Performance issues with new machine - help/advice needed.

Hi all,

So i got my m17x R2 machine quite recently, in August.
To start off, i'm running on the latest Dell ATI driver/Vbios/Bios combo, crossfire enabled, have also mcAfee which came with the Alienware installed.
Specs as you can see in sig i7 840 QM, CF 5870 and 8GB ram, etc.

I've mainly got the AW with the high interest of playing FFXIV which i realize isn't quite the optimized game. However, i have noticed a clear difference in performance compared to other m17X AW owners.

I am mostly scoring(using FRAPS) anywhere from 5 - 25 FPS in FFXIV depending on area as opposed to other members here scoring a constant 20-60 FPS and almost a consistent 60 FPS outside city which is a massive difference.

Something else that's quite annoying is that i have been experiencing performance degradation where the frame rates shoot down to about 5-10 fps (even outside city which isn't as intensive) which makes it very unbearable. This degradation can also be seen when running FFXIV benchmark app, scoring 500-1000 less becoming choppy/laggy/clunky.
Strange thing is i noticed at that point if i shut down my machine and start it up, it restores it back to the normal (low) state of up to 25 fps (which again is abnormally low compared to other guys around here scoring up to 60 FPS ingame.)
I've been experiencing this phenomena more regularly and have to do shutdown and start up again. I'm not sure at this point this extra performance loss happening here is due to CPU or GPU.

I was advised to run 3dmark vantage (i went ahead and purchased 3dMark Vantage/PCmark vantage bundle) and gave 3dMark vantage a run to see how my machine performs.

Here are the results ( link below), which as i understand turned out to be significantly low mainly for CPU.

ORB - World of Performance

As you can see, scores are as follows:

3D Mark score: P10385 3DMarks
CPU Score: 6102
Graphics score: 13556

I've noticed other AW owners with 740QM getting 11k+ on CPU and 14k+ on GPU?
So something definitely not right there.
Would this explain the low frame rates on FFXIV?

I'd really like to get to the bottom of this because as it stands now this is proving to be heavy paper weight so far as it's failing to serve the purpose i got it for. I can put up with lots of annoyances but FFXIV draws the red line for me.

Any advice & help highly appreciated.

Please also provide me with clear instructions as i'm fairly new to PC gaming scene and apps/tools.

Thanks..

 

Try downloading ThrottleStop. When you first run it, the program will be in monitoring mode. Check off the Log File option, minimize it to the system tray and then go do some gaming or run a benchmark. When you are finished, exit ThrottleStop and go into the ThrottleStop folder and have a look at the ThrottleStopLog.txt log file.

If you're not sure what it's telling you, upload it to MediaFire and post or send me a link so I can have a look at it. The R2 doesn't have any known CPU throttling issues but many other Dell laptops do so it's always a good idea to have a look to make sure you are getting maximum CPU performance.

At the same time you can also run a log file with GPU-Z to make sure your GPUs are both working at full speed.

 

Thanks for that Unclewebb, will give that a go as soon as i get a chance and report back.

 

Ok, i have restored back to factory image.

Installed new ATI driver and ran the test again.. surprisingly enough the score is even worse now.. both GPU and CPU are scoring low around 6k each.

I'd like to note here that my Power option is set on high and Stealth mode is off - i downloaded stealth mode app which indicated it's off. (green)

I'm thinking this time around, GPU score might be due to extra Feature Tests ? Is that score still correct though?

Unclewebb, I started GPU-z and throttlestop with logging and ran the complete vantage benchmark test which includes all tests, 2 gpu tests, 2 cpu tests and several feature tests, all on default settings.

3D Mark score: P5875 3DMarks
CPU Score: 6099
GPU score: 5804

pics attached.

Thanks again ..
I have attached both GPU-z and throttlestop logs for you to inspect:

GPU-z - GPU-Z Sensor Log.txt

Throttlestop - ThrottleStopLog.txt

 

Those scores seem particularly low...I have almost exact same specs as you except I have the 740QM, and I'm getting the following numbers from 3DMark Vantage(and I did all the extra feature tests as well):

3dMark : P12315
GPU : 12601
CPU : 11529

This is off the stock factory image and I just received the laptop on the weekend. Video drivers aren't the latest, neither the VBIOS, so I'm expecting the GPU score to be slightly higher after those are updated as well

something definitely wrong there

 

Thanks ghostdunks. Yes, something definitely not right there.
Something to note though, i was surprised to find out stealth mode seemed to be running straight off a factory image restore. Running the stealth mode application indicated that with a red sign. Then again, i don't know how reliable this app is, as it's not official, written by forum user.

