*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R1/R2 Benchmark Thread

If you have an Alienware 13 and like benchmarks, you've come to the right place. Please use this thread to share your results, ask questions or have general discussion related to the benchmark performance of this particular machine.

Whenever possible, include a screen shot and a hyperlink to the results if they are validated online (i.e. 3DMark Suite, 3DMark 11, 3DMark Vantage, etc.).

 

I guess I'll start things off with my best Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 benchmark.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5723740?
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5673958?
I'm going to see if the 344.73 driver will make things better. But that Ice Storm score is really getting on my nerves.
EDIT: I think I know what is wrong with my Ice Storm Score. I did one for the extreme, and it has one of the highest physics score for a 15w CPU (possibly the highest). But my GTX 860m isn't kicking in. It's only using half of what it should be capable of.
And actually, my first Ice Storm, where I tried to bench the HD 5500, instead used the GTX 860m. I wonder...

 

Disabled my 860m, got a better score than my previous runs but not my first.
Anybody have an explanation as to why this is?
EDIT: Oops, score is deleted.

 

Heaven benchmarks at 1080p, medium settings, everything else disabled.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 9.18.13.4488/Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500 10.18.10.3977 (2048MB) x1
FPS:
45.2
Score:
1139
Min FPS:
12.1
Max FPS:
77.8
--------
Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500 10.18.14.4080/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 9.18.13.4725 (2048MB) x1
FPS:
45.5
Score:
1146
Min FPS:
11.9
Max FPS:
78.8
New drivers didn't help all that much.

 

I7-13
Using Dells patch driver
Using 860M
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5810284?
Lower than Game7a1 scores!?!?

860M disabled
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5810357?

Ill try it with a GA-970GTX on Monday

 

The 347.25 worsens performance on the 13. I noticed this on Win7 and Win8.1, and the gains in Heaven benchmark aren't that much.
I'm going back to 344.73 and waiting for Nvidia to release an official driver for our GPU. Or if Alienware can release a better and stable driver.

 

Game are you using a GA at all?

 

Nope, so I can't comment whether the 347.25 is an improvement with the GA compared to the 344.73.
But since you do, may I ask a request? Go into the BIOS and see what the GA overclocking section is about. A photo would suffice.

 

Can't figure out how to screen shot in BIOS so pictures of my screen it is.
F12 into BIOS/Advanced/ Performance options with Alienware Graphics Amplifier/ Overclocking Feature/ Disabled (by default)


I'm out of town so I have no access to the dock until Monday. That's the only settings I can access without being plugged in

 

When you get a chance next week, take a photo with the overclocking feature enabled with the GA plugged in.
Pictures are fine.

 

3Dmark11 with driver 344.74
3Dmark11 with driver 347.25
Fire Strike with 347.25

 

CinebenchR15 on Windows7
Multi core was 292cb
Single Core was 119cb
OpenGL test was 79.48 FPS I think.
Core tests were 1 cb less than my Win8.1 benching.

 

Strange my Firestrike 347.25 scores are lower than yours using Dells patch driver? We basically have the same configuration.

 

Here it is plugged in. I enabled all options saved and went back in but it went back to disabled automatically? Ill play with it more tomorrow.
Firestrike score with GA and a 970GTX

 

iGPU overclocking? Huh? What?
In any case, as for the auto disable, BIOS error?

 

Must be I tried with the GA plugged and unplugged.
Nothing would keep it enabled all benchmarks remained the same.

 

Just got my R9 285. Did a Heaven Benchmark run. Same graphics as before.
AMD Radeon R9 200 Series 14.502.1002.0/Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500 10.18.14.4080 (2048MB) x1
FPS:
62.2
Score:
1567
Min FPS:
20.6
Max FPS:
113.6
In comparison to my best GTX 860m run,
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 9.18.13.4725 (2048MB) x1
FPS:
46.5
Score:
1171
Min FPS:
17.0
Max FPS:
79.4
The R9 285 scored about 33.8% better than the GTX 860m. Sweet.

 

I ran a 3Dmark11 benchmark with the R9 285.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9450872 (R9 285)
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/9450872/3dm11/9412932 (860m vs. 285)
And I found a problem. The CPU is being throttled for no good reason. @AW Khan, @Alienware-L_Porras, I think this and the weird BIOS overclock thing are things that need to be tested internally. I don't know if the CPU throttling problem is specific to the i7-5500u or to AMD GPUs or something else, but this is not something that needs to happen.
Other than that, graphics swapping (GTX 860m <--> R9 285) went seamless.

