980m 8GB

Hi,

Has anyone that has ordered the AW17 R3 w/ the 980m 8GB seem their order go into production? Mines been pre-production for 3 weeks (coming up on estimated delivery date). Was curious if anyone else's has been moving.

FYI, I ordered a couple days after the option showed up.

Thanks
Jeff.

 

the 980 8gb is on hold due to part shortage.

Nothing we can do but wait.

 

Darkhan,

Thanks for the info. I'm just wondering if Dell actually ever had any to begin with. I hope they get them in stock soon!

 

I ordered a 15r2 with 980m 8gb and it was ordered and then into production within a few hours . . .

 

Farson,

Thanks for the info!, damn. I wonder what the issue is then? Maybe it's the UHD screen or the processor... strange. Dell gives me no indication

Thanks
Jeff.

 

The Dell staff told me the 8GB 980m is low in supply...and also something about the memory, too.

 

How much better will the 8 gb be in terms of performance? I currently have the 4gb - wondering if its worth the trouble to send it back and reorder.

 

you'll probably get a nice bump in textures.

 

Hard to say if the 8GB will make a difference, some ppl say no because most games don't even use that much now - even at 4k, some say yes because some games are border line and future games will probably will start pushing limits more and putting larger textures in memory will be beneficial.

If it was a matter of price, definitely worth it IMO. It was only a 100 difference and I ended up getting it for like $50 more over the phone (no brainer)... HOWEVER, they seem to be in short supply or something, had I known it was going to take a month+ for the delivery of the new one (of which I ordered 3 weeks back) I would say no. In retrospect I should have kept my other machine, the hassle is not worth it. I'm also still waiting on my refund plus my current order (3 weeks out) is still in "pre-production" with no clear end in sight.

It really depends on your needs. Frankly, I still don't need the laptop till early next year anyway, but would be nice to have for the xmas break. If you can wait, I'd say do it, if you can't be without it for a while, keep it. my 2 cents!

 

Isn't the 8GB VRAM version only MXM ?
Even my friend ordered a 17 with 8GB VRAM, I just don't get it how its it possible without MXM !!

 

What's the status of your friends and Order Date + EDD?

I highly doubt it's MXM. Frankly, I could care less. Unless there's a specific performance reason, I plan on upgrading to a desktop graphics card w/ my GA when the time comes... I love the idea of the GA, makes all the sense in the world. Especially when graphics cards change so frequently and the processors really don't nowadays.

 

I guess they are scamming Lol & You shoud have invested in an MSI or Sager, Alienware sucks tbh It's all over the forum...my friend will be getting his machine by next month...can't confirm on anything until then.

 

Haha, Alienware does not suck my friend. Take your criticism elsewhere, I'm a long time Alienware owner and don't mind the way they are going... I have my critiques sure and there will always be pros/cons to every decision, but AW's a hell of a lot better than MSI and Sager, LOL!!! I don't mind paying more for better build quality, anyone can take off the shelf parts and build bulky ass plastic laptops with loads of upgrade-ability for no reason, lol.

I would consider Asus a good competitor, I also like what they are doing... BUT, the GA trumps all right now, that's a huge benefit I can't ignore for my own personal use. Probably getting a Titan X or their next higher end card when that comes out.

 

Alienware WAS awesome until the M18x R2 then they degraded their offerings with crippled BIOS, Secure Flash, NVRAM BIOS etc with AW17 R1 ranger / AW18 Viking - this machine had the 330W power limit block by HW, while the older brother M18x R2 Avenger Mark II had awesome 660W handling MoBo, enjoying custom BIOS mod with supreme OC potential, for me the brand died after the AW17 R1..the new machines are not upgradable, small soldered chipsets, non user friendly with servicing, limited RAM slots, no pcie M.2 slots, etc...

Edit : Dell went private in the year 2013 and BAM goes the AW18 down...

It's always different with each person, their own preferences ofc, but I'll leave the Phoenix here - https://biosmods.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/sky-x9

 

Anyone got the 980M yet in their hands?

I always says the more VRAM the better. Although Dell are charging almost $500 USD for the upgrade from 980M 4GB to 980M 8GB, basically $500 for a extra 4GB VRAM. I really want to have it but having really hard time justifying the price, considering in the US the upgrade is just $100 USD.

 

mainly because you're going from a 4gb soldered on GPU to an 8gb GPU on an MXM module and that requires a different motherboard, heat sinks. the 8gb variant is known to be an MXM only.

 

Seems weird that Dell would change their boards just for support of this card?! Is there a way to tell if it's MXM by software only (without opening the machine up)?

Also, what, if any, are the benefits and cons of MXM vs BGA?

 

All I can imagine is the memory IC has doubled in size and been placed on the motherboard along with the normal 980M

And how does the AW15 R2 have a MXM card in it, that isnt possible?

 

you'll need to have different boards anyway because of the VRAM modules (16 for the 8GB) and i doubt there's enough space on the motherboard for them to be equally spaced to allow for the speed of light limitation.

