Where are the nVidia GeForce GTX 780M?

hey,

I was trying to build an AW 18" with SLI 780M but it doesn't give me the option. I even tried with the expensive package and no luck... I called there like 5 times and each and every representative gave me a different reason. Funny thing is that if you go throug Dell UK, They do give you the option.

Has anyone had this problem before? This is the system I would really like to buy since I am not so sure about the SLI 770M...

 

They're just on backorder right now. They should be back as soon as they catch up on their outstanding orders. I think demand is unexpectedly high for such a moderate performance increase.

 

Hybrys,

So you think it's not really worth it?

 

I believe he is more towards "hyped up" as opposed to "not worth it."

I've had the 680M and currently own the 780M. There are noticeable differences in performance, and I do feel it is worth the $200 upgrade from the 770M, which you may be able to negotiate off the final price as well. So, a free 780M upgrade? I believe that's worth pursuing.

 

Thanks J.DRe.

What about from the 780M to SLI 780M upgrade? Can you really feel the difference?

 

780M SLI may be overkill at only 1080p resolution... You could always upgrade and add an additional card further down the line?

 

As J.Dre put it, I feel like it's a bit overhyped. I also feel that the 680ms in SLI are already overkill for most games, but not all.

That being said, if it's 2x770m vs 2x780m, I say go for the top, and it'll last you a long time, unless you want to get into extreme overclocking, and can push those 770ms to 780m speeds.

 

No doubt in my mind that it's worth going for 780M SLI. Not only am I happy with this configuration but it should be able to hand most games at max for the next few years.

This comparison is worth checking out In Review: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M, GTX 770M & GTX 765M - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

You can still get a 780M in a 17, but you'll have to pay about $4000 in the US for the highest package.
I noticed that when I was checking out the models yesterday. Would be pretty cool to have a 780, but...I must say I like the smaller form of the 14, and I'll be just fine with a 765 considering I am coming from playing BioShock Infinite with a 540, hehe.

 

The 780M is a great option for new buyers and carries on where the 680M left off, it's not a good upgrade option from the 680M though.

 

Every time stock runs low on the flagship green cards we see a new thread about it, LOL. I lost track of how many times it happened with 680M. Hopefully we won't have all the goofy conspiracy theory stuff this go 'round like last year. I'll leave this one here and merge any more that crop up with this one between now and when "880M" is released.

As far as 770M versus 780M... easy. GTX 780M and 680M both soundly beat 770M in terms of performance. Personally, I think saving a few bucks on 770M is a waste of money. I don't really know why they bother offering 770M at this point because all the smart money is on 780M. The 770M is not a bad product, but that's a good GPU for a budget gaming system made by a competitor rather than a serious high-performance GPU. It's more on par with 580M/675M and a little bit less potent that 7970M.

 

As weird as it may be to say this about a laptop, I believe you are somewhat accurate. It's just amazing what these laptops can do nowadays.

Some people are saying dual 780M's are better than a GTX Titan, all in a portable device...

 

When would it be a good idea to upgrade from a 680m? When the 800 series come out?

 

The 780m has been proven to be only roughly 20% better, I'd skip this generation and wait till at least 800 series, as you said.

 

Yeah, as Deepdarkness said, I'd wait for the 800s, or see what ATI has lying behind the curtain for this fall.

If you have a 680m, you can also look into overclocking it a bit. It can easily reach 780m FPS @ 1080p. Where the 780m has the only major advantage is it's memory bandwidth for 1440p or 1600p.

 

Definitely wait for the 800 series if you have the 680M. If history serves us right, two generations is usually 50%+ increase in performance, which is huge for a laptop. The 680M (highly overclocked) can beat the 780M in some cases.

 

680m with a moderate OC will match a 780m stock in anything but a memory bandwidth race, iirc.

 

Nahhh.

I have both 680m SLI and 780m SLI. I'm getting closer to 30-40% with the more demanding games like Metro: Last Light and Crysis 3. The lastest 780m drivers alone boosted my 3D Mark score from 7,600 to 8,200. It's wayyy too early to make claims like that.

 

I assume you mean with SLI disabled, correct? That's quite horrible for SLI, ha.

