980m 8GB

So, they sent both of us (two different models) ... and probably more people, the wrong boards? I don't buy it... I want to see an actual 8GB board.

 

I really did NOT want this to happen, and it seems its happening again!

4gb vs 8gb

bad blacklight bleeding on left side

Otherwise the laptop is ideal. dammit dell. every time! I really don't want to be dealing with this .. I'm getting a call back for a re-ordered machine from a customer services rep, and i'll have to use this machine for the next 4 weeks or so when i go away for xmas.

 

Interesting . . . I just fired up Batman: Arkham Knight and in the graphics options it's even reporting that I have 4gb . . . so that's 3 different programs reporting 4gb and not 8gb (GPU-Z, HWInfo and Batman:AK)

This sucks . . .

 

webjeff, they shipped you a 4GB card. I just got my 17 R3 with 980M 8GB, screens of GPU-Z and Nvidia Control Panel attached

 

Very much appreciated, Damn you Dell!

Thanks again DrewN for the confirmation!
Jeff.

 

I've reached out to my contact @ dell to see what they have to say about the 4gb and my other issue with OC3 crashing with a whea_uncorrectable_error and I'll post back with a reply . . .


Farson

 

DrewN, would you be able to confirm for us if the 8GB version is indeed BGA or MXM? I've been reading that its BGA and MXM, dell's useless support say the 8GB is now MXM and can be upgraded in the future etc..

Thanks

 

Just received my new AW15 with 980M "8GB" after longer than initially estimated, almost 3 week wait while they were putting the thing together in China...

GPU Z and the video driver are both reporting 4GB DDR5.

What a joke. Will poke around but assuming this is ridiculous incompetence and will need to ship the machine back before Xmas.... Thanks Dell.

 

Could you clarify how you dealt with this exactly? Did they promise to build you a new machine and then swap? What proof do you have that this is going to happen? Seeing how they can f... up an order straight up like this I would need quite a bit of proof.

 

I just got word today that my 980m 8GB is shipping. I'll have it in 2 days I really hope I get the correct board. I have already been without a good machine for almost 2 months. Using a tablet or my wifes consumer level laptop has been killing me!

 

looks like all alienware 15 r2 orders shipping with 4gb in actual fact. Lol.

 

Pretty cool marketing trick on their part. "Your new Alienware laptop can now ship with the 980M having a whopping, unprecedented and industry leading 8GB of memory.... that's shared of course, what did you expect morons!!! Gee, what a bunch of geeky retail dupes hahahah (goes back to counting the free bucks just made for the company)"

 

We already have at least two people with GTX 980 8 GB (both here and on Alienware Arena). No need to spread misinformation.
I understand you guys are upset that you got the wrong GTX 980m, but keep in mind what you say.

 

I'm sorry but we have four people here already who ordered 8gb and got 4gb, so this is clearly widespread. Not spreading misinformation. I've waited for three weeks for this machine and now going through dell support again. Not a good use of time.

 

Re-read what you said. You said all, not most. You counter statement doesn't even support that.
A single word can turn correct information into false information.

 

Torally agree with nickbarbs here. Even one such failure to deliver to the specs would be below the expected standard of performance, and should be remediated immediately at their expense. A series of incidents like this is certainly beyond explanation by a one-off mishap.

BTW At least one guy reporting 8gb did so for the AW 17 not AW15 as per the claim.

 

Yea,

My goal was to find at least one person w/ 8 to verify that exists and it does, by at least 2 people. My guess is, the first batch (however big) that was in the queue got the wrong card, but hard to say how many that is.

I am debating the worthiness of returning as I've already been waiting for several months with a previous exchange for this already. Not sure I can do it again.

 

Well called support - he confirmed the 4gb and since it is welded to the board it's easier to just replace the entire computer . . . well they then offered to do the motherboard as that would take only a week compared to possibly a month because of the exchange. Went with the exchange anyways as some of the techs I've gotten in the past haven't been that familiar with AW and have had to take it apart / put it together multiple times to get everything working . . . . I live in a rural area lol.

So I get to keep this current machine until the new one comes in and that works for me as it is working . . . just not the right card and that's being corrected. I've been told that I will get a new order number next week and then it's just a sit and wait for it to arrive.

Pretty painless actually . . . but it was about a 2 hour call . . . .

 

Encouraging news Farson, thanks for sharing. Will attempt to replicate your success. Who specifically did you talk to (customer vs tech support? general dell vs dedicated alienware people?)

 

It was actually 4 different people lol.

Called the 800 254 3692 number and it was answered by a recording saying it was Alienware. I picked the correct area but then that person transferred me to an incorrect person. Got a bit worried there but they got me to the right area - definitely a tech - he took control of my screen and did a whole bunch of checking - didn't watch as I was working on a different computer. He confirmed the 4gb and said he was going to start a chat with another area to get the exchange process started and would transfer me over to that person once everything was setup.

 

Farson,

Same thing happened to me, except that other person took 2 hours to get to and they hung on me cause they closed. I submitted an email w/ wrong order info about it. I may just keep it, 8GB isn't worth all this trouble frankly. Barely any games take advantage of it and the ones that do will most likely require a beefier card anyway.

I believe I know what happened now. Look at your order details.

The item number for the correct 8GB version is:
W15RD and YRFN8

My item number and probably yours as well says:
1 490-BCZG NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 980M with 8GB GDDR5

Notice the 490-BCZG, I believe that's a 4GB version. I've seen this happen before when dell updates their site with new products (same as the skylake), they used the same ID because I think the other ID's were not updated in the system yet. I bet anyone who got the 8GB's had either "W15RD and YRFN8" in their summary.

Still is Dell's fault, but good to know kind of what went wrong.

FYI, my order was placed over the phone... so I didn't even do it!

