*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

It's weird cause my MX100 works perfectly on my 15. I don't know what they were thinking.

 

Can anyone comment on the fan noise in the 13?

 

I can't really answer the second question since I would need the GTX 860m to work.
However, I can answer how the difference between the i7 and i5. I'm going to look at the physics score of the 3Dmark tests and Cinebench R15 (mine versus notebookcheck's)
Test------------ i7-5500 score------i5-4210u score-----difference ---------~ difference in %
Firestrike------------4801--------------- 3511----------------1290--------------------36.742%
Sky DIver-----------4507--------------- 3966----------------541--------------------13.641%
Cloud Gate---------3386--------------- 2530 ---------------856 -------------------33.834%
Ice Storm-----------37390--------------- 29158 ---------------8232 ----------------21.02%
Mutil-core------------293----------------239--------------------54--------------------22.594%
Single-core----------117---------------103---------------------14--------------------13.592%
As we can see, the i7 is about 14% to 37% better than the i5 in these tests.

 

It's usually quiet in idle, but when I was running the benches, it got loud.

 

But no vibrating-like noises as the RPMs increase or anything like that? Just normal fan noise?

 

Compared to my m14x and HP Pavilion, the 13 was like them. Just gradually up and down. No dramatic jumps and plummets.

 

Honest question:

After reading this article, will you consider using the Internet Explorer just once? Afterwards, you can stop using IE, continue with your activities and habits, etc.

I find all default programs run smoothly on AW13, to the point that I don't even need to consider replacing them with other programs out there.

 

Finally installed Windows 7 on my other M.2

I use IE from time to time. Usually when I want to read a certain format that Chrome can't read.
EDIT: I looked into HWInfo. You can't adjust the fan curves. I'm guessing the BIOS support isn't there.

 

Good news everybody, I can use my GTX 860m!
But I'm not sure how I did it. It may have been activated once I ran GPU-Z, which usually crashed my HD 5500. But yeah...

 

Congrats!
I think...
Does it work properly now, switching back and forth between the the gfx controllers when it should?

 

I'm still using the factory driver, but Optimus sort of works. Setting things to high performance solution works, so there's that.
Just tried out Bioshock Infinite under the medium graphics settings but with shadows and textures details and filtering on high and AA off, 1440p.
Usually around 37 to 45 FPS. It did drop to 27 at one point, and at some point, it was around 50 to 53 FPS. It hit 60 FPS rarely (V-Sync was on).
Another game I tried was Batman: Arkham Asylum (back when I didn't know the GTX 860m was doing the work). 1440p, everything maxed/yes, no AA, no PhysX, no motion blur: around 40 FPS.
Mechwarrior Online (which is a CPU-intensive game; linked requirements if you are unfamiliar with the game), I did two settings in training. Everything low, 1440p: around 40 FPS. 900p, everything medium but no AA: usually 50 to 80 FPS, dipped into the high 30s and the 40s, and went as much as 90 FPS. An improvement over my m14xR2's training FPS of between 30 to 45 FPS.
Using the Arkham City benchmark (medium preset, 768p), I got around 70 FPS.
The fans were quite loud, but they didn't penetrate my headphones all that much (and I used 10 increments of the volume meter, however you quantify it).
I can't guarantee that I'm pushing the GTX 860m, but the results are good.
CPU temps did ht 77 C, and used 17.11w. Unable to check GPU as my monitoring programs (and a couple of games) can't detect the 860m correctly, which is a problem the forceware driver has. Hopefully the updated driver can fix the problem and slightly improve results.

 

Why on earth if the Alienware styling bothers you did you bother ordering it? Frankly your complaints in such a fashion are well... juvenile and childish to be frank. If you think that thin and raw specs are everything then it's probably not worth explaining why that is kind of a messed up view, particularly when you are talking about cramming more things into a smaller space

Good info, sounds like it was worth the wait. The 1400p screen is really nice eh? Even though I run mine at 1080p, the color saturation and contrast are so nice to look at despite the reflective screen.

 

I've been so used to a reflective panel that I didn't notice the mirror. Though it did take me a while to notice that there was no plastic in front of the panel.
If it weren't the stripped screw I got, making it hard to upgrade my laptop and causing damage, I'd say this laptop was worth it, yes.
But now I have to wait for Dell's official updated driver to give out better information.

 

First, can you find a touch-screen gaming laptop that is under 5 pounds and have a battery life of at least 6 hours that packs a dedicated graphics of 860M or greater and have higher screen resolution than 1080p?

Please come back and tell me when you find one.

 

Do have the GA?

 

I opted for the 1080p screen on my i7, but last night was the first time I ran on battery and the Windows battery meter and BatteryBar Pro were both estimating 8-10 hours of battery life. Granted a lot of that is attributed to having an SSD and not an HDD. The i5 13 I had that had a hdd showed an estimate of 4-5 hours on battery.

 

Given all the quality issues I saw with three different laptops, it doesn't surprise me in the least about the screw really. Dellienware just seems to always have these issues on initial runs, I don't know why it's so hard for them.

