980m 8GB

Yep, that pretty much looks like a chip shortage and they are prioritizing US customers while lying to the rest. Well, they could have conceivably adopted a bit more finesse instead of blatantly shafting overseas customers. I guess will need to go with a basically superior German-Taiwanese machine - no offence

 

Ye love the SB wish it had a little better DGPU but the screen is just amazing. I had a SP3 also and loved it as well.

 

Exchange system in hands! It has the 980m 8GB!!!!!! Woo! It just took several months and 3 machines

The new system does seem to have a bit more backlight bleed, but I'm being very picky at this point. I would classify both machines as very minor backlight bleeding.

I will be stress testing the new machine between now and Sunday before I send out the old machine back.

Both machines have the same display AUO and besides the every so slight backlight bleed in different spots on both; both appear identical in terms of colors/brightness/white/black.

I'll post if I find anything interesting!

 

Congrats!

 

No news is good news?

 

Ha! No news is indeed good news. I have found nothing wrong with the unit, I'm very pleased. It's running like a champ.

I still need to contact Dell, because they didn't send me a return label for my other machine I am also still waiting on Dell for my last refund too

FYI, I noticed their site isn't selling the 4GB 980m anymore (at least for the 17" model). That's one way to fix the confusion!

 

Cool, glad they came through on the replacement

Ha, AW17 980M is only offered in 8GB on the UK website too - same for Clevos BTW Really like the Clevo community, like the AW one but you can actually chat with the reps over the weekend, people generally can't praise the top resellers enough. Notice any contrast?

Anyway, Dell just need to figure out how to offload the rest of the 4GB stock nobody wants... I saw your 4GB AW17 go for $1250 in the outlet

 

Ha! I saw that post too, I checked the outlet as well, I don't quite see em for that low of pricing. I wonder if it was some extra discount for that. I just can't do Clevo, not my thing. The one change I wish to see though, is for AW to bring back the edge-to-edge display. I'm not a huge fan of matte, but it's not that bad. My old M17X-R3 (3d display) is edge-to-edge and fantastic!

Only time will tell if this machine holds up just as well as my M17X-R3 did (which I'm still using and writing on at the moment).

Are you doing the return then and going with Clevo? Let me know when you get the refund for it. Just curious on timeframes of others for this machine.

 

I'm pretty badly torn man lol. 64GB of RAM and 8GB VRAM, end of story in a few days (minus the Dell refund hassle) are quite tempting.

 

why do you need so much RAM?

I'm ok with 4GB. I'll worry about upgrades through the amplifier.

 

Do you mean VRAM? I want that 8GB for GPU compute purposes rather than gaming - which unfortunately for Dell puts me in the minority of customers who will likely need that extra memory this year. I use the laptop mainly on the go (a few hours a day), so GA is not particularly helpful for me. The extra memory will likely extend the the system's useful life for customers who actually use the GPU on the go. There are current games already breaching the 4GB VRAM utilization.

Besides, WT.F - I paid extra for the 8GB upgrade and could get a top brand Clevo with 8GB of VRAM 6820HK for the current AW15 4GB VRAM model price.

 

I think he may mean about the 64GB of RAM My old MX17R3 has 32GB of ram, I will be doing the same to the 17R3 sometime this year, no immediate need. I just hate "upgrading" a laptop with a downgrade of what I previously had. This is why I ultimately sold my AW15R1 since it capped at 16GB of RAM -- that and the screen ended up being too small for my liking.

 

Well, I hope he didn't actually get an AW15 with 4GB of system RAM, although frankly I wouldn't be that surprised

Yeah, AW15R2 can take 32GB too, although I really don't understand why the AW17R3 doesn't have 4 RAM slots.

 

BTW What AUO display are you referring to? UHD? I thought there is no Dell lottery on that and you get the top Sharp IGZO panel?

 

I believe you are correct, the 17 UHD only has 1 panel (as I know of). It's the AUO model, but I don't know if it's sold by Sharp or not. Someone else might be able to answer that. All 3 of the UHD 17" I have had were that same panel - very minor light bleed on all 3 in different spots.

 

Because they gimped it.

 

So had the same issue as everyone else (uk) before Xmas took 4gb model. Told me that the only way to guarantee 8gb video ram was to order again. Did that. Came today. Another 4gb version. Idiots.

 

Damn, sorry man. Did you get the refund processed? Or is that still pending from the last order?

I'd demand an exchange or concede and get some $ back. Is that the 15" or 17" model?

 

Sorry to hear about this. After all those calls and forum complains. This is utter incompetence. I'm now worried whether they can process a return actually.

Edit: actually, I remember the first time I called an idiot suggested I cancel and re-order - I told him that's nonsense and I want a replacement (luckily I have been to the forum before the conversation). They did subsequently tell me that they can't guarantee the 8GB version at present.

 

Except CS told him to guarantee the 8GB he had to re-order to which he did.

That sucks

 

cant max out Batman AK on my 4GB 980m... full settings throws me well over the available 3968MB

and thats now....... 4 months down the line i'll be knocking settings back on every new game i play!!

wish i had held on for the 8GB model.............. though DAMN lucky i never opted for the 4k panel, thats a real joke, 4GB to run 4k.????

 

BTW You may want to post on the official forum as well, although it doesn't seem that any reps are there of give a slightest actual f..k:

https://www.alienwarearena.com/forums/thread/121878/technical-support-1/is-the-980m-8gb-a-lie

 

That's the thread I started I was suppose to be the first to get the 8GB, turned out I was the 1st one that got shafted, lol. I wasn't even sure 8GB existed because others (here) said 8GB BGA doesn't exist.

