Dell Inspiron 15R Laptop SE: i7-3632QM CPU, 8GB DDR3, 750GB HDD, 1080p LCD, 2GB Radeon HD 7730M Video, DVDRW, WiFi N, Backlit Keyboard, 6 Cell, Win 8 $747 + free shipping

Quote from MeatCatalog : AMD is a much wiser choice with Trinity APUs.

naaaah
clearly the i5 and i7 are superior because I read this somewhere that they outperform ERRYTHING and because i dont understand computers so i would ALWAYS get intel chips on my laptops.

Dont preach logic here bro. They dont welcome that around tech threads.

Quote from ResidentPony : That is an awesome story; I've seen a lot but have yet to see some equipment explode, except of course when I did it on purpose. Having said that, the crux is you cannot choose; the hybrid must do it for you. First, this hardware is not muxable like some other implementations. The OS always sees the integrated graphics, so quite a few programs will not work properly. There is no list, you discover it by trial and error. Photoshop comes to mind, along with 3Dmark and Bitplane Imaris and a bunch of games. Second, in my case CCC does not open. It says there is no compatible hardware detected. So I can't select a different GPU profile even for programs that should work.

You are dead wrong. You can choose every single time. CCC has a list where you tell it which program runs what, independently of what the game (or other) recognizes or not. If your CCC does not open then I suggest new drivers. Be sure to uninstall any old ones, and of course, be sure to install the mobility drivers.

Link to drivers [guru3d.com].

Quote from AmericanCarioca : You are dead wrong. You can choose every single time. CCC has a list where you tell it which program runs what, independently of what the game (or other) recognizes or not. If your CCC does not open then I suggest new drivers. Be sure to uninstall any old ones, and of course, be sure to install the mobility drivers. Link to drivers [guru3d.com].

Thanks, you're brilliant. I will be sure to relay your suggestion to the Dell technicians who have been unable to resolve this problem. Can they call you if they run into trouble?

Quote from iafzal3 : You must have a bad laptop than, I have read the many posts with the driver problems but they are mainly about not able to switch to 7730 or laptop crashing due to the driver issue. I am using the rev01 GPU driver and A04 BIOS without any issue even though A07 BIOS is out. Your lower battery life would be the result of i7 and that is why I went with i5 as I do not see a need for a power hog like i7.

Yeah, I needed an i7 but would gladly have gone with something more miserly if I could, like an i3 or even (heaven forfend) an Atom.
I suspect however that my battery life issues are actually because of the 7730. I have scant evidence but I'm suspecting it's not switching off.

Quote from ResidentPony : Thanks, you're brilliant. I will be sure to relay your suggestion to the Dell technicians who have been unable to resolve this problem. Can they call you if they run into trouble?

No offense, but my faith in tech support is extremely limited.

I recently explained a problem with the desktop drivers I had with the AMD drivers for my new 7870 and AMD Tech Support sent me a rote reply saying they could not reproduce it (despite step-by-step instructions), and to uninstall and reinstall. After 3 emails, it became clear they had not even tried all the steps, since they considered one step to be irrelevant. When they stopped considering it irrelevant (email no.5), they were shock-and-awed to discover a problem.

Still, FWIW, I had your problem with CCC, uninstalled their drivers, installed these and CCC was back and working. *Shrug*.

Quote from AmericanCarioca : No offense, but my faith in tech support is extremely limited. I recently explained a problem with the desktop drivers I had with the AMD drivers for my new 7870 and AMD Tech Support sent me a rote reply saying they could not reproduce it (despite step-by-step instructions), and to uninstall and reinstall. After 3 emails, it became clear they had not even tried all the steps, since they considered one step to be irrelevant. When they stopped considering it irrelevant (email no.5), they were shock-and-awed to discover a problem. Still, FWIW, I had your problem with CCC, uninstalled their drivers, installed these and CCC was back and working. *Shrug*.

I agree, I uninstalled the CCC from under Program and Features and installed back the A01 GPU package from the DELL site and and everything was back to normal.
I can now either select what programs to associate with an application when it is opened(pop up asks for it if uses 3D) or you can open CCC manually to choose yourself.

does anyone have problems with the touchpad on the inspiron ? bc it doesnt feel as smooth as the apple laptops..

why are all the other similar laptops with these specs go for around 900$. why is there a reduction in price for this particular one?

Quote from iafzal3 : I agree, I uninstalled the CCC from under Program and Features and installed back the A01 GPU package from the DELL site and and everything was back to normal. I can now either select what programs to associate with an application when it is opened(pop up asks for it if uses 3D) or you can open CCC manually to choose yourself.

You'll find that once you get CCC back working as it should, you can upgrade to 13.1 and it will continue to work.

BTW, if you are remotely interested, you can also overclock the GPU, though it requires a few steps as shown here [youtube.com].

The guy in the video says he managed a stable OC from the vanilla 575/900 to 665/990, but I cannot do that without having the drivers crash when testing with 3DMark Vantage. On the other hand, I can get a nice increase without worries at 620/950, which translated to a 10% FPS increase. The temps increased only 2 C. in load FWIW.

Quote from Eggbertn : why are all the other similar laptops with these specs go for around 900$. why is there a reduction in price for this particular one?

It won't be for long. Dell site says sales has a little over 6 hours left.

I'm surprised you guys are having so many problems with this laptop. I purchased this a few months back from the dell Outlet for just under $600 and I've been very happy. I have Windows 8 installed on it and don't have any issues with USB 3.0. I did, however, install the special Leshcat Catalyst 13.1 drivers (specially designed for AMD/Intel switchable graphics systems). And that's horse pockey about not being able to run games at 1080p, because using the latest driver I run SWTOR at full res with no issues, and just recently played the SimCity beta this past weekend with great framerates - all at 1080p resolution. Sure it's not as powerful as a 650M, but it's far far from crap.

The only issue I had was getting the Bluetooth drivers working, since it's one thing Dell just didn't include on their drivers page. Fiddling with the Intel PROSet Bluetooth drivers and I got it working just fine.

Since I use it mainly for desktop use, I can't comment on battery life.

Why are dell laptops so big?

Quote from usacamaro : Why are dell laptops so big?

LOL. They sure are. They are not only big but also heavy for a laptop.

Anyone know if the display is an IPS panel?

Quote from HirenS85 : Anyone know if the display is an IPS panel?

now you are asking too much