*OFFICIAL* Alienware M18x Benchmark Thread - Part 2

[mobiousblack]

Well, I cannot seem to lower the wPrime 32M score no matter what settings I try. I also tried what you suggested, Brother John. Not sure what's up with that.

But, the hotel AC unit has produced some great Futuremark scores. I will post the screen shots here in a bit.

Courtesy of Hampton Inn, LOL...

Lmfao that is awesome, I know you mentioned hotel AC when I asked before but I had no clue you had it directly setup like that XD

[Terrik]

I tried OCing the cards and I'm still getting this score:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P18766 3DMarks

Am I doing something wrong here? I wouldn't be surprised if I am.

[Mr. Fox]

Terrik - your CPU is going to be an impediment to getting really outstanding benchmark scores, but there is definitely room for improvement on your benchmark results. I doubt there is anything wrong with your system, it is most likely simply a matter of optimizing settings. Your CPU probably does an excellent job in gaming and I'm sure that's the primary reason you purchased the M18x. If so, don't be overly concerned with benchmark scores if your gaming performance is excellent.

What are your NVIDIA Control Panel settings? Be sure you set if for "Performance" or use the 3DMark Vantage profile. If you use the Vantage profile, change all the settings to high/maximum performance, turn off eye candy settings, multiple display, power management mode, etc. Also, grab the latest Verde beta driver.

I just did a benchmark with my GPUs set at stock speeds. Here is a side-by-side comparison. Look at the detailed results section: Compare Results

Ignore the CPU part of the benching for now. Focus on your GPU score. There are a couple of tweaks we may be able to do with you non-XM CPU once we get the GPU part in order. For cross-reference, here are my cumulative scores with the 2760QM CPU | GTX 580M SLI. You should be able to achieve similar results with the right settings, although the 2760QM CPU is a bit more powerful than the one in your system. You will need to flash your vBIOS to run at 0.92v in order to push your GPU setup much beyond what your current clock speeds are. Here again, if gaming is your primary objective, this is not necessary.

Once you get your GPU performance looking better, have a look at my posts on this thread for helping improve your CPU performance. You're going to need an unlocked A05 BIOS to make some of these adjustments. (There are more linked threads in my signature. Click the link right above the graphic for a list of threads that may be of interest to you.)

[Terrik]

Terrik - what are your NVIDIA Control Panel settings? Be sure you set if for "Performance" or use the 3DMark Vantage profile. If you use the Vantage profile, change all the settings to high/maximum performance, turn off eye candy settings, multiple display, power management mode, etc. Also, grab the latest Verde beta driver.

I did a benchmark with my GPUs set at stock speeds. Here is a side-by-side comparison. Look at the detailed results section: Compare Results

Ignore the CPU part of the benching for now. Focus on your GPU score. There are a couple of tweaks we may be able to do with you non-XM CPU once we get the GPU part in order.

For cross-reference, here are my cumulative scores with the 2760QM CPU | GTX 580M SLI

Once you get your GPU performance looking better, have a look at my posts on this thread for helping improve your CPU performance:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alie...hrottling.html

Well, turns out my control panel settings were on "Quality" not performance. Ran vantage again and got this:

That score look a bit more normal then?

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P21337 3DMarks

[Mr. Fox]

Well, turns out my control panel settings were on "Quality" not performance. Ran vantage again and got this:

That score look a bit more normal then?

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P21337 3DMarks

Yes, that's much better! You're making good progress and just earned a +1 rep. Good job, bro.

Re-read my post above. I was still editing it when you replied.

Next step: update NVIDIA driver

[johnksss]

Just did a stock run at 2.7 ghz and his score is way too low...


Brother Terrik. Did you ever flash the new video bios from dell?

[Mr. Fox]

Good question, John. Apparently, some were still shipping without the correct 580M vBIOS applied. Here is an example.

[johnksss]

[Terrik]

I upgrade the drivers to 8.17.12.9551

I also used the throttling shortcuts in that other thread that was pointed out before I ran vantage.

My new score is:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P21527 3DMarks

Not all that different really.

As far as my bios is concerned, according to NvidiaInspector its:







Out of curiosity, why is the fan speed set at 0% and grayed out on GPU(0)?

[Mr. Fox]

OK. You have the correct vBIOS. That's good.

Out of curiosity, why is the fan speed set at 0% and grayed out on GPU(0)?

Because the GPU fans are actually chassis fans on laptops. The GPU modules do not control the fans, the BIOS EC does. There is nothing connected to the software fan controls, so they are grayed out. That feature only works on desktop video cards.

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Here's a link to benches with a CPU like yours: 580m vs 6990m Benches