1.5GB > 3GB upgrade 25-30% better

Thought you guys might find this usefull

Time Details
04/20/2011 10:43:16AM URL Shown: "https://chatadengine.dell.com/chatadsengine/adengine/Default.aspx?Queue=fa4ed55a-b5ad-4da2-8919-5c2bc1b3f166"
04/20/2011 10:43:18AM Session Started with Agent (Sherrell_Long)
04/20/2011 10:43:18AM Jon: " M14x"
04/20/2011 10:43:21AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Welcome to Dell Chat Sales, This is Sherrell, your Dell Sales Advisor. My email address is [email protected]. Hope you're doing well."
04/20/2011 10:43:22AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Hi"
04/20/2011 10:43:29AM Jon: "Hello"
04/20/2011 10:43:40AM Jon: "just wanted to ask you some quick questions"
04/20/2011 10:43:54AM Jon: "when will the M14x appear on your web page ?"
04/20/2011 10:44:02AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "There are a few instances where chats get disconnected (we do not disconnect you on purpose),just in case this happens can I have your contact number to get back to you or alternatively please email me or come back on chat with my name."
04/20/2011 10:44:09AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "The 14x is available online"
04/20/2011 10:44:15AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Will send you the link"
04/20/2011 10:44:37AM Agent (Sherrell_Long) sends page: "http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-m14x/pd.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn"
04/20/2011 10:44:41AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Check this link"
04/20/2011 10:44:48AM Jon: "ok thank you"
04/20/2011 10:44:49AM Jon: "also"
04/20/2011 10:45:15AM Jon: "when customising the M14x i notice that its just a standard dvd opticle drive"
04/20/2011 10:45:22AM Jon: "no blu-ray ?"
04/20/2011 10:46:22AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Blu ray is not an option on this laptop"
04/20/2011 10:46:55AM Jon: "can you see it becoming an option at a later date ?"
04/20/2011 10:47:25AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "it is not possible to tell now"
04/20/2011 10:47:37AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "There is no information on this as of now"
04/20/2011 10:47:47AM Jon: "Ok"
04/20/2011 10:48:01AM Jon: "and there has been alot of talk about the video card you offer"
04/20/2011 10:48:05AM Jon: "1.5 version"
04/20/2011 10:48:09AM Jon: "and 3gb version"
04/20/2011 10:48:27AM Jon: "aparently this offers no benifit at all"
04/20/2011 10:49:16AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Why do you say that ?"
04/20/2011 10:49:42AM Jon: "has alienware witnessed any improvment with the 3gb version on games or other day to day tasks ?"
04/20/2011 10:50:19AM Jon: "its a big discussion on-line that its just a scam for alienware to make more money, i dont know how true that is"
04/20/2011 10:50:36AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "That is not true at all"
04/20/2011 10:51:01AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "The graphics card on this laptop is upto the high standard as required for any gamer"
04/20/2011 10:51:35AM Jon: "So you know for sure that there is an improvement having the 3gb over the 1.5 gb ?"
04/20/2011 10:51:55AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Absolutely, no doubt about it"
04/20/2011 10:52:52AM Jon: "and i guess that improvement is on games ? and how much of an improvement is it ?"
04/20/2011 10:53:08AM Jon: "sorry for so many questions but its is £100 extra"
04/20/2011 10:53:10AM Jon: " "
04/20/2011 10:53:37AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "A upgrade from a 1GB card to a 3GB is almost 25-30% better in terms of quality , speed and performance"
04/20/2011 10:54:52AM Jon: "ok thats interesting"
04/20/2011 10:55:15AM Jon: "also how much military discount could i get on this laptop ?"
04/20/2011 10:56:00AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "For this offer you will need to speak to the BFPO dept on 0844-444-5818"
04/20/2011 10:56:03AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "They will help you with this"
04/20/2011 10:56:30AM Jon: "Ok one last thing"
04/20/2011 10:56:57AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "ok"
04/20/2011 10:58:25AM Jon: "you say that an upgrade from a 1GB card to a 3GB is almost 25-30% better in terms of quality , speed and performance if i pay the extra £100 and it is found to offer no benfit at all, would alienware refund the differnce"
04/20/2011 10:59:01AM Jon: "because it would be crazy to deceive your customers like this"
04/20/2011 10:59:10AM Jon: "not saying they are"
04/20/2011 10:59:26AM Jon: "but it would become very clear in a few months when people come to compair there laptops"
04/20/2011 10:59:34AM Jon: "and wright reviews"
04/20/2011 10:59:42AM Jon: "write*"
04/20/2011 10:59:56AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "it is not possible to have the refund of £100 on the graphics card"
04/20/2011 11:00:07AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "While we do have a 7 day return policy with Dell"
04/20/2011 11:00:36AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Where the laptop can returned with refund but there is also a £25 delivery charge to it as well"
04/20/2011 11:01:23AM Jon: "ok thanks for answering these difficult questions "
04/20/2011 11:01:33AM Jon: "have a good day"
04/20/2011 11:01:34AM Jon: "bye"
04/20/2011 11:01:38AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
04/20/2011 11:01:55AM Jon: "thats all thanks "
04/20/2011 11:02:03AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "As soon as you click on the Exit button of this session, a survey form will appear on your screen (Browser). Please rate my service according to the required rating.You can also email my manager at [email protected]."
04/20/2011 11:02:04AM Agent (Sherrell_Long): "Thank you for choosing Dell chat sales. Have a wonderful day ahead."
04/20/2011 11:02:18AM Session Ended

