M17x R4 GTX 1070 Vs M15 R3 RTX 2060

I've been debating on whether upgrading my M17x R4 was a good decision against buying a more expensive newer alienware laptop. I spent about 970 USD on upgrading it in total with the specs below. Im trying to get more input from this community to see if this is a good laptop in 2020 and for at least 3 more years with these upgrades and even competes somewhat with something like a M15 R3

My M17x R4:

Total price: 600 (Original price I paid used on ebay 5 years ago) + 980 USD Worth of upgrades

3D 1920x1080 120hz
5 Pipe GPU heatsink
128GB Samsung SSD
1TB WD HDD
GTX 1070
10.55CFM CPU Fan
3940XM - Coming soon but for now a 3630QM
10GB of 1333 DDR3
Intel 7260 Wifi card


M15 R3:

Total Cost (New) 1,763 USD

1920x1080 144hz
RTX 2060
2TB PCIE M.2
16GB of 2666 DDR4
I7 10750H
Killer AX1650



Would Comparing the M17x R4 against the M15 R3 be even fair? I was looking at some firestrike scores of thr M15 R3 and graphics wise it doesn't beat my 18000 score with my 1070, but processor wise, it beats it by alot. Another question is would a i7 10750H vs a 3940XM make a huge difference in games? Leave your thoughts down below.

 

I think the comparison is fair. Considering Dell now likes to thermal throttle their laptops instead of upgrading their cooling (with the exception of the Area 51M), the performance delta between the CPUs in the two machines isn't as drastic, although the M15 R3 CPU is still undoubtedly significantly more powerful.

However since the most important part when it comes to video games is the GPU, the M17x R4 wins because the GPU is upgradable. Although there may be no upgrade path to newer GPUs, nobody knows for sure we won't see standard form factor MXM cards anymore (or at lest semi-standard like with the MSI 1070), and we could see MXM cards based on the Turing or Ampere architectures eventually be released that would fit in our laptops.

So in short, the M17x R4 wins in longevity if you don't do anything super CPU intensive that you would need the i7 10750H to do effectively.

Also for my personal use case, I would save around 25% on the cost of owning computers over the course of 7-8 years (maybe more) by getting a fully upgradable $2000-$2500 DTR and upgrading the GPU when my performance requirements increase. If I were to get a $2000 BGA laptop (which I would never consider doing anyway), I would have to replace it every 3-4 years, which is a complete waste considering I only need a more powerful graphics card every two generations of GPUs.

Whether the M17x R4 or M15 R3 is a better laptop for you depends on your particular needs.

 

I totally agree with you 200%. I was just wondering If i made a good investment In my good old trusty R4 and it seems to me that I did. I particularly use it for gaming on the go so I don't think I need a overkill processor although I'm reading alot that Quad core processors are not going to be enough for these upcoming generations

 

That may or may not be true depending on the type of games you mostly play. For open world or RTS games? Sure I can see that. For FPS and TPS games? Definitely not. A quad core will be good for FPS and TPS games for quite a while longer, although I can see those needing hexcore and octacore CPUs if better destruction physics are added to games.

Even if you're targeting high frame rates, quad cores are good enough for FPS and TPS games.

 

I mostly primarily play FPS and open world games. On FPS games like modern warfare 2019, I see 80-90fps on mid to small maps on fully maxed out settings. On bigger maps I do see frame dips to around the mid 65s and mid 70s fps. On open world games Like GTA5, I get around 40-50fps with some processor settings like distance scaling set down to medium. I hope that the 3940XM will help me improve these figures somewhat coming from the 3630QM

 

Overclocking helps, and so does turning down CPU intensive settings to medium.

Turning down everything to medium in GTA V and overclocking to 4.2 Ghz nets me 120 FPS. It doesn't look much different than ultra. I tend to run games at the lowest setting that looks close to ultra since some games (such as far cry 4) have a laughably small difference between their low and ultra settings, and of course run much better on low settings.

 

What CPU did you OC?

 

The i7 4930MX in my Ranger.

From what I hear, the i7 3930XM and 3940XM are better overclockers.

 

I'd rather have the M17xR4, especially since there's a possibility for 2080S mxm 3.0b cards in the future. The looks of the M11x/M14x/M17x/M18x series is also very nice.

I'd have 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM at least, idk why yours has 1333mhz.

 

It comes down to this, by this point you know your machine and how to fix it or enhance.

The new ones? They are all in one toasters with a premeditated lifespan. I used to REALLY eyeball the 17 R4 as they were really cheap on the used market with the 7820hk and 1080. 6-8 months later we see many of those machines simply stop working.

Will there come a time to officially retire the R4? Of course, but it isnt today and I bet you'll outlast many of those toasters with an alienware badge on them.

 

Man those R4s are really eye catching as you said and even sometimes I doubt the 970 bucks i spent on the M17x R4 were worth it. The lowest I've seen a R4 1080 7820HK going for is 750 which is sooo tempting. But then I start looking at the cons and the pros and the better option is the M17x R4 with all the upgradeability and flexibility of the MXM slot. I'm willing to pay extra for just that slot alone that many computers willingly leave out with their expensive BGA crap. Besides, the 7820HK is still a Quad core at the end of the day and the 1080 isn't MXM.

 

Not to mention if and when the GPU burns out, you have to replace the whole motherboard.

 

That's exactly why modular, upgradeable hardware will always be king. Even if we have to pay extra for it upfront, it's worth it in the long run, which a lot of people don't seem to understand since they just look at upfront costs rather than the big picture.

