ALIENWARE 15 HYPE?! leaked video

Gonna have to lower settings to game at a decent FPS unless you have the GA (Graphics Amplifier) and a good GPU (GTX 970+).

The 980M is about 10%~20% slower than the GTX 780 (depending on the game): Notice he doesn't have AA enabled.

Spoiler

Purchasing the 4k screen without plans to purchase the Graphics Amplifier is a mistake for hardcore gamers. Single-GPU laptops are not ready for 4k, yet - wait for Pascal.

 

I am willing to buy it. If the 980M releases in Belgium. Because I want to play some less graphically demanding games on 4K on it. And play very demanding games scaled down to 1080p. Also I like Glossy screen a lot more than matte. And when more 4K video content releases soon, I will be able to enjoy those too.
After 2 years or something when nvidia comes up with an impressive desktop GPU significantly stronger than the 980M, I might buy that with the GA.

However I talked with Nvidia about the Graphcis amplifier. He said, that they will not release a driver for systems with swapable GPUs. So we are stuck with dell his own drivers. Meaning that you will not get the latest optimizations for games released by nvidia.

 

Yep. I like the glossy screen the 4k has! I dont normally game outdoors or near windows with direct sunlight.

My games are usually limited to strategy / building games such as simcity / civilization the like.
I rarely do FPS although I am currently addicted to WoT (is that considered FPS? yeah tanks shoot so why not hehe).

I am now trying to imagine how much of that city or the world would fit in the screen when I play simcity / civ in 4k

 

I'm fairly certain those games are very CPU-intensive. You will definitely benefit from having a quad-core processor. Good thing you at least got that.

 

Are you sure about that? Because of recent troubles with the GA, Alienware has escalated the problem and has contacted Nvidia about the issue.

 

Not 100% sure. I just talked to a support guy. He might not have any idea about the new external desktop GPU concept. But I do remember dell saying something along the lines with working together with Nvidia. Guess we'll wait and see. Buy the time I will buy a GA, I guess it will have been come to conclusion.

Pff, still 2 big issues for me though. Still no 980M in Belgium.
And hope that my dad lends me some money. It's hard to find a job these days, even though I graduated from University.

 

With the help of this forum was able to choose wisely =)
So thanks to everyone!

Deciding between the 13 and the 15 came easy for me when I knew that the quad cores are in the 15 and that it is available here in SG! =)

 

Yea see I'm buying the ga with it but that 4k seems more future proof but a 350 bump is slot for a screen upgrade right now. But the ga should push it fine. Anyone know if 4k will run it hotter or hurt the longevity. Also any idea on what brands used for 1080 and 4k

 

If the cooling is up to par you should be fine. Not sure the 980m is up to pushing 4k on the go though without dropping a lot of settings, so be prepared for that.

 

You can expect about a 50% reduction in frame rate gaming or benching at 4K versus 1080p. Having only 4GB of vRAM on the BGA 980M is also an issue. There are a number of games out now that can gobble up 4GB at 1080p.

 

I ordered the Alienware 15 with the 4K display and the Amplifier.. Now playing the waiting game...

 

Ok so I just found about HID! They can customize the Alienware 15 for you far more than Alienware can!!

-pick what SSD to have like a Crucial M550 or Samsung 850 Pro over the default TLC SSD dell has.
-pick the video card from Gtx 965m to gtx 980m
-and seems to come with s 240w power brick over the default 180w power brick!!

Definitely buying from HID over Dell

 

I think everyone is going to discover the 17 with 980M will have a 240W adapter as standard equipment. I can tell you from using a machine with one 980M that a 180W AC adapter won't let it run correctly at stock clock speeds. I would assume the same for the 15, but one can always buy a 240W AC adapter for the 15 if they need to. If any significant 980M overclocking is planned, even the 240W AC adapter will be inadequate. A single 980M with a big overclock/overvolt needs a 330W AC adapter.

 

Reading the posts in here most people don't seem to be disturbed by the soldered processors and can't wait to buy an AW... Dell's mainstream concept obviously pays off...

 

Spoiler

 

Nice, Just learned that the warranty of alienware laptops are international. So even if I buy it from HIDevolution I still get 1 year warranty (though in Belgium the state law is for electronics devices a minimum of 2 years, but that doesn't count anymore, which is understandable). And in the end the laptop I wanted configured comes at almost the same price as the one on Belgium which did not have the 980M on it, even with the included 7% tax. So I get a free 980M if I buy from HIDevolution XD and perhaps I can manage to get an extra discount too.

