New Alienware 18: is my processor limiting the dual 780M cards?

The main thing I want to know is am I being limited with my 4700MQ processor with dual SLI 780Ms? Should I consider upgrading to a more powerful one via an eBay purchase or when they become available as standalone products I can purchase? How much of a performance hit am I taking in games by having this lowest end processor they offer for the Alienware 18 laptop?

I'll tell the story as to how I ended up with the 780Ms, but only the low end processor...

So, initially I was trying to order the system with two 770M cards. I had a chat technician put the order together for me to get the system as cheap as possible. After I agreed on the specs he sent via email, they called me. Somewhere along the lines here, when trying to reduce the price, he downgraded some of the parts and I was not informed.

Needless to say, I ended up with a system that came with two 765M cards. It also only had a single 750 gig HDD instead of the dual HDD RAID 0 + mSATA caching.

Dell agreed to send me the 770M's and the other HDD plus mSATA card. I waited...it finally got here. The Dell technician came, installed the new cards, and left. I boot it up, and guess what? They sent me TWO MORE 765M's and not the 770M's. So the tech just replaced two fully functional 765M's with a different set of 765M's instead of the 770M's. I was furious and I called them to schedule it again and they told me for my trouble, they would upgrade me to 780Ms. They also did not send the mSATA card. They set up the parts to send out to me.

Two days later, the laptop stops turning on. No lights would come on, no beeping, NOTHING. I'm assuming the technician did something that eventually caused it to die, no clue.

So, I had to send the laptop back to Dell for repair. They ASSURED me that they would install the mSATA caching card and upgrade the graphics cards to the 780Ms at the repair depot. After waiting, waiting, and waiting some more, it FINALLY comes back. I boot it up. STILL 765M CARDS AND NO MSATA CACHING DRIVE!!

So, I call again and they set up another part dispatch. I double checked it afterwards to make sure the tech did it right, and realized he had only placed the order for ONE 780M card, not TWO, so after that first 1.5 hour phone call to set up the first dispatch, I called back and had to go through another nearly 2 hour phone call, since they had to cancel the first dispatch and set it up again for two cards instead of one.

The parts arrive and the tech installs the graphics cards (FINALLY the correct 780M cards) but has no way to screw in the mSATA card, because there was no screw included with the shipped mSATA card she received! So now I have to wait for a damn screw to be sent to me!

For all my trouble, I ended up basically with a $100 gift card (which is crap because they have had promos recently where they give you a $200 gift card just for purchasing one of the new laptops). Sure, they upgraded the graphics cards from the 770M that was configured to the 780Ms, but the hassle and trouble I went through for this has been insane.

I'm not sure the freebies were worth it considering the hassle I went through just to get a laptop. I placed an order back on May 15th for an M18x R2, only to find it was delayed 4 times, which they told me to cancel after the new laptops were announced. So now, it is August 15th, 3 months to the day after the initial laptop order, and while I have a "working" laptop, it still is missing the mSATA caching card and is not how I configured it originally. Sigh.

Dell doesn't give a crap about their customers. I could check my phone logs and I bet I spent a total of over 24+ hours talking to them in all throughout the many, many, MANY times I had to call them. Most of the calls were over an hour and a half in length. I've contacted their customer care team, but they don't CARE about customers at all. They just told me that if I wasn't happy, to return the laptop.

Let me give you a stark counterexample of a company that acutally DOES care about their customers: Apple. After I purchased an iPad 2 a few years back after they were released, I had to have it replaced twice. It had logs on it that it was crashing at the factory, since the manufacuring date was the same as the crash log I found. Due to my trouble, even though all I did was have to drive to the local Apple store twice, I was given a free iPod Touch 16GB as well as a free smartcover.

Sorry for the long post I needed to vent my frustration over this dumb company. Anyways, the main question is at the top of the post, heh. Thanks.

 

4700mq is fine for dual 780's, i would not spend money on a new cpu till the extreme edition comes down in price next year. As far as dells tech support? its hit and miss. Sometimes they do things just right, sometimes its a disaster. The dual 780m's is well worth it though as one of those cards currently retails for about 800 bucks lol

 

I forget, but upgrading from dual 770s to dual 780s is maybe $500? From 765, maybe closer to 1k? On the uk site, it's 300 pounds more to go from 770 to 780 which is $467 or so...can't configure it yet on the us site.