I agree, though. It's still too early to tell. NVIDIA seems to be behind this year (in regards to drivers). However, I would still wait if I had the 680M SLI setup. It's not like you'll be struggling to play games.

 

well they just put up this system that has the dual 780Ms but no optical drive

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

I hope it means that the dual 780Ms will be an option for the model below it again soon

 

No, with SLI enabled. That's a very high score, you're probably thinking of older versions of 3D Mark like 11. I'm using the newest version.

And I was able to return the 680m SLI that I had for a couple months for the the new 18 with 780m SLI.

With a ship date of nearly October. Wow.

 

I am using both as well. I have 780M SLI in the 18 and 680M SLI in the M18xR2. They are close. A lot closer to the same than 680M and 7970M are as flagship products in the same hardware generation.

I wouldn't really consider that a "very high" score for 3DMark Fire Strike, but it is definitely respectable. I get over 9500 on overclocked 680M SLI with modded vBIOS, and overclocked 780M SLI with modded vBIOS is capable of just over 10,000 if pushed hard enough with an Extreme CPU. That's not a very wide margin. In 3DMark11 a 680M SLI setup pushed to the max achieves about 18K GPU and if 780M is pushed hard enough it can reach 20K GPU. Again, not a wide margin. The 780M SLI setup is about 10-15% more powerful on average based on my measurements. In a few things it is more and a few things less. It's an excellent GPU, but it's not a huge improvement over 680M. It doesn't leave 680M in the dust by any means. Although, I wish it did. It would make the idea of an upgrade for the M18xR2 a little bit more compelling. Right now it feels disproportionately expensive for a relatively small increase in performance. I still want it because it's better, but I am not feeling a sense of urgency about it. The power draw of 780M is greater than the performance difference. I can't just cut loose with overclocking the 780M SLI without tripping the AC adapter. Overclocked and over-volted, it trips the breaker with notably less effort than 680M SLI does.

 

If that $5,299 tier will be the only way to get 780m's from now on, that is insane. I am glad I bought when I did because I would not even consider buying if they are forcing that many upgrades on me. Zero customization and price gouging is not something I like. =/

 

I suppose simple supply and demand factors are at play now. I wonder when/if the 780m will come back in stock in higher numbers...Seems like this happens all the time for top of the line nvidia cards. For all I know, my order will get canceled <laugh>.

 

That depends on how long it is on backorder. It may end up canceled. I don't remember the cut-off limit, but they are allowed to leave an order in limbo for a defined period of time. I believe that is regulated in some venues, so it may vary by your location. For reasons I don't understand, stock availability varies by country. Since they are all built in the same place that makes no sense to me. Perhaps that has to do with regulations on selling something that is not in stock, and they can accept orders for something that is not immediately available and cannot in another venue.

I know when I ordered the parts to convert my M18xR1 to an R2 my order was extended with my permission and about 12 days later it was canceled whether I liked it or not due to availability. A replacement order was initiated immediately by my sales rep and the same thing happened when time ran out. The third order was the charm.

If stock is approaching depletion, they may be reserving the best components for those that want to order a maxed out machine. I can understand giving preference to customers willing to pay more. It would not surprise me that configuration options might loosen up if they end up having plenty of parts on hand and can show greater flexibility to those wanting the best GPU but want to cheap-out on other components.

 

hopefully it won't be too much longer, I really want to get a gaming laptop again soon so I can play stuff like Saints Row IV and Total War: Rome II that is coming out but there's no way I can afford the $5300 model even with haggling and my 10% off coupon

that and I want a blu-ray drive, removing the optical drive isn't appealing to me

 

Some people really like the convenience of having an internal optical drive versus an extra HDD. Removing it was not very appealing to me at first. As I contemplated doing that, I really struggled with that decision and had to convince myself the extra HDD made more practical sense. I love my BluRay burner, but I think I have played/burned an optical disk less than a dozen times in two years. Once I made the decision to move the BD-RE drive to an external enclosure and freed up the bay for another HDD I never looked back. If you play or burn disks more than average, then it might end up being inconvenient. It seems that optical disks are getting progressively less popular than they used to be in a short period of time. I am expecting ODD technology to end up going the way of cassette tapes as flash media is becoming more and more prevalent on many platforms, including automotive sound systems and home entertainment systems.