This is the reason I avoid the software as a service model for video games that keeps getting pushed by game streaming services. It's meant to bleed you dry of your money in the long term by enticing you with low upfront costs, but it will actually end up costing more in the long run. At least it will for me since I don't buy new games that often (and even then I get them on sale for like $5-10 each) and play the same game for quite a while, even coming back to it after playing a new one.

The same applies to computer hardware. If you buy a BGA notebook, be prepared to replace it after a few years. With LGA + MXM notebooks, you can save quite a bit of money if you keep using the laptop for a long time. In my particular case, I'd save around 25% of the cost of owning a computer over the span of 8 years (as I mentioned earlier).

BGA has it's place, but it has no place in gaming laptops. Regular laptops can be BGA, and that's fine since they're just meant for general tasks and will last non-gamers who just do work on computers quite a while. However for performance laptops, BGA is a horrible idea since the audience that buys these kind of laptops has performance requirements that increase steadily each year. We shouldn't have to buy an entirely new laptop which probably also has had minimal increase in CPU performance just to get a new graphics card. That's ridiculous, and generates a lot of eWaste as a result. That's like buying a new desktop to replace your old one because you wanted a new graphics card.

 

That is very true. Unfortunately Computer manufacturers I felt like have taken 2 steps forward and 5 steps backwards after trying to go after the Ultra slim gaming laptop design and concept that nobody asked for. I don't mind a chunky laptop to carry around that's modular and upgradeable that'll last me 6 or 8+ years against BGA that'll maybe last you 3 or 5 years stretching it. Alienware as you said loves to cut corners and remove features such as the MXM slot and soldering ram. It doesn't make sense to me since this is targeted for gamers.

 

They're trying to cater to the mainstream audience, which I think is silly since non-gamers wouldn't really want to buy these kind of laptops anyway.

I personally prefer thick and "heavy" laptops built like tanks. There's something really appealing about them since they feel so durable. And no they're not heavy. I think people who think a 10 pound laptop is heavy need to hit the gym because they're gonna have other problems if they can't even lift 10 pounds.

There really isn't anything wrong with thin and light in of itself, it's more that companies are using it as an excuse to keep making crapper and crapper laptops.

The fact that Asus crammed a Quadro RTX 5000 into a laptop proves that thin and light laptops can be super powerful. There also is no reason they can't be upgradable either. It's just that nobody wants to design such a machine for whatever reason. Probably not enough demand since the people who usually buy thin and light laptops tend to be the kind of person that just wants something that works.

 

Realistically, the M17X R4 is a way better built machine, and when it comes down to it, the 2060MQ throttled to death in a m15 performs pretty similarly to the 1070 in your M17X R4. As for whether it was worth it, if you where to have bought it all upfront, in one purchase, probably not for the M17X R4, doesn't mean the M15 would be that good of value compared to other laptops however. In the long run, the m15 will probably be the superior laptop, given it still has modern support, more threads, AGA/TB3 etc, I know I would probably rather have one.

At the end of the day, the m15 is a pretty bad laptop, your M17X R4 is cool but its pretty dated, it might be time to shelve it and sell the 1070 soon if you're trying to play modern games. I'd stop comparing to the m15, and compare to used 2070 and 2080 laptops (with better cooling too) that will destroy anything you could fit in a M17X R4 as it stands.

TLDR: it kind of depends on what you think is worth it, at the end of the day it should come down to what you think, not others. I'd personally think that you'd be insane and just flat out stupid to spend $1600 on a 3rd gen i7 laptop with a 1070 in 2020 as a viable machine, unless its a pet project, either way its your money you're wasting, but given this was built up over time since 2017, it may be fair to argue that it was gradual payments.

 

I can respect your point of view also. For me at least, I just love the look and the style of the M17 R4 and that year of alienwares in general. And it was my first real gaming machine so I wanted to keep it going for 2 or 3 years more if possible. It might not be worth it for other people to invest that type of money in a 8 year old laptop and I do understand. For me it just holds sentimental value and looks awesome. It will eventually be shelfed though and its time will come like all laptops.

Edit: I said in the description that I bought it in 2017 but I actually bought it in 2015. So overall it came in at better value per year. And if i want to make my money back, I could sell the 1070 and put the stock 660m to sell it off. These laptops still go for 600- 700ish at this moment and a perfect condition one like mine could maybe fetch more. Then I could sell off the 1070 separate. I'm not saying I'm going to make all of my money back, but I can make some of it back.

 

Yes as it stands, but just wait a bit and see. We may be getting even more powerful cards in these machines.

I think the CPU will become the issue before GPU.

I'd rather have a M17xR4 over any of the newer machines unless it's Area-51m. It's more fun to work on, there' plenty of upgrades, and it just looks better.

The 6/8-core CPUs are definitely nice though. We are stuck on 4 cores and while they can still play most games fine, slowly they will show their weakness.

 

Still great for any game before that point really. Its not as though they lose all value after being retired from the daily driver position

 

I think its a great machine that even rivals some 2020 laptops. And for a 8 year old computer, you can't really ask for more. I think I can push another 3 or 4 years before having to retire it from gaming service. And if thats the case, that means that this laptop cost 133 dollars over a period of 12 years .And even after that, a quad core processor is more than enough for casual web browsing, watching YouTube videos, and using any apps. So this laptop in reality is good to go a couple of more years after 12 years assuming that its just a beater computer

Edit: A RTX 2070 mobile is about 26% faster which is a generational leap but not huge one. price of a laptop like the m15 r3 with a 2070 is around the ballpark of 1800 USD and up with all of the other specs like an i9.

 

R4 can handle 200w on the 1070 so that percentage gap will be smaller though naturally requires more effort to get it there