A few questions about the 17 R3

Hello,

I'm thinking of buying the 17 R3... I have an m17x R3 from back in 2011, but it's not doing so well anymore.

Basically I have 3 questions...

Does getting the 980m over the 970m make that big of a difference in 1080 gaming?

Does getting the 6820HK over the 6700HQ make much difference, and would the 6700HQ with a 970m still give me decent results?

Finally, on the more powerful option (980m with 6829HK)... how's the noise level of the fans? I've heard the fans can get pretty crazy. If I don't have fan performance mode enabled in the BIOS (as apparently that causes loud fans ALL the time)... can I still game without damaging the innards? And, how's the fan noise level when gaming in that setting?

Many many thanks!!

 

I had both a 970m and a 980m and the 980m is a bit faster and closer to a 970GTX desktop with some overclocking. The 970m was similar to a 770gtx desktop and it works well now but I think it will lack a bit in the near future. BUt to be honest I would wait now a bit till the pascal generation has been released.

 

I had these exact same questions and believe it or not, I'm getting the new 17 to replace my 2011 M17xR3. What a coincidence.

Thanks for the reply rinneh, when do you think pascal will be available in the new Alienware laptops. I don't want to wait more than May-June.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hmm difficult to say, they expect it to be released around that time. But it depends on how fast Alienware incorporates it into new models.

 

Thanks for the responses!

I would wait, but as my current machine is dying... I really can't. So it's gotta be now (plus the canadian AW site has a promotion on until tomorrow)

 

You will have 0 issue with the 6700HQ and the 970M running anything on Ultra in 1080p. It will run everything very, very smoothly.

If you have the funds to do so, I would jump and get the 6820 and the 980 because it isn't that much more.

 

Nah the 970m is not enough for fhd with everything on high settings.

I wish it was but it isn't. The division needs medium settings, rise of the tomb raider needs medium settings, ac syndicate also etc. I am glad they exchanged my 970m with a 980m. Soon the pascal's will arrive too.

 

I'd go with the bigger GPU and standard CPU if possible.

 

Yep, I did

Unfortunately Dell cancelled my order without telling me (apparently some part that they can't tell me was out of stock). So now I have to wait for the original transaction to be reversed before I can re-order. I hate delays!

 

Sorry about that! It does happen sometimes. I hope you get the money back soon so that you can get the machine you need/want ASAP.

 

Yep, delays can happen, and it's understandable. What I wish had happened though... is that Dell would have sent an auto-email or something notifying me of the change. If I hadn't checked the status page, I would never have known!

 

dethmanrulz,

I'm only replying here because I have the EXACT same computers I had a m17x R3 (still do) and got a 17 R3 in January (6820HK + 980m).

Here are my thoughts for you....

In comparison, my new machine is NOT significantly faster than my M17X R3 (Extreme Quad Processor). I would still opt for the 6820HK though because you can never change that and it does overclock, but I don't do that.

The 980m is great, even in 4k it's surprising. I have since bought an Amplifier with a 980ti and that is even better of course (desktop GPU).

As odd as it sounds, my old machine is still faster in some respects but only because it's still running Windows 7. However, the GPU is a significant upgrade.

Machine parts are really a personal matter, I'd rather have the better proc vs gpu since you can upgrade the gpu via the amplifier. I also don't game very much too.

I just wanted to reply to a fellow m17x r3 owner

 

Interesting thoughts, thanks. In what respects is the old machine faster? Seems pretty strange that a machine from back in 2011 would be faster!

 

In terms of cpu technology, intel didnt make a lot of progressions ince the sandy bridge days, the only things that really changed is energy efficiency and internal gpu performance of the intel cpu.

 

Exactly as rinneh said, the cpu technology hasn't been improved upon other than efficiency.

For speed, both machines have an SSD. I have stop watched some applications for startup time, like Visual Studio on my old machine is about 1.5 times faster to startup than my new machine - kind of pisses me off. It has nothing to do with the machine though, more than to do with Windows 7 vs Windows 10.

Just goes to show you though, getting a new machine doesn't always make things faster. The m17x r3 was fast enough IMO. I also had that fully loaded at 32GB Ram and my current machine is at 16GB -- although, this doesn't effect speed at all. Well, the newer machine technically has faster RAM, but that's hard to notice IMO.

The new machine allows me to use an external GPU and the 4k screen is just awesome - two of my main reasons for getting the new one besides the old machine starting to die . I also wanted to hook up 2 external monitors with higher resolutions than my old card supported. I do miss the 3d and hdmi in port!!