*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

I came here because the aw17 r2 is a POS and after having my motherboard replaced 3 times and even getting a golden cpu and gpu somehow it still throttles to 800mhz in games. This is with a laptop cooler undervolting and underclocking and they ALL still throttle.

I may get a free upgrade to a 17 r4 but it looks like these are POS too.

All i can say is this:
Don't expect alienware to follow through on their promises to unlock your components that you paid for. It didn't happen with the 17 r2, it wont happen with the r4. Just because you can run full clocks with close to 180w in some cases does not mean that you will be able to in all cases. For example I didn't become aware of the cause of the issues with mine untill i plugged in a 144hz monitor. Then it was painfully apparent. If you don't get the performance that you paid for and you can effectively prove it get those motherfuckers to refund you. If they wont do that have them repair that **** over and over and over untill they do. Or get a lawyer to tell them that you can prove you did not get what you paid for and will sue them if you don't get a refund. As always be nice, the truth is on your side. Buy a damn clevo and get what you pay for.

 

It's more likely that lower power limits will equal less performance.

All vendors have the same 1080 GPU chip's. It's not like there are more efficient 1080 GPU's in the AW laptops.

Frequency is only one component of the performance.

Available power to drive the throughput must backup the frequency - giving stable throughput and not "folding" back on throughput when the GPU runs out of power.

 

It would be nice to know what that other panel is before purchasing, so you could be sure to get the LG OC'able panel

 

My monitor is a Chi Mei [Unknown Model: CMN1738]. I pulled it from the HWInfo app and I only get 61Hz. Anything above that it flakes out.

 

Is this Chi Mei the other 1080p IPS?

That's odd, I've usually had good luck OC'ing Chi Mei 17.3" panels, I guess this one is an exception.

 

Thanks - Here is my part number and description for the panel:
41J47 MOD,LCD,17.3FHD, AG,LGD,A17R4

Unfortunately, I cannot find any other info on it. I will keep my fingers crossed for the LG!

 

Yeah it's an 1080p IPS and at 62Hz my screen flakes. I was a little annoyed but it is what it is.

 

Yeah, I had one 17.3" go only a bit further, and I got over it, eventually.

The 15.6"'s only want to go 62-63hz, I thought all the 17.3"'s would OC, I guess I need to update my posts moving forward.

How do you like the panel otherwise? Light bleed low? Good color? Brightness?

 

I have no light bleed and it looks great to me. I'm no expert though on the color quality and so forth, but I like it. After seeing that I couldn't OC it I was hoping to find light bleeding for an excuse to try and get a new monitor lol.

 

Well, you could discuss it with your AW sales person... IDK if swapping it out for another unit would land you the LG display, or if there is a way to specify it. Worth a call to find out.

 

Indeed. I should have clarified in that with the GPU running cooler, it would likely run more efficiently and it could be that a GPU running at higher watts could have diminishing returns due to the heat, hence why I have yet to see much scores in the 18K on other OEM's even at a higher TDP.

I would love for the AW to get unlocked to at least 200w for the GPU, that would be great.

 

How would I go about asking for a new panel? I mean technically nothing is wrong, I just want a different one lol. I mean I would love to get like a monitor to OC haha

 

Buying 3dmark and disabling the demo actually is a paid advantage, you need to be more conservative with the oc when the demo runs because it's very long. Whereas if you disable it the graphics test 1/2/cpu/combined is really short and you can have a more unstable OC on the GPU/CPU.

But hey, it's already a very expensive game where the objective is purely to get better scores anyway, so why would you be bothered by the upgrade lol.

 

It's safe to buy the AW17R4 I7-6700HQ - 1070 - 1440P?

I live in Brazil, where temperatures are usually around 26 degrees Celsius. And I intend to make the exchange of thermal paste only after a year of use.

A friend is going to bring the laptop to me.

 

Yes.

 

You could start out saying you expected an LG panel (give the model) and the Chi Mei doesn't really work for you, it's not quite what you expected. Can I please get it swapped for the LG display?

You might want to actually track down someone with both and get a comparison report, or find an LG equipt unit to A/B test for yourself.

You might like the Chi Mei color/contrast/color better, other than the refresh OC'ability of the LG

 

Oh, man, I could not even reach the 170w on my machine! The maximum power I can reach is somewhere near 160W when I running COD 12......And when I do the GPU test using furmark, it caps at 150W or so. I am so pissed and seriously thinking return it and get a GT73vr.!!! Do you have any ideas of this problem? Besides, if Azor told the truth, how could they release the full power design? By releasing new version of bios?

 

u r right! AW used to be the king of gaming laptop. And look it now. My aw w/ 1080 could only reach maximum 160W or so. I am really disappointed.

