Is My Alienware M17xR4 Performing as it should?

So I'm running on a M17xR4 (17 inch) with the following specs:

Windows 8.1 Pro
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40 GHz
Installed memory (RAM) 8.00 GB (7.88 usable)
System type: 64-bit Operating System x64-based processor



I've had this system for just over a year and have noticed in most, if not all games I'm getting really bad screen tearing. Throwing on V-sync (Normal/Double or tripple buffer) produces bad stutter, and even limiting frames using NVIDIA Inspector doesn't seem to stop the stutter/screen tear.

I of course understand what causes screen tear/stutter, but because I experience it so much across so many games, I'm looking for peace of mind at this stage that my machine is functioning properly. The most recent game I'm playing and experiencing these issues is Batman: Arkham Origins, and it would seem other folks with the same setup as myself don't have the same issues.

Hope some of you can shed some light, and maybe put my mind at rest.

 

Hi there

I have seen a lot of people having this issue over in the NV forums but this is the first I have seen on an AW.

It appears that the problem NV have been having for almost a year now is interaction with the windows HAL (since it was modified at win 8 release).

Other that a fresh install you could try a rollback to 314.22. This is by far the most stable driver NV have released up to now

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-driver-feedback-thread-released-2-18-14-/26/

Check out your machine with LatencyMon, this will show if it is DPC latency, but if it says 'OK' it does not mean windows interaction with the driver is not the issue...

 

Follow the steps in this article to roll back to the driver mentioned by MickyD1234 properly.

 

Right, I have all Nvidia drivers removed, but now when I try and install the 314.22 driver I get an error 'nvidia graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware'.

 

Try the inf file from: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers. Replace the original and hopefully that will get you through . Strange though, the NV's work for me out-of-the-box.

Oh, and make sure you can see it in device manager. It may show up as 'vga compatible'.

 

I just tried installing an older driver from the Alienware Resource DVD and encountered a black screen. I should also note, I ended up having to remove the previous drivers with the help of Guru3D display driver uninstaller.

At the moment under the device manager > Display adapter I'm seeing 'Microsoft Basic Display Adapter'

 

I have seen that after removing all driver traces but the new driver has always installed and changed it

If the resource CD (good call) does that then I worry for the card .

Have you tried to physically remove it and start the machine on the intel? Sometimes just doing this makes it detectable when you put it back

 

I haven't, then again I'm not very familiar with that sort of thing. Do you think I'm at a stage where I need to do that?

 

Unless you want to try a clean windows install I'd say yes.

I know it can be a bit daunting but you have one of the easiest laptops I have seen to dismantle . There are also plenty of tear-down vids to search out.

Basically you would be removing 7 screws - 2x base, 3 x fan, 2 x card complete with heatsink. I have seen cases where just resesating the card in the slot cleared up problems.

 

So I remove the card and try boot up without it? or just take it out, put it back in and then boot it back up with the card?

The thing is, I got the black screen the other day when trying to remove the latest driver and install the driver you mentioned, but by just doing a system restore I was back to using the same driver again. But of course I don't want to use the current driver, I want to use 314.22.

 

Forgot to add: I take it you are out of warranty?

The 675m is a straight rebadge of the 580m. This has been the most unreliable card I have seen in a long time. I had two go bad on me in my R3 and this R4 has had one replacement

Since you say you have had stuttering for some time I wonder it it was just dieing. Fingers crossed it's not that.

 

Since you are removing it you might as well start it up on the intel. Maybe even load up the oldest game you have, it will probably run fine. Then shutdown and put the card back.

Also dl the latest driver version Dell publish for the model, sometimes I have seen this kick undetected HW back into life, but a long shot based on what is happening...

Edit: The system restore working does make some sense. If windows is not seeing the card correctly then you will always have problems with a driver change. By doing a system restore it's not going to need to detect it.

 

Right, so I decided to try grabbing the video driver from Dell and this seemed to do the trick.(Driver version 331.65)

I'm not running on 314.22 as you suggested, and considering all the hassle I went through to try and get it, I'm not sure I want to try it again lol

I can play any of my games in windowed/Borderless mode and not have any screen tear or stutter. Older games run tottaly fine in full screen.

You did mention the problem NV have been having for almost a year now is interaction with the windows HAL (Modified for Win 8) is it possible this is a Windows 8 issue that's affecting my system?

Thanks for your help btw

 

Great to hear that worked . If it's the same as others I have seen with that problem you will now be able to use the latest NV drivers, but I do not recommend it since they are still having issues. Find one that works and stick with it until you find some new game runs badly and then try an update.

I believe it is a win 8 issue. Some people noticed a win 7 update released around the time of win 8 caused stuttering and poor performance. Removing the update fixed their machines so the win 7 HAL was modified for compatibility.

It might sound like MS is to blame for all this and technically they are. BUT, they claim that any windows program/driver written to their published API's will not be affected. Video driver OEM's do not want to use the HAL at all since it slows down gaming, so they figure out undocumented ways to make windows a smaller part of the equation. In a perfect world you would be able to ignore windows multitasking and write directly to the hardware when playing a game, but with the advent of Vista M$ made this impossible, and why there has to be a different driver for XP. M$ claim is that it protects hardware from rogue programs and drivers.

Np with 314.22 since you've found a later driver that works for you . 314.22 should just work as-is now without any modification but if you're OK with it using the dell then that's fine. I only suggested it as a possible identifier of the issue .