What is going on with the drive, been out of the loop awhile?

In either case it will likely be far less than the estimate without making some adjustments, those tools always seem to give estimates based on a point in time of power use. I used my i5 at work one day last week (my compuers are my work systems, I work for small company so I get to use mine), and seems like I got about a good 3 hours or so with reasonable use on Balanced power profile. I am sure that with a good bit of tweaking you could hit those times if you try hard enough.

 

No, but in regards of solving the GA problem, we might be getting close.
I'll post what I thought here. The mobile drivers are fond within 344.73's .inf file.

One person got it to work.

So, modifying the .inf is the new idea. If anybody is willing to do that, then please do and respond back.

 

Ran 3Dmark with the GTX 860m. Below is what happened after the benching.

I don't know what happened with Ice Storm. The score doesnt make sense, but before it ran, my HD 5500 driver crashed again. Maybe that had something to do with the lower score.
My physics score lowered across the board, but the GPU score went up (obviously). But, not even using its full potential, the Fire Stirke score was better than the highest 13 score with the i5-4210u. By 5 points...

 

Hi, i have been reading this thread since last year Aug but i got question i have to ask...

Ok. So I am getting Alienware 13" w i7 next week in Canada. But it seems like there is issue going on with i7 and 860m not recognizing?????? I dont play game or anything but running creative software....

Is dell at least aware of this issue??
Should we wait for new driver or patch from Dell and nvidia for now?? Or do we have to get new replaced machine if its hardware problem something????

I dont wanna do modifying inf file something... Though

And got one more question.. How come there is no option to choose OS recovery disk on canada website??? Especially 13" only?!?!?! Why???

Thx guys...

 

I haven't heard of anybody trying out my solution. but the GTX 860m does work on the 13 with an i7. Problem is that some programs may not detect the GPU.
Dell is hoping to get a driver fix this week.
Also, check to see if Canada sends out the OS recovery disk with laptops. IN the US, it's an extra charge, but in some other regions, it isn't. All they give you is an 8 GB Flash drive with the recovery OS on it. You can create on through Alien Respawn.

 

First off, don't panic...

It's a minor software issue, it will get resolved, and you will likely hear of it here before the general public.

No idea why Canada's site isn't offering the media, but if you can locate a large enough USB you can make your own using the built in tools (Alienware Respawn).


On another note, reran the Firestrike test with the WiFi on Airplane mode, and bumped the score a bit to 3362 this time, same as you Game, that's kind of weird to get exactly the same number

And it's definitely logging my machine (not seering old results for you in the browser windows). Going to try Skydiver next and see...

 

I might re-run 3Dmark once I get the updated driver, but could you link me your fire strike score? I bet the graphics score is higher than mine.

 

Wow thx for quick reply.

Unfortunately, os recovery disk doesn't come with Alienware 13. I know becuz the one im getting next week is replaced one. It didnt come with it last time..

Sry your saying some program like some game??

 

Wow thx for quick reply.

Unfortunately, os recovery disk doesn't come with Alienware 13. I know becuz the one im getting next week is replaced one. It didnt come with it last time..

Sry your saying some program like some game??

 

Okay, not seeing where to do that, can you give me a hint?

 

Thx for reply. Its weird that 15 and 17 have os discovery option to add on canada website but not on 13.

 

Let's try this...

Firestrike:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-4210U Processor,Alienware unknown

Skydiver:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5664849?

 

Yes, and programs in general. A couple of my games default to my iGPU no matter what I did, and some software programs won't detect the 860m correctly.

 

Result (Skydiver)
Result (Fire Strike)
Okay, let's see the comparison. (In the parentheses, it's going to be in the format of Docsteel vs. Game)
In Firestike, you, Docsteel, scored a higher graphics score than me (3903.0 vs. 3767) and combined score than me (1601 vs. 1540). However, my physics score was fared much better than your physics score (3507.0 vs 4498.0). Our frame rate in the tests weren't that far off, the notable exception being the physics test (11.1 vs. 14.3).
In Skydiver, again, you had the higher graphics score (12167 vs 11721) and tests (53.3 FPS vs. 51; 58.1 vs. 56.3), but I scored better in everything else.
My FS physics score was 28.258% higher than your FS physics score. My SD physics score was 16.781% higher than your SD physics score.
Something strange. 3Dmark detected my motherboard name, but it didn't do the same with your laptop.

 

So game do u think the 13 with the i7 now will prove worthy with the amp now. The difference seems decent now but it still being a ulv in the long run seems like it may hurt it.

 

To be honest, it'll give maybe 5 to 10 FPS compared the i5-4210u. I'm not certain. Maybe if we had a couple of games to compare, maybe I can make a better guess.
Oh, and Optimus works with the i7. It'll be a bit wonky before opening a game.

 

Oh so your saying its just sort of driver issue with new i7?
You dont think its Optimus problem though??

