New to Alienware had some questions

Hey guys!
I just got my new Alienware x17 in the mail today! IM SO EXCITED! This is my first Alienware comp too! There is only one thing that im a little worried about though i ran my 3D benchmark and my scores seemed pretty low... This is my fist true gaming computer so i honestly have no idea what im doing, so if you guys could give me some advise that would be great! I was wondering what i could do to make my computer as fast as possible and get the highest benchmarks. ill list my current benchmarks and specs below:


Benchmark:
P6699 3D benchmark
CPU 7568
Graphics 6452

my system specs are:
core i5-520M
Windows 7
Radeon HD 5870
4g of mem
500g hd


If anyone has any regressions for how i should configure my settings and stuff that would be AMAZING! Thanks so much guys! looking forward to getting to know my alienware much better!

 

Anyone? can anyone just point me in the right direction?

 

Hi theres and welcome.

I'm guessing that you ran a VANTAGE test there. If so your score looks quite low. I'm not to familiar with the performance of the i5 CPUs however I would still think your score should be a little higher than that.

You can try updating all your drivers. eg. GPU drivers. + others perhaps.

Also make sure your not running in stealth mode.
Make sure your plugged in and running on High performance mode. Check the power settings and make sure everything is set to max speed settings.
Check in the CCC ATI settings that powerplay is set to max performance mode as well.

Cheers.

 

thanks so much! ya ive been playing around with all the settings for the laptop lol! there are so many! haha! its kind of overwhelming at first! =)

I thought the score was low too, thats what made me worry a bit. I want to make sure that the computer Dell sent me is running the way is should.

OK i went through and had all those set up at max. and that's still around the score i get. its not in stealth mode either. Is there some kind of overclocking i could do? also what about the CCC settings do those make a big difference under the 3D tab? What should i have those set too?

Ive updated the graphics drivers and am going to start updating the rest maybe this will help.

P.S. yes it was the free trial vantage test that i ran. Are there any other test systems that i could run?

 

In CCC try clicking and setting everything to default settings.
Also in terms of CCC 3d tab you can leave everything set to default except you can change the minimaps to what ever setting that you want for games, also for Catalyst AI set that to Advanced, if you have issues lower it to Standard.

Also when you updated your drivers did you uninstall the previous versions 1st. If not you should uninstall the CCC and ATi drivers. Then boot into Safemode and run driver sweeper and cc cleaner. Then reboot back into normal windows mode and install a fresh ATi driver suite. Give that a go and then check all your settings again. Then try running the tests again.
You could also try running 3d mark 06.

Try running some games as well just to check out their performance. To see if it is really sluggish or performing quite well.

Good Luck.

Cheers.

 

Are you running a single GPU? I would guess that stealth mode is on.

 

ya i am running a single gpu im going to try running 3d mark 06 and see what my score is ill let you guys know.

 

What score should i be ball-parking for? im going to run the test now.

 

I'm not to sure about your specs. Since it has the Core i5 CPU. What is that clocked at?

Also depending on driver version and background processes, OS processes factor all will affect the score.
However you should expect around 11 - 13k. 12k something score most likely.
3d mark 06 is heavily dependent on the CPU.

Also make sure your running in High performance mode and that Stealth mode is off.

Cheers.

 

6k ish is a bit low even for a single gpu but it's not that much cheq if perfomance is resonable in game benches are not totaly accurate

 

i got the newest graphics drivers and now my score came out to 10817 3d Mark running a full version of 3d mark 06 how do those scores sound?

SM 2.0 Score
4470
SM 3.0 Score
5136
CPU Score
2770

 

Yep that score sounds right chiefs. All good. The latest drivers have been known to drop the 3d mark 06 score by quite a bit.
Your score looks all good though chiefs.
You should try some gaming now and test out the rig. Enjoy.

Cheers.

 

thanks so so so much!

 

10817 sounds a bit lower than expected.

 

I score 12.8k with a 720 in 3dmark06(non xf) that sounds about right with a single card n 520

 

i just did some more diver updates and ran the test again and scored a 12242, and that's with nothing overclocked or anything. is that still low? if so what should i do to raise it a little?

 

Its all good chiefs.

The score you got is around the ball park figure for your particular spec setup. Heck it even gives the i7 CPUs and crossfire setups a run for its money lol Pretty good score on the test run after the updates you did. Nice! You could probably raise it a little but the scores with benchmarks is that they will always go up or slightly down. They won't however jump up or down a huge amount. A few users including myself saw much better scores right out of the box new without any driver updates. Now on the newer updated drivers our scores have gone down about 2k. No real worries though as games and overall performance is still tip top.

Once you have your system all setup, drivers installed and everything stable the score will stabalise around a certain range. Until the next updated drivers pop out and of course if you OC it then you will see higher numbers.

No need to worry about the scores anymore. Enjoy!

Cheers.

 

Sounds about right to me.....my original lappy with 720qm x/fire 5870 and 4gb scores 13800 on 3dMark06 and around P12500 on vantage.