Alienware's M18x, Part 2: AMD's Radeon HD 6990M in CrossFire
by Dustin Sklavos on October 14, 2011 12:00 AM ESTApplication and Futuremark Performance
In the first part of our Alienware M18x review, I pointed out that the overclock on the Intel Core i7-2920XM processor is actually higher than the stock clocks of the desktop i7-2600K. More than that, our dual-GPU configurations should be in the neighborhood of a pair of desktop GTX 560s and certainly within striking distance of most single-GPU desktop gaming systems. So to up the ante and spice things up a bit, where possible I've included the results from CyberPower's Gamer Xtreme 4000, a desktop system I reviewed at the beginning of the year that features an overclocked i7-2600K (at 4.4GHz) and a GeForce GTX 570.
Additionally, for the application and Futuremark testing, I've also included results from the M18x with the i7-2920XM at stock clocks and a single HD 6990M. Keep in mind that in some cases, the RAID 0 in the Radeon-equipped M18x might give it a slight edge.
In most cases, the AMD and NVIDIA-based M18x notebooks mirror each other and trade blows. As far as PCMark 7 is concerned, the difference between the two is negligible, and not only that, it doesn't seem heavily impacted by the RAID 0. Meanwhile, the ASUS G74, Clevo, and HP notebooks benefit from SSDs to boost their scores.
As far as Cinebench is concerned, the two graphics solutions have roughly the same CPU overhead, and multi-GPU configurations don't seem to affect it. The numbers are close enough to call it a wash. The x264 benchmark yields the same results. Meanwhile, our overclock on the i7-2920XM has a tangible performance improvement but ends up being surprisingly minor compared to the massive lead the overclocked desktop i7-2600K stakes.
In the 3DMarks, the Radeon and GeForce solutions basically trade blows with no serious leads going to either contender. At least as far as Futuremark is concerned, AMD and NVIDIA's top-end parts are basically comparable.
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Alexvrb - Sunday, October 16, 2011 - link
Meaker is right. You can overclock it 100% and it doesn't mean beans if its throttling the heck out of it.Meaker10 - Friday, October 14, 2011 - link
You have the 6990M coming out behind the 6970M results....JarredWalton - Friday, October 14, 2011 - link
There are several factors at play. First, different drivers -- newer may not always be better, but without having both laptops and retesting, we can't say for sure. Second and more important by far is that the X7200 has a hex-core i7-990X. Even overclocked, the i7-2920XM can't always match it. Third, there's a difference in chipsets; the X7200 uses the X58 while the M18x uses the HM67. The X58 has tri-channel memory with two full x16 PCIe slots, where the mobile platforms go with dual-channel and two x8 PCIe slots.While individually, each of these seems minor, taken together it's not too surprising to see the X7200 win some of the gaming benchmarks. Also notice that in more GPU-limited tests (Metro 2033, Mafia II, and STALKER at our Ultra settings), the 6990M CF setup outpaces the 6970M CF by a fairly large margin. Most of our other titles, even at max settings, may not completely saturate the GPUs.
Meaker10 - Friday, October 14, 2011 - link
While I agree for the most part, if we were CPU limited we would see a hard wall, the CPU utilisation is close between AMD/Nvidia so that while there can sometimes be gaps they are not large.Well looking at the highest setting Dirt 2 benchmarks we see:
580M in the lead on the back of the 2920XM over the x7200 setup by 15%, a lead that suggests no GPU bottleneck.
Now looking at the M18X the 6990M crossfire is getting 77% of the FPS of the 6970 setup. Usually crossfire is less limited by PCI-E lanes than SLI.
Usually drivers can alter results, but if we project where the 6990M crossfire results should be then they are underperforming by around 30%, not something you would expect in newer drivers.
Have you checked the card's were not throttling during this run? Looks a bit suspect to me.
Meaker10 - Friday, October 14, 2011 - link
Sorry I meant to say it indicates no CPU bottleneck.JarredWalton - Friday, October 14, 2011 - link
I'll ask Dustin to check on the clocks and thermals of the AMD 6990M, as well as the i7-2920XM -- both could potentially throttle. I'll ask him about AMD driver version as well. Also, while on the desktop the SLI and CF results are often similar in terms of CPU utilization, on notebooks all bets are off. Every time I've played with an SLI or CF laptop, I've always felt like performance was never quite where I'd expect for the given hardware.For instance, SLI and CF scaling on desktops compared with scaling on notebooks seems like it usually doesn't do nearly as well on notebooks. I'd have to go analyze some hard numbers, but it's just been my impression. Another example is when you launch a game on an SLI or CF notebook, the display usually seems to flicker on and off for 10 seconds. Maybe that's been fixed now, but the last time I tested it I seriously thought, "WTF is going on!?"
In theory, everything should be the same, but when you go mobile it rarely feels that way. Yet one more reason to recommend the M17x or ASUS G74SX over the M18x.
Meaker10 - Saturday, October 15, 2011 - link
I have a 16F2 barebone myself (GT683R based).It would be interesting to face the x7200 and M18x against each other. Recording a baseline one card performance and looking at the mobile vs desktop chipset scaling with the same drivers and cards.
ik9000 - Saturday, October 15, 2011 - link
re your comment that the premium for a single 580 isn't worth it over the 6990. While dual GPU set-ups don't offer optimus, with a single card isn't this an option? Would Optimus give a single GTX580 machine a better battery life than a single 6990?iamlilysdad - Saturday, October 15, 2011 - link
It appears that Dell now lists a 256gb + 750gb option for custom configuration for the M17X R3. Guess that's another plus in the column for the "little" brother.Akv - Sunday, October 16, 2011 - link
Another "gaming laptop". Yawn...Sorry to repeat that every six months, but I am part of the population who have all the necessary large gaming equipment at home (screens, cases, fans, mice, keyboards...) and who use their laptop when traveling.
In that sense the prospect of gaming with a laptop seems to me appalling compared to what my desktops can offer, and the prospect of using a low-power, low-noise, light-weigth laptop with excellent screen and excellent speakers seems highly appropriate.