4k screen and 980m worth it?

I'll be getting my first alienware and I'm so excited. Is the 4k screen worth $300? I know it wouldn't be for gaming, but does it make photos and everything else just look better or is there not much of a difference. Also is the GTX 980m worth it over the 970m or is the increase not worth the $150 more? Thanks and sorry if this doesn't belong here.

 

For gaming, simply lower the resolution before opening any applications (through the control panel) and you've got yourself a TrueLife 1080p display. If you plan to grab the GA, then you can pretty easily game at 4k.

 

Certainly worth it in the USA for $450, those two upgrades are costing me a in my region $1000 USA dollars.

I was on the fence for the hard to stomach inflated prices, but figured cannot add those items afterwards. Also I want something special about it, when Skylake hits the market the notebook will still have some thing different about it to keep it interesting.

Reminds be when I brought my M17x R3 and didn't option for the 120Hz panel, and then wanting it.

980M make more sense with 4K as has 33% more memory and bandwidth compared 970M, not to mention the core having more grunt.

Not that convince about TrueLife, as far as I know from reading around, it just an increase of contrast of just 10% over a non TrueLife display. A Dell marketing ploy in mostly comes from using a glossy screen over a non-glossy, which normal promotes better contrast.

 

From what i have seen the 4k is a bit much for the 980 on

Edit: with higher demanding games on ultra settings

 

Windows does have a some scaling issues but I personally believe that hiDPI displays are still worth it. Scaling is only getting better and the 4K screen will look much better than the 1080p one. Some games you can actually play at 4K with the 980M. If you're into games like Sims 4, Cities Skyline and Civilization 5, they run marvelously at 4K. Go for it, you'll probably regret it if you don't.

 

Personally I don't care to much about running on ultimate settings at 4K, high is definitely good enough. Medium is still ok depending on game. Reason why I cancelled order with 970M and 4K then reordered with 980M (cost a lot for hardly any difference), but might be the difference between running on high or stuck on medium.

Just get the best you can get today and enjoy it while it lasts.

 

980m + 4k = high = awesome

980 + 4k + ultra = ugh

 

The 980M is only $150 more than the 970M right now on the US site. If you don't get it, you're making a mistake.

 

Fully agree with this. Is a good deal for an upgrade in the US.

Outside US in Australia/NZ region upgrade cost $430 US dollars. Becomes not so wise upgrade for the price paid, however if you want the max GPU then there is not other choice. This currently has me hovering over the call customer support phone number, thinking 'what the hell am I doing' I need to cancel the order before its to late.

 

I'd go for whatever panel your budget can handle. That being said, the quality of a panel is far more important that its resolution. I'd rather have a high-quality 1080p panel than a bad QHD.

If the QHD panel on the AW is really good, and you can afford it, get it. Scaling will only get better as these panels become more common. And you can always lower the resolution/settings to get playable frame rates.

My own personal preference is a 4K panel, as that scales perfectly to 1080p. But the highest res panel I saw on the Dell site is 3K, not 4K (unless I'm blind and missed it).

 

That's pretty much a no-brainer.

 

Ugh, sometimes I think moving from Canada back to the states is worth the reduced price of merchandise...

 

Stuff is ridiculously cheap in the US. Sometimes half the advice in these forums is not applicable to Canada, as the price differential erases the economic merits of said advice. Not to mention sales tax.

 

Tax is 15% here in NS. So haggling with Alienware more or less just cancelled the tax on my laptop. It sucks but it is why I am going to move when i am done my degree.

 

In the uk it can often be cheaper to ship it over and pay vat. In some cases like the titan x it's cheaper to fly over and pick a couple up yourself.

 

That doesn't seem to be the case any more.

They have significantly jacked up prices since I purchased mine at the end of Feb. Back then, there was only one i5 option. The base i7 option w/ 970m/8gb/1tb was $1450. Now there are two base i5 options. The the base i7 option is w/970m/8gb/128gb m.2+1tb is $1750! No way is that m.2 worth $300. I bought my own 250gb one for $120. I guess these new alienwares must be selling like hotcakes.

 

The sale ended March 30th. Now it's $350 over the 970M. Just absurd that you start at a base configuration and upgrade two things and it's already more than $2k... Soldered junk isn't worth that premium price.

There should be another mystery coupon sale coming up soon, though. Usually the week before Memorial Day, or around then.

 

These new machines are like cars it seems - they make their money on the upgrades.

$250 for an extra 8GB of RAM. Shesh.

 

When I look at the i7 quad with 970M and FHD , then I look at the price of just an upgrade to 980M and UHD, those 2 upgrades parts alone are 50% (half) of the cost of the 970M with FHD. With that said I don't think is even worth it at all. Its not like you get the 970M and the FHD panel given to you, that is taken away from you during the upgrade, so pretty much zero credit there.

Looking at the bigger picture, spending to much on upgrades now maybe a regretful purchase as the processor/chipset is near 2 years old. Better off to buy with 970M and FHD for now, save money, enjoy it's short life, sell and put all towards next gen system in the coming months.

 

It's usually the case with nvidia's halo products, the 970 desktop offers more bang for buck than the 980 but the 980 is a decent step up. Same for mobile.