*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Benchmark Thread

If you have an Alienware 15 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.).

 

Got 11126 Pts without much Tuning in Firestrike (GTX980 Amplifier)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5722481?

 

this is my stock firestrike and 3dmark11, with dell driver.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9367470

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5725758?

 

What card is it ?

 

Gtx980m

I got a wierd issue... With the driver provided by dell for Amplifier (i think 344.97) i get just around 150 fps in lol with gtx970m AND gtx980... Fps arent capped.

I think fps should be at 250-300... I know there is no visable advantage but sometimes the frames drop to 50 or Even lower... Its pretty strange.
Does some1 experience the Same Problem?

 

the card is 980M

 

8340 with Generic VGA(1x) and Intel Core i7-4710HQ

(980m GTX
+135MHz GPU clock
+250MHz Mem clock)

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5778298

 

Hey thought I would pop in here for a second trying to collect data on a potential issue. It seems like dell may have locked core clock adjustments on the 970m (does not affect the 980m) at a bios/hardware level. Trying to get confirmation to see if any other AW2015 owners with a 970m have been able to OC it at all but im having trouble finding anyone else with the 970m thought I might have more luck in the AW15 forum. so if anyone here has been able to OC their 970m in their 2015 Alienware please give a shout out.

 

3dmark score + graphics amplifier (r9 290x)

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5809337

 

I also have the 970m and have not been able to OC it. Tried installing Nvidia stock drivers (had to edit the .inf) but the card was still locked. Additionally, Optimus seemed to stop functioning and no program would use the card. Oh well. Was worth a shot.
However, I did find that I was sometimes able to OC the memory clock. It was hit or miss as to when it would work, but I was definitely able to.

What are you getting for your benchmarks?
One of mine w/o mem OC: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5823116?

 

I just got my 15 in today with 970m , these are locked from any and all OC while the 980m can OC (other than throttling of course)?
WHAT?!?
(I have not had a chance to boot up yet) I got win 7 on it and want to update to 8.1 first (yes I prefer the newer OS) LOL

 

Yeah you can definetly OC the The Vram if you use an older driver
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3965167 (normal)
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3964963 (Vram OC)

it makes a small difference (like 3%)

but an core clock modifications are impossible so far I have yet to find a single person able to OC the 970m in the 17r2 or 15r2 (2015 ofc)
personally I have tried nearly 20 different drivers and every thing I can think of (full os reload, disable Intel GPU, uninstall drivers with ddu etc) all to no avail and at this point
I am almost 100% positive that dell has locked of the ability to oc the 970m in the new machines at a bios/hardware leve

Have tried several time to get an offical response here http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...r-anything-on-awa.770195/page-12#post-9918220 to no avail
if you want to help please make a post there requesting an offical response on the 970m oc issue.

 

But the 980m in the same line of machines is overclocking?

either a mistake OR sad to say but...
if they knew the 980m would be throttled due to power constraints with the 180w brick then it would make sense to limit the 970m by other means as if just a matter of Wattage/throttle the 970m should likely catch up to the 980m in that envelope it would take us getting rid of the wattage based limits to let the maximum OC of a 980m show up a 970m ...
is this how they are making sure that 980m has an advantage over the 970m in these lines of gimped laptops?

Dell say it aint so , REALLY please tell us it is something other that what I stated!

 

i hear the new alienware 15 doesnt support raid 0?? Can anyone confirm?

 

That is correct... at least at this moment.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5912845

can someone explain me why my benchmark is awfully low...
have battery on high performance, 15 inch 980m... i dont understand the score

graphics driver version is 9.18.13.4473

 

try it with the newest nvidia driver (347.52) u got version 344.73

 

Alright gents, I've never been into benchmarking so I would love some feedback. I tested out my 980m with the 344.73 driver, using my Alienware 18's 330 watt adapter. I also benched the 180 watt adapter, using the new A02 bios. I used the 3D Mark Fire Strike DX11 program. I will have the 240 watt adapter, hopefully, later this week for testing. Here are my scores:

180 watt
overall 8116
graphics 9470
physics 9035
combined 3648

330 watt
overall 8217
graphics 9594
physics 9165
combined 3683

 

I was able to borrow an Alienware 15 with 4710HQ | R9 M295X and carved out a few hours to tweak it as much as I could. I ran some benchmarks for anyone that thinks they might want to opt for AMD instead of NVIDIA. I tried several versions of Trixx and Afterburner and the GPU clocks are locked down. So, at this point overclocking the GPU is not possible. I updated to the latest AMD driver. Futuremark does not have this GPU in their database, so it shows up as "Generic VGA" (which is typical until they add it). The 4710HQ has more or less zero overclocking potential. I cranked up the voltage a bit and set all multipliers as high as they would go, then bumped up base clock and cache and did manage to squeeze a few more clocks from the CPU. Not much, but every little bit helps. I have to give it back to the owner tomorrow.

