release of Alienware 18 and I called it before it was even released and jumped ship a few years ago. They always find a way to cripple their systems, whether it's bios, hardware or a combination of both. Plus AW laptops are notoriously thick and heavy with ugly fat bezels and subpar displays, just say no. Get yourself an MSI or Clevo if you want a better performance notebook but unfortunately with the way the market is now, you can only count on Clevo if you want a socketed CPU.

Well the last few years AMD wasn't able to compete in performance notebooks because their stuff ran far too hot and consumed too much power. Supposedly that will change with Polaris but we'll see, I'm always skeptical of anything AMD says.

LOL @ picture.

Oh yeah and unfortunately there's a LOT more of them than us.

Well looks like BGA bullshit is beginning on the desktop now, feast your eyes on this: http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/Motherboard-Colorful-Includes-GTX-1070-Graphics

I would not recommend SLI for anyone considering buying a new notebook or building a desktop in the near future. Both AMD and NVIDIA are moving away from mgpu support and so are the lazy software developers who only want to create cross-platform titles and not bother with PC optimization. You get rare titles liked GTA V which make somewhat an effort to add in some extras for PC but overall it's just a straight port with a few extras like GameWorks if NVIDIA tosses them a bone. AMD doesn't have the budget to be devoting engineers to get game devs to add extras to PC games so this locks all of us into NVIDIA's GameWorks and depending on who you ask, that is either a good or bad thing. With consoles now moving to a more frequent upgrade cycle, I think we'll hopefully see a lot of fragmentation there and butt hurt with the guys buying the latest consoles (e.g. PS4 Neo) and not being able to get extra effects and having to deal w/the lowest common denominator. Maybe that will drive those guys to finally build a decent PC.

I don't think it should affect notebooks at all since they don't use more than 2 GPUs. But in general SLI is dying out and has been for sometime. If you look at some of the latest games and engines they simply do not have native SLI support and it is up to the developer to implement it (e.g. good luck unless its AAA title). It is part of the reason I'm moving on from Titan X SLI to a single card.

That doesn't make sense though because they still make money off an MXM board sale vs BGA. In fact they could probably get away with charging more for the MXM version. I suspect it might have been due to push back from companies like Dell and Asus wanting consumers to throw away their laptops and do full upgrades vs putting in an MXM GPU. So it comes back to BGA but not necessarily because NVIDIA wanted it that way. Plus as I said before, I suspect with the dwindling MXM market, NVIDIA probably wasn't making money on reference designs or were breaking even and decided not to make them. That's why they're charging their $100 tax on desktop reference cards now because they said it was costing them money in the long run to maintain the reference design.

Has nvidia given a reason for not making mxm reference boards anymore? I'm guessing the cost vs volume wasn't worth it for them and that's why. However, I bet MSI and Clevo could threaten to go all Polaris and that would convince nvidia to make the reference board.

Well since you inadvertently found a bug I suppose I could speed it up for you as a one time deal.

It will be the full chip but with lower clocks.

It was a permissions issue, thanks for bringing it up as we weren't aware of it! It's fixed now and you should be able to comment on articles on the front page.

So according to PC Gamer, they have a "source" who tells them NVIDIA will be readying it's newest Pascal chips for the mobile form factor and they will be released sometime in August/September of this year. In addition, the rumor is these new GPUs will not be cut down M variants but be full-fledged desktop GPUs crammed into high performance notebooks (e.g. MSI and Clevo) but just clocked lower to fit the TDP and power envelope. That shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone since NVIDIA crammed a 165W desktop 980 in notebooks last year and with GTX 1070 only sipping 150W and GTX 1080 at 180W, it makes sense to release these as soon as possible. Despite what PC Gamer says, we may yet still see M variants with different names down the line as there are a lot of gamers out there that still want high performance chips but with thinner profiles and longer battery lives but that will probably come sometime after the 1080/1070 are released for notebooks. In addition, we've still got AMD's newest Polaris coming and with the 480 only consuming 150W, AMD could easily shoehorn that into a notebook just as NVIDIA is doing so we expect both companies to announce availability of their newest notebook graphics chips soon. View full article

Not the same model but should give you an idea of what others are doing: .

Hopefully @goalqueor @Dschijn can point you in the right direction. I'd be interested to see how the 1080 does with a mac eGPU.

