17 R2 - Anyone else have buyer's remorse yet?

For all the work it took to get his thing ordered and shipped, I'm sorely disappointed that a week later I'm already regretting the purchase. It's a nice sturdy laptop. Colors on the IPS panel are off and I'm not going to buy a calibrator (spent too much on this thing already with upgrades), so I'm stuck with strange colors. Most painful is that it cannot run World of Warcraft on ultra settings. WoW is what...10 years old. I've spent the whole first week fighting a losing battle with both the colors and the stupidly low (for a "high end laptop") fps in WoW. Sure I have my moments with 120 fps...if I go stick my nose in a corner and stand there. But hit the open world with trees, shadows, water...or join a raid and get 15 different spell animations going...yeah the fps tank to about 20 or so. This is with several of the graphics settings not even on max.

Its a nice machine...very sturdy feeling. But the power just isn't there. As much as I've been against the GA the entire time, I actually caught myself shopping desktop 980's yesterday. I actually almost had myself convinced that it would allow me to play WoW lag free. Then my better half chimed in with a "Why?". It's a $3000+ laptop and your looking at a $600 graphics card plus $300 GA. Any form of Clevo would be cheaper and more powerful.

I just honestly don't know what to think right now. I really really WANT to like this R2. But why spend that kind of money and have to play laggy WoW...I'm still not even sure why I'm not already returning the R2 and ordering a Clevo. Maybe I'm still just shell shocked that the "best" Alienware had to offer can't run a 10 year old game on max settings.

Anyway...sorry for my gripe and thanks for listening. Guess I'll keep building Sagers and see if I accidentally click the order button one of these times.

 

Have you tried manually tweaking the colours?

 

It should be able to run WoW way better than you are able to. I'm guessing its a fault with your system. So I'm gonna say you either have the choice between going through the lovely process of replacement OR returning it completely and getting a cheaper laptop that is equal or better.

 

Wow man - thats ridiculous - 3 grand and you cant run WoW on ultra? Absurd.
Seriously return that ****pile - and buy the msi gs30. Seriously. Read my review on here - im scoring over 10k on firestrike with just a gtx970 desktop gpu and i run wow bf4 cod all on ultra - can even run them on ultra at 3k res.
My total cost was 2300$ - and 4 weeks in havent had one problem with it.
Do yourself a favor and send then gimped piece of **** back to alienware - letem sell it to some other sucker imo.
I mean really - you now want tobuy a gtx980 for 500 bucks and run it at pciex4 on aw?
Get the msi and run it at pciex16 and do that card some justice!

 

Lol no on the GA and desktop card...I only caught myself considering, and then realized what a waste of money that was.

 

There are a lot of issues currently wit the GA anyway. It wouldn't be worth your trouble. Are you keeping the laptop or refunding it?

 

That's an issue with your particular laptop, though others have had these issues, and required tweaking to get the full performance.

People with Clevo's have also had this same issue. You'd be wise to do a bit of research, rather than assuming its simply the R2 at fault. Though I agree, a top-notch machine shouldn't have issues like this, especially a $3000 machine.

Still, google is your friend. Others have had performance issues and fixed them. Some AW, some Clevo. The new nVidia drivers and the GTX 970/980 have had issues across all laptops, not just AW.

Also, did you get the 240w PSU? It's a very well-documented issue that the 180w power supply cannot adequately power the GTX 980M. You need to get Dell to send you the 240w A/C adapter, or you simply will not get the full juice out of your system.

Again, Google. Though, again, Alienware has no business shipping a $3000 machine with an inadequate power supply.

 

The build quality of the MSI is dubious at best. As is their support. And there is far more to a laptop than just performance.

Always a trade off.

 

Something's not right on your system. I have the 970m model and so far, haven't had a single issue with the games I've been playing...Skyrim with mods, COD-AW, BF4 at 1080p med settings. Runs like butter.

And I only paid $1400 (plus discounts) for the base model+touchscreen panel and upgraded the SSD myself. Zero regrets with my purchase and I have a general rule of thump NEVER to spend more than $1500 on ANY laptop.

 

Dubious? This little laptop is solid - i dunno what you may be referring to- care to divulge?
Because the only issue ive had thus far is its a little noisy from fans.

Unlike aw though i dont have light bleeding, screen ghosting, terrible interfacing with dock and drivers, insufficient power supply, no raid support, overheating, poor performance in game, underwhelming cpu, lousy pcie interface etc etc etc and so on. And speaking of customer support - im guessing you havent been reading the Aw forums lately with all the bad customer support threads.

