Confirmed DDR3

let's get this straight, everybody said that riva says it is DDR3 clocked at 400 mhz.

if i'm not mistaken nvidia only makes the graphics chip, the ram is added via third party

 

RIVA does not work with notebooks, only desktops. So RIVA is wrong.

 

so is it ok to call dell and complain? I know bunch of people have gotten dell credit - i'd like my share too, as long as i'm actually complaining about something valid

 

The only thing is that it isn't the "theoretical bandwidth" of the card they offer, it is the "theoretical bandwidth" of the stronger version that is not offered.

With that said, just because it is weaker doesn't mean it is worse in all aspects. The ddr3's have some problems with heat and i believe noise. Most people bought a 15" for portability and some gaming, not hardcore stuff. The ddr2 version may be better for many users due to the cooler temps and less noise(if indeed that was a problem).

 

Just to mention

Inspirons and Vostros in Ireland get DDR2

 

I just got off chat with a Dell Customer Service Representative. They assured me that the nVidia 256Mb Geoforce 8600m-GT card does in fact use GDDR3 memory. Here is a portion of the dialog:

If there are any dell employees who are technical and believe that this is not in fact the case (that I was given incorrect information) I would very much like to hear from you, earlier, before my laptop is shipped, rather than later.

Dell has promised me a GDDR3 card at the full advertised bandwidth. I hope they are honest. If Dell actually delivers as promised, I will be satisfied.

(I hope that it isnt GDDR3 clocked at 400Mhz, because that will be just as bad as DDR2.)

 

I love dell support, lol.

 

keep in mind that 8600GT with DDR2 ram chips still runs faster and cheaper (and warranties) than 8600 GS through dell than other companies

 

That would be fine with me, I would happily "reclock" the card. However, despite what Mohanavelu had to say, it looks like everyone is getting DDR2 - without exception. Not to dish on your online dell rep, but I wouldn't put too much stock in what he has to say.

Earlier today I found a google cache page for Dell Singapore that showed the 8600M GT at DDR3; the current page shows DDR2. Every report from actual owners shows DDR2. It's gonna be DDR2. I would be more than happy to be proven wrong but I don't think that's gonna happen.

 

I think at this point it is more important that I have documented proof that dell promised me Gddr3. I doubt I will get it. I told the guy "I think I will be famous as the first person to receive it with GDDR3"

But they had better compensate me for lying to me, if they have in fact lied to me. At the very least I will have no problem returning the thing without a restocking fee (he promised that too) if Its not satisfactory.

 

Okay, the most sure-fire way to see what it is would be to open up the laptop, remove the heatsink and check the part number against a datasheet. There problem solved.

As it stands, you very well could be getting a GDDR3 card clocked at a lower speed.

I can see why Dell's frustrated. People are demanding compensation for what? Something someone said on a forum? Where's your proof, not someone else's. You haven't even gotten the laptop yet. Wait until then - if it indeed is GDDR2 and/or clocked lower than expected, go complain. At least you'll have some proof to back up your claim.

And to mtylerjr - I don't see where the rep states you'll get the full bandwidth. You stated about 50 lines of stuff you heard on a forum - he said you'll get a 8600M GT with GDDR3, nothing else. If you indeed get a card clocked at 400MHz memory though, you should definitely complain that the comparison on the Dell website said 22.4GB/s. I'm merely saying the rep didn't promise you anything other than GDDR3.

 

If you head over to the Aussie Dell page, this is what you see:

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspnnb_1720?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs

 

That is what the us page says too, that is old news. What people are upset with is that when they have called dell they have said it was a typo, AND in the tech spec page where you can compare vid cards it says the 8600GT has a 22.4Gb/s bandwidth, a feat that is ONLY possible with a gpu clocked at 700mhz, aka GDDR3.

@dc74 how in the world did you get a 75% off coupon?

 

Dell Canada "Mystery Coupon" promotion. It's a 15, 50 or 75% off coupon sent by email and snail mail. I guess they have to send out at least one 75% off coupon, and I just lucked out !!!

 

The Swedish Dell support previously (several times) said to me that the 8600M GT has GDDR3.

Now when the first persons have received computers the support changed their mind. From yesterday they state that the support (for several weeks) themselves have been misinformed and that the 8600M GT in fact only has GDDR2.

 

K so basically it's been confirmed it's DDR2 for everyone, right?

