*OFFICIAL* Alienware m15 R4 / m17 R4 Owner's Lounge

Debicat,

The 2080 Super mobile runs at 200w in the Area-51M. The 3080 is a power efficiency card and runs in the new laptops at 115w, 130w and some at 150w. So anytime you lower power, it will never live up to something that's acmctually more powerful unless it is drastically different technology.

The desktop cards on 30 series seem to be doing great. Mobile cards, not so much. The FPS on games is either around the same as a 2070 or lower mobile, or lower.

If you wanted an 17 R4 and you don't mind the RAM, get 32gb and you should be fine.

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Main reason being 3080M using an RTX 3070 gpu instead of an actual RTX3080 gpu. Thats already an immediate 41.6% deficit there. Compound that with a lower power limit even compared to the desktop 3070 and it just gets worse.

Mobile 3000 is a flop, plain and simple

 

Seanwee,

I read about the 30 series last year and everything about them is wrong. I couldn't believe all the hype around waiting for the 30 series.

Not sure Nvidia has ever had an epic fail like this. It seems everything is going to this new power efficient mode. PCs, cars, you name it.

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What do you think of the AW Area 51 R2? Do you think an Eluktronics or Clevo is better?

 

Oh wow! What's the point of undervolting the 3080 and not even putting an actual Rtx3080 GPU die? So there is little difference between the 2080 Super and underpowered 3080

 

Yikes! Do you think the AW Rtx 2080 Super outperforms a desktop 3070?

 

No, not even close.

Desktop RTX 3070 = 2080ti.

 

It's not - the highest power 3080 would still be a bit faster, ca 20% maybe, and it can have twice the amount of VRAM. Given that they hastened to release the 5% faster 2080S but gave up this time strongly suggests the 51M, Azor's final AW pride, is dead, as is the concept of AW as a separate entity. It's just another integrated product line like Vostro or XPS now, with no visible boss.

 

I see. Maybe I should look into XPS instead of AW or just avoid Dell altogether?

 

XPS is very slim. I would check out the likes of Gigabyte Aero, Asus Strix, Eluktronics, or Tongfang (or Clevo if you want something heavier and more powerful).

 

Ok I'm really hoping Clevo will come through

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/alienware-m17-r4

"We were able to check the TGP (Total Graphics Power) of the laptop, which was reported as 165W in Nvidia's drivers — in the "150W+" range listed for mobile RTX 3080."

So currently the M17 R4 has the highest performing 3080 on the market- at the very least in a non-DTR.

 

Calipha,

Reviews like that are misleading. Yes, Alienware has the highest performing 3080 which doesn't surprise me. I would have liked to have seen the 2080 Super in the R3 vs the 3080 in the R4. That would have been a test.

They always test laptops against other brands that all have different power output on their cards. It's a terrible comparison.

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Yeah, not a fan of those Tom's HW promotional pieces. He's calling the laptop "a behemoth"... LOL Some weird benchmarks (who cares about GeekBench, where is TimeSpy, or Cinebench? ), upgradeability section didnt mention the soldered WiFi. If it has WiFi 6 soldered on, the card is becoming obsolete as we speak.

The one good thing is he warned people about the truly abysmal battery life.

 

Does the M15 R4 use the same TGP on the RTX 3070/3080 (150W +15W DB)?
I just find a 17” laptop is too big for my use and taste

 

I don’t believe so, I think it’s the 115w. I wanted the 15 inch OLED but I decided on the 17 inch because I’m not a fan of low TGP cards. Every watt counts in performance.

 

Does anyone think we will get a qhd panel and AMD cpu soon? I really want this laptop for strong 3080 performance. I also have the new ASUS zeph g15 on the short list. Two extremes I know but struggling to decide. Price is not a concern. Have had multiple Alienware’s in the past. What is the opinion on screens with the group? Will the 10980hk hold back the 360hz screen? Not a competitive gamer. Mostly play bl3 and cyberpunk. The toughest part is the screen options. Qhd at 240 would be perfect in my opinion. Razed pulled that off why not Alienware?!

 

No that processor won't hold back a 360hz screen. I'm not sure why people worry about laptop screens so much. Just choose a good external monitor and the screen won't matter.

Personally I go with the 4k UHD. If you're playing strictly on a laptop screen then choose what looks best. The 360hz screen looks nice in games that can be configured with it. BF5 looks great on the Alienware 360hz. Looks even better on the 4k.

If you're not competing in professional gaming, you won't notice much difference. I go for the amazing graphics of the QHD 4k.

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I appreciate your response. I currently game on a desktop 3090 and 4K 120hz lg oled. Worried I will miss the higher refresh rate. 4K 120 would be perfect imo. Any other comments about the 10980hk vs 5900hx? I am not an AMD fanboy just want to get the best I can.