Also i'm wondering how much of a hit does stealth mode have on benchmark test? Anyone know? I'll probably have to run another test soon with stealth mode on to confirm if there is a significant difference. I'm not sure what else can hinder performance like this. As it stands now, this is weaker than a macbook pro ..

 

Oles chiefs. Turn off stealth mode quicksmart. It will murder your performance. The application is very reliable. It is just a simple app to notify whether your in stealth mode or not.

Turn off stealth mode chiefs and try benching and gaming again. You should be back to normal hopefully.

Cheers.

 

Hola The Chief, yeah bud, it was off when i ran these benchmarks, status was green (disabled). Im pretty sure it was as i double checked it before running. Then turned it on afterwards to confirm.

I'm thinking i will turn it on and run the bench to see if my performance score goes down to 3k or somethin lol.

At this stage i can only think the hardware is somehow faulty yet working, somehow.

Unfortunately, i am at that stage of wanting to return the machine if i can as i can get double the performance for half or 1/3 of the price with a desktop.
All the core components have failed me, CPU, GPU and SSD. Left me with a very bad impression. Not to mention all the other stability issues.
Haven't even bothered playing FFXIV for close to 2 weeks now due to real poor performance, heavy paperweight at the moment.

 

AH buggers ey chiefs.

Oh yeh just a thought. double check the powerplay options in the CCC.

Yeh try playing around with that stealth mode. His a slimey character lol. Saids his off and on sometimes and the messages are a bit weird for when you want to turn him off lol. It sounds like your going to turn it on lol. Useless button on the R2. On the R1 not bad.

Cheers.

 

Well, here it is.. 3DMark Vantage cpu test with stealth mode on ..

Guess what the score is.. lol

You'll have to check the pic for this one.

 

This is exactally what happened to me last night!!!! See my post on the mainpage. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/524946-complete-utter-breakdown-anyone-else.html#post6793560

Firstoff I have basically the same specs as you(see my sig) my benchmarks were always in the 1125-1220 playing with some of the minimal setings we non-extreme users have in the BIOS.

My system had a complete breakdown, the only thing I could think of was that something f'ed up somewhere and it was running on the internal graphics card and there was nothing I could do to get it back working properly until basically my system just stopped working entirely.

I reformatted everything from the ground up, and only installed the LAN driver from the disk, then downloaded all the drivers directly from Dell. After the fresh reformat(from original dell image) I ran 3DMark06 and was almost blown away to see it score well over 15000!!!!!

Maybe try this, it takes a few hours but may be worth it. I am currently contacting my contacts at Dhell about this issue to see if it is known.

 

Those are the scores you get with stealth...:/

 

And I thought it couldn't get any worse, must have taken AGES to get through the tests :/

 

Hey Johnsmor, thanks for your feedback.
Interesting but not too surprising to hear these random fluctuations with the machine. You see, before i did the factory image restore my gpu was scoring, as stated in my first message around 13k for GPU, and now after a clean factory image restore, shoots down to less than half of that. I just don't know what the deal is with this machine, it acts too funny all the time. I also mentioned this other prob where the performance just keeps degrading over time where it becomes unbearable and i have to shut down to fix that. At this rate, judging from my experience in the last 2 months or so, i just have no more faith or trust in the machine.
My thoughts are i can get something far more stable and higher performer for a fraction of the price. Also even with a full replacement, i know there will still be potential outstanding issues, the SSD that ships with AW is crap and the R2 is hindering SSD performance, the touchpad i have issues with, the weight, the unresponsive mediabuttons and battery charging issues beyond power drain. The drivers that wouldn't reinstall with all driver sweeper/CCleaner process, the general performance is laggy, takes like a second to either minimize/maximize/shutdown a window. Machine takes over a minute to load up with this SSD. Been a miserable experience for me overall and it's pretty pitiful knowing my old 5 yr old Asus laptop gives me a smoother experience. All this came at a cost of close to $6000(NZD), thats about $4500(US). Ridiculous to say the least.
An i7 980X desktop would still be cheaper, and i have found the mobility of this laptop to be overrated considering it's weight and battery life.

