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

Thank you for your reply, I uploaded my GPU-Z's ID.

It looks like it's more completed than BluF22 and I think we have the same thing.



It is different from DocSteel's 860M, this one have higher Pixel and Texture Fillrate, it also packs more ROPs/TMUs.

Could it be an unofficial 960M masked as 860M?

 

Could be the same "issue" we saw with the AMD M290x being seen as an 8970M in the programs.

That "issue" was fixed a couple weeks after the card was released.

 

Oops. I thought the gpu-z screenshot bluff "quoted" was from an i7 13.

 

Well this fix might take a while because Nvidia hasn't officially announced the GTX 960m. They're expected to mid-next month.
Given that Alienware is trying to give the Hardware IDs to Nvidia for the official drivers, it wouldn't surprise me if the wait is because of this GPU.

It's all good.

 

I have a broadwell with bios a00, weird?!?

 

Never mind just checked...a01

 

Anyone tried the Hardline Beta on the 13?

 

What brightness level do you have your screen for the 4 hours? The 8 hours browsing and light work sound great.

If I buy this I'm hoping for at least 6 light web browsing and screen at 1/2 to 3/4 brightness, do you think that that is possible?

 

I was near the minimum. I think with the 1080p panel, 1/2 brightness with power savers should net 6 hours.

 

That sounds good 1/2 brightness is what I use on the M11x and the M 13 has a brighter screen to begin with.
I'm thinking about getting the i5 1080p. I was thinking about getting the sager NP7883 with the i7 4710 but got worried about the heat and to get any battery life out of it you would have to undervolt the cpu.

 

Yup, just got my 13 with the Broadwell and I have the same GPU-z results. The BIOS is A02 though, build date 12/16/2014.

I can't get Nvidia verde drivers to install so looks like Nvidia hasn't put the hardware ids for this "960m" in the drivers yet?

 

So people without the GA can use the last driver version from the nvidia page?

Got my AW13 i7 yesterday, with nvidia driver version: 344.73 (pre installed)
Dell downloadsite offers driver version: 340.84
Nvidia Page offers: 347.25

And whats with the intel GPU? last driver from intel page?
I did not found an Optimus Bios setting, so how does the switch between the 2 GPU´s work? is there a special SW required?

(I want to reinstall the os! - sry my english is not good)

Other Question:
Does the FHD Panel compared to QHD in FHD Mode (gaming) looking better? because of it´s native Resolution?

Thanks!
Regards

 

Nvidia driver is on the AW15 support page.
You can get the Intel GPU driver from either Dell or Intel.
Optimus is set through the Nvidia control panel. No more BIOS settings.

 

You can also select which video card is used when you launch a game, by right-clicking the icon. Though it doesn't work with all games like uplay games.

 

Are there any known problems regarding the last driver-version from the nvida page?

 

New drivers just released. They're 347.25 drivers.
They actually made things worse for me on the 3Dmark benchmarks, but those benchmarks just keep getting worse on Win8.1 for a reason I don't know why. Also, I can't overclock on any of the GPU drivers. Any Broadwell users get the same end?
In other news, I finally got to try out AC: Unity. 1080p, half medium preset, half low preset: 27 to 30 FPS on average. Range was between 21 and 39 FPS. The menu when starting the game still is laggy, but at least everywhere else isn't so bad.

 

Today i reinstalled my AW 13 (i7) Win 8.1, because of SSD Upgrade.

Now I have troubles with the Killer WLAN Card, its horrible!
I got ping timeouts with battery mode, (pinging the wlan router ip)...i tried to setup the wlan card for max. performance energy mode@battery useage, now its ok to surf, but i dont want timeouts, whats going on with this killer ****?

Also with AC plugged in there are timeouts, every 1-2 minutes @ traffic. (you dont realize @work, but timeout sucks)
Checked other notebooks (intel wlan chips), no problems regarding my router...

Cant find a newer driver,i got the last from Dell Driver Site. 11/2014
Nobody else got this problem? without AC plugged in its horrible, i mean without switching the max. energy/performance setting.

Can someone help me to find a solution?

thnx, Regards

 

Any i7 user having problems with Win8.1 on battery? I already stated my complaints about it on my impression paper, but it always happened.
Have to use Win7 from now on when on battery, which is not too bad.

 

What problems are you having? The part in your impressions paper that mentions problems is crossed out and the non-crossed out text makes it sound like you're seeing good results?

