X800 Mobility for XPS/9100 machines? - Page 2

you are a good guy man. I just want to learn more about what this puppy does. It is awesome and I want to use it to it's max potential that's all.. I agree PCI-E a few years from now will be awesome. So will better battery life and better portability. Have you lugged this through an airport. It is worth it but strenuous nonetheless. Good luck to ya and enjoy the lappy. It rocks...

I agree, I don't bother with 3DMark numbers, or FanGUI cooling software. I love that card and enjoy every moment playing great games. Let's discuss what we have and what it does. It's just, this post poses the question of a PCI-E upgrade. I'm interested in it, it's new technology, and people want to find out how it fits into the current units.

I'm not spending my life hoping for the next PCI-E card, and whether it's bridged to AGP, but it's still a curiosity, and maybe 2 years down the road someone at Dell might throw us a bone and let us upgrade, I simply and strongly doubt that. But I apologize if I accused you of flaming.

I'm with you 100%, my friend. Let all who read these posts know that there is no ill will between you and I, and no Loafer, there will be no X800 for you sir. Enjoy the 9800!

I don't understand what the big deal is. The M9800 is an x800 with 8 pipelines. If I already paid 300 for a M9800 I definitely would not be spending any more on a card built on the same silicon.

I think that if the M9800 has 12 fully functioning pipelines and someone can find a good way of unlocking the extra 4 then this card would become much more interesting.

BTW, most ppl that unlocked their desktop X800pro's to X800XT's didn't noticed much of a temp increase at all. Plus, you could clock lower and still get higher performance. I think it you get a copper spacer and AS5 the core then unlocking the extra 4 pipes and running at a lower O/C is a very reasonable thing to do.

I hope someone can figure it out!

Another thought...

What if ATI used Dell's 9100/xps as a testing rollout for the X800 chip? We would be a relatively small user base, and if the chip were to be a failure, they wouldnt be out much $$$ replacing our cards. It would be bad for ATI to make the same mistake as they did with the unstable 9700 release. Why not just put out a lower "test" config of the chip and test stability and reliability, then release the fully powered core to the general public. They would make more money if the 9800 was successful leading to sucessful x800 sales. And ATI's secret... they are using the same core. No extra engineering costs.

Makes sense to me any way I think of it... It would be STUPID of ATI to make 2 seperate cores of this config and lose the potential profit margin. It IS all about $$$ to them anyways right? If it wasnt, maybe we would get some decent drivers some day.

The question that is being asked, that I still have not read an answer on is...

If you are able to unlock the 4 extra pipes in the MR9800, could we use it on the current XPS/9100 motherboard?

If the answer is no, I'm going to enjoy my laptop as it is for the next 2-3 years.

If the answer is yes, I would like to free up the pipes and enjoy the laptop for 3-4 years =)

Either way, it'll end up being replaced in the future

I think THAT is the ultimate question, and one that those who are willing to gamble on hacking the bios, will be able to provide. It would be nice if ATI and Dell would work together to provide a firmware update or a new bios that would unlock the remaining pipes (I'm now usings Whacks suggestion as theory, and no longer speculation), rather than the ultimate marketing ploy: Buy a nextgen XPS.

OMG... Loafer... you are the man. Take a close look at the MR9800 on tom's website and put it next to the X800 core on the o'c forums.

They are identical in every way other than tagging. Even the #'s are close. Damn it feels good to be right sometimes...

... and to all you h8ers out there that doubted me.... just see if I give you the instructions.. hee hee...

Never doubt the Wh@ck... he actually KNOWS what he is doing...

We are waiting whackamac =P

Whackamac, you are awesome!

anyone have a MRX800 bios?.... anyone.... anyone.... lol.

Just a matter of time.

http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/

mayb this is your path to glory

I don't think so, but... bla ^^

No Mobility bios on that list.

Hi, Dave Baumann from Beyond3D here! Just saw this in my referrals so I thought I'd drop in a bit of info.

I've actually just completed testing a Mobility Radeon 9800 (the review should be up in a few days) and during my testing I noted that the Vertex performance of M18 was inline with having 6 vertex units, as opposed to 4 that ATI had initially told me - this is further evidence that M18 is using the R420 core.

Note that M18 has 8 pipelines enabled (2 quads), however R420 actually supports 16 pipelines (4 quads), so there are actually 8 pipelines that are disabled on M18, not just 4. However, these things will be qualified to run at the temps produced by 8 pipes, if you try and enable another 4 or even 8 then effectively you'd be up to doubling the quantity of heat outputted by the graphics core and the cooling solution may not cope (leaving you with a melted notebook!). Flashing it with a desktop BIOS would also alter the fan spin speeds and probably loose the power management functionality.

Its is not a given that the pipelines will even work, since the R420 die is very large it is prone to defects - as the pixel pipelines are the largest part of a die this is were a defect is most likely to occur and so some chips are sold with the quad that the defective part is in disabled, whilst the others will work as normal.

I've actually just got off the phone with ATI's Jon Carvill (Mobile PR) where we've been discussing a few things about M28 / M28 Pro. Although Jon wasn't sure, going by the driver revision of the M28 that I've tested (the review should turn up a little after the M18 review) I think M28 will actually be based on R480 rather than R423 as R480 has improved power and thermal controls.

Dave, you are the man... could you work close to me as I am in process of heat modding my card for preparation for trying the upgrade...

Oh and I am one of those rare tech gurus... you guys looking for someone that knows almost everything???? I am looking for a cool job that appeals to my tastes...

One more thing... do you think that they would use such defective cores in the initial rollout of the "new and improved" mobile graphics solution?

I would want to put out superior cores if I were them to insure stability and reputation.

you speak for us all, i'll even drink to that!


cant wait for some form of upgrade.... whackamac, DaveBaumann, you guys rock!

Well, it's great that we can enable maybe the other 8 pipes BUT there IS STILL ONE PROBLEM, the heat.

Mayb whackamac or someone else may try a nitrogen cooling system. (still on a DRS)

We all can just w8