 

Lol this is bull. They only allow 780M SLI to be sold on model with 3940XM and 768GB SSD configuration. The jump from the other Alienware with 770M SLI is $3k > $5k

 

no really, I just ordered yesterday with 780M sli. just call sale department and they will help you with the configuration!

 

Yeah, you can order the 780M's, but they won't be in stock until September. So, you'll be waiting at least 4 weeks for your system.

 

A month wait is still better than getting in a hurry and downgrading. If you can afford the 780M it is definitely worth waiting for. Comparing 770M to 780M (I have both) it's a no brainer.

 

Just called Dell concerning my AW 17 that has been in Production since 07/30 and they told me they are waiting on the cards (September) so it look like they have a huge backlog of orders waiting on the 780M

 

^^^yes, which is one reason why you cannot order a new system (temporarily) with 780M. If the backlog gets too far out they won't be able to catch up in a timely manner. Plus, it adds to customer frustration when orders go beyond the time limit and have to be cancelled and resubmitted.

 

I talked with the guy you referred me to today but there was a different manager on duty and she put a stop to it well at least until she hears back from the logistics team

 

I agree, I hope you didn't think I meant otherwise. :thumbsup:

 

No, I didn't think you meant that. You were merely stating a fact based on the information currently available.

It is a real bummer to have to wait when one is excited about getting something new and awesome. I was only offering the word of encouragement to be patient for those in that waiting game position.

 

I actually think this is good policy. There's no point in placing orders that may or may not be filled in a long period of time. I'm actually keeping my fingers crossed, but am starting to feel they will just cancel my order soon...They also probably have no control over how many nVidia cards they get so it seems way up in the air and no one knows when the cards will actually come in. Someone here said someone at Dell told him mid this week, I have my doubts since the reps really are clueless...

 

If you now anything about graphics card production the problem is nVidia might not even know how many cards they are going to actually produce.

Edit* So its a double edged sword.

 

It's most definitely nVidia. They were probably hedging their bets on mid to low demand, and didn't produce that much out of the gate. Making them to simply 'keep up' with demand is an economically smart decision.

Now, for everyone waiting for their 780m:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBwS66EBUcY

 

They have been producing GK104 for almost 1.5 year now. Shouldn`t Nvidia should have entire buildings filled up from floor to ceiling with GK104`s?

That or there are some pretty strict criterias for making it way to the mobile 780M bin.

 

Their bins for 780ms are pretty strict, but it's also a completely different card, with the full power RAM. They may have the chips into the 100s of thousands, but still need to assemble the specific 780m configuration and fulfill Clevo, MSI, and ASUS orders as well.

There are also other considerations to be made, such as component shipping time, supplier delays, minimum production lots (they may only send lots of 1000 at a time, which slows speed of fulfillment further.)

 

True, the 780ms aren't even next gen technology so they shouldn't have that much trouble manufacturing it right?

 

They updated my delivery date from 08.22 to 10.05 ugh..

 

You are not alone, mine went from 8/19 to 10/1...

 

Oh god. Mine is still 8/23.

I'm scared.

 

Mine is 8/23 too still. It seems inevitable that it's going to be delayed... better than being cancelled though.

 

FWIW, I told them about my issue with the palmrest peeling and they offered an exact replacement that would be here next Monday, so they can't be too limited on 780Ms... Denied it and just asked for a replacement palm rest though.

 

They're limiting the 780M's to the maxed out systems, probably because they make the most money off of the maxed out systems. You ordered one maxed out, so, you don't have to wait.

 

They didn't have the 100watt tdp version of the 780m available until recently, all they had was the 680mx with a higher power requirement in the iMac.

 

This is incorrect. Newly ordered, maxed out systems have an EDD into Sept/Oct as well.

Why would they delay other $5000+ orders to service new $5000+ orders?

Most companies keep a separate stock of support hardware, or he was being offered a refurb.

The 780m is the 680mx with different memory and a lower TDP. They're even very similar binnings.