[Coda]

Looks like the new features in the 10-series have little to do with gaming. It's got stuff for doing compute on GPU (which is why they're nigh-impossible to find on the market right now) and DRM compatibility features (4K Blu-Ray mostly), but the only stuff that will actually matter to a gaming workload on a laptop is support for GDDR5 RAM, which on its own isn't going to make that big of a difference.

So yeah, for your purposes, a 980 is going to be WAY better than a 1050, and even a 950 will be an upgrade from what you have. This will help you keep costs down because it means you can go for a slightly older laptop, though by now you may need to buy refurbished (but this will ALSO bring costs down) -- you can probably find a good machine for USD$1100.

There's nothing particularly wrong with Dell. They don't make crap systems. Their customer service is awful and their system software is blah, but if you get a Dell laptop then it'll serve you fine. I just prefer to go for a brand that doesn't think it's necessary to preload branded software into the OS.