Why is my Alienware 15 CPU throttling to 800 mhz?

Test after test now show that Dell messed up with testing and development of the new Aw laptop models, a huge mistake to use a weak 180w power supply on the new AW15 and 17r2 models. The engineers at Dell (Alienware) should have been fired from job after this big mistake... It does not matter if you bought a laptop with Nvidia Aw or Amd graphics, i7-4710 / 4720 or i7-4980hq processor. Even Aw 15 should have received a free upgrade to 240W power supply. Not only those who bought a Aw17R2. Everyone who bought AW15 and 17R2should have received a upgraded 240w power supply, wherever they live in this world. It is deeply unfair that all Aw laptop buyers outside the United States and Canada do not have the same rights regardless of whether the rules are different in other countries. Dell must obtain a new certification / verification for approval of a 240W power supply with all 2015 model Aw 15 and 17r2 laptops now for all continents that sell these laptops. It is not enough to offer laptop customers, a crippled "modern" hybrid bios.
A new test of Aw 15 and now with Amd graphics. New review dated13.06.2015... http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Alienware-15-R9-M295X-Notebook.144446.0.html

 

finally a well known review website point out the biggest flaws with our laptops. CPU THROTTLE DURING BENCHMARK AND TOO MUCH POWER CONSUMPTION. I hope this will alert alienware to wake up and release the new bios fix asap instead of letting users continue using these crippled machines and release another bios that is absolutely useless...

 

I also notice in XTU that my Graphics Frequency drops to 400 mhz from 1200 mhz when my cpu is getting throttled. Is this happening for you guys as well?

 

Perhaps Dell engineers reduce the power consumption for hardware with future bios update so that the need for more than 180w power supply and hybrid bios is not required. Lol. Everything is possible from Dell engineers now. Then no one can complain on a weak 180w psu, hybrid bios and Dell engineers its blunders...

 

I am facing a very slight throttling issue now that i checked intensively.... is it bad? Tested with assassin's creed unity , and after few mins ran gta v

 

Can you try to run furmark and the throttlestop benchmark at the same time and see if you got some throttling? Because I got also the 17r2 with 4980 and 980 and it won't keep the 3.8ghz and drops down to 2.8ghz after a short time. Contacted dell again today because of this problem and told them if they can't fix this because it's poorly designed I have to cancel the buy and want my money back.

 

What is the temperature when the processor starts to throttle? Never ok with throttling whether it is lot or a little of this undesirable feature...

Recommend none to use Furmark. Rather use Heaven 4.0 and Trottlestop/Wprime 1024(8tread) benchmark test. Furmark is not a good GPU benchmark test. All Intel Bga processors throttle after awhile, whether they are in an Alienware or another brand. It's Garbage, See under my Avatar

 

Mine does exactly this too.
Also has a bug where if you put it to sleep and wake it the CPU will be limited to 30w instead of 47w (try yours with throttlestop bench)

Nothing we can do about it except pray that dell brings us a new BIOS with fixes for all these issues.

 

A Bga processor will always throttle although bios will be updated.

 

Unfortunately nearly all high performance laptop manufacturers are using these BGA processors now. There are not many options left at this point.

I have looked at a lot of alternatives before going for my 17R2 . The only reason I went with Alienware was for the excellent customer service and past experience with the older models.

 

That does not mean that the new models are good. There have never been so much trouble with a Aw laptop, such as with the new models. It looks like Dell use all of the technology from Intel to throttle the processor. The problem is 180w psu and hybrid bios. Dell will never solve the problems because of the idea with 180w psu and hybrid bios.

 

ok i ran occt power supply stress test (64 bit linpack + gpu d3d11 extreme load)...
i found out in the starting , i throttled to 1.6 ghz(fans hadn't kicked in till then) , then the fans started
my temps were around 79-82 but clock stable at 3.25-3.30ghz though never touching the 3.4 ghz turbo frequency .... i can get the heatsink and paste replaced from dell .. should i go for it ? or will i see no improvement than this

 

^ This. I was considering the MSI and ASUS lappys, but they had the same 4710, and the AW came with better warranty and stronger build IMO.

 

Maybe this is a stupid question but does the Alienware 15 or 17 R2 throttle the CPU when the external Graphics amplifier accessory is used? I would think "no." since the internal GPU is disabled, right? So computer would still be within TDP limits.

I am *NOT* hinting that the AGA should be the solution. I just asked because I was curious.

Maybe Splintah knows?

 

I should of looked for a bit longer. PCspecialist in the UK have some nice custom gaming laptops for around the similar price to Alienware.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

NO BGA with these. A few models even use DESKTOP cpus too.