 

Yeah, and who are you going to believe? The technically proficient denizens of this forum or a rep whos job it is to squeeze you of every last dime?

 

yeah agreed

but my point is you can probably haggle with this and you can return it for £25 if it is not better, my guess is they will say we will give you £100 if you keep it... then its just a free upgrade

 

1.5GB of video card ram is more than enough for the GT555, there is almost no instance that it will need 3GB. Max resolution you'll be running is 1600x900, even 1GB ram would be suffice. What the rep said is complete nonsense, you won't notice ANY improvement in performance whatsoever.

 

That's good, because they don't even offer the 3GB option in the UK!

 

They do, but its listed wierd... you have to choose it in colour options

see this link bellow The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

@ Bendak

I do believe what you say is true.. there is no advantage.

But i reckon when you get your alienware system you can phone up and complain and get the £100 back

because lets think about this.. you send it back costing you £25 .. thats nothing big, but they have to find a new buyer for a second hand laptop which is going to cost them alot more than £100

 

Ahh ok good. Thought that was the UK not getting access to the full options yet again.

Time will tell I suppose. I am going to wait until I see a direct comparison and some more benchmark reviews before making my mind up.

Not that I am really a gamer. TBH the only game I will probably play on it will be SWTOR and the odd COD game perhaps.

 

You could be right Paddon, I just feel that the risk far outweighs the reward.

 

We dont get the wireless HD option though ! im gutted about that

 

Unless the 3GB card has other areas of the card that are actually faster (e.g. faster core, memory, shader clock, more shaders etc.) then logic says it can't be faster except in scenarios where more than 1.5GB of VRAM is being used...which is basically when you're running very high resolutions (1080p+) with very high levels of AA.

 

Unless it is clocked totally differently and has a different amount of shaders I'm calling BS on the 25-30% better.

I have a desktop 1gb 6950 that was released after the 2gb version (everything is the exact same but the amount of memory). It is at most 5% less powerful at 2500x1600 and at times is actually faster. Keep in mind that it is probably twice as powerful as what is in the m14x and it cannot utilize more than 1gb of ram unless you are running at resolutions greater than 2500x1600 (eyefinity resolutions with 3 monitors or more). At that point the gt555m will not be playable anyway.

AMD?s GTX 560 Ti Counter-Offensive: Radeon HD 6950 1GB & XFX?s Radeon HD 6870 Black Edition - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Quote:

"First and foremost we have the newly launched Radeon HD 6950 1GB. Having 2GB of VRAM does have its advantages, but at this point in time there aren’t any games that can exploit this advantage at the common resolutions of 1920x1200, 1920x1080, or 1680x1050. It’s only once we get to 2560x1600 or similarly large Eyefinity resolutions that we see the 1GB 6950 fall behind its 2GB counterpart."