MXM is much preferred over BGA: for one you can upgrade the part or even replace it. if there's an issue you can reseat the card and try again....you can't do that with BGA. The R1 was the last to do MXM as standard and I upgraded from a 780M 4GB to a 980M 8GB without issue. also you have more flexibility when it comes to overclocking and modding as the vBIOS lives on the card and not in the system BIOS.

nope...you just have to be really clever with how you arrange your stuff!

 

We need confirmation of the mxm 8 GB version. that would be a huge thing...

 

Question, would the MXM change anything in relation to the Nvidia Optimus solution? Or would that remain the same?

I still find it hard to believe they would introduce a board change like that now for the 8GB version, I would think they would just not support the 8 if it meant completely different board designs. I could be wrong, but it just doesn't seem right. I would have to think they found a way to solder it on just like the other cards... however, I don't know anything about the hardware.

 

functionality wise having an MXM won't change a thing it's just a preferable to BGA.

 

I really would doubt that Dell would change the design of the notebook to fit a MXM, because that is what would need to be done, it aint fitting in there like that, and would otherwise require a total redesign to work.
Much as I would like MXM card, I bet the memory IC is likely double in size/capacity with the same amount on the soldered onto notebook motherboard. Besides for $100 USD no one will be getting a MXM card in the USA. Here in NZ the option upgrade over 4GB to 8GB is $500 USD, I should really be getting a MXM at that price, all I am really getting is ripped off instead.

 

This makes much more sense to me. They would just double the size of the IC that held the 4GB to 8GB and call it a day. I'll be getting this laptop within a couple weeks, is there anyway (without opening up the machine) to tell if that's the case vs mxm? or no?

Thanks

 

Yeah you can see a normal AW15 R2 heat sink setup easily through the bottom, and will see a flat motherboard where it makes contact with the BGA chips. If there was by any chance a MXM card then you would know.

I would think there be a 0.1% chance there would be a MXM card in the system, to no chance. And I am lean towards no chance.

 

if there's no chance then the VBIOS for it would be very much different to the MXM variant but a slightly modified version of the current 4gb VBIOS as the 980M vbios is literally in the system BIOS where as the MXM variant is not incorporated. it just adds another layer of BS for peeps like prema to work through.

so it's not a true 8GB in the sense that it is not the 8GB MXM which is the true 8GB variant.

that's why most people who are into it will stick with MXM because it can be upgraded, it can be replaced, and the vbios can be accessed without having to go through the system BIOS.

 

I am still considering the 8GB VRAM model with UHD panel. Main reason is games such as GTA V and Shadow of Mordor can easily use over 4GB when pushing it. I think the 980M should still manage it. Though I think the 980M is getting long in the tooth with 3 weeks until 2016 and pascal getting very much closer. Alienware with the higher end spec takes a big drop of cash, if not there then certainly here.

 

this is my concern as well. It's just a fact that the 980m is about to be dethroned next year. The way I see it is pascal will come at a premium (I got a relative good deal on my 980m/uhd/6820). It will take time for prices to come down.. Skylake is solid. UHD screen is solid. Laptop comes with graphics amplifier port and thunderbolt.. So while I will miss out on performance of pascal, I can spend some cash later on a pascal card when prices drop and a graphics amplifier, and the rest of the pc is solid. The 12% sale on alienware makes me feel a bit better about this. The recent 8gb bump will look good on spec sheets and give a smaller increase in resell value worst case. Thoughts?

 

8 gigs is nice but I don't think it's going to make much of a difference honestly. Your going to run out of fps before you run out of frame buffer with the 980m. On a very demanding game like GTAV I'm at 30fps at 4k and around medium settings. When you start jacking up the AA and other options it drops like a rock without exceeding 4GB.

 

I've heard this a lot, and as a game developer, keep in mind, it's not that you're running the game at 4k, it's how much model/texture storage is in the game. Even at 1080p, you can use higher res textures which eat up a lot of memory. There are large texture atlases and don't forget you can fit 4 textures in a 4k texture, so even if your not in 4k games will start utilizing more texture memory because once the texture is in memory, its access is significantly faster. There are good performance gains not having to fetch a different texture as opposed to just using an offset for subsequent draw calls.

However, you're probably correct, most cases it's completely unjustified and even a 980 GTX TI has 6GB (not even 8!). Like you said, 8GB is nice tho

 

I can get a nice 15% discount which make me feel better. The base configuration is already more expensive, which I can deal with, as brings to around near the same price as the US, or bit higher.

I wont be using the graphics amp, so dont want to run out of VRAM as time progresses into next year. I have in the past had a 850M with just DDR3 and was 4GB, it actually easily used up to 3GB and benefited from it, even with it tiny bandwidth. Reason why I chase the extra even if the GPU may not always require it.

Although the main problem I have trouble with is the UHD and the 980M 8GB options together are extra $1000 US dollars ($1500 NZD), which is a far cry from just $300 US dollars in the US for the same upgrades. At that stage 15% feel more like a kick in the face.

So... here to get the base model with i7-6820HK, UHD, and 980 8GB is about $3000 US dollars. That is with base 8GB system memory and 1TB HDD, no extras SSD or anything else extra. That $3000 includes the 15% off too.

