Dell sells Alienware m15 R5 with GeForce RTX 3070 cropped (update)

As it became known, Dell began offering the Alienware m15 R5 premium gaming laptop with a trimmed shape of GeForce RTX 3070. Among other things, it has only 4,608 shaders. Typically, the GeForce RTX 3070 has a total of 5120 shaders, which corresponds to a decrease of 10%. Since the boost clock frequency remains unchanged, owners of such a lowered GPU should expect a performance loss.

It is currently unclear why Dell is reducing the number of CPUs. This is supposed to be used to reduce TDP for laptop cooling management. Simply lowering the power limit may be one measure, but Dell is also achieving its goal with a smaller expansion.

However, Dell has to be distinguished for not showing performance degradation in the notebook’s technical data. Gamers aren’t getting a full GeForce RTX 3070 GPU for the notebook, as the manufacturer has left off.

But there are also other assumptions about why Dell is using a watered down version of the GPU. It is also possible that the semiconductor crisis has reached the manufacturer and that they are simply relying on partially defective chips.

As of now, Dell hasn’t released an official statement yet, so the exact reasons should remain in the dark for now.

Update:

Jarrod Technology I asked Dell support about the cropped GPU and got the following answer:

“CUDA core numbers may change based on nVidia’s baseline relative to the OEM, such as ourselves to allow for more specific design and performance tuning. Ensure that changes made by our engineering team to this computer model are made after rigorous testing and design choices for the most stable performance And the best possible performance for our customers, if at a later time more CUDA cores can be unlocked via a future update, we’ll be quick to make it available on our support site”

Accordingly, a conscious decision has been made to turn off some cores in order to obtain the best possible and stable performance. However, it should be possible to reactivate the missing functional modules via a software update that has not yet been published. Across Toms Hardware Does it look in a statement as if this is due to a bug in VBIOS:

“We’ve learned that an incorrect setting in the Alienware BIOS limits CUDA cores in RTX 3070 configurations. This is a bug we’re working hard to correct as soon as possible. We’re speeding up the resolution with verification and expect to have this issue resolved early on.” From mid-June. In the meantime, we do not recommend using BBios software from another Alienware platform to correct this problem. We apologize for any frustration this caused.”

The aforementioned update should be available in mid-June. However, the question remains: did Dell make a conscious decision here, or was it a mistake? Dell doesn’t seem that clear in her reactions.

Prices and availability

Dell Alienware M15 R5
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