For the month of June 2016 anyone who likes the Eurocom Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/EurocomTechnology/) is eligible for $100 off an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M upgrade kit for any supporting laptop. If you already LIKE Eurocom on Facebook you are already eligible for $100 off an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M upgrade kit as well. Eurocom provides everything for an easy upgrade including the X-bracket, screws, thermal pads, and thermal paste and can provide heatsinks that may be needed to handle the 980M card. Having an upgradeable laptop is essential if the user wants to extend the lifespan of the system through repairs or performance increases. “Breathe the life back into your laptop with the performance of an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M upgrade kit” Mark Bialic, Eurocom President. Eurocom is offering upgrade solutions for phased out laptop models to allow consumers and companies alike to extend the life span of their systems while benefiting from enhanced performance and usage of new software that requires new graphics. Eurocom and several other laptop developers integrate MXM 3.0b technology into their high performance notebooks and gaming laptops because it allows those systems to support the most powerful graphics technology on the market while allowing for possible upgrade options. Notebooks or laptops that incorporate MXM 3.0b can be easily upgraded with newer or higher performing cards of the same standard. This allows users who have purchased an upgradeable system to improve the performance and increase the lifespan of their system with an easy upgrade. How to place an order with the $100 discount on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M upgrade kit: 1. Like the Eurocom Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/EurocomTechnology/ 2. Purchase the 980M upgrade kit by selecting a. “GPU Upgrade” b. Select the Laptop you own c. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M upgrade kit d. Click “Order” e. Enter all relevant information f. In the “Configuration Instructions” box write: i. I liked Eurocom on Facebook! ii. My Facebook name is: iii. The link to my Facebook Page is: 3. Click “order” NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Specifications: · 8GB DDR5; · MXM 3.0b; · 100W · 28nm · 5200 million transistors · 256 bit · 2500 MHz memory speed · 1536 CUDE Cores NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Upgrade Videos: MSI GT 72 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Upgrade Guide: https://youtu.be/ghe4tFuC7jE NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M SLI Upgrade Guide in EUROCOM X8 - P377SMA / SAGER NP9377: https://youtu.be/EXDsr2TV3L8 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Upgrade in EUROCOM Racer 2 - P150EM - P170EM-NP9170-NP9150: https://youtu.be/NMmQ6FH_IRY NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M & 970M Alienware 17 (r5) Upgrade Guide: https://youtu.be/fh8ockwbDiE NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M install in EUROCOM Panther 5 Mobile Supercomputer: https://youtu.be/b2yH4BD3ID0 Eurocom laptops with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Upgrade Kits P5 Pro P7 Pro Sky DLX7 Unlocked Sky X4 Sky X6 Sky X9 Sky X9E Unlocked X7 Extreme Neptune P150EM Racer 2 P170EM Neptune 2 P170SM Neptune 3 P370EM Scorpius Panther 5 X3 X3 R2 X8 Extreme MSI Laptops with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Upgrade Kits MSI GT70 2PC MSI GT70 2PE MSI GT70 0NC MSI GT70 0ND MSI GT70 20C MSI GT70 2OD MSI GT72 MSI GT80 2QE MSI GT780DX Dell Laptops with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Upgrade Kits Dell Precision M4800 Dell Precision M6500 Dell Precision M6600 Dell Precision M6700 Dell Precision M6800 Dell Precision 17 7000 Alienware laptops with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Upgrade Kits Alienware M17x R4 Alienware 17 (R5) Alienware M18x R2 Alienware 18 (R3) Clevo Laptops with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M Upgrade Kits CLEVO P150EM / SAGER NP9150 CLEVO P170EM / SAGER NP9170 CLEVO P170SM / Sager NP8278 CLEVO P150SM-A / SAGER NP8268 CLEVO P157SM-A / SAGER NP8258 CLEVO P177SM / SAGER NP8290 CLEVO P177SMA / SAGER NP8298 CLEVO P170SMA / SAGER NP8278 CLEVO P770ZM / SAGER NP9772 CLEVO P770DM / Sager NP9778 CLEVO P770ZM / SAGER NP9772 CLEVO P750ZM / SAGER NP9752 CLEVO P750DM / SAGER NP9758 CLEVO P750DM-G / SAGER NP9758-G CLEVO P870DM CLEVO P375SM / Sager NP9390 CLEVO P370SM / SAGER NP9380 CLEVO P370SM3 / SAGER NP9380 CLEVO P370EM/SAGER NP9370/XMG P722 Pro CLEVO P377SMA / SAGER NP9377 CLEVO P570WM / SAGER NP9570 View full article

Thanks for the update, heat is usually the main culprit that causes throttling in notebooks unfortunately. You might want to look into a mod for the bottom cover if it's an older Clevo or asus .

I don't think I've seen a water cooler egpu guide posted here yet but if someone did one and documented their build log I'd love to promote it to the front page as a featured article.

The question is who would have the balls to delid a $1700+ cpu? I mean I know the guy in the vid did but he's a famous overclocker that gets free stuff.

What if you drop in a Polaris gpu later on, will the display give any troubles? And is there going to be a freesync model?