Alienware vBIOS abducts CUDA cores from the RTX 3070

[MaxSmarties]

It only affects their AMD CPU based model - Intel ones are fine. Since this is Dell, „the best friend money can buy“, I very, very, very much doubt this was an accident.

That’s because every single comment you makes here is AMD biased…

 

[Irata]

That’s because every single comment you makes here is AMD biased…

Oh, I do admit my bias. This is mainly due to having seen too much ‚stuff‘ going down the last 25+ years. Although every single comment is slightly exaggerated, but whatever floats your boat.

So, what makes you think this is an honest mistake on Dell‘s part, accidentally creating a vBios (for the GPU!) that cuts cores only on the AMD based model?

Hey, maybe there is an angle I‘m missing here - honestly, in cases like this I would much prefer incompetence to malice, so I am looking forward to you presenting your reasons for thinking otherwise.

 

[scavengerspc]

Dell Alienware has been making the news for all the wrong reasons.
2 years ago when I was looking for a new laptop I took the Area 51m for a spin and I liked it overall, but man did it get hot, and it throttled a lot, so I passed.

Not long after they released a new bios that reduced clocks and dropped the wattage to 180.
And for some reason, some owners said Alienwares own software was reporting a 170 watt limit.

What the owners ended up with was a $4200 2080 laptop that was on par or slower than a 2070.

 

[MaxSmarties]

Oh, I do admit my bias. This is mainly due to having seen too much ‚stuff‘ going down the last 25+ years. Although every single comment is slightly exaggerated, but whatever floats your boat.

So, what makes you think this is an honest mistake on Dell‘s part, accidentally creating a vBios (for the GPU!) that cuts cores only on the AMD based model?

Hey, maybe there is an angle I‘m missing here - honestly, in cases like this I would much prefer incompetence to malice, so I am looking forward to you presenting your reasons for thinking otherwise.

don't get me wrong: I'm writing this from my Zephyrus G14 which runs a 5800HS.
And my main PC is a desktop with a 5900X.
And my son's PC runs a 5800X... I can hardly be defined as an AMD hater I would say
I only have ONE Intel PC in my house (a 10700F).

But I don't have any bias for any manufacturer, because they are all the same: money above customers.
In this case I don't think there is any plot. It is just a mistake caused by cutting corners policy by Dell.
You cannot do something like this on purpose and think no one will notice.

 

[Watzupken]

don't get me wrong: I'm writing this from my Zephyrus G14 which runs a 5800HS.
And my main PC is a desktop with a 5900X.
And my son's PC runs a 5800X... I can hardly be defined as an AMD hater I would say
I only have ONE Intel PC in my house (a 10700F).

But I don't have any bias for any manufacturer, because they are all the same: money above customers.
In this case I don't think there is any plot. It is just a mistake caused by cutting corners policy by Dell.
You cannot do something like this on purpose and think no one will notice.

In my opinion, I cannot help but feel this nerfed RTX 3070 is no accident. The below is the official statement coming from Dell, which tells me they did that on purpose. And right off the bat, the first statement is untrue because as per Nvidia's official guidelines, OEMs can tamper with the TGP, but I've not heard of variation in CUDA cores. At least I've not seen this issue with any other OEMs/ PC maker.

" "CUDA core counts per NVIDIA baseline may change for individual OEM, such as ourselves [Dell], to allow to provide a more specific design and performance tuning. Be assured the changes made by our engineering team for this computer model was done after careful testing and design choices to bring the most stable and best performance possible for our customers, if at a later date more CUDA cores can be unlocked via a future update, we will be swift to make it available on our support website," the Dell statement read."

As to why this only impacts AMD and not Intel based laptop, that's anyone's guess. If you already have a RTX 3070 VBIOS with the full CUDA cores working, why do you specifically create another one that is crippled? I don't know about the fine workings for laptop hardware that well, but I know a desktop GPU VBIOS is system agnostic, I.e, they should perform just as well regardless on AMD or Intel rig. So its either they did that from a thermal optimization standpoint (which they could have done so by reducing the TGP) or for questionable reasons. I would rule out oversight as a reason here.

 

[MaxSmarties]

In my opinion, I cannot help but feel this nerfed RTX 3070 is no accident. The below is the official statement coming from Dell, which tells me they did that on purpose. And right off the bat, the first statement is untrue because as per Nvidia's official guidelines, OEMs can tamper with the TGP, but I've not heard of variation in CUDA cores. At least I've not seen this issue with any other OEMs/ PC maker.

" "CUDA core counts per NVIDIA baseline may change for individual OEM, such as ourselves [Dell], to allow to provide a more specific design and performance tuning. Be assured the changes made by our engineering team for this computer model was done after careful testing and design choices to bring the most stable and best performance possible for our customers, if at a later date more CUDA cores can be unlocked via a future update, we will be swift to make it available on our support website," the Dell statement read."

As to why this only impacts AMD and not Intel based laptop, that's anyone's guess. If you already have a RTX 3070 VBIOS with the full CUDA cores working, why do you specifically create another one that is crippled? I don't know about the fine workings for laptop hardware that well, but I know a desktop GPU VBIOS is system agnostic, I.e, they should perform just as well regardless on AMD or Intel rig. So its either they did that from a thermal optimization standpoint (which they could have done so by reducing the TGP) or for questionable reasons. I would rule out oversight as a reason here.

yes, I read that email and I think it was bad PR.
They changed their version after that...

I clearly don't know what went wrong with that vBIOS, but I don't think Dell would deliberately cripple their own products hoping no one would realize that. Even because their notebook are not only compared to internal offering with Intel CPUs, but also (and mainly) with other brand's products, which means that people would buy an Asus, Lenovo or HP instead of a Dell.
A suicide move.

 

[Watzupken]

yes, I read that email and I think it was bad PR.
They changed their version after that...

I clearly don't know what went wrong with that vBIOS, but I don't think Dell would deliberately cripple their own products hoping no one would realize that. Even because their notebook are not only compared to internal offering with Intel CPUs, but also (and mainly) with other brand's products, which means that people would buy an Asus, Lenovo or HP instead of a Dell.
A suicide move.

It is bad PR, I agree. They only backtracked because of public backlash and not because they think the person gave an incorrect statement. So I believe that statement is probably true that it was not a mistake.

And suicide move it is because they eroded people's confidence in their product when they said they can happily change the specs without informing, and landed in hot water and lawsuits. Even with the variable TGP, I recall Nvidia mandated that laptop makers will need to disclose the TGP used with the RTX 3xxx series graphic solution, how much more so, if the actual spec differs from the official specs? I don't hate Dell, but this don't feel accidental, and is clearly an issue of false marketing. Its also a red flag when the same RTX 3070 works fine on Intel laptops, but cut down on AMD laptops. I am not taking sides here but raising this concerns objectively. I would have said the issue affects only Intel but not AMD laptops.