You can also check out these forums:
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746

 

@webjeff what a saga man

 

Thanks everyone. The story of the factory getting it wrong must be a loads of crap. Not sure how a month later they can still make the same mistakes. They must know what they are doing!

 

Agreed. it's pretty clear they are trying to push the 4GB version out hard. The first Q they asked me was "Sir, if you dont mind me asking, how did you find out about this?"

My current theory is that the machines are supplied to the UK from a refurb centre in China, defo we have to wait for the US folks to start returning the 8GB units

I wonder what tricks will the sleazebags pull when I try to return. Only one way to find out...

Unfortunately, the forum laments don't seem to have any effect. I wonder if a slashdot/register post would help.

 

Life is too short to deal with this. Just return your machine and tell them to stuff it.

 

Well, the reality is that those are a bunch of spivs and I got done. Not sure it's even worth wasting time trying to get a refund! Might end up without the machine and the money. Googled this stuff to my horror, will post some links later. Totally failed my homework on this.

 

I'm ok with the machine because i got a rock bottom price for a good unit from the USA, and I'm returning my UK unit for a 900£ net difference between the two (losing the UHD screen only)

 

Well done, you appear to have outwitted the conmen. Hope they process your refund as per the plan.

 

Arkham Knight is the worst game to measure performance, It's very badly ported/optimized.
You can test several optimized games like GTA V, Witcher 3. with an MXM 980M I set all options to ultra except Anti-aliasing which is set to FXAA.

 

Dell CS called and offered me 3 options:
* 10% discount
* return-refund
* memory stick they could send me to solve the problem...

Upon learning what the last option is, I gave up and went straight for the refund... Collection is supposed to happen on Monday, time to refund: 15 biz days.

No info from the carrier so far. Knowing this particular carrier, they inform clients as soon as they receive instructions...

Wish me luck people

 

Dell will refund you. They came today to collect my UK machine. Of course now I have got a problem with my sd card reader it is never easy

 

Thanks for the support, and sorry to hear about your issue. I also have this problem with the keyboard slowing down after each sleep. Quite annoying.

Who did they send? DPD?

 

nick, you sure? They have had my previous machine since Nov 23th (or 25th, can't recall off hand), but I have email proof they received it. Still no refund as of today, many emails and many calls with no luck

I am starting to think of doing a charge back at the 2 month mark because I think that's enough time for them to do a refund.

Edit: I shipped it on like the 16th, it took forever for them to get it with slow ground return delivery, but I'm willing not to count that date.

 

Good luck! I'm surprised they called you actually

I would have taken the 10%, but I know you are leaning towards the clevo's. I sincerely hope you get your refund quickly and get the machine you want!

 

I paid with PayPal - not the best move in retrospect, although I think there is an equivalent to chargeback. Hopefully it won't come to my using that. After all, she did say it should take no more than 15 days. Then again she also mentioned the option to send me VRAM memory sticks for my 980M. In the mean time, here is a fun read for you guys:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.dell.co.uk

Have a good w/e

 

Thanks man. It wasn't an easy decision, nor was I given any time - she pressed me to make the decision. I do like a lot about the machine (I understand I'm extremely lucky with the panel), unfortunately I'm pretty sure that 8GB VRAM and 64GB will come in handy, and the keyboard slowdown issue is only very short of infuriating.

 

Lol!!! You should have asked for the sticks of VRAM and see what happened.

15 Days huh... I hope that's true

 

She had no idea what she was talking about. The scary Dell CS is one of the main reasons I decided to throw in the towel and risk the refund hell, rather than try to keep pushing for the 8GB. The Dell panel lottery is another. Even if they sent me a replacement machine, I would likely get a worse screen or hit some other issues. Anyway, I hope Dell get their stuff together. I still think AW is a competitive design. The battery life is industry leading. I would keep the 8GB VRAM machine, even though it only supports 32GB RAM - but the execution and customer service is just too terrible. I don't believe it's just a one-off, given all the other reports, and the fact that they failed to fix the problem after such a long time. The fact that they continue to offer 8GB VRAM AW15s completes the story about the company.

 

hmm.

 

Cool man! Sucks what happened overall. I am loving this machine so far, I just got my GA hooked up with a 980TI and it is seriously kicking some ass now.

FYI, they don't seem to make any good usb-c to mini-displayport (or usb-c to dvi-dual link) cables just yet I had to get the video card to hook up my monitor which only took dvi-dual link for the higher resolutions. In any case, I think I'm set for quite a bit.... except that refund

 

We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Yeah, well exactly. I'm quite astonished with the abundance of all those CS horror stories. I hope they will reach someone higher up at Dell. From the consumer's point of view, always better to have a viable PC OEM than a non-viable or eventually failed one.

 

They have offered me a 4gb Card GTX 980 with a Alienware Amplifier as a compromise. They are telling me that is the best they can offer me. The quote they got me to approve was £700. Obviously won't pay for anything. Is the amplifier any good?

 

I would take that in a heartbeat

 

Are they giving you the card and amplifier for free? Or are you saying they are offering it to you for £700?

 

Good question, the amplifier + the 980 4GB is £777 on their website. "The quote they got me to approve was £700." sounds like a discounted offer for the combo, but if he gets that for free then well done indeed. For reference, I got offered a pittance of 10% refund, ETA 4-5 BDs

Needless to say, unless money is no object at all, I would hold an amplifier+card purchase off until Pascal arrives, since GTX 980 probably won't yield all that much benefit over the GTX 980M.

 

They are offering this for free. I am just getting verification though via written confirmation,

 

For free, take the deal my man! Although, the 980GTX won't be much better than the 980m in your machine. I'd probably sell the card and either get the 980TI like I did or wait for the pascal cards... The amplifier IS A BEAST! Damn! Very happy with it so far.

 

Mine came with 8gb 980m, but no working windows.