Alienware 17 R4 Poor Performance

Hello guys,

Recently purchased an alienware 17 R4 with a 1070 and the i7-6700HQ.
I'm getting lower performance than in my desktop with a 980, especially in Dota 2.
On my desktop with the 980 at 1440p I get 100-140 fps. On the laptop, with the 1080p
screen, im getting 70-85 with dips down to 60.
No thermal throttling, the higherst CPU temp under load is 78. The gpu hits about 65, never going over 30% load.
I tried hitting FN+F7, that didn't work. I also set the setting in Nvidia panel to the 1070.

Any ideas here or direction? Is this what others are getting as well?

 

What resolution is the screen on the AW? 1080p or 4K?

 

1080p. Desktop is 1440p.

 

What CPU does the desktop have? A 6700HQ does bottleneck the 1070 at 1080p in some instances.

 

The strange part is that I get the same exact frames at 1440p when I connect my external to the lapto.0

The cpu is a 5930k, stock clocks.

 

have you tried reinstalling drivers? If you get the same performance from the 1070 at 1440p as you do at 1080p, then it's likely the 6700HQ bottlenecking the 1070.

 

Yea I uninstalled and reinstalled with the newest ones on the Dell website.
I noticed the GPU core clocks say at 1442, GPU load never goes over 30%. It hit 60 brifly and then thats it.
Same with the clocks they hit 1936 briefly, then back down.

I didnt expect the 6700HQ to bottleneck the 1070 that much.
It's a joke that they'd actually pair this cpu with this gpu just to bottleneck it this much.

Can anyone else with this combination confirm that they get the same performance by any chance?

 

Wait, the CPU clocks at 2GHz only? Do you have V-sync enabled or?

Also, did you use DDU when cleaning the drivers?

 

No. the GPU clock stays at 1442, and the GPU load never goes over 30%. They hit 1936 brifly, then back down the 1442.

Not quite sure what DDU is, but I did a clean install.

V-sync is disabled.

 

DDU is a tool that MUST be used when removing drivers. It's called Display Driver Uninstaller.

 

I'll give it a go. Although I'm not sure it'll make a difference.

Yea no difference when uninstalling with DDU then reinstalling.

Any other suggestions/info from anyone else?

 

Run a benchmark on your laptop. 3DMark firestrike is a good one and measure performance against other laptops with the same configuration and see if it is truly a performance issue. If your laptop falls drastically from the others then you know you have some hindrance to baseline performance and then it can only be a few things. Either a driver issue which could be resolved by trying older drivers and measuring against a baseline, a thermal issue where something is thermal throttling which you can only be certain is not by running OSD and live monitoring your clocks and temps or it is a power constraint like a failing psu or an inadequate wattage psu. If the psu fails to provide enough power to the gpu and cpu at the same time it could limit your performance. Much more likely it is a optimization issue. I have a AW17r1 with a 4930mx and a 1070 and i get lower witcher 3 average frames then other similarly speced systems and its little to do with the hardware because in other games I outshine other systems. It's really only a problem if it is game breaking or consistently poor across the board. If it's just one game and you've checked your settings you may just be a tiny bit unlucky but obviously its not performing badly just less well.

 

13348 Firestrike which is similar to yours.

It just doesn't make sense that a 980 desktop can keep steady frames of 100 fps and the 1070 dips down to the 60s and never even touches 100.
My gpu load never goes higher than 30%. Also strange.

 

It sounds like it is being bottlenecked or there is a potential that there may be something ticked in nvidia manager that is reducing your frames like a fps limit.

 

What does your CPU load look like during gameplay?

 

I'm starting to think its a bottleneck. No limitations in nvidia manager.

CPU usage while using Vulkan API was 76.1 AT MAX. 95% AT MAXwith DX9. Same with DX11. GPU would only ever hit boost clocks with Vulkan API launch setting. With Vulkan GPU load hit 58% at one point, although still had dips in frames. The dips do NOT coincide with an increase in CPU load.

 

80-90% CPU load indicates a CPU bottleneck. I'd imagine that the 1070 will perform normally in GPU-demanding games such as Witcher 3 or Metro Redux

 

What about the Vulkan scenario where I'm at 70%?
Highly unfortunate they'd pair a gpu with a cpu that could bottleneck it

 

Are you plugged into an external monitor? If so, make sure it isn't displaying to both screens, that'll kill frames.

 

Only displaying on one screen.