Inspiron 1520 with GDDR3 oder DDR2? not even dell seems to know Oo

hey doodz.......

so the new ones are out even in germany (at least on the webpage) BUT on our homepage it says:

Grafikkarte
nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT mit 256 MB dediziertem DDR3-Grafikspeicher

if you begin to configure it, it still says:

Grafikkarte

nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT mit 256 MB dediziertem DDR3-Grafikspeicher
Auswahlhilfe
nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT mit 256 MB dediziertem DDR3-Grafikspeicher [Im Preis enthalten]

and when finalizing the order it still says DDR3

unfortunately there seem to be different opinions among dell employees and technicians.
some technicians claim it has DDR3 (ppl over at hardwareluxxforum in germany talked to technicians), other employees are not sure while other think its DDR2... i called dell directly and they were not able to give me a definite answer.

anybody of you any infos?

 

I talked to a few, and they all confirmed DDR3 clocked at 1400Mhz (700x2).

 

btw. on the dutch page the gfx cards are all configured with DDR3, check:


nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8400M GS met 128 MB DDR3 toegewezen grafisch geheugen [minderprijs € 83,30]
nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GS met 256 MB DDR3 toegewezen grafisch geheugen [Inbegrepen in prijs]

weren't the new dells rumored to have low-budget DDR2 only? i am confused
but i found something even more weird on the french dell homepage:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/notebooks_better?c=fr&cs=frdhs1&l=fr&s=dhs

Cartes vidéo
INSPIRON 1520 >>>> nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8400M GS avec 128 Mo de mémoire graphique DDR3 dédiée

INSPIRON 1720 >>>>>nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8400M GS avec 128 Mo de mémoire graphique DDR2 dédiée

means they also have DDR2 models or what? you can even configure the 1720 with a 8600M GT with DDR2 as it seems, but no DDR3 in the 17" lol....
and what about this posting: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=134522 it says DDR2 as well!?
also if you take a look into the tech specs it still says DDR2, while the homepage states DDR3. so what is correct now?

 

Ten characters.

 

hm ok, but still seems more like a rumor cuz even dell employees give you different answers. not mentioning the weird specs on different pages and configs lol.....

could it be possible that they have both the ddr2 and ddr3 and use them in different books? i mean i wouldn't make sense if dell advertises DDR3 in their cards and the final product you have ordered only carries DDR2 in it

i would be pretty pissed then

 

I bet its DDR2. The 8400GS is 64 bit and will not use GDDR3, thats just a waste. So when someone gets there 1520, they can run rivatunner and it will show what type of ram the card has.

 

DDR3 is cooler and needs less voltage, so it would make sense to use it.

at least samsung uses DDR3 even on their 8400M low end cards (and there are even 128bit 8400M cards as far as i know)...
but that still doesn't confirm dell does as well and that exactly the point of this thread

 

but we are not talking about desktop cards, but mobile cards. I guess we will have to wait for someone to receive there order and confirm it.

 

In case anyone wondered, it happened to those Acer Gemstones as well. The website states that the 8600M GT is using GDDR2, but using rivatuner, it shown GDDR3. I think the best way to confirm this is to email Nvidia directly

 

lol, what has nvidia to do with this? nothing i guess

they just produce the gfx chips, nothing more or less. whatever kinda RAM gets stucked into the final cards is not nvidias business.....

 

in the order confirmation of a user it says DDR2 while on the homepage it says DDR3

so what is correct now?

 

Same thing in Australia ( I pointed this out the day it was released)
on the product page it says ddr3, but on the config page it says ddr3 its a pretty big difference so it would be nice if someone knew.

 

Just ordered yesterday from Germany an Inspiron 1520, during the ordering process DDR3 was displayed, but the order confirmation says "NVIDIA® GeForce¿ Go 8600M GT (256MB DDR2)".