 

Wow! Def not worth 3k. What's the price with the 980m 4GB? I could be wrong, but I'm guessing because they seem to be in short supply (high demand) of the UHD/980m 8GB that it's causing your places to be much higher. I'm guessing the prices will become better early next year as stock becomes more plentiful. In your situation the 4GB is not that bad. It only ended up costing me ~50 more than without it from my previous order, that's worth it.

FYI, I ordered a month ago and prices now are better than what I paid, but I'm not going to re-order just to save 100/200 bucks, dell should just give me the better price cause I had to wait so long

 

3000usd is indeed a bit too excessive. Not sure even if the 980m can really utilize the 8gb.

I wouldnt pay that much for those specs. It needs at least to be fully decked out with proper SSD's.

 

I thought the UK was bad - took a 12% off promotion to get the prices close to USA and I even now I'm paying 190$usd more than the same spec on the USA site! For 2930$usd in the UK I'm getting 16gb ram, 512gb SSD +1tb hdd UHD 8gb 980m 6820 and accident protection. Seems OK..

 

Same base model no extraa, but 6820HK, UHD, and 980M 4GB is $2500 US dollars, including the max 15% discount.

There is no way I am taking that poor quality FHD panel. UHD is a plus $500 US dollars option though.

 

Looks like my theory of replacing the IC with double capacity chips might be correct. Therefore replace the 8 current 512MB chips with 1GB chips, which are obviously 8Gb in size each. Link here http://www.myfixguide.com/manual/dell-alienware-15-disassembly/

Some of the big boys, including Samsung and Micron, have started producing 8 Gb GDDR5 chips that will enable cards with 1GB memory per chip. Link here http://www.dvhardware.net/article63610.html

 

Lets just hope they give us new buyers until at least June 2016 before they drop pascal on our faces! lol!

 

I see you have the 8GB model in your sig. When you are using 4K res, can you see any gains or over 4GB usage?

 

It cost me exactly £0.00 (at the time) to upgrade from the 4gb to 8gb 980M GTX on the uk site - i think it was a bug / oversight as i soon found it was an 80£ upgrade a few weeks later...

My system will be delivered on 16/12 (this coming wednesday) so i will be able to run tests then, happy to provide info..

 

Guys,

I just got my AW17R3 980m 8GB. GPU-Z says I only have 4096MB of memory, WTF!!!

Nvidia System Info says:
Dedicated Video Memory: 4096 MB
Shared System Memory: 8141 MB

WTF! Could these be not reporting correctly?

Any ideas?!
Thanks

Is there any other way to tell how much memory my GPU has?

 

Nvidia control panel?
Graphics properties?

 

Gpuz is as accurate as it gets, call Dell

 

I called them, they were little to no help. They believe I have the right card

What I'd like to see is what someone with the 980m 4GB looks like in their NVidia Control Panel -> System Information looks like so I can compare the numbers. I'm especially interested in the 'Shared System Memory' as the guy at Dell said that's what the 8GB is for... I think that's BS.

 

The 8 GB shared memory shouldn't be apart of the VRAM for the GTX 980m 8 GB. It should be more, I would think (dedicated should be 8 GB). Could be less (as in, the values swap).
I get the same VRAM values you do when I use my GTX 960 4 GB in either of my computers.

 

Exactly, I would have expected to see 8GB dedicated as well. So now I'm wondering 1 of 3 scenarios...

1. This card is so new, drivers are incorrectly addressing the space and will be corrected. Or similarly, if it's a BGA issue and they somehow are using the 8GB in a unique way.
2. Dell is not really selling 8GB and someone messed up on the site.
3. Dell incorrectly shipped me a 4GB instead of 8GB version of the 980m

To find out, I'll need to hear from others with the 980m 8GB to report. I believe I'm one of the first to get this card, so I suspect this week people should be getting them. In the meantime I'd like to see if there's any unique identifier my video card has that would, in any way, differentiate itself from the 4GB variant. This includes maybe a model number or anything.

Attached is my GPU-Z screenshot.

Can anyone please post their GPU-Z for the 980m 4GB AW17?

 

just wanted to say same thing for me i'm seeing 4gb dedicated video memory.. In the nvidia control panel

 

I just noticed your Sig, is that for your AW15 R2 w/ 980m 8GB ... showing 4GB?

 

This wouldn't be the first time Alienware sent the wrong machines (they sent some Haswell laptops at the launch of those who bought the Skylake ones).
You either complain more and get the right motherboard (one that has 8 GB of VRAM) or return the laptop for receiving the wrong one.

 

I'd like to confirm they exist. I returned my other version (4GB) to get the (8GB) and that took a month and my refund is still not completed, ugh! Not sure I want to order another one right away. I'd like to confirm these cards do exist. Others have said it's impossible to even have an 8GB BGA card.

 

I'm just on the phone with Dell now. Jesus. Six years later and it's the same crap, I'm being transferred to other departments and someone just offered to order me a 980gtx 8gb they don't know what they're doing. The alienware guy told me if it's reading 4gb they shipped it with the wrong graphics card.