 

I don't believe it does.

Mine only throttles when the GPU is being used at the same time. It will run at full power in any other CPU test. So in theory, It shouldn't throttle at all with the GA.

I haven't got one to test unfortunately.

 

No US shipping options directly linked to the site. However, building a similar laptop spec'd to match the AW15 with a 980M and 4710MQ you'd spend 1320 pounds or roughly 2096 USD - and it will only include a 180 watt PSU lol . . .

 

The Alienware marketing for the 'Graphics Amplifier' is that the overclocking settings in the BIOS will take affect when the GA is plugged in. But it's marketing because there is no reason why the CPU & GPU should throttle without the GA plugged in and the CPU should be able to be overclocked most of the time (except perhaps with extreme utilization such as Furmark & Prime95) without the GA plugged in as well, provided the laptop is using a 240W AC adapter. But tons of issues I'm reading about.

Does the 240W AC adapter solve the throttling issues of the CPU & GPU with Prime95 & Furmark (besides the resume from sleep throttle bug)? Anybody test power consumption with a kill-a-watt meter?

 

I have tested it using throttlestop 8 thread test whilst running Heaven bench. The Laptop will only continually draw up to 180w even with the 240w adapter on A04.

It will briefly draw over 220w for the first few minutes of testing but then throttles down the CPU to maintain around 180w consumption. You can see the FPS dive in heaven when the CPU throttles down.

 

Dell has crippled bios so that the hardware adapt their weak 180w power supply and can throttle down the CPU to maintain around 180w consumption. Briliant that bios can control the max wattage after a few minutes with high load so that the battery is not destroyed too quickly . No new bios update can fix the idea from Dell to use a 180w power supply for the new Aw models. It will always come to be throttling(processor) or shortened battery life in heavy use or load on these laptops whether you have a 180 or 240W power supply. Dell must pay attention to all those who have a 180w power in their future bios updates.

 

Mine is the same, it only throttles the CPU when the GPU is being used. CPU only tasks show no throttling.

I have the i7-4710 & 970M on BIOS A00.

 

so again anyone can test using GA?

 

I finally fixed my throttling issue! I sold my laptop just now lol. Bye Alienware, never again!

 

That's exactly what I did.
Got to go with other brands nowadays.

 

Question. Why test with the GA? Couldn't one test using the iGPU instead?

 

Well I bought my AW 15 with a view to running a desktop GPU in the GA in a couple of years from now as future proofing. That was part of the appeal this system had for me.
And it's very important that the CPU doesn't throttle with the GA attached, so that it doesn't hold back the desktop GPU any more than necessary.

In fact I didn't expect any thermal throttling from this system under any of the following conditions CPU only, CPU & GPU or CPU & GA.

Unfortunately that's not the case for me, I get CPU thermal throttling when using the CPU & GPU at the same time resulting in stuttering when gaming. I have the i7-4710HQ and 970M. What I want to know is, is my system faulty? Will a replacement system or a re-paste fix this issue? Or is this in fact a BIOS issue?

I just want to play games.......

 

Nope... it is not faulty because they made it work like that on purpose. It sounds like it is functioning like all of the others do. Recognition is the first step in resolving issues, but they clearly believe what they are selling is wonderful.

Sadly, they still haven't fixed the problems with the 17 and 18, so I think that it would be unreasonable to expect anything to actually get fixed with the 15 or 17 R2. If we rely on recent historical behavior we can logically conclude that Zebras don't change their stripes... "Caveat Emptor".

 

Anyone with R1 having this issue?

 

R1 hate throttling. It loves to run at 4.3ghz on all 4 cores all day. Just remember to use Liquid ultra and Hwinfo as the Mx processor(non BGA garbage) can use +115 watt. The last real Aw17 from Dellienware with socket processor... Why should the processor and GPU share heat pipes, heat sink and fans in the new Aw models? A crippled cooling solution = Trottling ... Acer and Packard Bell use also shared heatpipes, heatsink and fan. Everyone knows how good performance that's on these crippled laptop models(brand).
Aw17R1...
http://hwbot.org/submission/2852931_papusan_cinebench___r11.5_core_i7_4930mx_9.42_points
http://hwbot.org/submission/2852892_papusan_cinebench___r15_core_i7_4930mx_857_cb
http://hwbot.org/submission/2849851_papusan_wprime___1024m_core_i7_4930mx_2min_47sec_657ms

 

The Alienware 17 (Ranger) and 17 R2 have nothing in common other than display size. They are completely different products. I'm not sure why they named it an "R2" because it is not a revision of the Ranger.