Did you get charged correctly at least? I know our time is invaluable, but a possible 1k free upgrade would probably be considered making a pretty good faith effort. I agree that it shouldn't take that long and doubtful that I won't have problems myself now.

 

You went thru a lot..this is true but come on two 765 to duel 780's plus mSata and they had all those tech charges. And your bashing Dell? Look from their side we did all that and he bad mouth us..:what:

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

OP,

Consider yourself lucky for that upgrade. I've had quite a hassle to that's been well documented and their care team cared...not.

With that, your 4700 is just fine for games. VERY VERY few games will benefit from the extreme but you will be talking a matter of a 1-3FPS at 1900x1080 resolution. The 4700 is plenty fast as it's about 10% faster clock for clock than my old 2760qm processor at 2.4ghz. So no worries. Enjoy your 780s as those are the top of the food chain. That is a worthy upgrade from the hassles you have been through IMO. I do empathize with your story because time is money and the time that is lost, especially based on what you do for a living, would likely not be worth the price of the entire computer at all!

As long as your system works fine, you will be gaming at the highest level. The ONLY real reason for a 4930 is for benching but that shouldn't be a concern for you given your original purchasing specs. Enjoy!

 

HA. Never buy an Apple laptop if you want good service. I had an issue refused three times, then they held on to the laptop for nearly 3 months waiting for a DVD drive.

Either way, no. The 4700MQ shouldn't throttle you unless you're playing severely unoptimized games such as Planetside 2. Even then, I doubt it.

Have some fun with it, instead of worrying and trying to get more. You paid for the 765ms and got 780ms, which is a $800+ upgrade, for free, plus the $100 gift card. Asking for another $1000 upgrade just isn't reasonable. (That would be almost entirely what you paid by then, in free addons.)

 

Why not just send it back and get your money refunded? Or demand that you get to keep your system and get a full refund?

I'm sorry. I understand the frustration you went through. I'm surprised they upgraded you to dual 780Ms and gave you a $100 gift card. Most people here would gladly go through the trouble you went through for that compensation. Most people don't even get any compensation. Getting a free upgrade like that is nothing to look past. Do you know how many people had their orders cancelled because of the shortage of 780Ms? Those people even paid the extra price for them.

Comparing Dell customer service, let alone anyone else's customer service, to Apple's customer service is unnecessary. We all know how great they are most of the time. I've always had my iPhone repaired or replaced on the spot. Can't complain there. But comparing getting compensated an iPod to getting compensated dual 780Ms and a $100 gift card is just ridiculous. Price of a 16GB iPod: $229. Price of dual 780Ms: $1600+/- and the $100 gift card.

Why not just look inside the system and take a screw for some place that it may not be needed, like where the disk drive is? They are similar screws, and I'm sure 3 screws out of 4 will still keep it in place. Or what about one of the cover screws? Not sure if they're a different length or not.

Not trying to dog on your post, but I think you've been compensated more than enough for your troubles. It sucks you went through all that, but at least now you've got the latest and greatest in mobile GPUs in your system. Flash over the modded bios and start benching that bad boy, or at least game to your hearts content.

 

At all stock settings, without tweaking the 4700MQ will outperform the 4800MQ, 4900MQ and perhaps even the 4930MX due to the unoptimized settings in the BIOS . Until a BIOS update is released it will stay so.

Why do I know? I used to have 4700MQ, then I changed to 4800MQ, then I changed to 4930MX.

 

Have you updated the Bios to A02 or unlocked the vBios to Techinferno specs? ... all until the newer BIOS is released. The 4930 is work in progress.

 

I do not know any other computer company that would give free upgrade like that even if you did go through trouble. They lost money big time on this deal to make you happy. I would count my blessings and move on about that.

 

As all the posts say, you got a better deal than pretty much anyone else on here. People can complain and rip Dell, but Dell loss money on your purchase actually and they would've been better off probably not selling you the machine to begin with. All those service visits cost real money as well.

I had a specialized camera fail on me (screen goes black) a while back and not only did I have to pay shipping to send it back myself to the manufacture, but they sent me a unit which worked for a few months and is dead again.

As a fact, most companies will never give you MORE than what you bought just because their stuff broke...One reason so many people swear by the warranty even though it takes 24 hours which means you got paid about $42 per hour for your trouble...