Which manufacturer has the build quality issues? And sorry but do you own this computer or have any first hand experience with it? Have you owned msi? (just wondering where your opinion is coming from)
Im sure msi has had some bad releases in the past but im telling you this one isnt of those.
A couple reviews have been harsh about the fan noise which is true but can also be made better. The other thing i saw was keyboard flex which oddly mine doesnt have so maybe it was a prelease model they were testing. I mean really after over a month of use with this pc its still the hands down most badass computer ive ever bought.

 

WoW is a different beast being an mmo so its hard to compare it to much else. But even so, ultra settings should not be unachievable on a laptop. I would agree something is wrong with my system, but I'm on par with the rest of the benchmarks (firestrike around 8350 something). Temps are fine. GPU is pushing the graphics in game. It just can't do it full throttle when the screen is full of action.

 

Thanks for the tips...unfortunately I've covered all the bases. My benchmarks are on par. Everything checks out. I'm a google freak, my friend...only search engine I use, and own every year's Nexus line of phoned and tablets. I use it hourly...
Only had one person report being able to run WoW on ultra with consistently high fps, however he vanished so I'm assuming he discovered the fps drops by actually getting out of a low population area and playing.

Worked with one other WoW player here on the forums and we're in the same boat I'd say. He gets spikes upwards of 100 fps but generally hovers lower. I don't know if he had the massive drops down into the 20s yet but I would suspect so...I'll actually follow up with him to see.

I am using the 240W PSU. It was another slight boost in firestrike, but no difference in WoW. Tried every tweak and setting under the sun. Given I'm scoring fine in benchmarks, I'd say it's about as good as it gets.

 

Still on the fence about what to do. I guess it will come down to whether I find anything more suitable at a price I like. Also, Dell still owes me a couple of refunds for my troubles during orders. One has come through, but the other has been denied a couple of times. If they screw me out of the refund that was promised, I will most definitely be sending the laptop back.

 

Have you spoke with the customer technical support yet?

I'd say do that and if you can't fix it then either try a replacement or go for a refund. In your case maybe a replacement would make you happier.

 

So you're getting that performance with the tweaks and 240w PSU? Well then, I'm out of ideas. Sounds like a return to Dell.

What are your exact system specs?

 

Fully maxed specs aside from only getting the 256 GB ssd. I added another myself and also replaced the HDD with a Sammy 850 pro 512gb ssd. 4980 processor, 16gb ram, glossy touch, 980m, etc...

Yeah that's what I'm getting with every tweak I've found and applied and using the 240W. I chased the highest benchmarks I found on the 17R2, and when I caught or exceeded those numbers, I took to World of Warcraft to see how this baby ran. That's when then disappointment set in lol.

 

Naa...I haven't had the time, nor wanted to afford the time to let tech support take control of my system and waste hours more of my time while they check novice settings like the laptop being set to high performance rather than battery saver. I purchased the 3 year warranty to cover the parts cost if/when something fries...definitely not for their technical expertise. I'm an IT professional myself, but I'd wager that about all of us here are more tech savvy than anyone we'd reach on the other end of that line at tech support.

I believe their job requirements went from being A+ certified, Microsoft certified professionals to requiring the ability to read scripts on a screen and somewhat speak English...with the ability to understand English being optional (no offense to anyone of any other race or background).

 

So if your benchmarks are fine, is the problem specifically with WoW then?

I know that Blizzard games have a hard time with Optimus - even if you tell them to run on the dedicated GPU, they run on the iGPU. While this may seem silly to ask, are you 100% positive the game is actually running on the dGPU? 20 FPS sounds like something the iGPU would pump out.

Just because Optimus says its using the dGPU doesn't make it so - not with Blizzard games, anyway.

 

Just so you know - WoW is more cpu intense thoughi believe they are working towards pushing the gpu more and more - but currently is mostly cpu intense. Which cpu did you get with your AW?

 

Just to back up what you said, these are numbers from notebookcheck on the Iris Pro 5200 (the iGPU of the i7-4980HQ):
World of Warcraft
high 1280x1024
53.3 fps
ultra 1920x1080
18.1 fps
It would be nice to now if other games are affected (if you don't have any other games, buy some).

 

I'm really happy with my laptop. I don't have anything to complain or to concern about.

I am playing Battlefield 4 on ultra settings with an external monitor at 2560 x 1080. So I think you are able to play WoW at higher settings.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I have a little remorse. I mean. The 180w psu issue, when I use my 330w (aw18) i get all the power I need. BF4 with everything ON goes from 50-60 to 80-100 fps.
U think I'd be happy right? Well, the fans spins up so hard. IT's realy noisy. So there you have it, game with 180w psu and you get a decrease in performance but less noise, or vica versa...

Don't like it!

