I just bought my new Dell Vostro 15 3590. It should come with "AMD Radeon 610 Graphics with 2GB GDDR5" but instead it has "Radeon R5 M230" which is much worse (release date 2014 as opposed to 2019).
I called Dell and they actually gave a nice solution. Apparently I can see the current specs directly from the BIOS. So all I had to do was to restart while pressing F12, then go to Overview and look for the Radeon model, which was 610. So the computer is fine. Thanks.
Go to support.dell.com (or if purchased outside the US, to the Dell support site there) and enter the service tag. Go to "original configuration" and you'll see a list of all the hardware in the system.
Since the system has only two video options - Intel or AMD -- if yours shows AMD, you have exactly what Dell has published. The GPU is not a card - it's a permanent part of the system board.
If you want a definitive look, you'll need to examine the mainboard itself. It's notoriously difficult to detect the exact GPU - and even harder to detect the exact video RAM -- without physically checking.
If you go line by line it appears the chips are identical except for clock speed -- which is why it's difficult or impossible to tell one from the other using software.
As for the clock speed, it's up to the manufacturer of the system to determine the actual clock speed of the GPU -- and it's more common than not that notebooks run lower clock speeds than the possible maximum for any given chip.
No one would buy an entry-level system like this one expecting a high performance GPU. One of the reasons these systems are priced so low is that they use older-generation technology that costs less to implement. Your system is exactly what Dell spec'd it to be, GPU-wise; there's simply no way to install a GPU other than that specified for the system.
If I go line-by-line I also see that the memory type is different (DDR3 vs GDDR5) and that the DirectX support is different (11 vs 12). I am not expecting a high-performance GPU, but I also bought a Dell Vostro 15 3580 (as a present) and I do expect the 3590 to have better specs. I also find it weird that the new laptop came without a red sticker that says Radeon (the 3580 does have a sticker).
How can I make sure that the graphics card I got is correct? (the operating system is ubuntu)
It says "AMD Radeon 610 Series with 2G GDDR5 graphics memory", but the original configuration is not necessarily the current configuration. Moreover, as far as I understand, the version I have has DDR3 and not GDDR5 (according to https://technical.city/en/video/Radeon-R5-M230-vs-Radeon-610). Additionally, I do not have a sticker that says Radeon. Why is that?
The configuration cannot be changed, since the GPU and video RAM are all part of the system board.
Perhaps the assembly plant in China ran out of stickers? Not inconceivable, given current supply shortages.
Unless you opened up the system and visually examined the video RAM chips, there's no way you can claim it's DDR3 vs GDDR5. No software is going to be able to pick up the difference.
Bottom line: if you're not happy with the system, and it was sold in a location where you have a money-back guarantee, return it for a refund and buy what you want.
Ella1
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Posted July 12th, 2020 06:00
I called Dell and they actually gave a nice solution. Apparently I can see the current specs directly from the BIOS. So all I had to do was to restart while pressing F12, then go to Overview and look for the Radeon model, which was 610. So the computer is fine. Thanks.