 

Why doesn't someone just freaking CALL NVIDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111

 

NVIDIA won't know anything - they really only control the GPU specs, and even then, the manufacturers have some leeway with overclocking/underclocking to meet certain thermal and power consumption guidelines they set.

 

Yes, at least for the Swedish market and I think it is the same everywhere.

But who knows, maybe the support has been misinformed about the misinformation?


I think something is fishy since Dell did not update their homepage but for several weeks still insisted that it was GT and GDDR3.

 

So just to recap this .... We have the Dell site stating the card Bandwidth is 22.4 Gb/s yet on our USA site it says DDR2 under specs. And everyone who has received theirs confirms it is DDR2. I donno about you guys but im real close to cancelling my order im tired of them doin this stuff. And i love how u call CS and its like teaching a 3 year old Physics. they never understand what ur sayin or use telemarketing schemes to shut u up like you will received what u ordered. Am i the only one getin frustrated with this

 

Yes it is ddr2, at least that lvl of performance, but this is not an entirely negative thing. It decreases the overall temperature of your notebook, it saves battery, and possibly reduces some noise(?). I think that dell chose this option more for the benefits than to be cheap, but yes they did mislead people.
Two questions before you cancel; did you notice the 22.4 Gb/s and buy based on that? and will you notice the difference?

 

Probably not. I would have been very upset if I had ordered a Dell based on false information.

I told the Dell support several times that I refuse to order until they have the correct information on their website. What they say and what is printed must be the same. That never happened, the answer was always "they are fixing it right now, maybe tomorrow" and so on.

I am now glad I never ordered, since the benchmarks clearly indicate that Dell with GDDR2 is worse than GDDR3, for instance the Asus.

 

well honestly im not an extreme gamer on my pc. Just word of warcraft religiously. The other games i have my xbox360 for. And i ordered the 8600gt because i saw it was so much better than the 8400. Also i just posted this in the other thread.
I ordered mine 7/10/07 and called 7/12/07 and they upgraded me to next day business. Also i said that i did not have time to wait and that HP said they could get me my order within 5 days. I just looked up my order, and boom its shipped today 7/14/07. I just wanted to share with everyone else waiting for theirs.

It helped greatly

 

But gddr2 is cooler, better for normal users, imo. If you want to game that bad get a cheap notebook + a desktop/console.
I was somewhat glad to hear this because, although i did buy believing it was ddr3, i didn't care and hopefully will get compensation

 

Well, that is a completely different discussion. For personal reasons my only option is to have only one computer, and that is a laptop. See, that was the end of that discussion for me.


But I still want to play F1 and other car simulators, so the graphic card is very important.

Edit: A console is no option for car simulators.

 

Then your only option atm is the g1s(i think), but i hear it has some problems with heat and such. Also there is the C90S but that has poor battery life...

Either way if you want to do that on a 15" the gddr2 is not all that much worse when you consider the heat(oc'ing room).

 

It's a shame because I kind of liked the Inspiron.

When do you think Dell will sell the Inspiron (or Vostro) with 8700M or even 8800M?

I am also concerned about the heat or actually the noise from the fan. But during gaming I guess it doesn't matter that much and hopefully the card is intelligent enough during normal use to reduce the heat. In my current laptop I use RMClock to down-volt and put the graphics on minimum power when not gaming.

Or do you think the heat (noise from fan) will be too much from the upcoming 8700M and 8800M? In the larger Inspiron 1720 that is.

 

GZ do you undervolt/underclock your CPU too? Or does RMClock only do GPU?

 

Sorry, that was little confusing. I undervolt the CPU and put the GPU on powersave. I mentioned the undervolting more in an "i am concerned about heat and noise"-way.

 

The temperature/power requirement difference between DDR2/GDDR3 would not be noticeable to anyone. Stop using that argument.

 

It's negligent/deceptive advertising. Regarding the memory bandwidth/texel throughout difference between DDR3 at 22GB/s and DDR2 at 12, It's like a car maker advertising 300HP and in reality shipping a car that has 190.

"Would you notice?" The problem with that question is it really doesn't go to the injustice suffered.

And just as an aside, Mazda was hit not once, but twice, over just such a horsepower misstatement, for the Miata in 2001 and the RX-8 more recently. And you can be sure the spread wasn't as bad as 190 v. 300.

If their site says GDDR3 and their salespeople and techs say GDDR3, you should expect GDDR3, and they don't get to get off saying the equivalent of "well, this is actually better for you because you'll get better mileage and less engine wear, and you probably don't even notice the difference."