Let me edit that. It's so noisy, its the first time my earphones don't keep the sound from the fans intering inn.

 

I'm really enjoying mine so far, no complaints all my games are running fantastically with the 780ti and the 980m. I think this might be my favorite laptop that I have ever owned.

 

I think this is what a lot of the fans aren't getting when they compare bf4 and the like to WoW. It's the oldnapples to oranges comparison, unfortunately.

I got the 4980hq on mine.

 

I would hope so considering that's another $800+ in graphics amp and video card. I'm just not going to drop that to bring a $3000+ laptop up to where it should be to begin with. As much as I'd love the performance boost, I just can stomach that.

 

Hmmm that seems strange then. Because that processor is better than mine. I wonder if its coming down to ram speed or maybe that i have ssds. I dunno. The 4980 is a beastly mobile cpu

 

I will indeed pickup something when I find something that interests me that I don't already own on ps4.

 

Hwinfo confirms the 980 is running wow. Who knows what the problem is... I'm about over it and ready to either just deal with the garbage lag spikes or try another brand.

 

Oh I know that feeling, but instead of the PS4, it's the Wii U. Last place supporter.

 

I'm running it on a Samsung 850 pro ssd. ; )

It might just be WoW and poor optimization. I just figure there would be some point where a laptop's power would overcome the poor optimization. I would have thought the R2 capable of reaching or exceeding that point...if optimization is even the problem.

 

I rock a Wii U also, my friend. They all get good enough exclusives to justify owning each of them lol.

 

starrk, I wouldn't panic, WoW has lots of low FPS complaints, you can open a support request in their forum and get help debugging the install. Run some well known benchmarks, other games, etc to prove to yourself the laptop is ok.

Here is an example:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/14882978312?page=17#321

Northernlite
MVP - Technical Support
100 Human Mage
Blinkin Cheese
14265

02/10/2015 11:00 PMPosted by Almawade
There is no point. You and Blizzard are just passing the buck. I am running my Settings on Low! I know there is nothing wrong with my setup, which BTW is :
-Intel Core i7 3770K
-N vidia Gigabyte GTX 780 3Gb
-Corsair Vengeance CML16GX3M4A1600C9 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3
-ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Motherboard
-Corsair Force Series GS 128GB SSD
-CoolerMaster Silent Pro M2 1000W Power Supply

But Your Only response to people is you system doesn't meet the minimum requirements.
Have you even looked in to it?

Attached is my Task manager during raid and Nvidia Experience optimal settings for my system for Wow and my current Windows Experence score.

http://i.imgur.com/GluWEqY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/hgFc075.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2WWlTyG.jpg

This is what I posted previously.

http://i.imgur.com/SL60A5M.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/i0gYZ3B.png

I am now curious to see what you answer is, and whether you say its my system.

Also as I said previously this is just like Xpac week! You know there is a issue but nothing gets done.



If your machine meets the games requirements and you would actually would like help please start your own thread with the info below . There are lost of reasons why people have low FPS and most can big fixed.

what is needed is a dxdiag and a msinfo file along with the output of HW monitor in your own thread. The pictures do not acualy help anything the reguested information if you would like help.

DxDiag
1.Press Windows Key + R.
2.Type DxDiag and press Enter.
3.In the DxDiag window, click Save All Information.
4.Name the file "dxdiag" and click Save.

MSInfo
1.Press Windows Key + R.
2.Type MSInfo32 and press Enter.
3.In the MSInfo diagnostic window, click File, then Export.
4.When the Export As window appears, choose Desktop.
5.Name the file "MSInfo" and click Save.

HWmonitor
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
Edited by Northernlite on 2/11/2015 2:43 AM PST

 

Sounds like the most relevant thing Northerlight said in that thread was it's an issue with drivers and the 900 series cards....which has been a problem since October.
#nohope

 

Thanks for that though. At least I'm not alone.

 

Have you tried other games? If you can run other demanding games without any issues, it would indeed confirm WoW is the problem.

I mean, if a guy running a desktop 780 has issues with WoW...

 

I didn't vanish - I just have been playing wow non stop with great FPS. I dropped to 85 the other day and wondered what happened. Lol

Again I have the 970 though. I was worried that I was overheating but even a couple small changes fixed that.

I have ZERO remorse on this system. I got a stellar deal. The true life with touch is still the best non-4k screen I've ever seen and the thing is a beast.

I had small issues and doubts but this system is the real deal. I didn't expeerience the letdown by coming from an older alienware. This is my first that I have owned past 30 days.

By the way, the startup time after reinstall on a crucial ssd is upsurd. With the HDD it took about 25 seconds to boot to login. With the ssd I am at login in under 7 seconds from button press. Insane.

