Solved! 4870 vs 5870 vs different Laptop alienware M17x-R2

[fastlane1]

Hello,
I am about to buy an Alienware M17X-r2 with i7 920xm 8 gigs 1333 ram 2x256 SSD Blu Ray burner Windows 7 and 2X 4870 cards with crossfire should I wait a few weeks for 5870 cards I don't game at all .I will use it for some HD video editing, I just want the fastest laptop I can get for over all use. Cost is not a consideration. So the question is order as is wait for 5870s or go with a different laptop and why.

 

[josh7331]

Hello,
I am about to buy an Alienware M17X-r2 with i7 920xm 8 gigs 1333 ram 2x256 SSD Blu Ray burner Windows 7 and 2X 4870 cards with crossfire should I wait a few weeks for 5870 cards I don't game at all .I will use it for some HD video editing, I just want the fastest laptop I can get for over all use. Cost is not a consideration. So the question is order as is wait for 5870s or go with a different laptop and why.

Wait for the 5870's they use directX11 which will help in the future. Pretty much it will future proof your laptop and 2 5870's are faster then 2 4870's by i believe 30% from a benchmark.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

dx11 isn't as important as some of the new functionality added to the HD5870 (really a desktop HD5770/Juniper in mobile clothing), the added SAD functionality in the ALUs should be helpful in future video encoding/transcoding apps, and is the cornerstone of some transformation functions in existing apps.

I would say a single mobile HD5870 is a better choice for a non-gamer than a dual HD4870 Xfire setup. You won't have as big and e-Pen1s as with the Xfired cards, but it is a better setup overall IMO. And if you get dual HD5870s then the e-wang is covered too. :lol:

One consideration is if you do any current GPGPU work that requires DP, in which case the HD4870 is a better short term choice until things get moved to direct compute compute shaders and OpenCL.

 

[NST]

Hello,
I am about to buy an Alienware M17X-r2 with i7 920xm 8 gigs 1333 ram 2x256 SSD Blu Ray burner Windows 7 and 2X 4870 cards with crossfire should I wait a few weeks for 5870 cards I don't game at all .I will use it for some HD video editing, I just want the fastest laptop I can get for over all use. Cost is not a consideration. So the question is order as is wait for 5870s or go with a different laptop and why.

If you want to do some professional video editing, you should check a laptop that features professional video cards (e.g. Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M), like Dell Precision M6500 and Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds.These cards have lower gaming performance than the commercial ones but they are better in professional video editing applications.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

If you want to do some professional video editing, you should check a laptop that features professional video cards (e.g. Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M), like Dell Precision M6500 and Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds.These cards have lower gaming performance than the commercial ones but they are better in professional video editing applications.

No they aren't.

Sometimes their plug-ins have been locked by nV to work only on Quadro cards (like some Vegas ATi plug-ins are locked to AMD CPUs), but that is an artificial barrier that is esily bypassed if there is a mobile equivalent. The hardware itself is no better at the task since it's all based on the standard GPUs.

 

[fastlane1]

No they aren't.

Sometimes their plug-ins have been locked by nV to work only on Quadro cards (like some Vegas ATi plug-ins are locked to AMD CPUs), but that is an artificial barrier that is esily bypassed if there is a mobile equivalent. The hardware itself is no better at the task since it's all based on the standard GPUs.

I was going to use Cyberlink Director 8 for HD editing really just for my new HD video camera for personal use, I did see that that program was made to run faster with i7 and also ATI 4870s it didn't mention the 5870s because they are just coming out in mobile. I wanted to also use 2X 256 SSD drives in raid 0 but if I do that I will not have TRIM I could use them as two separate drives, my preference is to see one 512 drive in raid but I think what I will gain in raid I will lose over time from no TRIM with raid any opinions welcome.

 

[tichondrious]

I'm thinking of buying the Alienware m17x, with the i7 720qm, 6gb ram 1333 hz with the dual ATI 4870's ($2600). I will be using it solely for gaming. Will Alienware be offering the m17x with the new ATI 5870 x2 and is there a timeframe for that. Also is it really necessary to buy 8gb ram and the i7 extreme 920m for an extra $1100?

 

[uracoin]

alienware has a lot of complaints on both service and the computers workmanship. imo you should look into clevo laptops, they have manny modells made of aluminium, and you can prechose just as much. if size aint a issue you can even get a laptop with desktop cpu, wich happen to usually be the bottleneck. also they ofcourse got the 5870 card option alreddy.

 

[trenna187]

I'm thinking of buying the Alienware m17x, with the i7 720qm, 6gb ram 1333 hz with the dual ATI 4870's ($2600). I will be using it solely for gaming. Will Alienware be offering the m17x with the new ATI 5870 x2 and is there a timeframe for that. Also is it really necessary to buy 8gb ram and the i7 extreme 920m for an extra $1100?

Just to let you know i saw the m17x-r2 on the us and uk sites with 5870 xf now available(18/5/10).

Cant wait for Australia to get them.