3D on the 17

Is getting 3D worth it on such a small screen? Anyone here have it and want to share any experiences?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but it seemed appropriate.

 

If you can afford it, many recommend it, not just for the 3D, but the 120ghz screen is supposed to look a lot smoother when running games and videos in 2D. The con argument (reason I ordered it it without) is that having a 120ghz screen makes it impossible to use Nvidia Optimus graphics switching, making battery life much shorter.

 

Wow thanks for the information, I had no idea that it would disable optimus technology. Are we talking about minutes or hours off of the battery life?

 

No one has the AW 17 3D yet, but reviews of the standard unit give it 4.2 hours with wifi surfing. You can expect about 2.5 hours max without optimus.

 

Yeah, okay.. I think I'm going to join you on that boat that opted out of 3D haha. Thanks a lot for the information, now I don't feel like I'm missing out on too much.

 

"120ghz"... that must be very smooth indeed!

It's a good question, I'd been looking at the 3D version myself. Battery life doesn't worry me personally, but future upgrade potential might. Lots of people having problems upgrading R3's and R4's, 3D won't work with a newer GPU unless a new BIOS update that supports it is released by Dell.

 

All I'll add is I got mine purely to check the 120hz display. 3D was just a gimick in my eyes. Well my eyes got educated! It (3D) is truly awesome in almost all the latest titles. Everyone I show it to (Batman AC is a good show-off game) says the same thing, 'how can you go back to ordinary gaming after that! I feel the same now, would not even consider a gaming machine that does not 'do' 3D

Yeah dell are being a bit naughty there with locking 3D to only cards sold with the machine and refusing to do a simple BIOS update. I've still got 'room' to upgrade but the 680 is as far as I can go. Anything higher than that 120hz will work fine but SOL on the 3D

 

My two cents..

I wouldnt say 17 in screen is a small one considering its a laptop that you carry around everywhere and most of the entire people are having 13-15 in screen for a laptop. but if you compare with 3D LED TV then its small but its a different case... I enjoy my 3d whenver i feel like it.. now i''m stuck on Skyrim : Elder scroll.. it looks awesome.. but when the eyes get bit funny I say use normal mode... and movies ie. Despicable Me looks really great.. But its just personal choice.. like comments above if you can afford it get it.. else dont force yourself just get that BD player with the Samsung 46-55in 3d LED or similar..

 

Running 3d requires the system to render the same screen twice...effectively zapping 50% of your framerates. SO, if you're going to run 3d on a laptop, make sure you go with a very highend GPU. I wouldn't touch 3d with less than the 680m...780m preferred

 

i love it, i got a 580m and i run just about all games and video in 3d, even skyrim, with no real fps lost in most games.
you dont really notice its a 17 inch screen when you start gettin into some of the games with 3d so tottaly worth it unless you like playing games without the power cord, because your gonna need it, i get about on avg an hour to and hour and a half of battery time.

 

Me too, a huge surprise as to it working so well!

 

If you have a way to do it on an external monitor don't get it. I believe getting the whole kit would be a lot more expensive than getting the LCD with the built-in 3D.