umm.. can we straighten this up - Page 6

if pci-e is going to be put in a laptop, wouldn;t that give the notebook battary last for 30min? being that theres 2 gpu's
Havn't kept up to date on this pci-e

umm...no. There will still only be 1 gpu, but it will use a different bus (short bus?) than the current agp uses. But it does seem to consume more power than agp, so the battery issue might still be an...uhm...issue.

Many pages back I posted that cards being PCI-Express were no excuse for Alienware not to produce new upgradable modules because bridge chips are so small.

Well, here's a nice example of just how small bridge chips can be. The following photo is a blown-up shot of a desktop NV45 chip, in which nVidia has placed the bridge chip right on the package:


The tiny rectangle underneath the GPU is the HSI (bridge chip).

Note that the current NV40 has it's bridge chip on the PCB instead of on the package. Now, Alienware is perfectly free to take a PCI-Express nVidia GPU and use a bridge chip to place it into an AGP notebook. If they choose not to do that, they shouldn't blame the graphics cards companies.

Theres some real proof

For me sagar was more expsensive so guess thats y i think there pretty ****ty

anything in a laptop is upgradabile if it fits!

I agree with you about the bridge chips. I was told over the phone that that will probably be the solution. Use a bridge chip, and offer a mobo upgrade for full PCI-e. Alienware offered upgradeability, not PCI-e. So the bridge chip would alow us to take advantage of PCI-E cards (although without the bus advantage, still the cards will be more up to date and faster). I really hope this is Alienware's solution.

It wont cost AW anything to do this since they know they have a market place for bridging. I have heard they are working really hard with gpu manufactors to create a solution!

Guspaz - It's great that they have bridged a desktop chip, but that doesn't help the mobile market, 51m owners specifically. The still have yet to produce a bridged mobile chip.

heard from who?

i'm sure if that really was the case, then David from AW would have mentioned it

diesel you dont know a calming down ploy when you see one *slaps head* even notebook_gamer said they arnt going to drop a market place since theres a new product on the scene.

Imagine if you where them? David wouldnt of said it beacuse the "just incase" they couldnt find a way around the problem(im not saying they cannot cuz the fix seems simple) but by him not saying it means if they cannot do it they wont mislead anyone to thinking they can? since every1 thinks misleading is a major thing

ahhhhh the old bait and switch

well in all fairness its easy to calm anyone down with innuendos and rumors, but i do believe that even if AW is able to pull off a "bridge" solution, they will always be 3-6 months behind everyone else as far as new graphics chips upgrades go. And i'm basing that estimate solely on what is going on with the 9600 -> 9700 upgrade. Most of AW's competitors have been offering the 9700 gpu in their laptops since February/March whereas AW buyers since that time still are not able to upgrade from the 9600 to 9700 and we are almost into July. With a "bridge" solution that AW would have to do all of the R&D on for any new graphics card offering from ATI and Nvidia, their time to market will be way behind the curve.

Don't get me wrong, AW is good shiet, when AW comes out with a PCI-E laptop offering, that's what i will buy. Until then i hope AW makes good on their customer's expectations

Yah the wait time i agree is stupid but it still has 1 advantage.

I have ordered with a 9700 WHICH is the same card any laptop i could of bought so im not missing out.

Lets speculate. They find a bridge. takes 3months for them 2 get it working in my version of area15m2. atleast i have the oppertunity of changing cards where if i bought from any other laptop maker RIGHT now 3months down the road i couldnt.

(This is 100% speculation not misleading this is just an example if they come up with a solution withen 3months)

Even tho is a few months its much nicer spending couple 100$ on a gizmo to bring the laptop slowly up 2 speed with newer ones where if i bought a dell,sagar i would be pay couple 1000$

Its the one mistake i think every1 is making is that the wait time for the new upgrade. atleast there is a wait time with some other laptop makers you will never have a wait time since you cannot upgrade.

Please remb this is speculation so dont flame me 2 mislead you!

it looks like there is one more ATI AGP chip down the line codename M18 after reading a thread in the dell selection i found this with google searching ATI M18. which it has the word R420 / M18 / AGP8x in the random unreadable text

http://www.unika.com.cn/article/article.php/1203

Maybe ATI arnt going to completly lay down to intel rules. Maybe there going to make multi-combatible cards? Maybe ATI/nvida are gonna show there muscle in the martket!

The ATI X800 series is the last of the ATI AGP... we 'might' see it in a mobile form. I will check with my ATI source.
Everyone is buying Alienware because they want the latest and the greatest in the PC gaming world. Unfortunately AW experienced growing pains and fell behind the competition as far as offering the latest and the greatest in the mobile technology. The one thing they did offer was the 'upgradeable' video. Being that I purchased in September and had the 5600 POS, I'm benefiting from that feature. Those of you that are purchasing from them now will have the ability to switch between the 5700 and 9700 (if they ever release it) and hopefully there will be one more upgrade X600 or X800 (most likely the X800)... Again, we can only hope. I would not be surprised if AW doesn't even know what they are going to do yet.
Alienware is a business and they are going to move with the market which means a51m3 with PCIe is the only way to go.
I'm in the hopes that they will offer a motherboard upgrade, but again... I'm hoping.
For those of you that think purchasing today will last you for 3 years are right and wrong... the laptop itself will last you 3+ years (if you get the extended warranty) but you will NOT be able to play games that come out in 3 years. Yea... yea... upgradeable graphics... maybe that would get us 2 years. Unfortunately because of the market change we will only get 1-2 years out of this model unless AW comes up with some sort of upgrade IMO (IN MY OPINION). I would be surprised if they went to that expense because they will not have any problems selling the new systems.
How many people purchased a lappy 1 year ago only to realize that it will not play 'fully' DX9 compatible games. I'm sure there are plenty of ATI 9000 owners that know what I'm talking about.
Everyone needs to chill out and see what happens. Going back and forth and beating each other in the forums is not going to change how AW does business. Remember those people that purchased the a51m in July/August of last year only to realize that the new model was 1 month away and their machine was not upgradeable. 15% restocking fee was a solution for a few but many cried and bitched.
Sit back, do some fragg'n, enjoy your new lappy's and STFU