Alienware's M18x, Part 1: NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580M in SLI
by Dustin Sklavos on October 3, 2011 11:50 AM ESTContinuing the Case for 1080p
A pair of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580Ms may seem a bit excessive for a 1080p screen, but at least the screen itself in the M18x is a fine entrant. Unfortunately specific details about the panel type are hard to get; Alienware and Dell have a tendency to obscure the panel model number in the system in ways we can't really get through. Thankfully the only screen option available for the 18.4" M18x is a good one.
It's not taking the prize for "best notebook screen" away from a monster like HP's DreamColor IPS panel, but for a 1080p TN panel the M18x's screen gets the job done and is at least able to handle the lion's share of the sRGB gamut as well. The panel seems to be performing fairly well if closer to the middle of the pack in our comparison here, but keep in mind that the panels we're testing are largely the best of the best, with only the mediocre 1600x900 screen on the Toshiba Qosmio X775 being a real offender.
Viewing angles aren't spectacular, but they're still more than adequate for a TN panel. 1080p really is the way to go for a notebook screen if you can get it and thankfully, with the M18x, you can.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
32 Comments
View All Comments
Meaker10 - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
Not when you unlock the higher core voltage, bump up the core speed to GTX560Ti speeds =Dbennyg - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
At least the XM offers overclocking. The 2820/2860 compared with 2720/2760 just offers a couple hundred MHz for hundreds extra... and I challenge ANYONE to feel the difference a few % in CPU speed makes.However very few laptops use the HM67 chipset which is required to OC with multipliers, most (like my P150HM) have HM65 which can't. So unless you're willing to fork out for a top end model it is meaningless to you, but not to those who are the target market
Amrosorma - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
Would it be possible to get a quick and dirty look at how the notebook performs with the Battlefield 3 open beta?I imagine that's the game everyone is wondering about with regards to performance.
AmdInside - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
Agreed. As soon as I saw this, jumped straight to the Gaming Performance section in hopes of finding BF3 benchmarks.JarredWalton - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
The BF3 beta is pretty bad in terms of working properly. When there are all sorts of bugs (falling through the world floor, for instance), I'd wager performance won't be optimal either. We're planning to add the full BF3 release to our mobile benchmarks when it becomes available, along with Rage, Skyrim, and some other updates, but that will probably be another two months before we make the switch.Stuka87 - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
Yes the beta is buggy. But I would have loved to see an unoffcial benchmark. Doesnt have to be in the graphics. But just a line or two that says "I tried the BF3 Beta, and FRAPs reported these results with these settings". Just so we would have an idea as to if this machine would run BF3.jrs77 - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
C'mon, for that amount of money a matte screen should be standard. :facepalm:BTW... why are glossy screens even manufactured anymore these days? They should get dumped alltogether.
Darkstone - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
Because some people, including me, like glossy screens for the deep white they provide? I don't like matte because of the noise.JojoKracko - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
Damn right. Matte should be standard on laptops. Ban the glossy crap. I would never pay this much for a laptop with a glossy screen. (sadly) I'll be sticking with single GPU MSI laptops.yelped - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
Although you mentioned that Metro 2033 is a un-optimized title, you failed to mention that Crysis 2 with DX11 is even worse. Check out this article for more details. http://techreport.com/articles.x/21404&source=...