 

Yeah, I thought it was a bit odd too about the motherboard name as well - not sure why either, I turned off AV, Logitech Setpoint and disabled my wireless... wonder if the benchmark tool goes out and tries to do some correlation and just doesn't try again if it can't the first time. Getting ready to re-run Firestrike with the wireless up just to see. Not that I think it makes the least bit of difference, but I did swap my 1TB 5400 RPM drive out for a Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SDD with overpartitioning at 12% and their acceleration tool RAPIDMODE going. The only other item I can think of would be that I have Smartvolume off in my Soundblaster settings... everything in BIOS is stock as well, not that you can actually do anything meaningful there

Possibly a stupid question, but are you running Balanced mode or in High Performance?

FWIW, I am trying to find my copy of Arkham City's key to install it on my laptop. At least I might be able to a comparable game benchmark going...

 

No. Optimus is fine for the most part. It might not look like it works, but it does.
But yes, it is a driver problem. And it can't be updated because no other driver holds the Hardware ID that the factory driver has

High performance. I use my balanced power plan as my battery plan, and I only use if I don't want to play games.
I didn't disable anything in my laptop. Maybe the touchscreen driver, but that might be it. I did open up HWMonitor when I had the chance, but I think that was during Cloud Gate.

 

Firestrike with WiFi going gave 3320... insignificant difference but a tiny drop.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5666818?

I run my desktop in 1080 as well. Might make a small difference, but not a great one.

 

I've been wondering about this. So is the i7/860m problem really just a gfx driver install problem? From some posts I was thinking the 860m was not only not detected but it would never be 'activated'. Or are things just working for you because of the cpu-z thing?

I've just been installing software on mine and haven't even bothered going into a game since I thought the 860m wouldn't even be used.

 

It's a driver problem, yes. But it's an odd one.
Even without opening GPU-Z, I was able to run my games just fine at 1440p (I might need to scale down to 1080p for my games). But I can't run a couple of my games at high resolutions because they will always default to the iGPU. Well, except for Portal. Portal is a very light game.
However, there is a consequence of using GPU-Z and 3Dmark. If the HD 5500's driver crashes, there will be flickering when using the laptop on battery. I rather not update my iGPU's driver to run the risk of me losing good Optimus control.
Dcosteel, I ran the Arkham City benchmark at 1080p, medium preset with dynamic shadows on.
Min.: 26 FPS
Max: 71 FPS
Average: 53 FPS

 

OKay - it will be tomorrow before I can get it, I will post up as soon as I can (having to re-download it).

 

Okay - with what I believe to be the same settings - basically default, going to 1080p, dynamic shadows, antivirus off:

Min: 28
Max: 61
Avg: 48

So by quick division:

Min: -7%
Max: +16%
Avg: +10%

I think the min score is a fluke myself, the scores are effectively the same on the bottom end with a nice bump on the average and max. Not sure how representative the benchmark is, but it definitely shows an advantage with the i7, but again, the i5 does pretty well a max of 61 fps is nothing to sneeze at. FWIW, with AV on (Avast) I get the same min score.

I would expect the biggest difference to be with games that are more CPU-bound as opposed to GPU-bound; judging by the Arkham City benchmark I would guess the benchmark tool falls in the direction of a GPU-bound game so we end up with closer results. A more CPU-bound game I believe would show a greater spread.

 

here is what it looks like from the inside



I was expecting more room for the cooling

 

You mean CPU-bound, right?

Thinking more about it, maybe we overestimated how much room there was in the 13. The keyboard is thick, so it kind of plays a role in the "less room inside" thing.

 

Oops yes - not enough coffee at that point in my writing

 

A new driver came out for the 2015 laptops.
Already tried it, and didn't notice much of a difference with my performance. It did dip more into the late 20s, but it did hit the 50s and 60 more often than (all of this playing Bioshock: Infinite). Going to bench 3Dmark with it.

 

But the driver detected the 860m, right?

 

It did, but in programs like HWMonitor, it isn't given a name.
Just ran 3Dmark. Results? I still don't know why Ice Storm keeps screwing up!
But in comparison to my other runs, all improved.
The Physics score in Firestrike increased buy a good amount, but the graphics and combined score barely went up.
Skydiver was about the same. Physics score went up, but the graphics score dropped by a bit. Combined score, though, improved by a little.
Cloud Gate had a better physics score but worse graphics score. Same is said about Ice Storm.
Temps, for the most part, stayed the same. I'm still concerned about the GPU. It's not flexing its muscles as it should.

 

Are you saying in conjunction with an i7, or in general?

 

With the i7.

 

It is strange, I was expecting something closer to an average of +18% or so, so it does seem a bit off.

Sitting in a remote class (at home), but going to fire off and see if Ice Storm craps out or not, didn't run it yet.

Edit: 34107 in Ice Storm (regular - strangely a lot higher than expected )

 

In the total score or in the Physics score?
Because with the physics scores, my Skydiver is about 21% higher than yours, and the Firestirke is about 37.27% better than yours.