 

@AW Khan, @Alienware-L_Porras
I think I found something... odd.
I did Cloud Gate and Ice Storm on an external monitor (1080p) with my R9 285.
http://www.3dmark.com/cg/2542032
http://www.3dmark.com/is/2739347
That seems about right, right? The desktop GPU would do better on the external monitor. Well... hold on. I did the exact same thing with the GTX 860m.
http://www.3dmark.com/is/2739362
http://www.3dmark.com/cg/2542046
That's better than before. But don't feel happy just yet. I was getting that exact same performance when I set my laptop's display to 1080p.
Now what happens when I set my laptop's display to 720p, the default resolution of Ice Storm and Cloud Gate (using the 860m here)?
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5968131? (external monitor)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5968155? (laptop's panel)
Now, benchmarks could be tricked. So what about games? Okay, there shouldn't be any differences there, right?
So I took screenshots of a game I play, Mechwarrior Online, at multiple settings using the 860m. Staring (stare) at one place, I found out something interesting (note: the FPS I got is not representative of the game in action).
When connected to an external monitor, the FPS was 100 most of the time.
When using the laptop's panel at 1080p, the FPS was around 93 FPS.
When using the laptop's panel at 1440p, the FPS was around 93 FPS as well.
EDIT: Well, both on external and panel hit 100, but the external edged out it FPS.
Okay, so why is connecting to an external monitor better than using the laptop's panel even at the same resolution as the external monitor? At least games respond fine when using the panel at whatever FPS unlike benchmarks.
I can gather more results when playing a game with the R9 285 and GTX 860m if need be. That'll have to be on the weekend, though.

 

Just ran two gaming sessions of ME:O with the R9 285 (medium preset minus the AA, 1080p). Lucky me, the two sessions happened in the same area.
With the external monitor: 30 to 80 FPS, with a leap to 126 for some odd reason. Was able to keep at 40 to 60 FPS.
With the laptop's panel: 20 to 50FPS. Stuck around the mid 30's.
Going to try the 860m now.
EDIT: With 860m FPS was around 40 to 50. Max I saw was low 70s. Laptop panel and external monitor weren't that different (well, I wasn't on the same maps both times, so that could contribute).
Verdict? R9 285 is, of course, much better than the 860m, but the odd CPU limiting is weird. I'm not sure if this is because the Nvidia drivers are in the laptop, but since the 860m isn't affected by the fact that AMD drivers are in the laptop, then that wouldn't make sense.

 

Well I did some more benchmarks with the 860m on an external monitor.
http://www.3dmark.com/cg/2543203
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9460980
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4124411
http://www.3dmark.com/sd/2819001
Conclusion? Well, the laptop doesn't play nicely when a 3Dmark benchmark runs at 720p. That's really it. 3Dmark11 actually did worse, and Sky diver was around expect. Fire Strike did so much better, though. Which screen is being used has little to do with the performance of the 860m.
Will test with the R9 285 later.

 

R9 285 Firestrike on laptop's panel and external monitor.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5974166?
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4125056
The CPU score is around the expected score (and is actually better than most of my previous Win8.1 runs). So now I'm lost.
Someone help me understand.
EDIT: Okay, I think I have a better understanding of what is going on.
The performance I've been getting is because of the desktop resolution. If I set my game to 1440p, same FPS in a certain area as compared to if I did 1080p windowed or full window (55 FPS). Same happens when I eliminate the black bars when setting the desktop res. to 1080p.
Full screen? Different story. I get better FPS (near 70). That explains why the external monitor has been better... somewhat.
The games think they're running at 1440p. So I only have two potential culprits. The graphics drivers (Nvidia and AMD) or the BIOS. I'm leaning towards the BIOS. There wasn't any CPU problem.

 

I did some Heaven, 3DMark11, Firestrike, and SkyDiver (I'm not bothering with Ice Storm and Coud Gate anymore) with the GTX 660 OEM. I'll link the R9 285 and GTX 860m results as well for comparison sake (I did not do Sky Diver with the R9 285 for some reason so I'll do it later today; same for Heaven on Win8.1). I'm using Win8.1 currently to eliminate any OS variables and am not using an external monitor with the GTX 660 (using the laptop panel score with the R9 285; don't really care for which panel I used the 860m because it is the worst of the three anyways). Using the latest Omega driver and 347.25. Same Heaven preset as before (1080p, medium, no extras). Note that in 3Dmark FS and SD, the background resolutions play a key role in the score, which is really stupid. So the scores are only reflective at 1440p. At 1080p, the scores are much better.
EDIT: Added R9 285's Sky Diver and Heaven runs.
GTX 660 FS vs R9 285 FS vs GTX 860m FS
GTX 660 SD vs R9 285 SD vs. GTX 860m SD
GTX 660 11 vs R9 285 11 vs GTX 860m 11
GTX 660 Heaven:
FPS: 48.8
Score: 1230
Min FPS: 20.1
Max FPS: 88.9
R9 285 Heaven:
FPS: 64.7
Score: 1629
Min FPS: 21.7
Max FPS: 131.2
GTX 860m Heaven:
FPS: 45.5
Score: 1146
Min FPS: 11.9
Max FPS: 78.8
I'm still not getting the CPU overclock the Haswell owners are getting regardless of which desktop GPU I use. I'm convinced that this is a BIOS problem.
@AW Khan , @Alienware-L_Porras GPU swapping with the GTX 660 OEM, though, failed unlike the R9 285. The hardware ID is not in the .inf file, which is weird because it's one of the GPUs Alienware has sold. I'm sure modifying the .inf file would fix the problem, if we were able to on the Dell approved driver
EDIT once again: GTX 660 OEM ID is in the .inf file, so now I am left wondering why GPU swapping didn't work.