Hopefully, that puts your situation in better perspective. In the end, support issues generally suck everywhere.

 

So, let me get this right. You tried to order a machine outside of the structured tiers that Dell clearly advertise.....you thought you were getting 770m SLI and 1.5tb HDD raid with 64gb mSata to cache. Rep gets it all wrong. You get the machine that IS from one of tiered bundles and then kick off.

Dell try and sort you out with various parts, various visits and a depot repair. All of which they did not really need to do - but they were working with you to get you what you were told you were ordering. I'm a little lost at this point, mainly because most (if not ALL) people ordering an Alienware get an order confirmation through and that details the full specifics of the machine going into production. Normally, you have to accept an email offer, too - which also details the full system specification. Maybe you did not read these emails, or overlooked them. I don't know, but to say you were unaware of the build does not sound quite right to me.

Anyway, the machine lands, and Dell try and get you what you say you ordered with this rep. via vairous means - some of which do not pan out quite as expected.

Can I ask did you actually PAY for 770m SLI and 1.5tb & mSata? - I mean, you must have noticed some anomaly in the billing, right? - or did you think you were getting these upgrades at the price for 765m SLI and a single 750gb (base spec) ??

Anyway, I feel that Dell would have been within their right to tell you to return the machine if you had that much of a problem with it, and re-order the same way that everyone else has to do - from within the tiered structures clearly laid out on the web site.

They didn't do that - instead they tried to work with you (granted, a few hiccups) and you ended up with an upgrade from 765m SLI to 780m SLI and an extra HDD and a 64gb mSata AND a $100 gift card.....and you are still moaning????

If Apple offer such good service, I'd probably suggest you go back to them if you think Dell are such a "Dumb Company"

Lord, give me strength.... You want to stop whining and accept the fact that Dell did right by you......some people just do NOT know they are born.....

I'm not even going to answer the thread title question, primarily because you'll probably then say that Dell should upgrade your processor, too....

 

Yes you want the most powerful CPU you can put in there. I clearly remember seeing a 2k point increase in my GPU score in 3DMarkVantage simply increasing the multipliers from factory to 42x4 (no other changes made, locked/factory BIOS at that time). I also remember there being a 5k point difference in GPU scores between those powered by a 3840 and a 3920. I also see a loss of 10-15 FPS experimenting with factory multipliers (38,37,36,36 vs. 45,45,44,43) or ~1 Ghz of processing power in CPU intensive games.

The CPU matters. You aren't going to experience nearly the full potential (the rest of which is strangled by the 330W PSU) of 780M SLI with anything less than 4+ Ghz.

Edit:

Having read the responses above and some of your rather lengthy post I have to say that you should actually be grateful for coming out of the ordeal with a pair of 780M FOR FREE. These cards are about double the cost of 765, or close to $1k a piece from Dell. Yes you waited way too long. Put a 4930 from ebay or whatever in it, wait for the unlocked BIOS and be happy.

 

Now hold on. Even though I agree that op is getting a hell of a deal and that gpu upgrade is well worth the hassle he went thru.. Does anyone have an idea how much Dell's cost is on a 780m? I wonder if they purchase the 765m's for $50 and the 780's for like $150?

 

I doubt they are that cheap.

 

Definitely not, there isn't traditionally a lot of money in hardware components for system builders, especially in GPU/CPUs. Dell makes much more on the SSDs and RAM. I'm not as familiar with the mobile GPUs, but they definitely aren't that cheap.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

Alienware totally did you right with the 780M SLI upgrade + $100 gift card. You would never get that kind of generous apology from another computer company. Sure, it came after somewhat of a hassle, but life is full of ups and downs... just have to roll with the punches. But wow, that is some pretty sweet lemonade that came from that lemon.

Yes, get the 4930MX if you can afford it. An Extreme CPU will outperform non-Extreme CPUs for several generations. The 2920XM is now 5 generations old in CPU evolution and it still beats the stuffing out of any non-Extreme CPU... there's no substitute for brute force. If you cannot afford it at this time, enjoy what you have now and save up for it.

 

As far as cost of the 780m's from Dell goes, I had Dell UK send me a quote for a 680m SLI upgrade some time back - the price was just over £2,000gbp for two cards. That kinda put's this into perspective.

 

Cost TO THEM is what he was asking, though. I'd bet it's around $500 in lots of 100. They're not huge profits in their machines, but they are for single part sales.

