Can you change after purchase

So I purchased a dv7 and realized that the 2 GB graphics card is a waste and for the extra $100 does little. I did upgrade to the 1080 resolution and heard that it helps a little but not $100 worth. I ordered the laptop on July 31st. So my question is, can I call them and change the graphics card to the 1 GB? It still shows the laptop is being built.

 

No. They won't let you change it even if you contact them right after you ordered, let alone 4 days later.

 

The 2gb does help on games that support ultra high res textures

 

That makes me feel a little better, at least it does something. lol

 

It might be able to OC better as well.

 

nope

nope, best OC results so far are from 1gb so theres no reason to believe 2gb overclocks better

it is a bigger number though! xD

 

So when a game says in the in game graphics settings that to put it on ultra you need a video card with 1.5gb of ram, having 2 vs 1 doesn't help? I'm confused

 

A card of the 6770M's power would never be able to fully utilize the 2GB. Only the top of the range desktop cards come close to maxing out GPU memory like that...and only at resolutions higher than 1080, something you're never going to achieve with a laptop screen and a 6770M. I ended up with the 2GB because I had no choice...where I live we cant do a CTO.

 

the 2GB helps resale value.

people look at it and go "ZOMG WOW 2GB THAT IS A LOT ZOMG IT MUST BE REALLY FAST"

so that is why i got it.

 

Apparently not. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/600447-more-than-1-5gb-vram-used.html

 

Where have you seen a 1GB 6770m that broke 1Ghz on the memory OC? All the posted 1GB card OCs that I've seen have been slower than the 2GB cards. I think 875/1000 has been the highest OC I've so far, unless I missed something.

 

Just because it uses 1.5GB doesn't mean it will help matters. The 128-bit bus limits how much it can process anyhow. You could fill the memory up to 8GB but it doesn't mean the GPU can process it.

 

I'm certainly not the tech guru here, but if the 128-bit bus is indeed the limiting factor, why is it that the memory OC on the 6770m is making a much bigger performance difference then the core OC? Helping what's stored in memory get to the GPU faster shouldn't make such a noticeable difference if it truly is the limited bus size and/or speed that's holding up the queue. It seems counterintuitive!

I don't know if it's limited to the 2gb cards, but I can eek out 20+ more FPS alone in Kombustor (99% GPU utilization) just by OC'ing the memory alone! I've seen the previous tests on desktop systems, which demonstrated minimal improvements with larger video memory, but has anyone actually done controlled testing (same cpu, drivers, clock speed, and in game scenes) between the 1gb and 2gb cards? In theory, those cards were much more powerful, so everyone anticipates that the effects are negated by the weaker GPU and system bus, but could there be something else at work here? Side-by-side testing between identical systems with the different cards would be ideal to put this issue to bed once and for all.

 

Performance increases from a VRAM OC would support the statement that the 128bit bus is the limiting factor...

Memory bandwidth depends on both the bus size and the speed. This is why a why 192bit gddr3 has more bandwidth than 128bit gddr3. This is also why 128bit gddr5 has double the bandwidth of 128bit gddr3.

So if performance is limited by the bandwidth (i.e. 128 bit) and overclocking the memory would increase the effective bandwidth, then it makes sense that a memory OC would lead to dramatic performance increases, no?

 

OK, I think I follow you... Because bandwidth is a product of both the bus width (how much data can transfer at a time) and speed (how fast it travels), the narrower width of the 128 bit bus that is bottlenecking the memory is being offset by the increase in speed from the mem OC to allow the data to both get to the GPU faster and refill the narrow bus faster.

 

Cancel and reorder.