Problem with Dell exchange for Equal or Better Specs

I had purchased an I17RM- 2742SLV earlier this month. After a few days the dedicated video card went bad and I went through Dell Technical Support to see if it may be a driver issue or something simple. The Dell rep tried reinstalling the drivers, updating the Bios, and a few other options but since none of these would allow the dedicated graphics card to work (Any program I used would only revert to the onboard HD 4000 graphics). The agent at that point gave me the option to replace the card or I could have a new computer sent out. He advised further that the new computer would be from their current lineup (since the model I purchased was discontinued) and would have either equal or better specs for each component then the one I purchased.

The problem I have is the model they suggested was the 17 inch 7000 series. I know it adds a touch screen (which I will never use) and 16 GB of Ram (which most things I do on the computer won't take advantage of this), but the processor it comes with is 4500u (which is rated at 1.8GHz and 3.1GHz on turbo boost) and has a 4 cell battery. The laptop which is being replaced has a 3537u processor (2.0 GHz and 3.0Ghz on turbo) and a 6 cell battery. I know we are talking about a Haswell processor vs. and Ivy Bridge processor, but the gain in the new processor doesn't make up for the 10% difference in clock speed. Also, most of the various benchmarks show it's in fact a slower processor. I also had a 1TB HDD and a DVDRW/CDRW drive.

With searching on Dell's website....this model is the only Dell model that is close, but again it is a downgrade in 2 catigories. I suggested to the rep a base end Alienware 17 (I know the processor jumps up from what I have, but again this model is the only way I could get the "equal" or "better" the rep promised.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

From my experience, they will give you an equal processor in terms of benchmarks, If they dont you simply point out that your old one outperforms the new one.

I went from a M17xR2 which was fully maxed out to an 18 with dual top end nvidias, but the CPU wasnt all that great, I would have argued more, but I honestly just let it go, because I was getting a new system for my 4 year old M17xR2. The CPU went from 8MB of Cache to 6MB, and the old one was an extreme cpu, the new one is a low end quad. It is however equal in performance to the old one, benchmark wise anyway.

Oh, and I was first offered an AW17, low end, 765M + 4700MQ, I just said you gave me a double downgrade, both with the CPU and dual GPUs to single GPU. He reviewed it once more and called the next day with the AW18 offer.