 

Sure, cost to Dell to buy them in is going to be ridiculously low in comparison to cost to the end user. It's also pretty irrelevant, too - as none of us are ever gonna get remotely close to Dell's 'economies of scale' purchasing power.

 

Yeah, they probably ordered a lot of 10000... economy of scale indeed.

 

That was sorta my point. Upgrading a customer to 780m's for putting up with a hassle is very generous. But please don't make it seem like Dell is losing money with this upgrade. Op is getting a nice $1,000 upgrade from our point of view as customers. But how much does that upgrade actually cost Dell?

 

Speculate is all we can do as for the cost to Dell - but you're, right....they obviously do have a cost, and that cost has been bourne by Dell in the offer of the upgrade. Quite a substantial one at that, too...

 

I suppose being self employed and selling retail, even though Dell gets things substantially cheaper, they don't get it for pennies or anything. This is why tons of companies lose money often. For all Amazon sells, they make 1% in profits? Many PC makers have gone under already and other than Apple printing money with their iPhone which is heading downhill currently, I don't think anyone views the PC business as a cash cow. The whole reason for IBM and near everyone else leaving/dead from it...

That said, it doesn't cost Dell 1k, but it's still a high cost when you factor that in + 100 cash card + all the service calls which I'd guess are all upwards of $200 per call...

Not really defending Dell, but I think everyone involved would just like their machines which work or configured the first time. Save everyone a ton of headache later.

 

Hey there are plenty of posts here but the OP has not replied yet. Nor has the OP made another post in this forum.

 

The last post in the thread states that I hadn't responded yet. I am busy and was away for work all day today.

Can it be re-opened so I can properly respond to some of the questions?

First, the email confirmation sent to me with the system config clearly stated 770Ms and the dual HDD + mSATA card. That's what I agreed to buy. They then CALLED me and confirmed that the emailed saved cart/configured system was what I wanted, and I agreed.

Once I received the laptop and realized it was incorrect, I contacted them and sent them a copy of the email that showed the saved cart error. I have no clue if I was charged for 770Ms and the 2 HDDs+mSATA combo, or if they charged me for the lesser one when I asked if they had any promos going on to get the price down. Regardless, I was NEVER informed about it.

I'd like to post more answers to the questions in the thread if it can be re-opened. I do not mean to sound ungrateful, but you have to understand that their level of quality of customer service is HORRENDOUS.

I'm sorry if my post offended anyone or made me seem like an . I apologize for that.

I still was getting different answers to my main question I made the thread about...sorry it turned into a long ranting post of mine while I was trying to explain how I ended up with the 780Ms while only the lowest available processor, heh.

 

I think including myself took the post maybe a little different... It came across as a complaining that you had to deal with all that and all you got was all the stuff you got. I understand you went with a lot of things to try to get the right video cards but the written word is hard to understand tone. Many people on the forums have been thru what you have and didn't get anything but sorry we need to keep trying to replace pieces or other things.

To answer your orginal question, I don't think it will hold you back for many years to come. Would it be nice to have a better processor, yeah, but I don't think the 780's are going to be held back by processor. If you are going to be doing bench marking and wanting to push your system to the limits then yea get one now. If not wait til the prices drop and get one. I don't think the money is worth it.

Also I am still running 560's because they do everything I need them to do. It is all how you are going to use the computer. You really didn't say how you want to use it. That is a big factor in answering the question.

 

To be honest, I use it a lot more for a workstation for doing web development for my company I started 5 or so years ago. I honestly rarely even have time to play games these days, lol, but I wanted to make sure that IF I bought a high-end game, the capability to play it at awesome settings IS there.

My "rant" so to speak was mainly to vent my frustration over Dell's customer service, and not what they offered me as compensation. Nobody should have to wait over 3 months to finally have a product get here and as you thought it was originally configured. I shouldn't have to spend a total of easily over 24+ hours on the phone talking with their tech support reps. And no, I am not joking, I honestly estimate that number to be true. One day alone I was on the phone with them for a total of 4 hours. I had patience after being cut off twice by two reps before I found someone who WAS willing to help me, but due to how "complex" the case was, in his words, it took forever. That phone call alone lasted nearly 2 hours and I believe I had to call them 4 times that day.

