Is it worth getting the new 17 with GTX 880m?

Hey guys, long time, no see... but to the point.

Currently i have got the M17x R4 with the HD 7970M which performs, amazingly, it is really very good and i haven't got any performance issues whatsoever. But, i already had this lappy for a year and a half and figured that I better sell it while i can get a solid price on it, and I really wanted to be PhysX enabled for Witcher 3. Thing is, I read an awful lot of negative stuff regarding the 880m GTX, main thing, well , the only thing, is the throttling issue at 66°C with Optimus on and 77°C with it switched off (which is how i use my 7970M, with Enduro switched off, because, it's BS) however, I looked up several videos on youtube, with real-time stats of the card and so-on, and it showed to be hitting well over 80°C... My question is, sorry for a long text, is the throttling really such an issue? isn't there any word about a fix coming in? Because, this is the main reason why i'm really not too sure about selling my great M17x and buying a potentially crappy 17. Also, are there any other issues I should be aware of considering the 17 with the 880m GTX and i7 4710QM ?

Thx, Pistino01

 

With unlocked vBIOS out now, its working perfectly.. I personally see no point of upgrading but if you get a good deal, I would jump and take it...

 

You just missed the Dell Mystery Coupon sale. If you had a 15% off coupon, I'd say it's worth while. Seeing as you can't until the next sale, I don't think it's worth upgrading. You won't really notice any difference in performance. The 880M may give you about 10 FPS more in most games, but it's not a huge leap. If you want to, and have the money to, why not? :thumbsup: Don't go expecting it to double your performance, though. Because it won't.

Speaking long-term (18 months or so), you're better off waiting until we know what Alienware does for E3, and what NVIDIA does with Maxwell. E3 is coming up real soon, and NVIDIA will probably be right behind it. Otherwise, you'll be paying top dollar for old technology.

 

I'm not sure if the loss on resale value on a new 17 is worth the upgrade vs the reduced loss on the old one.

 

I would wait until after E3 just in case Alienware releases a R2 or upgrades features on their pre-existing lineup without a complete refresh. Only 7 days till E3!

 

So the performance/throttling issue is solved with the unlocked vbios then? I don't suppose it's official,is it? Guys, let me change your thinking about this situation a bit, I got mine M17x for only about 1350€ and could get the 17 with the 880M GTX for somwhere around the same price (my bro works at dell, he gets an employee discount), furthermore, I could easily sell it for about 1200€ if not 1300€. Seeing, however as you guys say that the performance gain wouldn't be very dramatic I think I'll wait till E3 to see what will they do with their notebook line-up (i'd love to see a design change, because, in my opiniom, the new notebooks are ugly on the inside, there is no alienware funkyness to it) On the subject of the new Maxwell core, don't you think that it's a little too soon to be expecting them to introduce it? I mean, the GTX 880m just came out a few months ago... Or perhaps a refresh? a GTX 880m with a maxwell core? hmm... I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the future brings. I surely hope that they will update the cards with Maxwell, so that I can sell it while it still has good value on it. If they won't announce a refresh of the 800-series with a Maxwell core or perhaps a whole new Maxwell core-series (which is improbable) in the upcomiing maybe three months (which, in my opinion, is a reasonable time-frame), I think i'll just get the 17 with the GTX 880m.