 

Compare nvidia 555m to desktop (close counterpart) 440 oem. (for the 1.5gb/3.0gb version)

GeForce GT 440 - OEM

GeForce GT 555M

 

i wanna know who came up with the figures "25 to 30 %" is that totally random number picking then ?

 

Probably just the rep trying to say something that sounds plausible (i.e. not unrealistically high) while being big enough a difference to justify the price.

 

Even if the 3GB upgrade cost only $5 you'd get a better gaming experience out of using that $5 to buy a deck of Uno cards.

 

from what ive heard theres a slim chance it might help out when using a bigger external display

 

this was my thinking.

what is the max rez of the 555 anyway? and not on the m14x, but if you were to connect to an external?

and can you do a dual screen option? pretty sure you could, but always like to ask others...

 

1) The 3GB 555m is just "megapixel marketing." Means nothing to the overall quality or speed of the card, it will be different by a negligable amount unless you're running AA maxed on every game at 1080p which you WON'T be doing with a 555m.

2) Dell reps are NOTORIOUS for being, well, idiots. They'll say whatever they have to, and seems very likely when they don't know the answer to something, they just make it up.

 

More video memory will only help at higher resolutions if a GPU is itself strong enough to process those higher resolutions.

Resolutions above the M14x's 1600x900 would choke on the GT555M's cores before it needed more than 1.5GB of memory. You'd have to lower game settings to gain FPS and lower game settings use less memory.

 

one of you guys should talk to a dell rep and see how he responds lol

you have all the facts and figures i dont think they could really defend it and this could give us an answer to satisfy this

 

@Paddon - Not to be rude but talking to a dell rep about computer facts is like talking to car salesmen about the differences in air to fuel ratio for a 14psi turbo in a WRX sti. They are just going to bob their head and go "uh huh".

 

so then your saying the max rez for this card is 1600x900?

i thought i read it could do higher rez's and 1080p vs just the 900p for the m14x...

maybe it was wishful thinking....lol

 

We already have the answer, several times over. The answer is here, among people who understand computer technology, not among entry level Dell telephone/chat reps.

Edit: On the other hand, . . . .

 

Heres my conversation:

16:34:08 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Hi Fraser.
16:34:08 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
There are a few instances where chats get disconnected (we don't disconnect you on purpose),just in case this happens Can I have your contact number to get back to you or alternatively please email me or come back on chat with my name.
16:34:18 Customer Fraser Park
Hi I have a query on the graphics chip on the M14x
16:34:36 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Sure, Please go ahead.
16:34:56 Customer Fraser Park
What is the benefit of 3.0GB of VRAM over 1.5 GB VRAM?
16:35:16 Customer Fraser Park
There is a 90 pound charge for the extra VRAM
16:35:33 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Yes, I'll explain that.
16:37:08 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
By going for a bigger graphic card, you'll have a Smooth experience while gaming in terms of Frames/Second, Response time
16:37:23 Customer Fraser Park
I don't believe that is the case
16:37:28 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
And this will also enable you to play games in High Settings.
16:37:40 Customer Fraser Park
My opinion is that the GT555m chip cannot fully utilise q.5GB as it is
16:37:49 Customer Fraser Park
1.5 sorry
16:38:18 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Well, it depends upon the kind of game you're playing.
16:38:19 Customer Fraser Park
therefore 3 GB of ram cannot be utilised on a resolution of 1600x900
16:38:33 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
If the game requires high Power, high settings then it will fully utilise it
16:38:42 Customer Fraser Park
The limitation is not the game but the chip itself
16:39:06 Customer Fraser Park
Do you have any benchmark information comparing the two chips?
16:40:02 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Please give me few minutes to check that.
16:40:58 Customer Fraser Park
no problem
16:44:47 Customer Fraser Park
you still there?
16:45:04 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Yes.
16:45:14 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
We don't have any bench mark information about these graphic cards.
16:45:29 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Now talking about the resolution, these graphic cards offer HD when connected to an external monitor.
16:45:38 Customer Fraser Park
Yes
16:46:10 Customer Fraser Park
but relating to the laptop only, would I see any benefit of going for 3GB VRAM?
16:46:24 Customer Fraser Park
Assuming I am playing latest gaming titles
16:46:39 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Definitely, more memory on a graphic card would always help.
16:47:32 Customer Fraser Park
If I order the 3 GB of VRAM and do not feel the difference is worthwhile, or the difference is proven through official benchmarking that it makes no difference, would you refund the cost difference?
16:48:34 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
We can't refund the difference but you can return the Laptop and get the money back by paying a collection charge of £20
16:48:44 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
This has to be done in a Week
16:49:14 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
But I'm 200% confident, that won't happen.
16:49:31 Customer Fraser Park
Ok. In that case I will wait until the differences, if indeed there are any, have been proven
16:50:09 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Sure, you can go through the Online forums and there is already a lot of update on that front.
16:51:09 Agent Nagaswaroop_YV
Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
16:52:09 Customer Fraser Park
no thats fine thanks you

