Alienware M14X

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum so would firstly like to say hello to everyone, any response that I get is much appreciated.

So, in the past 3 weeks I bought myself a shiny new M14X Alienware, the specs are as follows;

8GB RAM DDR3L at 1600MHz
750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M with 2GB GDDR5
4th Gen Intel Core i7-4700MQ processor (2.6GHz with turbo boost option)

So, I've gone and spent around 1,500 dollars on this machine, thinking it would be able to handle pretty much any game thrown at it.

Unfortunately I wasn't correct with this, I've been playing games such as Starcraft II and Diablo 3, now the games don't even run that smoothly on High settings, nevermind the ultra or extreme. I'm getting around 50fps on average for the settings on high, but they radically change once action starts occuring on screen. I have tried using Afterburner to boost the GPU stats, but even at core clock of 405 MHz and a Memory clock of +805, the games still don't seem to be running as smoothly as expected.

Now I upgraded the GPU specially so that this laptop would be able to handle current games that I threw at it, was I naive in thinking this? Or is some sort of component not working to it's full extent?

I ran 3DMark and the first few scenes (it's the version that starts with the star ships fighting in space) were getting great FPS, then once it went onto the physics tests, I was getting pretty terrible FPS, then once the fire scenes started, the FPS dropped to around 2-10.

What are my options here, should I lower my expectations, or is something else occuring that is dropping my performance here.

I will definitely look at upgrading this laptop in the future, maybe installing 2x graphics cards to work simultaneously? I am not very clued up with computer talk, so try to keep things as basic as possible.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Phillip

Hate to break it to you but realistic expectations have to be met. Desktop replacements are never going to be on par with a desktop PC sadly. Most DTR laptops tend to have poorer reliability as they are being pushed to the absolute thermal limit and therefor most of us avoid them and build two computers not a hybrid like what you got. Ideally what you want is something like this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-graphics-thunderbolt,3263.html

Unless you want to frankenmod your laptop (assuming you have thunderbolt available) you're just going to have to make due with what you have sadly or seperate them. Adding additional graphics cards if its even possible will only reduce your battery life and hurt long term reliability. Especially if you attempt to overclock it. Most people underclock laptops, not over

You really shouldn't have issues in those games with that laptop.

I'd start by installing up to date graphics drivers and going from there. I've got a m17x with a 7970m and I have no problems in diablo 3 for sure. I know the 7970 is a more powerful card, but I can't see yours as being so slow that diablo 3 has issues.

I don't really have any newer graphic intensive games that really stress my system. Modded Dark Souls runs beautifully. I've no complaints about performance.

Also, http://www.notebookcheck.net/In-Review-Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-780M-GTX-770M-GTX-765M.93277.0.html

Up until a few years ago, I would have agreed with Sentential that gaming laptops are not viable. Today, manufacturers have stepped up to provide the cooling required along with some serious power. Now, you just have to contend with a 10+lb laptop to lug around.

765M will perform meh at best when compared to a full desktop. That's laptop gaming, send it back or get used to it.

Take 3DMark Fire Strike for example. A normal GTX 760 from a desktop should push ~5900 points. A 760M pushes ~2500 points.

So expect half the performance of a GTX 760 at best.

Thanks for the update guys, I guess i'll have to get used to the laptop. I am a traveller at the minute so have no chance of building my own desktop, otherwise I would have done this.

It's a shame because I'm almost positive that if I had of spent 1,500 on a desktop it would be twice as powerful!

I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again; laptops are NOT a substitute for a desktop.

Yep, I had the same unfortunate realization with my GTX 580m i7 2670QM MSI Force 1761 laptop.

Spent $2,000 on it, and to think what I could've got if I would've saved that money, compounded it with the money I spent on this desktop... I'd have a $5,000 computer -_-

Hate to break it to you, but you should've really had a custom desktop instead ...

philrobbo89 said:

Thanks for the update guys, I guess i'll have to get used to the laptop. I am a traveller at the minute so have no chance of building my own desktop, otherwise I would have done this.

It's a shame because I'm almost positive that if I had of spent 1,500 on a desktop it would be twice as powerful!

Click to expand...

With overclocking more than twice. That's not to say that a laptop doesn't have it's purpose you just have to understand the limitations of what you are getting. For folks like me a laptop makes sense, I neither play games anymore and I dont want to dedicate a desk in our cramped aparment for a desktop.