 

Dellienware can or shall we say "could" release a new Bios firmware with a higher powa cap... Locked to max 180w as the validation they so called wait for. But still lower than the other OEM's who use "crippled" max value north of 200w on their 1080

 

When I run GPU test using furmark, the power of GPU could not even reach 170W, it caps at somewhere near 150W....The maximum power I have run so far is about 160W while I was playing COD12. I am really frustrated. Do you have any ideas of the problem? And I am seriously considering returning it and get me a GT73

 

Is he joking? Obviously Nvidia set the power limit at 180W. How could he said it's 150W?!

 

The maximum power I have gotten for my 1080 is near 160W....Btw, can your machine maintain base frequency(1556MHz) when u running GPU test?

 

Merry Christmas every one.. !!

Did you guys see the prices for the 17r4 with the 1080!!!


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My max has been 169.. the msi has gotten to 220w the 1080 msi was able to OC to 220mhz and 550 memory.. r4 was able to do 175 and 200


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whoa... up to 3500

 

Could you run the command to check power limits. Maybe you can't see it. You an also see max power draw after bench.

"C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI>nvidia-smi.exe -q -d power"

 

They're really jacking up the prices, trying to force you into the 32 gigs of RAM and 1tb SSD. If you talk to one of the reps you can get a much better price by requesting 16 gigs and no SSD.

 

I sure will


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Crazy !! I paid 2011 with tax


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how to run this command? I could not open it, it just flashes and disappeares

 

Yikes, they jacked the price to include 1t SSD and 3 years of support. Glad I ordered mine already, but it will be built after the recent changes were made.

Wonder if the rumor of low stocks of 512g SSDs is true after all. Or they did it because they can.

 

I should sell mine for like 3000


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Please if u are still in the return window do it and do it now. Dell will not ever fix this. They released the laptops this way for a reason. The average users will not know what is going on when they are experienceing symptoms of it and it may be that the systems are just not as stable when they allow a higher power limit. In the past there was a way around it but due to secure flash that way is pretty much gone. Dell might not even care if we changed the power limits but due to secure flash they would have to release bios/firmware that would let everyone do it. And if they allowed a way to bypass secure flash then they would break a contract with microsoft. I can speak for myself with my experience with my 17 r2. The embedded controller imposes throttling limits that are way too low. If I play overwatch for 10 minutes even on the 2.6ghz base freq of my processor it will throttle down to 800mhz. Ive tried 3 batches of mobo/proc/gpu applied my own thermal paste and used a great laptop cooler. All they had to do was to change those insane limits in the ec but it never happened. They could have fixed issues like this with any of their past models and did not the majority of the time.

I'm going to get a free 17 r4 from dell as a replacement but it will probably be a piece of crap like the few before it. From reading on here I want to buy a clevo p775dm3 it just looks like everything I wanted when i bought my alienware (not a piece of crap) and a good warranty / parts replacement too for cheaper.

 

I see your point. It does make me feel sick about the 150W power limit. It really disappoints me. If I return this one, I probably get a GT73. On the other way however, I have to give a thumbs up for the whole metal structure for 17r4. It feels awesome! And it looks much better than gt73....So I am tormented. What do you think if Dell release a new version of bios to increase the power limit to 180W? BTW, may I ask why u can get a new 17r4 as replacement?

 

Christmas Miracle!

Ordered my refurbished system this past Thursday.

Dell shipped the same Day.
FedEx Delivered 2 days Early this Saturday!

SUPER HAPPY!

Got the tools out to re-pasted..








Let me just say, I'm not an amateur when it comes to system disassembly. I've built and repaired my own desktops and laptops of all makes and models for the better part of 15 years. There is definitely a manufacturing defect with the 1535 card or the White band antenna. There was way too much clasping force on the antenna to the card going on there. I specifically removed the card before trying to remove the antennas and, used a small flat head screw driver to try to separate the band. It still broke. It took me the better part of 30minuites to try to remove the remains from the antenna even after it broke.

 

Higher TDP doesn't mean higher performance, that largely applies to maxwell based card. With pascal it's an entirely different what you need to do to get a performance benefit.

Don't run furmark.

20~w isn't going to impact games at all, at most you're going to lose 5fps or so but that's not consistent.

 

I hear you... So Razer and -or Aw wouldn't benefit from Higher TDP/TGP? I know lowest possible temp will have a huge impact on Pascal graphics, but a power cap or lower TDP will hamper the performance. Or maybe Razer have other problems than too low powa for 1080 in firmware?

Edit. I expect you have seen the Crippled scores from the new Raze-book?

 

that razer pro is an entirely different kind of garbage

it isn't regular garbage, it's advanced garbage

 

So up the TGP limits wouldn't benefit Razer and AW? Would the 1080 graphics cards for desktops perform same as before but with AW's power cap? I don't think so.

 

If it wasn't for the fact that the A/C adapter was intentionally undersized causing it to drain the battery when gaming, I would have kept the Razer Blade I had before my Alienware. It's too bad really.

 

Because the issues were not apparent when i got my laptop. I was using the built in 60hz screen and vsync so i would only notice some slowdowns in bf4 which i assumed were due to page faults and me only having 8gb of ram. I switched to using a 144hz screen and started playing overwatch with vsync off. Now it was throttling every 10 minutes. Recently my system shorted out and I had to replace the mobo. since then I have replaced it 2 more times and I'm looking at a 3rd. I always called the techs after i knew exactly what was wrong and how to show that it was not normal (throttling down to 800mhz). I was always nice and honest and after the 3rd replacement I requested an escalation to get the whole system replaced. On the one hand I was nice and patient the whole time and on the other i was relentless with my insisting that i have a working computer and ability to prove how mine was not.

I don't think they have many 17 r2s sitting around anymore and more importantly I think they are well aware that a new 17 r2 wont ever work the way i want it to. They would have to keep replacing parts for the entire half a year i have left on the premium warranty. This is really just the tax they are paying for selling such a bad system.

 

Quick question to hose who have the 6820HQ and 1070 GPU, would using a 330 watt adapter be of any benefit? I can get one locally for $20.

 

Highly recommend if you can get it, 6820+1070 battery drains under load!

 

@Mobius 1 are you using Alienware or msi


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AW

MSi next year

 

Would this be reason enough to request one from Dell?

 

Why would they? Hybrid bios aka battery boost work as intended.

 

150W? That's not true. The 1080 cards in the AW can do 170W+ under load.

Also, guys....did you not read what @DeeX pointed out about the TDP not meaning everything? You @Papusan keep bashing a dead horse on this TDP thing on the AW1080, but have we seen any MSI's here on this forum do over 18K in Fire Strike? Just saying... If there are, please do share... The GT73VR is more than capable of some great scores and GPU over clock, but as you can see....even with what you keep calling, "crippled," in the AW1080 (which I do agree to a certain extent due to the cap) the fact that the AW1080 is still able to pull Fire Strike scores over 18K is not too shabby...even with the lower TDP.

Also, my GPU has not gone past 57C under load so there is a lot of head room there.

@ajair23, If you can't reach 170W then maybe try something more demanding? Because the 1080 can reach 170w...

@Cerreta28, have you broke 18K's in Fire Strike with the GT73VR? If so, please do share...would love to see the benches.

So guys...lets just chill a little eh? I'm with you all in that I think it is completely communist to put any limitations on hardware, but again...if we're talking about the GT73VR vs the AW1080 which is under powered, yet pulling bigger numbers at the moment (within NBR) then lets get some GT73VR scores posted up here by NBR members.

I know the GT73VR can pull some awesome benches and that is very exciting, but do keep in mind that even if it does pull slightly past 18K, that still doesn't speak much for it having a higher TDP on the GPU, when the AW1080 at over 30W less is pulling about the same numbers....

See the big picture here?

Post them.... we want to seen benches....

The small flat head screw driver is the issue. We've covered this before in not using a metal object or a flat head screw driver as it is not ideal in removing the cables of of the WiFi card.

It is best to use a plastic pry tool from my experience as I have never broken off a pin by doing the method as shown in my videos. (knock on wood)...Never say never right? haha...

I've also successfully removed the pin stuck inside of the white wire as well. It's almost impossible and extremely tedious, but possible.

I agree. We know that the AW1080 can pull some pretty good numbers even with the ~170W+ TDP.... Of course we all want to see this silly limit go up, but as we've been discussing .... lets see some GT73VR benches that have a higher 200W+ TDP and compare it in respect to the TDP to score ratio....

To be fair, RBP is a whole another issue and you know that.... I wouldn't be comparing it to the AW1080. The scores the RBP are pulling are lower than 1070's lol....we know this....

AW1080 can achieve much higher and will benefit from a TDP increase as there is a lot of head room for temps...

Well true for the most part, but keep in mind that an overheating desktop 1080 isn't going to be beneficial and may even come out less than a lower TDP 1080 that is running cooler.

There are other variables than just TDP.

 

I guess your right! Let me plug my laptop in and drain my battery while I use it for its intended purpose....

 

BTW....

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

CHEERS TO YOU ALL!

WISHING YOU ALL THE BEST.