Honestly, I'd give BACK the freebies if they would IMPROVE THEIR LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT! When I ordered the laptop, I had someone call me to verify the order and asked me a bunch of scripted questions. 30 minutes later, someone else calls me and asked me the same exact scripted questions. It seems like they just have redundant personal wherever their support is based (I assume India). If they laid off, say, 10 workers in India just to hire 1 person in the US who actually is capable of assisting me at a reasonable level, then that would be worth it imo and I'd even let them take these freebies back.

I just don't know how to express my frustration over the whole scenario, and I apologize if I sounded like a bratty 5 year old kid or something who was just looking for freebies.

 

The two things I mentioned over there ring true here. (PS: You can PM Mr. Fox, one of the Alienware Moderators, and he might be able to reopen it for you, and merge the two threads.)

You most likely won't throttle. There were people saying, 'Oh, it's CPU bound for sure! My benchmarks...'. Whatever. Benchmarks aren't games, and there are very very few games that would show significantly higher FPS with a higher processor. A modern and properly optimized game (such as Metro 2033 Last Light) probably wouldn't show a significant increase from 4700 to 4900/4930 unless you overclock it heavily. On the other hand, Planetside 2, made by the worst team in the world, would probably show benefit to a faster processor. But it's also unoptimized to the max.

You were also asking for another freebie. You got what you paid for, and really much more already, so I think it's rather greedy to ask for more. As mentioned, it would be around $1000 increase for the processor, and $600-800 for the 780ms already given to you for free, especially more if you only paid for the 765ms. If you want the next processor up, you shell out the cash for it.

 

Hold on a second, WHERE was I asking for another freebie? I never said I was trying to ask them to give me a free processor upgrade or anything like that. NEVER. In fact, I was planning on purchasing one on eBay if it was warranted. I even stated that in the original post, the first paragraph, second sentence:

"Should I consider upgrading to a more powerful one via an eBay purchase or when they become available as standalone products I can purchase?"

 

I'm sorry, I really thought, with the statement coupled with your unhappiness and the example of Apple that you were looking for a free upgrade to 4930. Maybe it's a simple misunderstanding, but I don't think I was the only person that read it that way.

If you're putting in the money yourself, and can use the power for extreme gaming and other uses, I say go for it. But the slower processor shouldn't cripple your video cards to any extreme.

 

Yeah, it must be that. I thought the same thing. I'm glad that was just a misinterpretation. Sometimes written words can convey a message that was never intended. No offense was intended.

 

If you only wanted to ask about whether the CPU upgrade would be beneficial for your 780M GTX SLI when you would've probably gotten more and better responses. But you had to shoot yourself in the foot and tell us about your story of how you ended up with two 780M GTXs. Count your blessings and be grateful you got such an upgrade people would only dream about as their cost is the same cost of buying a mid ranged laptop! Dell lost a lot of money because of you.

Now to answer your question, I never felt a difference between my initial 4700MQ CPU in this laptop vs then ext 4810MQ vs the current 4900MQ CPUs, a 200 or 300 MHz increase can only be felt in benchmarks.

If you have some money to burn though, the best thing you could do is get a 4940MX CPU

 

Dell won't get chips THAT cheap from nvidia, especially with their dominance in the mobile space. GM204 chips were in massive demand for instance. It will still cost dell a fair bit for cards.

 

I think for general gaming, the 780M SLi will function decently with the 4700MQ. One might consider an upgrade at a later point when the extreme CPU is substantially cheaper because that might provide one with a marginally decent boost in performance, especially when it comes to SLi/Crossfire scaling in certain games.

Also, despite the seriously garbled support experience, Dell have done well in terms of the upgrade to the GTX 780M SLi along with a $100 gift card, which can be be considered an extremely generous compensation. Enjoy it and take advantage of the hardware upgrade because when it comes to gaming in accordance with this new generation of consoles, these cards (even in single GPU mode) will serve you very nicely.

 

IMHO 4700MQ won't bottleneck 780M SLI. You can of course consider upgrading the cpu later but I think that won't be necessary because modern games usually use much more power from GPU than CPU. Of course if you would have 4x 2,2 GHz cpu that will be bottleneck but at 4700MQ stock clocks I think it'll be sufficient. I had i7-2670QM stock so upgrade to i7-2920XM was necessary. Good luck upgrading

 

Most games you won't notice a different especially if you give the 4700 the 200Mhz boost.