It seems to be one of those 'when the stars align' problems and tracking down what is making windows upset is not consistent

 

Well, I'm still getting the stutter/screen tear on games, but if a game has a Borderless option and if I go with that I don't encounter any of the screen tear whatsoever.

Out of curiosity I see you have a similar system to mine. How does Splinter Cell: Blacklist (if you have it or Batman: Arkham Origins) run on it for you?

 

Maybe you should try 314.22 again? I have seen this issue re windowless mode with quite a few people on the NV forum and usually it's a case of finding a good working driver. A clean win install would probably fix it as well as long as it's not a hardware problem but a lot of work and the possibility of no result . Playing around with the frame limiter options fixes the stutter for some but personally I think this part of the driver is where NV are changing things. Causing as many issues as they fix!

Batman AO works very good for me. I have it pretty much fully cranked up on details (top physX, middle tessellation and lowest AA - as the biggest hitters of fps) and I get around 45 fps - 65 fps. fast enough for 3D to perform smoothly (drops to around the 30fps mark). It's the 3D in this game that blows me away! BMAC was around 10% slower but still very smooth . I did have some problems with micro-tutter when flying in AC early on but either a game update or driver update fixed that one .

good luck.

 

At this stage I think I'll try a Windows 8 fresh install. Installing older NV drivers doesn't seem to work without running into issues.

Cheers for all your help btw, I'll report back after a fresh install. Hopefully with better results.

 

So after an evening of re-installing W8, I finally got the 314.22 drivers working. I tested out Batman: Arkham origins and it is definitley performing better on this driver.

I'm going to test out a bunch of other games as well.

Have you been sticking with 314.22 yourself? Hopefully Titanfall runs well with this driver.

 

That's great news!

I stuck with 314.22 for ages BUT I always tested when a new driver came out. I believe this was what burned out my last card. Once I could not roll back without black screens and sudden lockups I got dell to replace it. Luckily for me at the same time my card was replaced NV finally fixed the Overvolt (and never even acknowledged it existed - bast****!)

You'll still be getting a brief overvolt on 314.22, it's just that something introduced in later drivers pushed them over the brink. Only pre 3xx drivers and the last two are completely safe on older cards but I've not heard of any meltdowns on 314.22.

While I'm on my soapbox... This constant release of drivers under the banner of 'Game Ready' is just ridiculous. NV have set up a system (if you believe them - difficult in itself!) so that a driver can automatically get new game and Sli profiles. New drivers should only be needed for newer cards as they develop faster algorithms to suit them. The whole 'Game Ready' thing is a psychological marketing tool (IMO). People think 'Good old NV, always on top of the latest games'. Unfortunately with all the problems, giving people this mindeset of always needing to update has bitten them badly.

/soapbox_off

If your card is not one of the ones they quote performance increases for then you're more than likely to only see minor improvements (that the new profiles are probably helping)

The rule of thumb for the 580/675m or Fermi core cards seems to be that as soon as you cannot run 314.22 your card is damaged beyond repair (or workaround) .

Edit: See this stuff for a painful history!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/721878-nvidia-320-18-driver-warning.html?highlight=
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/733412-nvidia-331-40-beta-out.html?highlight=
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...idia-331-58-whql-hits-streets.html?highlight=
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/735869-nvidia-releases-331-65-whql.html?highlight=
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...lease-another-one-331-82-whql.html?highlight=
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ill-trying-fix-their-331-93-a.html?highlight=
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/742056-new-nv-whql-driver-332-21-a.html?highlight=
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/743797-nv-driver-334-67-beta.html?highlight=
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...nvidia-driver-334-89-whql-out.html?highlight=
And finally: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/747262-nvidia-335-23-driver.html?highlight=

 

Sooo.... slight problem with the 314.22 driver in that I cannot get Battlefield 4 to launch with it. Any work around for this without updating, as I've discovered drivers after 314.22 really ruin my other games.

 

Yeah, I saw that also - stupid marketing ploy (IMO) probably paid for by NV!

I found that by ignoring the upgrade message the game run just fine and dandy . I wouldn't think the BF4 authors would have actually stopped it running without a certain driver after release but the beta was fine.

It might be time to think about saving for a new card. The 680m is still an awesome performer and a straight up, no mess, upgrade for an R4

HTH.

 

I actually can't get the game to launch at all. Bf4.exe stopped working.

Tell you what, I'm going AMD next time lol

 

That sucks, guess the card (or something) simply can't cope with the newer code.

I've seen so many people dashing over to AMD for the last year. NV have definitely levelled the playing field when it comes to bad drivers, but I've not heard of a lot of AMD hardware issues, then again I don't watch!

 

You playing Titanfall by any chance? 314.22 driver seems to run it pretty well, but can't help think the latest driver would most likely boost it somewhat.

Saying that, both Batman:AO and Deus Ex: Human Revolution perform much better on 314.22.

 

Nah, I liked the look of it (Mechwarrior for the 21st century!) but I'm so useless in on-line battles it does not appeal to me. I would have got it if it had a single-player story.

I really don't think you're missing much with a later driver on an older card. If you use GF Experience you can set it up to automatically download game profiles and not update the driver so that even more reduces the advantage of a later driver. I've seen around +8fps in BMAO over the last couple of releases. That was the best increase, most others are less than that...

 

I'll give GF experience a try so. Thanks for all your advice by the way!

 

You're very welcome.

I see GFE update game profiles and settings almost daily. Even if it's not doing much it's a good system. Check this link for a screenshot and advice on config: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/721878-nvidia-320-18-driver-warning.html