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    Alienware 18 Screen Refresh Rate

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by seldN, Aug 29, 2015.

  1. seldN

    seldN Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi Notebook Review,

    So, I have a couple of questions regarding refresh rate on the Alienware 18 panel. I realise people have fairly mixed results when trying to force higher refresh rates. I am using the 880M card from NVIDIA.

    I have personally managed to get exactly 95hz without any symptoms (for use of a better term). Any higher and I get some funny pink lines going horizontally across the screen. I used a program called CRU (Custom Resolution Utility). It works well and I haven't experienced any problems with it. So anyway, to my questions.

    1) Should I use a different piece of software to force higher refresh rates would I experience different (better) results?
    2) Is 95hz the 'limit' across all resolutions up to 1920x1080?
    3) Is there a way I can 'tweak' or 'tune' the monitor to get any higher?

    As much as 60hz --> 95hz is a great result, I was really hoping for more, maybe somewhere in the region of 100-120hz. High refresh rate is one of the main things that I really enjoy so far as user experience is concerned. It also doesn't hurt when playing a spot of Counter-Strike ;)

    Perhaps there is somebody out there who can get higher who can share their experience with setting it up. Perhaps they would even be willing to swap panels with me? I would happily pay well for this.

    Thank you all! :)
     
    seldN, Aug 29, 2015
    #1
  2. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    unfortunately for the 18s they don't have an EDP port for 120hz panels....in fact 120hz panels were never an option and were only an option for the 17-inch models as they do have EDP ports.
     
    thegh0sts, Aug 29, 2015
    #2
  3. t456

    t456 1977-09-05, 12:56:00 UTC

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    No, no and no, respectively :p .

    There's a limit to every panel and 95Hz is pretty good, especially at that size and resolution. Only option is a different panel or lower resolution ... not that it matters; hardly any choice with 18.4". With WLED only one (except some crappy Innolux models), with CCFL a few more, but these look like refreshes. Maybe buy a score, test, keep the best and sell the rest.

    Maybe ... if you have wled now then ccfl could help, only you'd need to make a custom power source for the backlight. Usually people do CCFL -> LED, so there's a adapters for that. Yet LED -> CCFL? You might well be the first ...
    Mine can do 185Hz :) . Not sure you wanna trade; it's a 15.4" ... WUXGA though, 1920x1200 :cool: . Build in 2003 ... now, that was some damn good engineering:
     
    t456, Aug 29, 2015
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