Area-51m R1, GPU throttling

Hello,

We all have this same problem...

In this video https://youtu.be/cVtb0h_F1Gk you can see the throttle happening when you reach 78º in GPU for like 10 seconds or so, and suddenly the clock speed goes down making a very bad fps drop.

You can see it at 0:40.

In this forum (http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-alienware-area-51m-owners-lounge.826831/page-1679 ) we have determined this happens since Bios 1.5.2 or 1.5.4 and a lot of people like me needs to downgrade BIOS to 1.5.0 because it doesn't have this thermal throttle.

The problem is with BIOS 1.5.0 most of the people, like me can't use G-Sync in the laptop due to incompatibility with the panel until BIOS 1.6.x. I'm updating the forum post about this to share this information with the other users.

It's a shame that I have paid 100€ extra to have G-Sync in my laptop screen and now we need to choose between have a working G-Sync with latest BIOS but Thermal Throttling all the time or Downgrade to 1.5.0 and lose G-Sync capabilities working fine.

Here it's another video with the problem;

https://youtu.be/oB9nhwXiL4M

We are a lot of users with a top end laptop and we need to resign to have frame drops all the time?

A lot of users are thinking to return the laptop and I can't recommend to anyone until they fix it with another BIOS update fixing this thermal GPU limit

Despite having a well shorted out undervolt with MSI Afterburner and running at 180W, sometimes my laptop gets to 79C and ruins my game matches. Not fun having to chose between no thermal throttling (BIOS 1.5.0) or having all security updates and G-Sync (a feature we paid for). This has to end, we need a new BIOS without cripples or a more reasonable limit like 85C. I really wouldn't mind even signing or agreeing to a contract where I assume the risks involved if necessary!! 

Yeah I also suffer from this, something no other laptop with similar components has to deal with such as Clevo. The 2080 should work at the promised 200w and support the recommended Nvidia temps, not have a BIOS update limit it to a poor 75c.

My case too and practically all the users of the laptop, specially with RTX2080 because it needs more power and have a bigger temperature.

In this video https://youtu.be/cVtb0h_F1Gk you can see the throttle happening when you reach 78º in GPU for like 10 seconds or so, and suddenly the clock speed goes down making a very bad fps drop.

You can see it at 0:40.

In the forum we have determined this happens since Bios 1.5.2 or 1.5.4 and a lot of people like me needs to downgrade BIOS to 1.5.0 because it doesn't have this thermal throttle.

The problem is with BIOS 1.5.0 most of the people, like me can't use G-Sync in the laptop due to incompatibility with the panel until BIOS 1.6.x. I'm updating the forum post about this to share this information with the other users.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-alienware-area-51m-owners-lounge.826831/page-1678

Here it is another video of this.

https://youtu.be/oB9nhwXiL4M

I have contacted Alienware Support too about this topic. This needs to be seen because at the moment I cannot recommend anyone to buy this laptop

This problem has already bothered me for a while. It is no joke that I cannot play any 3A titles as smoothly as it was with the 87℃ temperature limits. The throttling mechanism has just makes this machine totally cheat the consumers compared with its initial design and promise of 200w performance delivery. What a shame！ For me, I've started to contact with our local union of consumers for this cheating behavior dell has done promoting and advertising their so-called fastest machine on earth. Fastest for 1 min.?

It's a shame for Dell and Alienware. Support should be here and give us an explanation or at least tell us that they are going to fix this. I will be talking to some big review websites and tech youtubers to try to post about this or update their reviews with this information. Right now, I only have the information that a new BIOS is on the way, but with no information if this problem will be fixed or not.

I am brasilian , i have 51m on i9 9900k 32gb rtx 2080 and Alienware 34 dw. Bios and vbios with the last update . Many games jumps 60fps to 25fps and clocks 1900mhz to 500mhz. Its insane, some body have a solution for this? I pay R$ 25.000 for laptop. what the best combination biod and vbios ? Thanks 

You can try to have the 180w vbios with last bios version, but the problem will still be there as there is this 78º  thermal limit on BIOS. the last BIOS without this problem would be 1.5.0 I think but you'll lose G-Sync working properly on the laptop. Dell needs to release a new BIOS without the thermal limit or at least raise it to something like 90º. We are all having the same problem with the laptop, I'm at 1.5.0 because otherwise I can play any competitive games without the FPS drop. But I'm losing G-Sync.

I have the same issue I think just have my laptop for over 1 month 

Why this version disable G-Sync? Dell need fix this problem.

Is this still an ongoing issue? I have a 9900K/RTX 2080 on the way very soon and this is now making me wonder if I will not be able to just un-box and play without experiencing thermal throttling of the GPU and reduced performance. £4000 is a lot of money for something if it's not going to work.

Yes it is. Today they launched a new BIOS 1.8.1 which as always, doesn't fix or change nothing on the GPU throttling by BIOS. So, we have a $4000 laptop which you can't use it to his full potential.

How to revert bios back to 1.5.0?

This does need fixing. As others have said, it’s a lot of money to put down for something that’s not working as it should. I love the laptop but this issue is so frustrating. Even just some comms from Dell/Alienware on where we stand, are they actually trying to fix this or will they just keep the throttling as it is in all future updates? Makes me think twice about buying from them in the future. 

This is the last I know from them;