So what did I do? I got the lightest and highest battery life laptop I could get, which at the time was a Macbook Air 11" which I adore. Would I play games on it? lol no. If I wanted to do that I would use a Thunderbolt enclosure for an external video card which I never see happening. If I had a desktop I wouldn't own a laptop I would have a tablet instead since I hardly get on my laptop as is thanks to my ipad mini.

For most in the community the ideal setup is:

Rooted overclockable Android tablet (not a laptop); aka Nexus
-Plus-
Frankendesktop overclocked and modded to the extreme

Because of the way everything is bundled together now-a-days I'm using computers less and less and my tablet more and more. I honestly haven't gotten on my macbook in weeks and that isn't an exaduration.

Sentential said:

Hate to break it to you but realistic expectations have to be met. Desktop replacements are never going to be on par with a desktop PC sadly. Most DTR laptops tend to have poorer reliability as they are being pushed to the absolute thermal limit and therefor most of us avoid them and build two computers not a hybrid like what you got. Ideally what you want is something like this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-graphics-thunderbolt,3263.html

Unless you want to frankenmod your laptop (assuming you have thunderbolt available) you're just going to have to make due with what you have sadly or seperate them. Adding additional graphics cards if its even possible will only reduce your battery life and hurt long term reliability. Especially if you attempt to overclock it. Most people underclock laptops, not over

Click to expand...

True, and furthermore, the m14x or Alienware 14 are not desktop replacement models. They are portable gaming machines, but even in dtrs, the high end cards are only mid teir cards, sometimes lower high-end cards. Example, the 580m is a 560ti desktop card that is down clocked, the 5870m is a down clocked 5770 desktop card. These were both high end models for mobile, but only meh for the desktop market.

So to make sense for me, the 765M card is totally different to one that would go in a desktop?

I had to buy a laptop as i'm constantly moving around, so it's no way near practical to buy a desktop, as i'd have to haul that around every time I move, along with a monitor etc.

If I ended up taking this laptop back, what custom build specs would you suggest me to get so that I could play all the latest games at highest res, this would include a monitor (just so that I can get an idea of the possibility). I have built a computer previously so will have experience building it.

The 765m performance should be near a 580ms performance. The Alienware 14 is a phenomenal laptop, and you won't find much that is better in the 14 inch gaming notebook class. Just remember its not a 760 desktop card...

Also, make sure you are in the high performance power plan, as well as plugged in on wall power. Either of those will make it down clock. Finally, double check that the game is white listed, and if it is, try running it in dedicated card only mode (fn+something, requires reboot). I remember reading that optimus sometimes plays weird with some games.

philrobbo89 said:

So to make sense for me, the 765M card is totally different to one that would go in a desktop?

I had to buy a laptop as i'm constantly moving around, so it's no way near practical to buy a desktop, as i'd have to haul that around every time I move, along with a monitor etc.

If I ended up taking this laptop back, what custom build specs would you suggest me to get so that I could play all the latest games at highest res, this would include a monitor (just so that I can get an idea of the possibility). I have built a computer previously so will have experience building it.

Click to expand...

I want to warn you up front I haven't attempted this yet; but I've read enough about it that I seriously considered it. I still might once I get all our moving expenses and debt paid off.

If you're asking what I personally would do this would be it:
#1 Buy laptop with highest battery capacity that includes thunderbolt and i7 quad.

-In this case for me it would be a Macbook Air, or Pro with Retina which I am going to upgrade to at some point

#2 Purchase the frankenmod SLI enclosure via thunderbolt and PSU.

-I know OWC makes an enclosure but I am sure there are others, I would then figure out a way to both watercool the GPUs to get then to single slot and somehow ductape a 1200W powersupply into the mix somehow.

-Part two would be to make a customer boot via external drive preferably (which I do now anyway) a copy of Windows 8.1 who's sole purpose is gaming on my franken dock.

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That would give me OSX for portability which has bettery battery life as is with Mavericks and then I would have the frankendock which I would furiously overclock and then hook up to a 4k HDTV or Monitor via HDMI or Displaylink/

One of these days I swear Ill actually attempt it but I just don't have the money to do it right now.

Found this:

http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock