Alienware M11x R3 - CPU Speedstep Issue

For a while now my Alienware M11x R3 has been a little confused. Fitted with an Intel Core i7 2617M and 8GB RAM you'd think my little machine would have a fighting chance against even the most mundane and graphically lacking games. Well it turns out you'd be wrong. It appears as though my PC has its head on backwards and can't sort itself out.

Intel Speedstep is supposed to monitor and adjust my CPU's frequency in relation to what my computer is doing, and well it does just that, except backwards. While letting my PC idle on the desktop CPU-Z confirms that my processor is running at the intended overclocked speed of 2.6GHz which it should... except when it's doing nothing. Well not only does this use unnecessary power it also causes unwelcome temperatures, especially when browsing my desktop.

Now things get really odd. Running at 2.6GHz my laptop would seem capable of running most games without major struggle and well this isn't the case at all as my computer delightfully drops to a whopping 0.7GHz when running games and/or anything demanding. As you can imagine this results in catastrophic performance. Now I was wondering if there is anyone else who has experienced such an issue and has a potential fix. Because I can't work it out for the life of me. Also, disabling Speedstep results in a fixed speed of 1.5GHz which isn't too brilliant at processing the games I wish to play.

 

Have you tried checking CPU temperatures during idle and while playing games with a program like Core Temp or HWMonitor?

Also, what power profile do you have set in Windows? High Performance would keep the frequency at the highest, but Balanced should let it clock down.

 

Head to the Dell site and make sure you are using the most updated bios version for your laptop.

Welcome to Home User Support

Click on the Drivers and Downloads section to find the appropriate bios update for your laptop.

Don't put too much faith in what CPU-Z says when your CPU is lightly loaded.

CPU-Z has been designed for consistent validation purposes when lightly loaded which can be misleading if you don't understand what it is telling you.

If your CPU is not overheating then you can use ThrottleStop to solve the 798 MHz blues. Many computers have this issue where they randomly get stuck at the lowest speed. ThrottleStop should also correctly show you that your CPU is not using full Turbo Boost when you are sitting at the desktop. To set it up, click on the Turn On button, click on the Set Multiplier option and set that as high as it can go until it says Turbo. Your gaming performance will instantly be much better.

 

It is running High Performance mode, as always when I play games and my temperatures are normal. Never exceeding 75 degrees on either GPU or CPU.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I completely forgot about ThrottleStop. I have used it on my old M11x R2 and prior laptops, totally skipped my mind this time around. Cheers for the reminder, will report back on the results.

 

Does throttlestop work on the R3?

 

ThrottleStop works on the R3 but unless you have an unlocked bios, you won't be able to change the turbo boost TDP settings like you could with the R2. It will allow you to play with the multipliers though so if your CPU is getting stuck at the lowest multiplier, it should be able to fix that and it is still a very accurate monitoring tool on the R3. A ThrottleStop log file is excellent documentation of any problems you are having.

On the Sandy Bridge CPUs, some users with inadequate cooling use ThrottleStop to slow their CPU down so it creates less heat so they can avoid throttling. The R2 was begging for some overclocking but now a lot of people are using ThrottleStop to do the opposite. They use it for under clocking their CPU to control heat. Some games don't need a super fast CPU. Under clocking the CPU so there is more power and heat headroom available for an over clocked GPU can result in improved frame rates.

 

So uncleweb, I have done some research and see there is an A05 unlocked bios for the M11X R3. If I were to flash the unlocked bios on my M11X R3, then would I be able to change the TDP settings?