I've only had mine on battery a few times and only for an hour or two each time. The first time I was playing a game, so that has screwed up batterybar's averaging as all of my subsequent uses have been light work like surfing. For the time I played the game, I was on it for about an hour and guessed the battery would last me around a total of 2 hours. For the light work, Windows has been estimating about 8 hours IIRC and batterybar keeps raising it's estimate the more I use it (2->2.5->-3, etc.). Based on the % left, Windows' estimate looks more accurate.

 

Ah crap. So much for proofreading...
Long description short, on Win8.1, the screen flickers occasionally and possibly emits a white line top to bottom on the mid-right side of the screen when on battery. Battery life is fine, but something tells me that the iGPU, the screen, or something else is screwed up. I mean, Win7 works fine, so it can't be the battery. This has happened with all 3 drivers Alienware has posted, but it happened the least on 344.88.
I could fresh install Windows 8 (not going to use Alien Respawn to remove as many variables as possible) with my recovery USB to see if the issue goes away, but I rather wait until I have enough time to do so.

 

can someone with the touchscreen panel try running google chrome and tell me if the scrolling on the touchpad becomes inverted as opposed to the rest of windows and applications. And that everytime you 2 finger scroll a little box pops up like it thinks you are using the touch screen.

FYI, mine is the i7 and has the A02 on GPU

 

I'm not sure if this is normal, this is my first time "truly" owning an Alienware. I am trying to play with the Alienware FX, I am making a rainbow color theme. I set the color individually and used morph through the color wheel (through everyone of them except black). When I clicked accept, the keyboard doesn't move smoothly, the color changes smoothly, then quickly skip a color, then cycle smooth, skip...I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or wrong. Or isn't the driver board for the Alienware FX too weak to perform this function? I was expecting it to function similar to the Corsair RGB (except having it at 4 color zones instead of individually keys).

Please help me, I'm scared if I have another defective unit.

My previous purchased (used) was an M11X R1, the rainbow color works smoothly and the color faded nicely (all solid color cycling through the wheel).

EDIT: Somehow, I figured it out. I think I set the speed or something too fast that makes the color skip some "fading" effect. I slowed it down and now it's working great.

 

I had screen flashing on my i5/win8.1/1440p screen the first time I unplugged it. It seemed to happen when I moved the mouse pointer. The second time on battery it only flashed a few times and then it was fine. I only had it on battery a couple more times after that, but didn't notice it flash then.
The whole time I was on the originally installed drivers.

I haven't seen this behavior on my i7.win8.1/1080p screen and I've been on battery a lot more than I was on the first one.

 

I'm going to assume the scaling thing was contributing to the flashing and such. On Win7, I don't use scaling because the text gets too large.
I'm doing the same on Win8.1, and I haven't noticed any flashes as of yet. Do you use scaling?
EDIT: Still getting the flashing. Ugh...

 

Just got my Dell Advantage Rewards gift card ($89). Expires in 3 months (May).
The GA is alot more tempting now, but I'll wait for a sale that drops its price.

 

I did use scaling on the i5/1440 I returned and I also use it on the i7/1080 I have now.

 

Well I bit the bullet. I bought a GA. And combined with a bit of price matching and my Dell Advantage Gift card, I got the GA for about $195. Also am getting a 5% rebate card, not like it means much. It'll be less than $10.

I wonder if the problem is with the 1440p panel.

 

What did you price match it against? The MSI equivalent of the GA?

It might be the 1440 panel. It could explain why European Dells have pulled it.

 

Amazon. I'm glad they honored the price match even though Amazon doesn't have any in stock.
If it is the panel, then why does it affect Win8.1 only and not Win7? That's the strange part.
Also, found out that you can increase the size of the mouse pointer. So helpful when not using any scaling.
EDIT: Almost an hour on battery. While I could get 7 hours of battery life, the screen isn't flickering or anything. It's acting fine. And actually, battery life is really weird with this laptop. It'll either be really good (at least 7 hours) or it'll be crappy (at most 2.5 hours).
The panel isn't the problem. It might be Windows 8.1 and the drivers.
EDIT 2: A little over 2 hours in and no problems detected. Something is up with Win8.1.

 

I've had 2 small issues with my Alienware 13 since getting it. The first is that I can't seem to get a line-in microphone to work or be recognized at all. Tried re-installing the driver from the Dell/Alienware site and it didn't fix it.