 

@ The Revelator.. Now you cant say that wasn't fun lol !

Thanks for that sparkles it was very entertaining and just goes to show that non of these reps have a clue what there talking about

 

The card itself can power resolutions higher than 1600x900 (which is limited only by the laptop display), but in gaming applications you are going to see a huge performance dropoff as you move above 1600x900. You can for example, plug the laptop into a 1920x1080 monitor and output to that at native res; I just wouldn't recommend gaming at that resolution with the 555m, unless it's older games (eg. Half Life 2, WoW, etc...).

 

We're not trying to trick you - we're trying to inform you of the facts so you don't make a bad decision

As others have written, the desktop 69xx series with 2GB of RAM sees benefits only at 2560x1600 and multi monitor setups. A GT555M will die long before it gets to those resolutions

 

why do people insist on comparing desktop GPUs to mobile?

 

and this is where i am getting a tad confused...

i know the native rez for the m14x is lower then the one you mention for external, but if the unit can produce the higher rez, how is it that you would recommend older games only?

seems the card should be able to output 1080p at 1920x1080 no?

or am i way off the mark? would not the 3GB then be a benefit when using external monitors at higher rez's?

 

this made me LOL.

thx for that.

for the OP:

just get the 1.5Gb version. ONLY reason i could see getting the 3gb version would be for Parametric modeling (Solidworks, Inventor) at like 2000+ parts (a guess).

other than that, a total waste of money. the chip cant take advantage of that much RAM from a gaming point of view (higher than 30FPS) no matter what rez your running. there are MUCH faster chips that cant even take advantage of 2GB.

if anything it will reduce your potential OC and generate more heat inside your laptop due to the higher density RAM chips. may even hurt battery life a tad.

in short... save your money and try not to abuse the return policy to get free stuff. it will only make stuff more expensive in the long run for others, cause Dell to consider dropping niche products (some people may actually need) and or re-thinking their return policy.

 

LOL, i cant spare to laugh at the Dell Sales Rep I was just talking to. He kept repeating the info he got from dell: more memory = more graphic performance = better game playing experience = Better Aero performance = Batter Computer Experience Index". Seriously... No one can answer this question? Why are they even try to sell high end gaming computers lol.

 

Rendering graphics in games takes a lot of GPU horsepower. The amount of horsepower needed is directly proportional to the number of pixels which need to be rendered. 1600x900 has about 1.4 million pixels, while 1920x1080 has about 2.1 million pixels. That's a 50% increase. You can expect your framerates to drop by around that much, independent of any other settings (eg. AA, AF, etc...).

Older games usually have much lower graphcial requirements, which is why I suggested them. I have a 6 year old Dell XPS Gen2 laptop that can run Half Life 2 at max settings in 1920x1200, but would spontaneously combust if I tried to do the same on Crysis 2.

Ignoring the fact that it only has a 1600x900 display, yes it can output to 1920x1080 or higher. I do not believe extra memory would help you much in that situation though, since you'd still be constrained by the GPU/pipes on the card.

I bet it can run MS Word (or Half Life 2) at 1920x1080 just fine though.

 

my m11x runs games at 1080P in medium setting with 1GB of memory. (obviously on an external)

I'm pretty darn sure the 555m can run games at 1080P with 1.5 GB memory.

Like everyone else said here, the 3GB card wont even get to utilize all 3GB of its memory.

