Alienware m17x r4 lags when charger is not plugged in :(

My laptop is just 2 months old. It has nvidia GeForce GTX 675 M 2gb graphics card, there is no intel card and mine is a 3d version . crisis, fifa 13 lag when charger isn't plugged in. When I plug in the charger all games run perfectly. Please help me guys. I tried factory reset, updated bios, graphics drivers but nothing helped.putting the laptop in high performance didn't help.

 

try this :

reboot > BIOS > select graphic section > choose PEG .. Don't use SG ...
hope this can fix your's .. this is happen when ur laptop running in battery mode, it will running in SG mode .. when plugged in, it will turn back to PEG Mode ..
correct me if i'm wrong to others member here

 

There is no graphic section in my bios. I think I this is because I have only discrete graphics card... No integrated graphics card. I can't find a place where I can switch between sg and peg mode. Is there any other solution... Or did I look in the wrong place? Help. :-(

 

In battery mode the card automatically drops to P8 power mode with a clock of 75 mhz so no gaming at all on battery. Wish dell would be clearer on this for the 3D model. Too many people do not know that gaming is impossible on battery

Working as designed!

HTH

Edit: do not mess with ANY bios graphic settings (even by getting an unlocked bios). You can brick the machine and all it will do is beep when you try to start it. Been there, done that....

 

In non 3d models gaming is possible without charger. In fact Alienware m18x gives same performance with or without charger. Why should 3d version be any different?

 

The iGPU is physically disabled due to the fact the machine will not POST with a 120 hz display. On non-3d (without the 120hz display) you would be bsing the iGPU which although not as powerful as the NV card, it's good enough for gaming.

The battery cannot supply enough power. I would argue that an m18x can run as fast on battery but can't be bothered, believe what you want, just trying to educate you . If you can find someone that can get the same benchmarks on battery as on power then a miracle has happened and I bow to an act of god./sarcasm_off

 

Do not change any graphics adapter in BIOS for 3D models

it will brick your laptop as iGPU is disabled and it has no optimus for 3D laptops

you can also use alien fusion to configure the power plan on battery so that the graphics adapter will run on high performance mode even on battery(wont recommend)

Screenshot by Lightshot

 

Thanks , that's a diference then since I cannot get mine to run over 75hz on battery whatever I try (and I did manage to brick it trying to mess with the bios back in the day before I discovered the full details of why it's disabled (iGPU)

+rep, when I can...

 

One can Atleast expect fifa 13 to run without lag (3d disabled) on battery.moreover I don't have integrated graphics.... Just the discrete card . I still don't get why I can't play on battery.... Even when I play on medium graphics a game like Crysis 3 lags. So I find it hard to believe that games are supposed to lag on battery... Especially when games don't lag on laptops like dell inspiron 15r turbo.

 

Gaming on battery just doesn't make sense. I know you've bought a gaming laptop, but the gaming side really only extends to when it's plugged in! The fact that these laptops consume around 150W when gaming does not compute when trying to support that on a battery. It down clocks the card while gaming on battery to prevent the battery from being damaged by excessive current draw. I think everyone with a proper gaming laptop has to concede that they won't be gaming on battery, unless it's something like chess or quake 3! The Crysis 3 you mention is the antithesis of that chess & quake 3! ;-)

(It might lag less your inspiron 15R that you mention, because the components aren't powerful enough to stress the battery significantly, so if you want to game on battery, then you've already found out the 15R might be better.)

 

If you load up nvidiainspector you will see the card is in P8 on battery all the time (75hz) because the battery cannot supply enough power to make it run any faster (well it probably could do better than that but someone decided 75hz since you can at least get over 2.5 hours on battery)

Ask one of the dell reps that hang out here if you want official confirmation, I keep moaning at him because dell do not tell people

 

There is a way around this, Flash your vbios with slv7's vbios it disables the voltage and core limit override in battery mode , but you will need to use msi afterburner to keep the clocks down when doing normal tasks.

 

Good Luck not frying your battery with that technique.

 

Hey hey, did I ever say it twas safe .. I've had shut downs using that method cause the battery just couldn't supply enough juice. Be warned.

 

I get your point. But can you please explain why gaming without charger is possible on Alienware m18x which has nvidia GeForce GTX 660m. One of my friends has m18x and he gets decent clock speed on battery (750mhz) without overclocking?

 

All I can say is that it is probably using the iGPU on battery so gaming is pretty good. If you get him to run 3dmark on power and battery you should see the difference. I'm no expert on the 18 so one of those guys needs to chip in. I can't be certain that it does not have enough battery power to run a single 660m on battery

On the 120hz model you do not have an iGPU and it is hard coded to drop to P8 on the nvidia card in the m17x. Maybe the m18x has a more powerful battery? The PSU is much more powerful, 330w as opposed to 240w on the 17.