 

Hello everyone, this is my first post here, so nice to talk to you guys! i came across this forum a couple of days ago looking for this Alienware 15 that i am really exited about (i live in Italy). i have to say it seems a wonderful laptop that has almost everything i was looking for, exept the 980m gpu which is not avaliable in my country (and europe i think).
i will probably order mine Tomorrow, i will definitely purchase the 4k display, which i know for gaming isnt the best (i won't be using the laptop only for gaming) but i mean, a 4k display, if you can have it, why not, nothing better to view photos from a good quality camera or movies when they will be avaliable i think, and for the rest, scaling down to 1080 i can probably game pretty well enough with the GTX 970m, so i guess that's all for me, wanted to share my toughts, and also thanks everyone here for posting so much and explaining stuff

 

welcome to nbr dude!!

 

Question, I ordered the 15 and got an Order Acknowledgement.
Somehow, since Friday I still do not have the Order Confirmation which would contain my Order number.

How long does it take for you guys to get the Order Confirmation after you get the Order Acknowledgement from the Sales Agent?

I am a bit worried as the Order Acknowledgement was priced before Dell revised the prices on their site,
After discounts given by sales, it turns out that I will now save around $ 450 sgd.

 

From my experience, the Order Confirmation e-mail is received once payment processing is competed successfully. But if I didn't receive it around the same time I got the acknowledgement, something must be causing a delay. I would give Dell a call just to make sure.

 

hmm would it be possible for them to challenge the price?

what if they come back saying "i am sorry sir but the price will have to be updated"?

 

I have not read this whole ALIENWARE 15 HYPE? through, but it sounds like your buying a desktop for you would laptop.

That just sounds stupid to me.

 

Yep that's right! I already have a gaming desktop but that huge thing weighs around 25 kg. I'd like to be able to game in the couch, the baby's room, dinning room or the bedroom. And also carry it with me when the family is on vacation.
That to me my friend is luxury.
Not stupid at all if you can afford it

 

You are definitely right, how is it stupid if someone can afford it, or how about if someone maybe for work has to go different places many times a month, and they can use their free time to use a laptop with a desktop power (it can never be full desktop power i now) to play or do whatever they need to do.
Thats just a good way to use the advancements in technology, being able to carry womething powerful to wherever they need it, if you can, you do it.

 

I don't believe the 4k display is a good choice for gaming without the GA. But I'm sure it will be nice, otherwise.

 

do you think that just lowering settings to full hd will resolve that while gaming?
you can just use the 4k for other things, movies photos or video editing

 

Well, bluntly said the only difference is going to be this. Normally when you look at a pixel on a 1080p you will see a color produced of each pixel like this:

|RGB|

However when you game exactly 1080p on a 4K monitor. One pixel color produced by the in game content will look like this:

| R G B| R G B|
| R G B| R G B|

What that causes is, that each set of 4 pixel producing only one color look more like a sharp square, while on the 1080p monitor each pixel will look more rounded due to the blend of the larger subpixel (with subpixel I mean the separate red green and blue color producing ones).

No other visible difference will be seen, also no scaling artifacts due to the perfect pixel count of (3840/1920) x (2160/1080) = 4

 

thanks a lot for the explanation!!!
well i think/hope that the gtx 970m avaliable in europe will be able to process that with good performance, if not i will probably think of getting one with gtx 980m from the states

 

Yeah, the 4K screen will work great to be honest but you'll find yourself chewing down more battery life. Quite apart from the fact that the 4K screen IS going to take more power to run, you'll find the Intel chip will not be able to play 4K video very well so you'll want to offload that to the GPU. I know from experience that the Intel video won't even do Youtube's 1080p60 at full screen in Chrome very well because it's just lacking the horsepower. Push that through the GPU and you're golden, but to do that you're basically killing your battery.

So it's a tradeoff. Do you want portability and gaming that's still going to look awesome? 1080p is perfect. If you don't care quite so much about portability then the 4K is awesome but just be aware of the tradeoffs. Yes, you can run games on the 4K screen at 1080p... but then why buy the 4K screen anyway if you're going to do that?

For my part, I decided I don't even really need the 980m when on the road; all I'll need is the 970m. When I'm home it'll be connected to an Amp with a GTX980 and a 4K monitor I already have. I figured the 970m will get me the best bang for the buck right now and if I feel myself getting really constrained by it in a few years then worst case I'm sure I'll be able to pick up a motherboard off eBay and upgrade it. Maybe to a newer chipset (if it'll fit)... or I'll eBay it entirely and buy the next generation. I'll still have the Amp, and I'm sure I'll have some newer desktop class card in it by then

 

you are def right, on every aspect!
for what i need this laptop: i dont really game so much, i want to buy it because i travel a lot, and i cant carry my console everytime with me, i would have to bring the console, tv and everything... so yea you understand. I want a laptop to game sometimes when i feel like, and a laptop that can last me few years, and that is able to do some video editing (nothing major), dont plan to change it soon if i spend 2k on it, and i will buy for sure the 4k display since i know in 1 year i will be disappointed not having such resolution with me.
and yea, in a year or some i can buy the GA and use the 4k like its supposed to be used

 

Doing actual work when I'm not playing Reading text on a high DPI display is so much better ! (Also, image editing)

 

People claimed that there would be no visible difference in the retina vs non-retina iPad....until they saw text on one next to the other side by side....

