warranty replacement and gpu compute performance.

a couple years ago i had bought an m17x R3 with a 6990m and 2760qm. luckily, i also bought the accidental insurance as my cat knocked my drink all over my laptop about a month or so ago. dell shipped me a box and i sent it away to be repaired, but when it came back it hasn't been working properly. after many emails, a technician visit, and several phone call troubleshooting attempts, dell is replacing my machine with a new 17. new specs are 770m and 4800mq.

based on this comparison it seems like i should be getting a 780m as the 6990m has a higher pixel rate, more shading units, more render output processors, and better floating point performance: Radeon HD 6990M vs GeForce GTX 770M

here is the comparison to the 780m: Radeon HD 6990M vs GeForce GTX 780M

i recall reading something a while ago about nvidia crippling their compute performance on consumer grade cards, and i'm having a hard time finding comparisons between the 770m and the 6990m. does anyone know how they would compare? looking at the floating point performance alone, you can see that the 6990M is better than the 770M and beat by the 780M. considering that the replacement is supposed to be equal to or greater, i am worried i am not getting what i should be.

 

Normally when Dell/Alienware does the Equal or Greater thing, they are going after what the component is supposed to do, such as the CPU with the computational work and the GPU with rendering of graphics.

The 6990m beats the 770m in one area that you are concerned with, and thats the floating point operation, but loses to said card in almost every other area.
The 6990m flat out loses to the 780m in every area.

Going by that, the 770m would be the 'ideal' upgrade because of it being better "mostly" and outperforming the 6990m pretty well. On the other hand you could try calling in and arguing (politely) that you are seeking the card that has the higher floating point operation (780m). It may or may not work and you may have to hit up one of the reps here to get it pushed through better. I would say try pushing for the 780m though. Argue on the basis that you bought a top end card and the card you are getting is not top end in all the places you require compared to their offerings. It may work.

 

I have emailed the guy I have been dealing with for the last month or so, but he works Monday to Friday 6pm until midnight or so my time, so if I don't hear from him tomorrow I will have to call in.

Also, when I purchased my R3 I paid extra for the Killer wireless card which is no longer an option. so I am hoping that because they can't offer me the card I paid for (3x3), they will be more likely to push the 780m through.

Do you think they care what version of Windows they give me? The R3 was Windows 7 Home Premium, but I would prefer Windows 8. Considering they are the same price, I would hope that they would allow me to switch it to Windows 8.

 

As for the windows question, my friend bought my m18x R1 from me and he has had a multitude of issues with it (I gave it to him in 100% condition). He went from 8gig ram / 2x 6990m aka Crossfire / 500gb HD / Win7 Home x64 / 2760QM CPU to... 32gig RAM / 2x 780m aka SLI / 3x 256gb SSD (Raid 0) + 256gb Cache SSD / Win 7 ULTIMATE x64 / 4930MX CPU. He had issue after issue with the GPUs for some reason, multitude of techs came out, got worse every time, and then they gave him that.... It would be safe to assume that you would be getting windows 8, but if you ask then 7 could be done. I would ask though to make sure. And yeah, that wireless card, they probably would bend over a little with that.

No definates though, but given what my friend got... that seems very reasonable.

 

The list they showed me shows Windows 7, but I requested to have it switched to Windows 8. Just have to play the waiting game for now.

 

It could be done, hopefully the person that's handling the request will help you with that. If any issue arises, let us know here and we'll help out as much as we can.

 

The gpu has been changed to the 780m, which means they had to cancel the order and start a new one. So the 2-3 week wait has been restarted. I asked if there were anything they can do to speed it up, but I was told that it couldn't be expedited.

Unfortunately, he said that I can't get Windows 8 because the OS has to match the original order unless the original OS is EOL.

Because they aren't offering the killer wireless card anymore, he said that he could give me a 3 month extension to my warranty. Not that great, but it's better than nothing. I would have hoped for at least a year, especially because it's a fresh laptop that may have a whole list of its own problems. I believe I can purchase more though.

I had requested that the memory be installed as 2x8GB instead of 4x4GB, but he said they can't do that because they need to populate all the memory slots. I am pretty sure that isn't the case because Haswell uses dual channel memory, so pairs should be fine, but in reality I don't think I will need to upgrade from 16GB's of RAM anytime soon.

 

Tasks that require FP64 (64bit precision) will run at 1/24th the speed of FP32 in the 7xxM series due to the hardware layout, if your tasks only need FP32 then you wont get a hit.

 

To be honest, and brutal.....you've got an amazing replacement coming from a much older machine with much older technology. Coming from 2nd generation CPU to 4th gen is already a very nice bump. Add to that that 6990m to 780m is a MASSIVE bump, whichever way you cut it. I think that asking for more, or being super-picky is a step too far.....

As for the WiFi card, a 3 mth warranty extension is a nice bonus.....

I think a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that a replacement is a god given right to go ahead and start changing things to suit what they want, when in reality, all Dell are obliged to do is match your components as closely as they possibly can to your ORIGINAL order.

If Windows 8 and a 3x3 card are THAT important, go out and grab a Killer off Fleabay and do a Win 8 Upgrade......

As for the memory configuration, 4x4 is the way Dell roll because 4gb modules are cheaper than 8gb modules. There is no reason to 'populate' all sodimm slots - that's poppycock or misunderstanding on the side of your rep.

All in all, it's a great swap. I'd be thankful.

 

Oh I am definitely thankful, don't get me wrong. I am very happy with what I am getting, and aside from all the waiting, the customer service I am experiencing has been excellent.

The memory configuration was just a thought, and I doubt I will ever upgrade to 32GB so I don't really care. It would have been preferable though if I had the option.

I have an upgrade disc for windows 8, but I would have preferred it to come ready to use. Again, no biggie.

Anyways, on a side note..

The Coolermaster Notepal U3 is on sale on NCIX canada for $24.99 + a $10 MIR. From what I could gather, this is one if the best coolers. If you buy from MemoryExpress, they will prove match and beat the difference by 25%. Shipping from ME was cheaper for me also ($5 vs ncix's $7-8).

 

The U3 is a great little cooler - as with any cooler, don't expect miracles. Mine's boxed up right now, but it did help out with my M18x R1 temps. Maybe 3-5c. Worth every penny I paid for it. I'd recommend one any day of the week!