 

No the current i9 mobile processor is still very powerful, although lacking behind the new AMD mobile processor. The main drawback is thermal issues with the 10th gen processors. AMD has better thermals. But for gaming, Intel paired w/the 30 series mobile is powerful. I’m sure in the next few months, the 11th generation Intel processors and AMD will be available for the M series laptops. But if you’re chasing technology, you will continue to be behind. Plan and purchase what you need at the moment, if you’re good with waiting, wait.

 

I have the 15 inch Strix Scar with the 5900hx and 3080 (115 w) QHD resolution. It’s a phenomenal machine and the AMD processor has excellent thermals. The laptop costs $2699 and competes against my previously owned GT76. It feels powerful and has amazing performance. However, in my needs for power, I always want the most powerful laptop, so I ordered a M17 R4 with the i9 and 3080 as my home use laptop. The Scar can run for 10 hours on iGPU and optimus, so it will be for work.

 

Awesome!!! I like the scar except for that strange red key thing. Which screen did you go with on the Alienware? I am definitely getting the Alienware for the TGP 3080 and extra video memory. Just need to decide on timing. I have a razor blade 15 with 2080 now. With the 100w vbios I got 9015 timespy graphics on best run. My 3090 desktop is a strix but I like being able to move around and game though. It is in my theater room and fam is never in there!

 

We have had similar setups. I had a razer 15 2080 Max q 1080p, it served me well for 2 years, before a MSI GT76. My desktop is a 10th gen i9 with a gigabyte 3090. But I also prefer to be mobile...next to my wife when gaming, so a laptop serves me better. I have been conflicted with the screen resolution choice on the m17 r4. I have canceled a few orders because I am back and forth on the 360hz or 4K 60hz. I also know that 4K is hard for even a 3090 to keep consistent 60+ frames and a few games. However, I decided to get the 4K because I will lower the settings if needed, and the image will still be superior to a 1080p high refresh screen. 1080p is dull and I’m not paying $4000 to look at bland colors. I will down sample to 1080p later in the laptop’s life to gain frames. In my opinion, 4K is the better option.

 

Is the 4K panel in the Alienware a good one? I have not researched that and don’t see a whole lot of reviews with it.

 

I have read that it’s vibrant, with good colors. When I receive mine and run through some tests I will post in this forum. That’s the problem we are having now is a lack of opinions from users because Alienware has a lengthy production to delivery time span.

 

Yes, it's a very nice 4k panel.

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Alright, so we've got a couple guinea pigs already, which is always safer

You guys know the saying: if something is too good to be true, it probably is. We'll see how this "165W" (more likely 150W+15W benchmark-only boost) performs in practice in conjunction with 10980HK CPU, as opposed to in marketing materials and sponsored reviews.

They didn't add the TCC performance autocastration feature for nothing

 

I suspect it’s 150 watts with a 15 watt boost that it will rarely use. My strix scar 3080 never uses the so called boost from 115 to 130. I’m expecting thermals can reach CPU throttling. I have previously owned an Area 51m r2 and a GT76, both equipped with a desktop i9. Undervolting was key in thermal control, granted the chassis was larger in both. Also, those razer blades are small space heaters- which I also owned. I’m not a guinea pig for this new system, I already planned on buying one when they were first announced- I’d probably have it now if it wasn’t for my indecisiveness on screen resolutions. Trust me, I’m not one of select few purchasing one, production to delivery takes almost 4 weeks compared to a week and a half for unpopular Dell systems. So they are selling a lot of the M15 and M17 R4s. And yes I was not thrilled about the TCC addition, but if you’re in the market for a high performance laptop at the moment, you understand that thermals will be an issue. I don’t experience thermal issues on my strix with the new AMD processor, but I have read reviews where others have in temps over 90. Maybe when the 11th generation CPUs are released, that may change...maybe, but take that with a grain of salt. As I stated earlier, if you chase technology, you will always be behind- advancements will continue to best current technology. However, I will provide notes of my experience with the machine to aid others in purchasing or waiting or purchasing from another manufacturer.

 

Just to clarify: by "guinea pig" I just humorously meant "an early adopter". It doesn't matter if you decided to purchase this rigtt now, or whether 5 years ago you swore to purchase every AW laptop at launch. Any issues, you will be among the first to know, so obviously it would be helpful if you could share your experiences.

 

No problem, I will gladly provide my experiences with the system. That’s why I’m a fan of this forum, because we can provide information that bias website reviewers fail to offer.

 

I just emailed the sales rep i am working with to add the 4k panel to my order. You talked me into it. I have not gamed on a 60hz screen in a long time so i am a little nervous there. Still wishing it had the AMD CPU for temps but like you said you can always chase the next best thing.