 

I have to say I'm with you Mustbetouch. I installed one of my fav mmorpg's, Lord of the Rings Online....its running ultra, getting great framerates, I put in Guildwars 2, its running ultra fine. I'm using the 180 PSU. I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out whats up with Starrk's computer. I wish I could help more.

To date, with my home computer and this one...home gtx 970, CI7 3770k and this gtx 970m, CI7 4710 I haven't had a single issue with WOW yet. I saw someone post further up that the 9 series cards have had issues since start. I have no idea what they are talking about. This card on my home computer and this laptop haven't hiccupped once for me yet. I'll keep trying to find info for Starrk.

 

Problem is with wow npt being optimized for high end machines. Adding extra details does not increase the need for system resources lineary but rather exponentialy.

And if you get big frame hits and dips while in 25man raids or in main cities its normal. In raids so much **** starts to happen on the scereen that you can forget about maxing everything out regardless of how fast your pc is.

Try killing shadows and postprocessing such as msaa, aa and fxaa and see if that helps with keeping stabile frame rates in raids.

 

I'll try that. I did notice on my old machine that lowering shadow quality drastically improved fps...might still be the case.

 

Agreed totally on the startup...on the Sammy 850 pro, my boot time is about 4-5 seconds. Honestly, my only complaints are wow fps, muffled speaker sound, and difficult color calibration.

 

So you and @Mustbetouch both run WoW fine on mostly ultra setting? Even in Ashran when in the thick of an alliance vs horde 200 man battle??

You two are the only facts keeping me from agreeing with everyone that it's a problem with WoW. If I'm dipping into the teens or 20s in a 200 man battle in Ashran, and you guys aren't, then I obviously have something else going on.

Brash I know you and I are running the same settings and nvidia driver. Which bios version were you running again? Also, you are using a 240W PSU, right?

 

I forgot I have GW2 also. I'll try downloading that tonight and seeing how it runs.

 

Installing WoW on mine right now... let you know how ultra runs.

 

Ok so WoW runs perfect under those same settings. I get over 100fps no problem. Thing is I always push things to the limit so for my AA i have set max.. ssaa x2 +cmaa which is incredibly taxing but im still able to pull 35-55 depending where I am which I can deal with for the quality gain.

 

Remember, from the screen pics I showed you, it varies from the mid 50's up into the 100s. I think thats normal with any MMORPG that has constant traffic. I'm going to bet you get better Frame rates from another game though. As I said before, how your computer handles WOW has alot to do with your CPU, not the GPU, and also, I don't know what your dl and ul speeds are. My dl speeds hold steady around 120 and my upload is steady around 45. Go to an internet speed test and see what your ping is also. If your ping is gigantic, no matter what system your running, that game will stutter. One of the problems could also be what server you are on. What zone, distance from actual server, etc.....

WOW is one of those games that seems to run great on some mediocre systems yet sometimes fails on a badass one.

 

I'll post my speed test this evening, but that's not the problem. I live in the city famous for the country's first gigabit speed! We have outstanding internet here.

Yeah I remember you saying its up and down for you. Just seemed like your comment a few posts back was indicating it's perfect. Going from 100+ fps in some areas down to 50, 40, 30, 20 isn't perfect. Game devs today shoot for those fps numbers. You'll hear them speak quite often about their upcoming game, with every other line saying something like '...while running at a constant 60 fps'

Fps spikes, both up and down, aren't as intended...in our case we don't know if it's Blizzard, Dell, Intel, Nvidia, or some combination of all of them. A system with the hardware to handle the game should run a constant number, or close to constant... not fps doubling and halving. Can we tolerate it? Sure! Should we have to? Not with the specs we're running.

I'm still planning on getting GW2 up and running tonight, and will still post on that....if nothing else, just to further isolate the problem.

 

I did imply its running perfect for me. 50 FPS when I'm in Ashran is awesome to me. In the end, its still a laptop, so the GPU and CPU are not as powerful as their full pc counterparts.

 

Speedtest.net: 95 down and 71 up. Ping = 2ms

 

Is that 50 fps with you and a dozen guys running around, or you and 200 other people casting 150 spells for 10 minutes straight? If you're getting 50 fps in that kind of fight, my laptop needs to go back as it absolutely doesn't come close to 50 fps in a large scale fight such as that.

Loaded GW2 and it looks like it's about the same story. I didn't bother to do anything other than run a few laps around Divinity's Reach. Spikes as high as 100 and as low as 35 fps.

 

how can you score over 10K in Firestrike when even my 980M GTX in my previous ASUS G751JY can only get around 8.5K in Windows 8.1??