 

Because if a desktop GPU thats 4-5X faster is not getting a performance impact from moving from 1gb to 2gb you can bet your 1.5gb to 3gb mobile chip is going to see NO improvement.

 

I'm going to laugh so hard when we start getting these machines and find out that the 3gb card has higher clock rates etc..

 

You guys are doing your detective work all wrong. 98% of Dell reps will not know anything. You need to call up
Nvidia and talk to someone there about both cards or even just email them.

 

I'm kind of thinking something like that may happen as well. I stated in another thread that I'll only believe it when someone actually reviews the 3 GB model and proves exactly what the hardware is. I don't have an awful lot of trust in specs posted by Dell online, especially when Nvidia's specs seem contradictory in some cases.

 

uuuhhh YEA!

and that alienware KNOWS who their demographic is.

i dont think anyone (or very VERY few) will buy an AW without stopping by NBR first...

so if AW knows that people will come on here and read about the difference in GPUs, they understand that "their" consumer is going to do some research.

So they know that offering an option that has 0 improvement will P/O the people who read about it
MORE
than the few bucks they may get from the suckers who dont read NBR

i think this community is flat out wrong companies (especially well-established ones such as alienware) are looking to make money LONG term, not a quick buck.
If it was a real issue, reviewers of the notebook would mention it, and people would be up in arms!


enough conspiracy theories! the 3gb probably has some benefit (albeit maybe marginal or only 10%), but it certainly will do more than 0

dont be so close minded about the info you have been given about these chips. No one, but AW knows the REAL difference, and they say its worth 100$.
so be open to the idea of maybe getting a performance boost (or threatening to send it back for 100$ coupon if you like)

 

Hmmm the arguments against the 3gb card aren't technically accurate. Sure, you are limited on screen resolution anyway, so what's the point. The point is actually the API developers use to hit the card. If we're talking DX9, 10 and 11 then developers can cache textures on the card. So in addition to having the card manage what's on screen, plus 1 or 2 complete screenfuls for the next couple of frames, they can build scenes directly on the card from textures already pre-cached there. ie. no stutters if the scenery outside the window of your aircraft suddenly shifts from lush green fields to desert, no stutters if you suddenly walk out of the dingy dungeon cave into a bright sunlit street, and so and so on.

With more DX11 titles planned for release this year you can almost certainly bet that memory on a card stands a good chance of becoming a key issue.

 

Nope 0 benefit, just like the 1GB -> 2GB 540m, they have just forced you to take that AND the CPU (they only want to make 2 motherboards).

 

LOL, NBR is but a small fraction of the people who shop Dell or Alienware or any of that stuff

I can already tell you one immediate drawback of more DDR3: less battery life

1.5GB is barely utilized on desktop cards of immensely more power at many times higher resolutions, what makes you think 3GB will be used on a card with less power and less resolution?

And that's now how vRAM works on GPUs, more RAM does not mean less stuttering. In fact, if you look at desktop 5870 2GB vs 1GB comparisons, more RAM actually HURT performance in some cases

Bigger #'s does not always mean better performance, especially in GPUs where marketing is big

 

edit: Totally worthless, even if there's a difference in clock speeds.

 

They also charge $100 to go from 4gb of ram to 6... Does dell really charge according to benefit or to make a quick dollar from an unsuspecting fool?

 

The only way it's worth $100, and has a 25% lead, is if it has GDDR5 memory.

 

It would be worth paying $100 to go from 1.5GB GDDR3 to 768MB GDDR5.

 

I was not trying to compare a mobile gpu to a desktop one. I was providing an example of a modern gpu that is more than twice as powerful as the one in the m14x and the effects of different ram configurations. The desktop 6950 is available with 2 different amounts of memory, a 2gb version and a 1gb version, in all other aspects the card is no different. It is an interesting card because it allows us to easily compare the pros/cons of different amounts of vram when playing games, in this case conclusions drawn can be reasonably applied to the m14x's gpu.

Every review that I read stated that at 1920x1200 or below the card did not benefit from the extra 1gb of ram. In extreme cases at 2500x1600 (only a few games, not most of them) or when running a game across 3 monitors at even higher resolutions (which this laptop cannot physically do as it does not have enough outputs) did the card benefit from more than 1gb of vram. The fact remains that the gt555m is much weaker than that desktop card, therefore it will be able to play games satisfactorily at resolutions high enough to require the 3gb of vram.