I await Dhell's response..

It sure did, i had to leave the laptop for a while, those damn planes in 2nd test were like flying turtles!

 

mate you have had troubles with this machine since you got it, i would recommend ringing dell and asking for a replacement, tell them the situation, im sure they will help.

 

I also was a bit disappointed with the m17x experience :/

- Temps are quite high and all they had to do was a small mod to the 5870m's cooling to makes temperatures a LOT better
- Random FPS drops also
- Artifacts since getting the Laptop
- Dell drivers only
- Horrible scaling meaning I can't use my AW Optx Monitor without getting blacks borders @ 1920 x 1080p
- And their phone support is horrible. I can't understand them because they are all foreign :/ I can't understand their accent. You'll be lucky to ever someone who can pronounce words decently.

I'm gonna phone them up tomorrow I think. If I am lucky then I'll get someone to come round and fix it up. I might even throw in some extra £ if he is willing to mod the 5870m's cooling :/ That way I could at least OC a bit better.

 

hey mate, yes i have done so already, given them couple of calls explaining the situation, i believe they are onto it now. So will wait and see where this goes..
Unfortunate i guess i haven't managed to enjoy the machine one day since i got it, and it's just dragging on and on. sooner this is sorted the better. If i can return, will get a desktop, done deal. We'll see.
Been craving FFXIV action for a while. It's just sitting there, a shame.

 

I hear ya! In fact I do believe the performance degradation is due to the SSD! As this clean reformat I installed everything part from my OS on my 2nd HD including graphics drivers which is the Momentus Hybrid with the 4gig SSD. I have noticed I am getting a lot more performance (15000+ on 3D06) and will now be buying a second Momentus I think and go with the RAID 0 option I will wait and see what happens over the next couple weeks with the SSD.

The overall performance of my machine has been quite good other then the first one I had which sounds a lot like what your having. Have you done a clean reformat from ground up? Not just a re-image to factory settings? Try that first before dealing with Dell because from my experience it is a very lengthy process from hours on the phone with dell support, to then in house technician calls, then after the 4th or 5th in house call they may offer you a replacement.

I will report back if the performance goes away again, but I think for the most part the SSD is not worth the hassle for 10secs quicker boot times.

 

Hey Harry,

I have the Optix monitor too, you need to go into Catalyst manager select Desktops & Displays it should show the LCD screen and the AW monitor at the bottom (have to try and explain this as I am at work and don't have my comp for screen shots).

There is the little black arrow pointing down for the AW monitor, click that and you should have the option to configure, click configure and go to Attributes, enable GPU scaling and then there should be another tab Scaling Options select this tab next where you can over-scan. Slide the over scan all the way and voilla!

Hope this helps, if I haven't explained this well enough let me know and I will get some screen shots for you this evening or Saturday in case I go out drinking with the guys after work.

Cheers.

 

Yep this scaling rubbish seems to affect almost all external monitors and LCD teles. Its a AMD/ATi driver issue. Everytime I plug in the Nvidia GPU notebooks they auto detect and resize accordingly by themselves but AMD still has a way to go with their drivers it seems. Quite annoying.

Cheers.

 

Thanks ) Now the problem just occurs in Crysis which isn't much of a biggie. Just happy I can use it in all my other games Thanks!!1

 

Gennosuke: I finally remembered to come back here and look at your ThrottleStopLog file.

The first thing I noticed is that your multiplier is stuck at 15.00. If you have EIST / SpeedStep disabled then this can happen where your multiplier gets locked to a fixed value. With Intel Turbo Boost working correctly, the multiplier you will see in a log file tends to go up and down depending on how many cores are in the active state which during most games and apps is constantly changing. If EIST is off in the bios then turn it on and post another log file. You should be getting a lot more turbo boost and CPU speed when this CPU is lightly loaded.

 

Harry,

There is another post somewhere about a scaling fix, do a search for it. Its a program you run at startup or before you launch a game that keeps everything normal. I tried it and seems to work.