Hello, I just bought an m17 about a month ago it plays most games pretty damn good, except when it gets hot there is a noticable difference. Yesterday I started out playing Borderlands 2 maxxed out @ 1080p but like 2 hours into the session, certain particle effects like explosions were debilitating and I had to putit on low. I noticed the drivers are pretty out of date, but I was wondering if that would make a huge difference in performance. CPU-z causes a BSOD (common problem with this machine and windows 8.1) so I did some googling and saw people had some success with Hw-info. So I tried to kick both of my fans on 100% but for some reason that almost melted my GPU, it got to 104c and as soon as I put it on system auto it dropped to about 80c. Yes I do have a cooling pad, it was one of the first things I ever bought.
My CPU idles at 47c (core i7-4710 8 core) while my GPU (AMD Radeon M290x 4gb GDDR5) idles at 40c. The current AMD driver is 13.251.3 which is from like Janruary.
The reason I haven't updated the drivers is because it's a straight up bitch, it uses some special shit to switch between Intel dedicated graphics and the AMD card, I have to follow all of these steps here ([url]http://alienwareusersupport.weebly.com/proper-amdati-driver-install.html[/url])
Please help me, it is much appreciated.
Ok fact one:
Install the latest drivers....drivers determine what and how you graphics card will react it may contain firmware updates to alter the graphic cards temperature curve or anything like that - this should really have been done prior to posting
2:
Has this card been overclocked or anything? was the laptop bought off an auction site? - if so i would recommend setting your BIOS to the defaults as some people think they can overclock but cant.
3:
If you wantr less heat - turn down the graphics a bit. If it gets really hot when playing your game - obviously its working its nuts off - as it should be, but a consequence of that will be heat. Lots of it if it has been overclocked.
4:
clear out vent holes of your laptop - it could be possible depending on how long you have had it that dust has clogged up the laptops vents and therefore not allowing it to breathe efficiently
No I bought it straight from alienwares website so it's not overclocked. I really doubt there's that much dust buildup after only a month of ownership
[editline]12th October 2014[/editline]
Also I tried to update the drivers but it's SUCH a pain in the ass.
You honestly would have been better off building a dedicated gaming rig and getting a lower midrange laptop for portability. You also would have spent far less on both of those items than the extremely overpriced and crap Alienware.
Any laptop with the dual graphics is going to always be a pain in the arse when it comes to drivers, there's no way around it. Since you seem to have the bleeding edge everything, it's probably going to be a good while before less buggy drivers are available.
I'm in the military, I travel too much for a desktop to be worth it. I did my research. A BIOS update seemed to remidy this problem after looking through Dell support forums.
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