I mean take a look at the Nvidia desktop GTX580. It is the most powerful single gpu money can buy and Nvidia only builds it with 1.5gb of vram. Why would they do that if it needed 2gb or even 3gb? The fact that they put 3gb in a mobile card is ludicrous...

I stand by my statement that unless the cards have a different amount of shaders and a different type of memory or different memory bandwidth the performance increase will be negligible. Now at this point nobody I know of is 100% sure the cards are the same, my statement is based on the assumption they are.

Now if they only offer the faster cpu when combined with the 3gb version of the card performance may indeed be better but it will be because of the cpu and the upgrade may make sense.

EDIT - Some reading if anyone is interested, though why I would take time to make this up is beyond me...

Guru3D - quoted
"So first off, did you guys check the difference in-between the 1GB and 2GB 6950 versions as well, yeah ... the results are nearly NIL. The added benefit of an extra full GB is excruciatingly hard to measure, even with all games setup with the best image quality settings, hefty shaders and massive textures. The reality is that for 98% of you with today's games 1 GB is absolutely sufficient."
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti-review/18

Bit Tech - quoted
"While the HD 6950 1GB gives a good account of itself in the performance stakes, it makes a mockery of the 2GB version for single-screen gaming. In most of our games, the 1GB card performed identically to the 2GB, with only Black Ops showing much difference between the two cards. Even then, the difference is moot as both cards produce high frame rates at up to 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA. The extra memory should come in useful when using a three-screen Eyefinity setup, and we’ll aim to test that in the coming weeks."
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/02/11/amd-radeon-hd-6950-1gb-review/10

Toms Hardware - quoted
"In just about every case, the smaller frame buffer (and tighter memory timings) yields one or two more frames per second than the 2 GB model. It's not worth rehashing in a page full of charts. Literally, expect one or two more frames per second across the board. In one situation, Metro 2033 with 4x MSAA and 16x AF turned on, the 1 GB card doesn't have a large enough frame buffer to maintain performance and it drops to 10 FPS versus the 2 GB card's 30 FPS."
"The Radeon HD 6950 1 GB won't be the card to buy if you're gaming across a three-screen Eyefinity configuration in CrossFire. For that, you'll want the 2 GB frame buffer to maintain 5760x1080 with AA and AF enabled. It is a more attractive card than the Radeon HD 6950 2 GB, though, at 1920x1080 with details cranked up or 2560x1600 at less demanding settings."
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-560-ti-gf114,2845-17.html

 

i get your point about ram comparisons, but you seem to forget the other spec differences between the two.

nvidia: GeForce GT 555M

amd: AMD Radeon? HD 6950 Graphics

there are way to many differences to be able to say for sure the 555 would or would not gain from the 3gb when going external. (to external tv or monitor)

i am in agreement that within the m14x alone,m the 3gb is not going to be of benefit, but with dx11 and pre-frame rendering (forget the actual naming convention for this) it seem the 3gb "could" be of benefit with external output.

maybe, maybe not...

 

No matter what, it's about cost. $100 extra for 1.5GB to 3.0GB is insane. At least with the 6950, in some cases (after rebate) the 2GB models are about the same price. Plus, $20 or so extra for 1GB on a 6950 is different than $100 extra for 1.5GB more on a 555M. Especially on a 900p laptop.

I game at 1080p on my desktop and I know I don't even need the 2GB. But it was only like $10 more and there were more choices at 2GB.

 

His point stands. If the 6950, a chip that's nearly 4x the speed of the 555M, doesn't benefit from 2GB memory, then there's no way to logically argue that the 555M could somehow mange to use 3GB of vRAM.

 

see, i get that....

but something says there is more to the inner-workings of the card that we wont know about.

its akin to why people get 8gb-16gb in machines that really dont come close to using it either...

i am getting the feeling that there was a reason for nvidia doing the 1.5, 2, and 3 gb options for the 192 bit version of the card...

again, maybe wishful thinking, but i bet there are uses for gaming and more that can and would take advantage of the extra memory.