 

mine was 490bczg. You got it right

 

Yep! Good call - it was 490-BCZG and I'll watch that on the reorder!

and I paid for it so I'm going to go thru with it - it wasn't painful for me so . . . like instead of doing this last night I waited until the morning and called early so that they could take all day if they needed.

I can't believe that they hung up on you . . . .I'd have gone berserk at that!!!

 

Farson,

So, what are they going to do? Are they sending you a label or box for return? Are they making a new order and new CC charge? What's the process they are putting you through, I'd like to determine if it's something I would do or not.

I am not willing to use my CC again and wait for another refund, **** that. I'm still waiting on my previous refund. No way I'm gonna be out over 6k just for a laptop waiting on most of that to come back.

Thanks!
Jeff.

 

Jeff

Actually I get to keep this one until the new one arrives and I then ship the existing one back . . . I purchased this thru my company's epp . . .maybe that's part of why this has gone so smoothly . . . I don't know.


Farson

 

****,

I would do that, what number did you call?

 

800 254 3692

I got that number when I tried to start an online chat and it said I wasn't eligible to do a chat and to call that number or a dell customer services number

 

Farson,

Did this myself as well. Exchange, 7-10 business days and can keep my machine in the interim. My only concern is that the new machine will have backlight bleed issues or something else wrong... but I guess they can fix that too if those problems arise.

Thanks
Jeff.

 

I just checked mine, which arrived a couple hours ago. I got the correct 8gb version.
My dedicated is showing 8192MB GDDR5, so I think I have the right one. Got lucky there I thinks.

 

Sounds like quite promising arrangements guys. Got to play around with the new machine today and it's been great so far. The FHD screen is excellent for my purposes, way better than expected (just a tiny bit of bleed) and looks like up to 12h of battery life... so I'm unlikely to return it outright, however, would rather get that 8GB VRAM I paid for. Jeff, did they insist on running some remote diagnostics on the machine? How much time did the process take?

 

Congrats. AW15 or 17?

 

AW17 is the one.

 

Dell will let me keep mine until January when I get back from holiday. Then they'll swap me info the 8gb machine (and fingers crossed light bleed is better)

 

OK, so still waiting for someone recently in luck with the AW15.

 

Thanks. Just curious about the technicality of the swap process. Will the courier do the swap?

 

According to him yes the courier will do the swap. As an aside I want to say I'm really not at all impressed with the soft touch rubber and quality of this machine. It is very much a Dell machine and doesn't look premium in the slightest. I am coming from a macbook but the way the screen bezel pinches the UHD screen just through normal movement, the huge amount of sloppy backlight bleed on the 300£ premium screen these guys don't even bother to screw in the screen to the bezel with even torque to avid it or make it uniform, the huge alienware logo (this should be smaller) the soft touch rubber all of this is just plain cheap and gives a riced up Honda feel to the device. I like the cooling system and the specs for the money, battery life is good.. I'll keep it because I need a desktop replacement but I'm not selling my 2012 macbook pro retina. That thing has a clearer screen and better build quality and it is almost four years older. Oh and zero backlight bleed.. Whatsoever.. Dell's response is that backlight bleed is within spec. It's still a shoddy company.

 

Fair points, it's not the ideal machine (never mind the company itself, apparently), but in truth I'm not sure what comparable machine I could get at the price point. MSI, Clevo, Asuses, Acer are all out of the race on battery life, so is the Mac since it comes with gen4 i7 and AMD gpu. Yeah, I do wonder what that rubberized finish is going to look like in a month, but the fact that it looks less premium is an advantage for me since I would use it for public transport commute. Actually looks kind of tactical which is always good these days

 

same with me because of the price point, still 3000$ usd all in, and the specs I'm going for it. But that rubber will look like a disaster in a month.

 

no 120hz for you!

 

I actually like the rubber feel and look of the machine, my only critique would have been for a glass display. However, the matte screen is growing on me

Also, anyone know if I can return the new machine when it arrives instead of the old machine for an exchange. If the new machine has more backlight bleed or other issues? Will Dell charge me because they got back the wrong machine?

 

Agreed, the rubberized finish is indeed quite pleasant to the touch (just hope it will respond to cleaning), and the matte screen is simply awesome for reading/text editing at 100%.

All that said I still want my 8gb vram.. anyway will report on my Dell call, ETA tomorrow.

 

Couldn't care less Got a 120hz monitor in case refresh rate is ever an issue.

 

Tips for the phone call, they should be able to do an exchange. Just keep complaining, they originally said they couldn't do an exchange for some reason but could do a return. Don't do a return. It takes way to long.

If they do agree to an exchange tho, ask them if the new one is actually 'worse' than the current model, if you could send the new one back and just keep the old one. I forgot to ask this. I think you can, but would like to confirm. This would make attempting an exchange a no-brainer and just keep the one you like better.

 

Anyone experiencing random slowdowns mid game? Are we saying this is still an issue? Just played some need for speed and it is buttery smooth at 4k, with the occational drop to 5 fps that lasts about 2 seconds... every 1.5 mins or so??!

 

Thanks Jeff, will do. Wish me luck lol.

 

Will try some gaming. Did you overclock by any chance?

 

Funny you should mention that, I was playing star wars battlefront in 4k (smooth as butter), I also noticed weird parts that would seem to pause the game. However, take that as a grain of salt, because A) the game was downloading in the background while I was playing and B) I played rocket league in 4k and it had zero issues.

 

I got a 4gb card too. Phoned dell today, they're going to get back to me in 24 - 48 hours. Can't believe they put the production on hold for 2 weeks for the new 8gb card and then just put the old 4gb in anyway.

 

Yes I overclocked to level 2.

 

I just got my 15" R2 Today. My 980m had the full 8gb according to cpu-z