I hope this will help some folks make a buying decision based on performance. There do not seem to be many benchmarks out there, especially with the AMD GPU.

So, here you go...

XTU Benchmark: http://hwbot.org/submission/2768573_mr._fox_xtu_core_i7_4710hq_685_marks


3DMark Suite: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5967191


3DMark 11: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9458703


3DMark Vantage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/5226455

 

So much for comments from the peanut gallery that say having a better AC adapter is not important. I ran the R9 M295X numbers with a 330W AC adapter as well.

If you are using a 180W AC adapter instead of 240W or 330W that may explain it. Your score is within the margin of error compared to @zachary77 using a 180W AC adapter. Compare it to the R9 M295X score posted above and you will want to do a happy dance.

 

I have a Skydiver score from an pre-BIOS update m295x.
Score: 15739
Graphics score: 17997
Physics Score: 8645
Combined: 16676
Strange, the pre-BIOS did better than the post-BIOS.
Oh, and my R9 285 does better than the m295x in Ice Storm, 3Dmark11, and Cloud Gate (in graphics score).
I wonder what score you could have gotten on an external monitor or if you set the resolution to 720p...

 

@Mr.Fox: Do you have any idea why the firestrike score is so low? Any signs of throtteling or not properly working clocks? Can you provide some temperatures?

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5

 

Ugh....Those firestrike scores barely beat my 780m and I can OC higher then that if I take it off stock....AMD really needs to get their heads out of the sand and compete with Nvidia so we have other options.

 

i like aw 15, it s the best choice at all.

pple post some pics !

 

I'm not sure. I haven't dropped my resolution to 720p for gaming or benching since around 2006. Any GPU worth having should be able to run great at 1080p.

It's just not a particularly powerful GPU by today's standards. It never throttled once... rock solid core and memory clocks, but abnormally low stock core clock speeds by 2015 standards. Temps were in the mid 70's at the most. I no longer have access to the machine for further tinkering. I gave it back to the owner.

 

On A02 BIOS, on 180W PSU, no OC (since it's locked) on 347.52 got 8403.

Seems to have improved beyond the +135MHz on base from my previous test though I can't remember what the net clock speed was. With this, NV Inspector showed that it was running at 1126Mhz.

 

You will get better results using 344.75 and it's not a crappy locked-down driver like 347.52.

If you will upload your benchmark results it will show you the CPU and GPU clock speeds and the shared results will be far more meaningful to everyone. Then you can provide a link, like this one: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3460775 to share the results as a supplement to the screen shot. That is 980M in a 17r2 with a 330W AC adapter attached.

 

If that's the original driver that shipped with the laptop, my current results with the new driver/bios is pretty much the same.

Here's on A02 and 347.52 (went down 100pts)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6017234

This is as shipped from an earlier test:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5778298

Looks like compared to yours Mr. Fox, it's probably the CPU performance making most of the difference?

Not sure where to get a copy of 344.75 that works. I tried the Nvidia site before and when I ran the installer it couldn't find the GFX card. The Dell support site doesn't seem to have any drivers for Nvidia cards - only has drivers for the M295X and Intel HD.

 

Just mod the INF and it will work fine. Your machine's hardware ID needs to be added to the driver.

If you want to isolate the CPU to get a cleaner comparison of GPU performance, use 3DMark 11 instead of the 3DMark "2013" suite. You can take machines with different CPUs and run them in 3DMark 11 and they will have graphics scores that are largely not influenced by the CPU. Just ignore the overall score.

 

Here are my latest A02 bios, 3D Mark 11 (extreme 1080p) scores:

X4135 with Generic VGA(1x) and Intel Core i7-4710HQ
Graphics Score
3867
Physics Score
6961
Combined Score
4858

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9484256

SCOREX4129 with Generic VGA(1x) and Intel Core i7-4710HQ
Graphics Score
3867
Physics Score
6880
Combined Score
4820
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9484224

for comparison, my Alienware 18 (770m sli) received these scores:
X3412 - graphics 3203 - physics 8160 - combined 3222

 

Alienware 15 gtx 980m i7
Here is my Fire Strike Score using the 240w psu and 347.52 driver:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6104567
Is there a reason my score seems slightly lower than what everyone else is hitting?

 

Still to do: Get a bigger PSU

I have a 980m with a 4k screen. That said done some testing with and without full 4k settings.

With 4k Screen
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6110260

Set at 1080p
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6110308

Looking forward to having a bigger PSU

As my main purpose for this laptop is for content creation, here is my PC Mark 8

http://www.3dmark.com/pcm8/6109827

PC Mark 8 is a long Bench So i only did it in 4k, which is the only way I will be working with it when it comes to actual work, but I still want to see the difference when I have a bigger power supply. Will update when I do for a comparison.