 

hi guys, im sorry if this is a stupid question, does the throttle problem affect alienware 15 with Intel Core i5 4210H and GTX 965M because im getting this laptop soon

 

This dreadful laptop has almost the same appearance(only thinner) as R1 (maybe that's why Dell called it R2) but the rest is just the grief .

JokoWidodo Not in the same way. But this processor is not particularly powerful http://www.gaminglaptopsjunky.com/alienware-15-review-i5-gtx-965m/

 

not in the same way? do u mean throttle also happen on the 4210H ? im really sorry im not a computer expert

 

Weak power.
http://www.gaminglaptopsjunky.com/alienware-15-review-i5-gtx-965m/
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-15.137077.0.html

 

Really... Just as I was getting excited to get this machine I get to read this. I'm getting the AW15 with an i7, 970m, 4k screen and 16 GB of RAM, as well as a 256 GB SSD and 1 TB HDD. Will I experience any throttling? With the 180W PSU?

It seems as it's only the i7 and 980m that is being affected, but I just want to make sure.

 

I don't want to affect your decision, but I have the i7 & 970M and I am getting thermal throttling on the CPU when gaming.

I don't believe my particular issue would be resolved with a 240W power supply. This is thermal throttling.

Overall I really like this machine, I'm still not sure if I have a bad one, or if they are all like this?

 

My previous unit thermal throttle and after replacement this one is not

 

Great, happy days!

So it's all tested and you're happy with it?

 

This is how my last unit was throttling


With replacement unit i dont have this issue
I do have Power Limit Throttling but i dont see it drop my performance while in game or anything like that, So yeah as long my game is smooth i am happy
Im playing GTA V with maxed settings and get about 45-60 FPS that with MSAA enabled
If disable MSAA i get around 70-90 FPS

 

Alright then. I'll bite the bullet and order one. If I see there's a problem I'm returning it right away and getting a Eurocom M5 Pro (Clevo P650SE)

 

Yeah, that's what I'd do, just check it out when you get it and you can request a replacement or refund if you're not happy!

 

Can u use 330 psu

 

Yes.

 

Hello Guys,

I was having severe throttling before and tried a lot of ideas to get it solved, which didnt work, until last night when i tried throttlestop 8.00. I was able to play Farcry 4 at ultra without any throttling for around 2.5 hours. Previously, when playing this, it would throttle to 800 mhz after every 5-10 minutes. So i would suggest everyone to try this.

 

Tdp trottling to 2.8ghz with 240w psu... http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...2-owners-lounge.770314/page-135#post-10032174

 

You guys are suggesting to use hwinfo64 to control fan speed. When I load mine up I don't have the option to control the fans... I'm using an AW 15 w/ 980m

 

Do you have the SW SMI box checked in HWiNFO64 settings?
If not, that may be why you are unable to control the fans.

 

Also make sure to disable EC support, that's what did it for me.

Unfortunately there are only 3 options for the fan speed, min, 2600 & 5000/5200 RPM. But its better than nothing!

 

here a way with throttlestop 8.0 that did the trick for me, now CPU+GPU 100% load, no throttling at all GPU +Turbo and CPU +Turbo

This solution helped me to get 100% out of my DELL 7447 (Pandora) i7-4710HQ, GTX850m(4GBDDR3), 16GB DDR3L, FullHD IPS

SOLVED TDP and Power Limiting (Haswell) SOLVED the easy way

big Thanks to throttlestop 8.0 and a more powerful 150 Watt Dell AC Adapter (60Watt more than original, just to be safe for experiments)
1. deactivate C1E
2. activate clock Modulation 100%
3. in TPL (Turbo Power Limits)
> higher package power Limits (my i7-4710HQ Package Power Long 54Watt, Package Power Short 68Watt)
> higher PP0 Current Limit (if possible), higher PP0 Power Limit lock and clamp it (just set the Maximum rated AC (PSU) power of you AC)
> tick Intel Power Balance and set Intel CPU and Intel GPU to 31
4. undervolting CPU Core & CPU Cache Offset Voltage by xy (my i7-4710HQ rockstable -70mV)

Best regards,

Marcus Conrad

TPL by MarcusC posted Aug 8, 2015 at 4:10 AM

FIVR by MarcusC posted Aug 8, 2015 at 4:10 AM

 

Why are some people with same specs not having this issue guys?? So many of us have this, today i even got my 240w adapter and still i have to use throttle stop, bios a00, have u guys found any solution? Why the hell is it happening to do many but still not everyone? I asked so many YouTubers about this and they don't have it!