So to work around this, I've used earbuds + the built-in laptop mic. Only when Skyping it goes from being crystal clear, no background noise etc to having horrendous background noise and the volume being amplified tremendously. If you tap the screen where the mic is housed, the mic returns to being clear with no background noise.

Think this is something that needs to be sent in for?

 

You might have a bad mic.

 

@AW Khan, @Alienware-L_Porras,
Please take a look at this video to know what I mean by the flickering problem the 13 with the 1440p panel has on Windows 8.1 (full description at Youtube).

 

Yeah. I saw this and an issue some others reported seeing. Already working on it.

 

This is good to know.
I guess using Windows 7 is the only workaround until you Alien techs post a fix.

 

@ AW Khan: Do you know if crucial MX100 SSD's will be supported by a BIOS fix?

 

Did anybody ever get some solid numbers on how the i5 AW13 stacks up against the i7 AW13? I want to know if I've been justified in kicking myself over getting the 13 for Christmas instead of waiting for the i7 model to come out.

 

There you go. They aren't the most solid, but they give a good idea.
Sadly, there's a small problem with the GPU in the i7 13. It's being slightly held back. Why this is the caes is confusing, but it may be due to the fact that the GTX 860m in the 17 13 is a GTX 960m but flashed as a GTX 860m. The slight decrease in performance in comparison to a GTX 860m is the consequence.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

Well aren't those some good looking numbers. Well, serves me right for not having a bit more patience, thanks for the information.

 

Greetings,

Notice that Alienware 13 (2015) now have options for broadwell i5 or i7

compared to Alienware 13 (2014) with haswell - has there been a performance improvement or huge boost in battery life?

In Australia, the price difference between the i5 (haswell) and i5 (broadwell) for identical configuration is exactly $100.

which intel chipset is used in the haswell and broadwell models?

 

Which region are you seeing this? Because in the US the i5-5200u is not offered still.

 

there you go:

Broadwell
http://www.dell.com/au/p/alienware-13/pd#overrides=y5113a0au:760~FHD

Haswell (On clearance deals)
http://www.dell.com/au/p/deals#!dlpgid=gaming-system-deals

 

Australia and Japan have had the 5200u option since last month. Maybe near the 15th but , yeah, they've had it for a while.
I would think they would have the same chipsets, so they're essentially the same machine with different generation CPUs.

 

Please advise the chipset is used on these machines? I'm wondering how much extra battery life I can get out of broadwell. I suppose the performance improvement if any would be modest..perhaps 5%?

 

Performance, from the previous page, seems to be at least 10%. As for battery life, it's hard to comment. I can get between 6.5 to 8.8 hours with a battery that has 4% wear and running the desktop at 1440p.
Notebookcheck does battery life tests, and checking them out on their XPS 13 (broadwell) and Alienware 13 (haswell) reviews can give you a good idea about battery life (these two laptops have the same size battery).

 

Thanks for the information

Does the M.2 slots support NVme SSDs like Samsung SM951? or it's strictly a M.2 SATA?

 

I do know the M.2 run at SATA III, but that's about it. Something about M key fitting in and maybe b-key.
PCI-E M.2s aren't worth the trouble installing in these laptops.
If you got a HDD/SSHD with the 13, you could install a 7mm 2.5" SSD (with restrictions, sadly).

 

Hello everyone, I am having a blast with my Alienware 13 so far!

I'm curious about the battery life, what is your discharge rate? Mine is around -6800mW and occasionally jumps down to -6300mW. This is with QHD screen and M.2 SSD.

Using the batterybar, it estimated at full charge, that it will last 8 hours. This is very pleasant for me and my battery wear is at 0% so far, I'll have to perform more testing.

 

Finally ordered my 13, big thanks to erodeox whose post above got me a great deal!

I ordered a 13 with the following.
i7-5500U (Only Broadwell options on AU site now)
16GB Ram (Free Upgrade until 12th of Feb)
1080P Screen
1TB HDD (have 500GB SSD Ready)
Win 8.1

Also thanks to all the posters here on this thread, have been reading through for the past month and despite some of the drawbacks, this really looks like a great laptop for my requirements.

Should be here next week!

 

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M/965M/970M/980M Driver View details
Video_Driver_4VD2P_WN32_9.18.13.4725_A02.EXE | Update Package for Microsoft® Windows®(306 MB)
Video|
Release date 06 Feb 2015
|Last Updated 07 Feb 2015
|version 9.18.13.4725,A02

Dell Support page.
Not sure if anyone mentioned, but a new driver just came out for the GPU.

 

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