 

Indeed it is. And it is a very noticeable difference.

 

See now the 1520's card will probably always be the 8600M GT the 1720 will be updated to the 8700M GT and the new XPS will have a 8800M GT, just a guess but im sure it seems right to do this.

 

I was not using the argument to justify their statement, but in response to him canceling his order. There is no way what dell did is right or acceptable, but if you aren't going to notice it then why cancel instead of just getting compensation?
If you baought a mazda because it looked good, and didn't need more than 100hp, why return it when you can call, complain, and get money back?

Edit: Just to clarify, i have never seen a U.S. page that says ddr3, i have only seen the incorrect bandwidth.

 

I am basing this on different reviews of the G1S(i believe). I don't know if this was do to other problems, but i have heard the problem linked to the gddr3 gpu. and sorry for the double post

 

Thats all anyone has seen, but that bandwidth is only possible with ddr3, and everyone who called (myself included) were told that the website was a typo and they used ddr3.

 

No argument there. Ideally they would give the consumer the option for either.

 

On foreign sites it does actually state gddr3

 

But i do not think thats a fair argument against dell, you are buying from the american site, so all of your information should ideally come from it.

 

I agree completely, just throwing it out there.

 

PEOPLE

PLEASE

JUST SHUT UP!!!

The dell gpu is DDR2! END OF STORY!!

if you don't like it you can do 2 things rather than whine here

1) COMPLAIN TO DELL
2) CANCEL YOUR ORDER

Remeber that dell won't care if you cancel as you are a insignificant peanut compared to the amount of business they do

so please people

now that you know what the specs are, cancel it to your hearts content because you know what? I DON"T THINK YOU CAN GET THIS MUCH BANG FOR YOUR BUCK ANYWHERE ELSE!!

the sager uses ddr2, c90 looks like it uses ddr2, OKAY?

do you see people whining in their respective forums?

god

i swear, dell has to deal with so many babies

 

Lol, other than that last line i agree...
But dell doesn't deal with those, you call them babies because they haven't confronted dell yet.

 

Guess what, people should complaing UNTIL DELL FIXES ITS ADVERTISING. Dell STILL says its ddr3 on their phones and they STILL say 22.4 gb/s on their site. DELL IS FLAT OUT LYING ABOUT THEIR VIDEO CARDS. the issue has been brought to their attention but they have done nothing about it.

 

i really hate people who feel that they have the moral imperative to be complete jackasses

 

Anyone that buys a laptop should research something they're going to invest 1000+ dollars

look on dell forums, this site, etc...

If you're dumb enough not to reserach it, you

1) would be blissfully ignorant
2) deserve it

Even if you found out, you can cancel your order or return it

just don't be a big weeping baby complaining how dell ripped you off and yet you're still going to keep it

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

OKAY?

as i said, people in the asus forum with the c90 (which cost significantly more than dell) also has the ddr2 and you don't see them going all hysterical

get a grip

would you rather dell just completely didn't tell you if it was ddr 2 or 3?

 

I think if the information is on dell's site, then you shouldnt have to look elsewhere for conflicting information, it is THEIR responsibility to tell you what they have to sell, NOT A FORUM'S. Thats just stupid, and do you honestly believe that if you get a good price on something, you should expect something to be wrong or not what you ordered? Come on! how ridiculous is that?

YES! i would rather have it that dell didnt say if it was ddr2 or ddr3 if they were just going to be WRONG about it. Then we wouldnt be in this mess! apparently you have no idea what i am personally upset with and what most of us are! jeeeeeze.

 

yea i know,

you're upset due to morals rather than the actual thing

but still, you're getting

1) the best deal possible
2) you would've been non the wiser had they not said anything

 

It is pretty stupid. Their site clearly shows statistics that show GDDR3 performance yet if you call and ask or speak to an online chat rep they will flat out tell you it is DDR2.

What's the problem? It's false advertising. For those of us who can do the research before hand, good on us - but it's morally wrong to advertise the performance of products which you are not selling. You need to be accountable. I am not canceling my order because the performance is good enough and I don't mind the extra battery life but I am still for the people and against big corporations taking advantage of those who do not know any better.

 

everyone ive called and spoke to (around 5 people) all say it is ddr3 when i specifically mention the graphics card. i dont know where you are getting people saying ddr2 unless you had them confused on the ram.

 

Thats the worst part about it! people are getting ripped off and they dont even know about it. I am not ok with that.