Platform choice for 3080 Xvison

[Yarema]

Hi! So i can buy M18X r2 Nebula red for 450 dollars, it is equipped with i7 3840QM and single gtx 770 , 16GB ddr3 1600 ram and 256GB ssd

I also can buy 18 ranger with 4810MQ and 980M (8 gb) also single , with 100% battery, 512GB SSD and 2TB HDD and 32GB ram HyperX

Im planning to buy 3 pipes CPU heatsink ( for m18x r2 its twice more expensive than same for Ranger)

I also plan to use Honeywell PTM 7950 for CPU

What CPU ( i will OC it anyway) will be more bottleneck for 3080Xvision?
Will this 3080 fit in Ranger, or heatsink from Ebay only designed for M18X r2?
I also like design of m18x r2 much more but 18r1 is much better price and better specs, especially HyperX 32 Ram and 2,5TB disc space
I heard also, 3920/40XM can handle 4,7GHZ which im not sure 4930\40 can handle, and i doubt that 4th gen IPC growth will be suficcient to higher clocks of 3920\40

Please, advice!

 

[panda_zzz]

I would not consider alienware laptops on the haswell platform (ranger & viking) because there are possible power limitations of video cards.
so I would choose between m18x r2 (better possible CPU cooling, possible nvme in the second mxm slot, but 8 pcie lines for video card) and m17x r4 (slightly worse CPU cooling, but slightly more compact and mxm slot for 16 pcie lines).

[Yarema]

Yes , sir @ssj92 also adviced m18x r2

I guess im buying it from here 
https://www.olx.pl/d/oferta/dell-alienware-m18x-r2-CID99-ID11wtYI.html

3840QM....means 1 heatpipe.

Means i need also to buy 3 heatpipe heatsink for 3940XM or 3920XM, didnt decide yet what is better, heard 3920XM has better OC potential

[ssj92]

Doesn't matter 3920XM or 3940XM, whichever is better price. 

 

Silicon lottery will make larger difference than CPU model. They OC almost the same, more important is if you get a good clocking cpu or not. 

 

All of them can hit 4.4Ghz, 4.5Ghz+ will depend on your cpu and how much voltage it needs. 

 

I run 4.1Ghz without any additional voltage. Performs just fine for everything. If something really is CPU bottlenecked then I clock to 4.5Ghz with extra voltage. 

[SuperMG]

On 4/3/2025 at 1:49 PM, Yarema said:

Hi! So i can buy M18X r2 Nebula red for 450 dollars, it is equipped with i7 3840QM and single gtx 770 , 16GB ddr3 1600 ram and 256GB ssd

I also can buy 18 ranger with 4810MQ and 980M (8 gb) also single , with 100% battery, 512GB SSD and 2TB HDD and 32GB ram HyperX

Im planning to buy 3 pipes CPU heatsink ( for m18x r2 its twice more expensive than same for Ranger)

I also plan to use Honeywell PTM 7950 for CPU

What CPU ( i will OC it anyway) will be more bottleneck for 3080Xvision?
Will this 3080 fit in Ranger, or heatsink from Ebay only designed for M18X r2

Hello. The heatsink won't fit because of the screw holes offset from the new card. You have to heavily modify your heatsink.

 

The temps are good with a 3080 if you have a good thermal paste.

[sliderfra]

On 4/3/2025 at 1:49 PM, Yarema said:

Hi! So i can buy M18X r2 Nebula red for 450 dollars, it is equipped with i7 3840QM and single gtx 770 , 16GB ddr3 1600 ram and 256GB ssd

I also can buy 18 ranger with 4810MQ and 980M (8 gb) also single , with 100% battery, 512GB SSD and 2TB HDD and 32GB ram HyperX

Im planning to buy 3 pipes CPU heatsink ( for m18x r2 its twice more expensive than same for Ranger)

I also plan to use Honeywell PTM 7950 for CPU

What CPU ( i will OC it anyway) will be more bottleneck for 3080Xvision?
Will this 3080 fit in Ranger, or heatsink from Ebay only designed for M18X r2?
I also like design of m18x r2 much more but 18r1 is much better price and better specs, especially HyperX 32 Ram and 2,5TB disc space
I heard also, 3920/40XM can handle 4,7GHZ which im not sure 4930\40 can handle, and i doubt that 4th gen IPC growth will be suficcient to higher clocks of 3920\40

Please, advice!

