(M17x R3) Help with GPU & CPU choice

Hi,

Am gonna buy a Alienware M17x R3 soon,

But i can make my choice between two things

1. Which CPU?

2760QM or 2860QM

2. Which GPU?
6990M or 580M

I want to play games like
Metro 2033 & Metro Last Light,Crysis 1&2, The Witcher 2, Dead Space 1&2, Batman Arkham Asylum & Batman Arkham City, Hitman Absolution, Dirt 3, Bioshock 2, Black Ops, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Duke Nukem Forever, BF3, Modern Warfare 3, all that in high minimum and Ultra

Can this laptop keep 3-4 years in-game
Cause i want to buy the Maxwell Desktop when its coming out

Thanks,
Mike

P.S. Sorry for my bad english

 

There is not much difference between the CPUs performance wise except for the extra 2mb of cache on the 2860. Honestly it isn't worth the extra money in my opinion. The 2760 is definitely the best bang for the buck.

If you want to game in 3D, get the 580m with 120hz monitor. If you don't care about 3D gaming then save the money and get the 6990m, performance wise they are pretty much the same except for 3D.

If you want to keep the laptop for 3-4 years that is fine but don't expect it be anything special after 2 years. PCs get outdated too quickly. It should be a good gaming laptop for at least 2 years, maybe 3, 4 will probably be a stretch. If you do plan on keeping it a long time get the Dell Complete Care warranty so that if it breaks they will replace it.

 

If you want to have a laptop you can keep for that amount of time, I would get the M18x with dual GPUs. Other than that, Valkerie pretty much hit the nail on the head. You can also score an M17x-R2 and put 6970 or 6990M GPUs in it.

 

Ok am gonna take the 2760 and the 6990M with the Complete Warrenty

Do you think if the GPU breaks after 3 year Dell will replace it with the new 7000M series or 600M series for free

 

with complete care, if you laptop falls off your deck and is destroyed, they'll usually replace it with a refurb that matches or exceeds the original....

for example, i had an i8600 (bought in 03) which had an ati9600 mobility and a 1.6GHz pentium-m (banias). Dell replaced it in 07 with an i1520 with an nvidia 8600gt and core2 duo 2.0GHz. besides those major upgrades, i also got a much bigger hard drive. Downside was that my screen went from 1920x1200 to 1440x900 since they no longer had that screen in a 15in laptop.

Basically thanks to complete care, my laptop lasted ~8 years (with a refresh in the middle). Incidentally, I extended my warranty again after they replaced the machine since a lot of failures seem to happen in the first year and I was only going to have like 2 months left on my original 4 years.

Anyway.... I'd definitely recommend complete care. It's great knowing that if you drop your laptop or your dog knocks it off the table, or a drunk person dumps a pina colada into it - you're covered.

So getting back you your question, yes... if your gpu breaks, it'll most likely be replaces with a 7000 or 8000 series gpu or a 600 or 700m or whatever is relevant at the time of replacement.

 

It depends on the compatibility with your laptop. If you laptop supports it, and that is the only option Dell has to comply with the warranty that you purchased, I would say yes. If further down the line it is found that the newer GPUs are compatible with your R3, but Dell doesn't want to cooperate, you can buy the GPU yourself and install it. This is the case with the R2 currently.

 

Ok thank you guys