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    GTX 860m maxwell or kepler?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by craigery81, May 16, 2014.

  1. craigery81

    craigery81 Notebook Evangelist

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    Quick question, is the GTX 860m in the AW 17 a maxwell chip or kepler chip? I was thinking of going with the 860m and overclocking it to almost the 780m performance level if indeed it is maxwell.

    Thanks!
     
  2. nightdex

    nightdex Notebook Evangelist

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    Chip - GK104 - Kepler

    Chip - GM107 - Maxwell
     
  3. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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  4. tismij

    tismij Newbie

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    curious as well, ordered one with the 860M.
    After reading up it seems the maxwell one might not be upgradable, performance wise the maxwell might be better but sure would like to be able to upgrade in a few years without replacing the entire motherboard.

    Anyone order it with the 860M and can share which one it is and if its upgradable?
     
  5. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    There is no version of the 17 and 18 with a soldered gpu.
     
  6. tismij

    tismij Newbie

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    Which would suggest it is a Kepler, however it states 2Gb memory and the Kepler version has 4Gb memory.
    Guess I will have to wait and see unless someone has the 860M and can check.
     
  7. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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  8. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    That site lists the spec for the kepler and lists it as maxwell lol, I would not use that as a reference.

    The answer is there is no rhyme or reason. Both can have either 2GB or 4gb, some are soldered and in the Asus the maxwell is not (though that is not true mxm).

    Each machine is a case by case basis. You can thank nvidia for that.
     
  9. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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    Noted missed that - all so confusing since Nvidia do not put this stuff on the top page specs (or often any page).
    I think they like to confuse by just hoping people go on just a bigger model number while they rehash old stock :mad:
     
  10. wrext0r

    wrext0r Notebook Geek

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    Regarding shader and clockspeed it's a kepler.
     

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  11. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    The 870m is the best bang for your buck in a system like that.
     
  12. wrext0r

    wrext0r Notebook Geek

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    But not available for alienware ;)

    sent from my Nexus 5
     
  13. devilhunter

    devilhunter Notebook Evangelist

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    I just ordered alienware 18 from dell, and to be honest you can ask support agent to reduce the price, Ive got 1,789.09$ + tax, but later on Ive contacted other agent and offered me a total price of 2050$. Anyways, if you contact dell, you should expect a mixed up respond, some say kepler others maxwell, but I found a 3dmark benchmark for Alienware 18 and the card is kepler. Bottom line is nvidia succeeded to fool customers once again.