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    Question About 880M

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by TricksterMatt, Jul 28, 2014.

  1. TricksterMatt

    TricksterMatt Notebook Consultant

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    With the slv7 vbios does the 880M in the AW 17 run perfectly like no throttling or any other issues? Thinking of geting a new Alienware soon and was just woundering about if it is worth getting an 880M still.
     
    TricksterMatt, Jul 28, 2014
    #1
  2. TR2N

    TR2N Notebook Deity

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    No.................
     
    TR2N, Jul 28, 2014
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  3. IanC

    IanC Notebook Evangelist

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    have a look around the forum, there are lots of thread about this very topic...

    in fact my 880m is being replaced by a 780m today by dell because its that good....my advise is stay away from the 880m, looks great on paper. Its a rebranded 780m which has been push beyond its limits with extra ram on board, and what you get is alot of throttling because of the heat it generates...

    hope this helps

    Ian
     
    IanC, Jul 29, 2014
    #3
  4. juliant

    juliant Notebook Deity

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    There is no such thing as 'perfect'. Every system you will buy (disregard the manufacturer / brand) you will have to tweak it to your liking and sooner or later you will have it running smooth as per your liking without issues. For example, my 17 model I never had to do any kind of tweaking or flashing, no errors nor problems, no throttling either. So, I would say, even if you will have few problems in the beginning, always someone (including Dell support team), has come with a solution.
     
    juliant, Jul 29, 2014
    #4
  5. Ethrem

    Ethrem Notebook Prophet

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    You don't have an 880M. Its a terrible card.

    We have an nVidia employee in the forums, Pidge, who got an AW17 with 880M. His was hitting 94C and throttling severely.

    These cards are broken and even when they are not running at their thermal throttle, they're hitting their power throttle which causes the core to come crashing down. If you're lucky, you'll get boost @ 993MHz for ten or fifteen minutes and then the card will go to 954MHz stock and stay there. If you have a weaker card, it will quickly drop down as low as 888MHz.

    If you flash the modded vbios, it will boost, hit the thermal throttle point, and start throttling the RAM instead of the core which severely impacts your gaming experience so the modded vbios is only good for benchmarking.

    Long story short: 880M is crap and no amount of tweaking seems to make most of them stable. There is the occasional example of a good card but the vast majority are reporting very bad issues with them, myself included. One of my cards is perfect, the other is defective and I'm waiting for the RMA for my machine to go back.
     
    Ethrem, Jul 29, 2014
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  6. TricksterMatt

    TricksterMatt Notebook Consultant

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    ​
    Your Alienware 17 is the exact specs I want! Do you think dell will allow me to ask for a 780M in my system rather than a 880M as I don't want the 880M issues and also is the 4900MQ a fast processor
     
    TricksterMatt, Jul 29, 2014
    #6
  7. TricksterMatt

    TricksterMatt Notebook Consultant

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    TricksterMatt, Jul 29, 2014
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  8. TomJGX

    TomJGX I HATE BGA!

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    TomJGX, Jul 30, 2014
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