 

Yea, I’m not sure why there still opting to use 60hz, razer and Asus have transitioned to the 120hz 4K screen. But my issue with the 1080p screen is a) the color palette and the b) a refresh rate at 360hz that modern games (with the exception of CSGO) will not reach. The sweet spot would have been a qhd 2K screen at 165 hz. Although it appears that Alienware used their existing panels and changed out the GPU to the 30 series (360hz previously was only available in their area 51m r2). But I have read reviews about praising their 4K screen. I can understand being apprehensive towards 60hz, but I value image over buttery smooth refresh rates. I guess it’s a preference. And yea bummer for not using AMD cuz it’s an excellent CPU. I’m assuming we will receive our systems at similar dates, but I will post my experience as soon as I can and compare to my strix scar 3080.

 

How do you like your new Strix Scar? Do you think it would be good for multitasking and streaming and competitive gaming?

 

Just out of curiosity, did you se the laptop that I have in my signature? I ordered this and it's coming probably next week mainly for the superb Samsung OLED screen, good battery life, and RTX 3080 Max-Q in a nice small package.

 

That looks interesting! Please let me know how you like it when you get it and run some benchmark tests

 

I don’t stream at the moment, so I’m unable to comment on if it’s a good for streaming. But I do believe that the processor is up to the task for handling multiple programs running. It just feels powerful when your using the machine. Again, I compare it to the power of a $4500 MSI GT76 laptop and it’s priced at a budget friendly $2699 (budget for a good gaming pc that is lol). For competitive gaming- depending on the game, at the moment, somewhat, because it has 165hz screen and runs Cold War on Ultra settings at 85-100 fps at 1440p. However, I don’t play fortnite and CSGO type games and I have heard that nividia optimus is kicking on the iGPU causing low frames. It does not have a MUX switch, so I’m hoping that there will be a software update in the near future.

 

Hey Spartan, we spoke last week on the phone in depth at your retail organization about the new 30 series mobile GPUs and how it’s been a mess with the deceptive TGP for these new laptops. The Aero you listed has great specs, I like the 64gb and wish it was available on the M17 R4 as opposed to a restricted 32gb. I read a review that the OLED screen on the Aero manufactured by Samsung is an amazing image. Hope to see your opinion on the machine soon!

 

True, I forgot about the lack of the MUX switch. I really hope Asus will offer a software update to disable optimus then.

 

Yea I read that it was a cost issue to keep that laptop at a competitive price. But I believe with all the complaints they’re receiving they will have to present a solution.

 

sure, but for now, you can get check this review out with the RTX 3070 variant:

 

I completely agree that’s why I asked. But yeah more or less it was the OLED screen that got my attention

 

Eluktronics has mux switch and the ability to turn off optimus but the tech guy said the stock wattage is 115 watts on the 3080 and that the 150 watts is 135 + 15 dynamic boost. Also on the site it says that beast mode gets really really hot and "don't say we didn't warn you" so idk what that's all about

 

Cool! I was wondering with 4k screens- can you downgrade the pixels in Settings to 1080p so you can get more fps?

 

You could certainly change the resolution. I don't think the HZ changes. I will never play on a laptop screen hardly, so I just output it to a monitor and that takes care of that.

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Yes and you can also create any resolution you wan't to be gaming at. 1K 1.5K 2K 2.5k.3K etc.... Playing a demanding game at 4k might give you framerates too low, like 30FPS. Playing at 1080p might give you too high fps on a 60HZ display, like 120FPS. Playing at 2.5K or 3k will give you the 60FPS you were looking for.
That's what i did when i had a M15R2 oled and it was great.

 

How do you like your Area 51 laptop?

 

Laptop is great. Good temps. GPU runs cool with vapor chamber heatsink (comes standard with 2080S GPU i think). CPU 10900K is really fast and can run very hot. Needs to be undervolt and repaste correctly. After all is set correctly it can run at 49X all cores in games without thermal throttling.
The only issue is: AWCC is full of bugs so i recommend using ThrottleStop to undervolt and MSI to overclock.
I aslo recommend not to update bios. Dell cannot be trusted with updates. They usually send update to cripple performance of our fine system to avoid expensive repair under warranty.
I sometimes fell like i rented this laptop, that it is still dell's property cause from a distance they can force me to accept bad update to keep my warranty active. Example: the first thing tech support does when you call them is they force you to update bios. If you refuse they will not cover the default parts with the warranty.

So you can see i have mix feelings about my system. On one hand i really like everything about the build quality, the look, the performance and on the other hand i hate how dell threats it's customer with cripple updates, sometimes tech support is great and sometimes it is the worst....depends wich country your call is transfer too.

 

Hi guys. I take a place in this Lounge ordered my m17 Yesterday.

Anyone already got his hands on an r4?

 

Welcome to the long wait... ordered 4 days ago, and the machine still has not entered production. A few people on Reddit have received their systems. I’m waiting to see them post the benchmarks.

 

Hey I got my m17 3080 yesterday