 

Hmmm, this may the deal breaker for me. I'm interested if it's DDR3, not DDR2. I'd pay a bit more for an Asus G1S in that case (in Canada we don't have a CPU upgrade option either).

 

well, no one knows what they use yet...
doesn't anyone know a dell technician? to get in touch with and ask him wether they use ddr2 oder 3?

 

I've told you twice that they're DDR3.

 

can someone explain to an amateur like me what exactly the difference is between ddr3 and ddr2.....is it going to hurt graphics performance to get one over the other or what....

 

ok, hopefully you are right (and i pray to god that you are right ).

only thing that ppl are wondering is, that you get severeal different informations even through the ordering process (like ordering with DDR3 stated all over their webpage and showing DDR2 in the orderconfirmation).

do you work for dell btw?

@ xerxes: actually DDR3 is higher clocked so you have a little performance boost compared to DDR2, which is ofc lower clocked. guess its not like 10000 fps in games, maybe not even more than only a few fps and benchmarkpoints.

its just the fact that i and many others'd like to know what we buy as dell has many different specs on their pages. sometimes its ddr3, then ddr2, in other countries its exactly the other way and so on.

 

I just finished chatting with a Dell rep in Canada who is 100% positive it's DDR3 in the videocard.

 

dy-no-mite!

 

I#ve ordered the 1520 in germany and even in my order confirmation stands 256 ddr3!
so i hope for it!

 

I spoke with a Australian Rep who confirmed DDR2

 

Sucks for you Australians, then. Everyone else is getting DDR3.

 

Possibly. The product page says DDR3, But all the configs only offer DDR2, Could still be DDR2.

 

My understanding is the 1520 gets the DDR2, whilst the 1720 gets the DD3. Possibly will call Dell tomorrow and find out.

And, the Asian machines are the same as their European and American counterparts, so it will be one way or the other.

 

Dell's website lists DDR2:

"Intel Graphics Options
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 8400M GS with 128MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory
NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory "

 

Pfft, well every dell chat person has told me it'll come with DDR3.

 

This is really odd. Dell CSR told me DDR2.

From the Direct 2 Dell blog: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/default.aspx

It links the 8600 GT to Nvidia's site here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600.html

Which lists it as DDR3.


Edit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600M_techspecs.html
Lists both GDDR3 and "cost competitive DDR2" as compatible options.

So which one are we getting? Wouldn't it have to be DDR2 in order for the Turbo Cache to be enabled?

 

RAM type has no effect on whether turbo cache is enabled.

 

Very well - still, how can we confirm which one comes with the Inspiron when dell reps are saying both DDR2 & 3 and the Nvidia site says it supports DDR2 & 3 as well.

 

Well, I just looked through the 1520's pages, and had a major sigh of relief. Go to 'Help Me Choose" during the graphics card selection, and view the side by side comparison. The 8600GT has 22.4GB/s memory bandwidth, which is correct for a 128bit memory bus clocked at 1400MHz (700x2), which means DDR3.

Huzzah!

 

Huzzah! lol Well if it comes with ddr3, many people will jump for joy!

 

Why doesn't the website just change it to say DDR3 instead of confusing everyone? Is this DDR3 only for specific countries or modules or what? I got my Dell off the US student website.... just wondering..

 

Does it really matter whether it's GDDR3 (not DDR3) or GDDR2 if they're clocked at the same speed? (The only benefit of GDDR3 is slightly less power consumption/possibly higher overclocking headroom.) I can't see Dell clocking the memory at different speeds for the same advertised 8600M GT.

 

hm...drr3 uses up to 700mhz but gddr2 just 400mhz..so they have t overclock the gddr2 to come to a gddr3 nevau

 

That doesn't mean they overclocked it. GDDR3 will provide a higher room for overclocking.

 

so any final word on this issue?

 

Uh... there are a lot of threads about this...

1st, call Dell for compensation
2nd, return it due to bait and switch
3rd, get bribed with coupons