 

Finally got the OEM GTX 660 to work properly (flawless GPU swapping) with the drivers 344.73 and 347.25. My modified 347.52 failed.
However, in order for me to get this flawlessness, I had to install the driver when using the GTX 660, not GTX 860m. Odd, but it worked.
I'll be doing some benching with it.

 

Hi Guys. Just a quick bench mark straight out the box.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6198974

 

I redid the Heaven benchmark but with everything on max and at 1080.
You can view the full results here, but here's the run down:
860m: 458
GTX 660: 570
R9 285: 851

 

Any 960m benchmarks yet?

 

i5- 4210U and OCed 860m FireStrike 3509

 

New high scores for the i7-5500u + mobile GPUs. Overclock settings are +135 MHz on core, +335MHz on Memory, +18.8 mV of Voltage.
Firestrike: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4409741
Sky Diver: http://www.3dmark.com/sd/2908639
3DMark11: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9605554
Heaven (max, 1080p): FPS: 20.4
Score: 513
Min FPS: 8.6
Max FPS: 40.6
Temps on the CPU and GPU never went above 74 C.

 

It looks like a decent jump from the the out of the box numbers. Are you using Afterburner for you OC?

 

Nvidia Inspector. I find it the easiest to read and apply overclock.

 

Thanks, I'm coming from AMD so I will take a look at it tonight when I come home.

 

Hi All

As requested in the owners thread, Alienware 13 - i7 5500U - GTX 960M benchmarks - FHD 1080p screen - no Graphics Amplifier or external screen

Done on Steam 3D Mark Demo (if it makes a difference) - default settings on 3D Mark - plugged into power and on high performance in Windows 8.1 - fresh install

Nvidia drivers at 347.52

Only difference from spec is Samsung 850 Evo 500Gb 2.5 SSD instead of 1Tb 5400 spin HDD

Firestrike 1.1 - 3611
Sky Diver 1.0 - 10064
Cloud Gate 1.1 - 10464
Ice Storm 1.2 - 44389

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6471318

Also - no overclocking done (yet....maybe )

hope that helps

 

That's good info. My i5 (4th gen) 860m out of the box was only scoring 3306 on firestrike. After some overclocking I was able to get it up to 3509. If you look at Game7a1's posts, he is able to get 3755 on his i7 as well so that's definitly doable...maybe someone can break 3800?

 

Or 4000 with an overclock. A stock GTX 960m is slightly less powerful than an overclock GTX 860m (+135MHz).

 

I'll give it a go, my i7 960m AW 13 is coming in tonight.

 

Just scored a 3666 out of the box i7 960m and this is on the old drivers that they are shipping with right now. Nvidia has yet to release 960m drivers. I will try to install the new drivers from the 965m and see if I can start overclocking

 

No luck with the 965 or 860 driver tonight. I might try to dig into the extracted files in the morning.

 

You might have to try a bit of modding.
http://na.alienwarearena.com/forums...vidia-driver-to-work-on-broadwell-13-and-more

 

Thanks for the link, I'll tackle it in the morning.

 

So a little late night tinkering happened and I got to 4033 on FS with +135 GPU, +300 vRAM, and +25mV. I feel pretty good about that. I think that their may be more gains with increases on the vRam as I scored a 3987 at +120 GPU and +200 vRAM, a 3965 when I upped the GPU clock alone to +135, and then the 4033 when I increased the vRAM. This all being said, I'm probably not going to push it much further. I think a 10% improvement over stock is pretty good for a laptop.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6489274

 

nice one, i was going to try to break 4000 on my laptop this weekend, but you've already proven it! Congrats

 

Thanks, did a little bit of DA:I this weekend and it handles it like a champ. No stability issues.

 

What kind of settings can u play on DAI ?

 

Mix of Medium and high. I will take a screenshot when I get a chance

 

Thanks for the reply. Would be amazing if it can get above 30fps on high at 1080p. Cant find any video on Youtube showing that

 

Anything I thought would hit the CPU I dialed back to low or off

 

With these settings I get 40-55 with the average in high 40s.

 

Thanks for sharing. Quite clearly DAI is demanding as those look like medium minus settings. Probably will fare mich worse when Witcher 3 arrives ...!

 

Anyone notice something funny with the Tomb Raider FPS with the i5-5200U + GTX 960m?