 

m18x r2 is better than 18 viking... Motherboard has better voltage rails and lasts longer, MXM port also takes more power.

Heatsink are the same between the 2, only CPU one is much better on 18 as it has vacuum chamber

[KOAO]

On 4/13/2025 at 6:09 AM, sliderfra said:

m18x r2 is better than 18 viking... Motherboard has better voltage rails and lasts longer, MXM port also takes more power.

Heatsink are the same between the 2, only CPU one is much better on 18 as it has vacuum chamber

Wait, does that mean that this heatsink, which is the same as the one pictured above but linking to it, will work in the Alienware 18 as a drop in the same way it works for the M18x R1 and R2?

[sliderfra]

2 hours ago, KOAO said:

Wait, does that mean that this heatsink, which is the same as the one pictured above but linking to it, will work in the Alienware 18 as a drop in the same way it works for the M18x R1 and R2?

yes 

[KOAO]

On 5/30/2025 at 2:04 AM, sliderfra said:

yes 

I see. So then the only thing to do would be the resistor mod to get the GPU to actually work properly and not at 40w. Thank you fo rthat. 

[sliderfra]

not 100% sure about resistor mod though. I've got a 3060m in my AW18 and TDP is around 55W (instead of 80W) but performance is still pretty good. RTX3k on the other hand, has very low performance with 40W TDP as only memory throttles (core frq is unchanged)

[TruenoG7]

On 1/6/2025 at 1:47, sliderfra said:

Sin embargo, no 100% seguro de la resistencia mod. Tengo un 3060m en mi AW18 y TDP es de alrededor de 55W (en lugar de 80W) pero el rendimiento sigue siendo bastante bueno. RTX3k, por otro lado, tiene un rendimiento muy bajo con 40W TDP, ya que solo los aceleradores de memoria (core frq no ha cambiado)

I'm confused, does the RTX 3000 on the AW 18 have a TDP issue? I'm currently running the RTX 3000 HP and haven't experienced any power loss. 80W, 85W max load.

 

[sliderfra]

1 hour ago, TruenoG7 said:

I'm confused, does the RTX 3000 on the AW 18 have a TDP issue? I'm currently running the RTX 3000 HP and haven't experienced any power loss. 80W, 85W max load.

 

Hi,

HP RTX cards DO NOT THROTTLE on Alienware 17 or 18

But Aetina/PNY RTX 3000 throttle a lot (usually RAM is capped at 200Mhz or so at full load)

[Jerryzago]

3 hours ago, sliderfra said:

Hi,

HP RTX cards DO NOT THROTTLE on Alienware 17 or 18

But Aetina/PNY RTX 3000 throttle a lot (usually RAM is capped at 200Mhz or so at full load)

Mine is a PNY RTX3000 and doesn't throttle in my Alienware 17.

[sliderfra]

14 hours ago, Jerryzago said:

Mine is a PNY RTX3000 and doesn't throttle in my Alienware 17.

well that's really weird?

Did you tweak anything?? Cause every other person that tried PNY RTX3k on AW 17/18 reported heavy throttling

Same happens with RTX 3060 12GB, but to a lesser extent (reduces core & mem frequency accordingly and not only mem frequency as the PNY RTX3k)

I've never seen any Pascal card (1060 / 1070 /p3k /p4k/p5k) throttle on AW18 / 17. Don't know about 1080 / Px200

[Jerryzago]

I have a post in the custom builts section with a gallery of BIOS settings.

 

I have the unlocked A14+ and the Video Settings are set to iGFX. Both GPUs are visible in windows and no throttling. Power draw tops out at 80watts for me.