XPS L702X: getting rid of Optimus

I was thinking of purchasing the L702X with the 555M, and use it for games/graphical design purposes. Apparently Optimus works badly for most games (if the information I found is still up-to-date).

The most obvious option to get the XPS L702X without Optimus is to purchase the 3D screen, but I have no need for 3D and I don't feel like paying 250 euro's more just to get rid of Optimus.

I was wondering if it's possible to order the laptop with just the "3d-capable" (no Optimus) 555, without getting the 3d-screen.

 

It doesn't seem to be an option at the moment unfortunately.
There's a thread here that is on topic and about giving feedback to Dell;
Dell Considering a FHD XPS 17 w/o 3D! Let your voices be heard!

 

I haven't heard that optimus is bad for games at all. The only thing was that punkbuster would kick you for having 2 graphics drivers loaded at the same time, but this has been fixed by Nvidia.

 

On several forums (the Nvidia one as well) people are complaining that the Source Engine games (TF2, CS:S, Portal) have some serious shader issues. Dissappearing textures, ghosting, etc.

Some games won't run because they detect the IGP as the main graphics card.

These issues might be fixed, but I haven't found any information to prove this yet.

 

TF2 was because the anti-cheat engine detected two graphics cards and saw it as a cheat. They've released a fix for that.

Also, other games that didn't work (PES11 is one of them) the latest Nvidia drivers fixed it. Apparently all upcoming games are aware of optimus and will work fine. It's just the older games but the majority are fixed now.

The performance is the same using optimus the only kind of issue is the lag (1-8ms max) which Nvidia say is unnoticable anyway.

When you think about it, optimus has been around since the GF2xx series. If it was so bad Nvidia would have dropped it.

 

That's not automatically the case. If it was, we wouldn't have Intel graphics for the past 13 years or whatever.

I do not want Optimus, and had forgotten that this system had it...that's a strike against it in my book.

If nothing else it adds needless complexity to something that's already super complex. But I do not want the Intel video being used at all. I actually prefer AMD's solution where it can just switch cleanly between the two (if it's going to use Intel's video at all). Though I prefer Nvidia's drivers otherwise...

 

After poking around in the Alienware m11x R2 forums it only got more confusing. Apparently some games work with certain drivers, while those drivers break compatibility with other games. Doesn't sound like Optimus was a great move for Dell..

 

Many will prefer the 3D XPS17 since it bypasses Optimus completely...

 

That's so random and weird that the "3D" one doesn't have optimus :-/ I don't want "3D" either, but at least that you don't have to use, while you do have to use Optimus...

Hmm...maybe I should configure one of those for the heck of it...

Aaaaand it comes out way too expensive. At that point I might as well just get an Envy 17 or M17x-R3.

 

kinda surprised they didn't go for the gddr5 version of the 555m in the 3d one, too