 

Okay guys my system arrives today and I am day off tomorrow I have both 180w and 240w PSU. I will run some tests n see what happens

 

All still from stock drivers haven't changed a thing yet

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4225907
this is my Firestrike gtx 970m 4k screen

sky diver
http://www.3dmark.com/sd/2851389

 

On 344.88 (??? I was uninstalling 347.52 to troubleshoot a battery problem and ended up with this), A02 BIOS, Overclocked +135MHz CPU +200MHz Memory:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6171570

Score 8876
Graphics Score 10407
Physics Score 8904
Combined Score 3995

 

are all these test with 3dmark11 made at default resolution hd or fhd?

 

i did mine with 4k resolution

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6267355

On 347.88 with +135Mhz CPU +200Mhz Mem OC
Score
8946
Graphics Score
10689
Physics Score
8775
Combined Score
4079

 

Three benchmarks of different setups for the Alienware 15

1) w/ 970m @ stock -- one of earlier Dell drivers, don't remember
6523
Graphics: 7457
Physics: 9279
Combined: 2736

2) w/ 980m @ stock && 240w (sorry, no link) -- 347.88
8331
Graphics: 9802
Physics: 9206
Combined: 3674

3) w/ 980m @ +115Mhz Core, +250Mhz Memory && 240w -- 347.88
9013
Graphics: 10711
Physics: 9154
Combined: 4075

 

my benchmark with bios A00 and latest nvidia drivers:

firestrike 1.1
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6353124

skydriver
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6353357

 

How the hell did you get a stock result of 8331 with the 980M?
I can only manage to get 8000 with the 980M, i7 and 240Watt power supply.

Any Idea why the huge difference?

 

I was wondering that myself. My scores seemed higher than others, but Futuremark is insistent. Can anyone provide their thoughts on this?

 

I managed to get the same score. Two benchmarks, one scoring 8336 and the other 8345

This happened because of the 240watt power supply. I disabled GA overclocking ik n the bios and this caused for most of the time the cpu not to throttle anymore, wich gave a much higher physics score on firemark. Hence the higher overall score

 

Hi, what is the GA overclocking option you talk about? Is that the Graphic Amplifier option?

 

Yes in the list of options in the bios, there are two below separated, with the one on the very bottom indeed the Graphics amplifier option, when you enter it, you have it default enabled above, and you see the multipliers for your cpu. Simply disable it and you are good to go.

Unless you use a graphics amplifier of course, then overclocking is obviously better. It shoudl be default on 4Ghz. Since your mobile GPU isn't used, and there is enough power from the GA the laptop cooler can manage on it's own to cool the CPU. My CPU has turbo boost on, mostly running on 3,4GHz and my GPU on stock clock freq. I never go above 80° And my cooler has yet to perform on 100% speed, never reached that speed except when I wwas updating the bios, which has an override on the fan speeds and automatically runs it on 100%, the only time it reached that level of noise was then.

I am very happy with my alienware 15 (hoping that the the CPU won't throttle again)

 

Hi Guys, sorry but i'm really new in this benchmark thing on pc. I would really like to test my new alienware 15 too but i dont know how to do. Do i just go to futuremark website and download the different types of test they have (3dmark, pc mark8) and just run it ? is there anything i should do before running a test as i read that it really stressed out the system (like dont do the test often ?) ? i tried googling benchmarking pc but i'm still really confused. sorry for the stupid questions as i'm really new into all this.

 

Well it depends what you want to benchmark.

If its graphics then download 3dmark from the futuremark website and run it. The firestrike test is the most popular one.

If you're looking for CPU performance then 3dmark can also help but other programs like Intel xtu, wprime, prime95 etc can stress your computer more.

Keep in mind that benchmarks (especially the cpu ones) will cause your cpu/GPU to heat up considerably. It shouldn't damage anything because your computer will throttle itself down, possibly freeze and bsod before anything gets damaged. If you want to monitor the temperatures then programs like MSI afterburner, evga precision x, or hwinfo64 can help you out in that regard.

The Intel xtu test will really stress the cpu, I mean you will see 90C. Same with prime95 and wprime. But thats becsuse they arent really indicative of any real world application. 3D mark the temperatures wont get that high but its a little more applicable to real world scenarios.

 

Thanks alot cookies 981 ! totally get it now

 

Anytime =)

 

Done a firestrike test on gtx 970m, i7 4710 hq:

SCORE 6444
graphic 7472
physic 8995
combine 2623

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6579483

Seems kinda low lol...

Guy got a question, my GPU and CPU temperature was kinda high while running this test, max GPU temp was 76 degree Celsius and Max CPU is 91 degree Celsius. Is that normal ? and i couldn't really hear the fan running....