I can appreciate where you're coming from....luckily....my monitors I'm currently running are only 21" 1920x1080 displays.....so a 15" at that resolution should have a higher pixel density (ppi) and be crisper than what I'm used to dealing with at my desktop

 

1080p still looks pretty sharp to me on screens less than 17". After that I prefer a higher resolution. I do love my two 27" 1440p monitors. They are so much clearer than the 24" 1080p screen I used to run with.

 

Honestly, Windows doesn't do that great a job scaling for high DPI displays. That's basically it in a nutshell. The reason "retina" looked so good is because OSX is much more resolution independent than Windows. But even then... play games and you're probably still running it at 1080p.

I figure I'll be fine with 1080p for now. I have seen 4K displays in 15" laptops first-hand... and I'm not that impressed. Especially in games that are currently targeted at 1080p and probably will be for a few years yet. Yes, you'll get the occasional game that's optimized for 4K, but I honestly think that after 3-4 years (average laptop lifetime for me) then it'll only be then that 4K gaming will go mainstream.

Hell, it's only really VERY recently that even AA games have really targeted greater than 720p.

 

Yea I keep going to the site wanting to order but keep getting stuck on that screen to 4k or not. I'm getting the amp but still 350 for screen is a lot. Helppppppp guys lol.

 

Just a quick question, has anyone who ordered the Alienware 15 received theirs yet?

 

For me, since I've used 3K displays for a while now, I can't go back to 1080p since text looks less sharp when browsing the net or typing in word. It all comes down to whether your budget allows the additional feature. If it does, go for it!

 

....definitely not a budget issue. For example when playing games at 1080p on a 4k screen, it will look worse than 1080p setting on a 1080p screen due to upscaling. If you're buying an Alienware 15 for reading text, there are far better and cheaper options

Personally I would recommend getting the 4k screen only if you are buying a graphics amplifier with a desktop Gtx 980 or better. Atm that's about the only gpu that can support "some" current games at max settings.

And get the 1080p screen if your getting the GtX 980m or lower....which is probably most of us.

 

Even with a 980... 4k at a respectable frame rate isn't achievable for modern games.

 

slot mxm 3.0b or sold gpu ?

 

Going to have ask this, but why has no one said anything about the R9 290x 8 GB variant when recommending the GA (can understand why no one has mentioned the TITAN Black due to its price tag and lower performance compared to the GTX 980)? It seems to hold its own compared to the GTX 980 on 4K gaming. AMD might not provide the best gaming solution at 1080p, but then the resolution gets higher, AMD looks more appealing.
And yes, I understand that 4 GB is enough.

Soldered.

 

Well anyways I think that if you can afford the 4K display (for me) is a more future proof option, as you can get the GA later on with even better desktop GPU in 1-2 years or so, without having to worry to get a new display when for you 1080p isn't enough! That's just my opinion and the reason why I will get the 4K display, as I've seen a laptop with that resolution and yes to me is much better

 

Not sure on the drivers from the amd camp. It seems like a pretty good idea, but I would make sure things run smoothly and do some research before you go that route.

 

Anyone know what size M.2 drive will fit in the 15? (60 mm, 80 mm, etc.)

 

From what I've heard about the GA issues, AMD GPUs are having a better time than Nvidia GPUs. The Omega drivers really do work for the GA and has for multiple GPUs.
Now if you are talking about games, yeah... That research would come in handy.

2280 (80mm) most likely.

 

has anyone seen how the display looks in real life especially the 4k? maybe i missed something in the thread but i cant find the refresh rate about this display, i hope it will be good, at least 60Hz and not like Lenovo Y50 with 48Hz and bad colors

 

While it's true that many applications look like crap (or even don't scale correctly at all) when using Windows' scaling, font rendering is OK and I expect Windows 10 to be even better.

 

I'm betting it has a 60hz panel. I doubt they would put something with less than 60hz in a gaming laptop.

 

i really hope so, i just chatted with Dell (italian site, so i dont know how well prepared they are about Alienware PC) and he didn't knnow anything about the refresh rate of the screen. He just copied and pasted the resolution from the Alienware page lol.
i really want to buy it today since it seems it ships pretty quick in Italy (probably they won't sell many) the website says estimate ship date 22 Gen. but i would like to know a little more infos about the laptop

 

So I just got my shipping confirmation it should be here on 1/20, which is weird because I got the Alienware 15 with the 4K screen and the estimated shiping date was 2/18.