Every system involves trade-offs. You'll never see hours of runtime from any notebook designed for gaming; it's a secondary consideration. Conversely, you won't be gaming on a system that's designed to be ultra-lightweight with long battery runs like the Surface or 13" XPS models.
It depends on where you want to compromise. There are systems at the mid-point between battery life and performance - just as there are "all season" tires for your car, which aren't ideally suited to dry performance or snow use.
There is no one best compromise here, but the 17" XPS models are the mid-point. Equipped an FHD screen and GTX video they'll run a good deal longer on a charge than an Alienware will. Equipped with a 4K screen and RTX video, the battery life will plunge to Alienware levels.
It all depends on where you want to make the compromise.
Some do support Optimus, while others don't. The RTX series GPUs and systems that ship with high-refresh (and GSync) screens are hardwired to the nVidia GPU, so the battery runtime will be much shorter.
It's just about impossible to game at anything but the most casual level on battery with any system -- and these systems are designed for performance, not battery runtimes. You may be better off buying a desktop system for gaming and a battery-efficient ultraportable for office work. You may well find it less expensive than buying one high-end gaming notebook.
I really wanted a portable powerhouse, you said here that the RTX series are one of the culprits for the bad battery, if I got GTX then would the battery be better? If so would it be significantly better (hour/s) or just marginally better (
I currently have a surface pro and really hate it, I want a high end feeling quality laptop, I have been looking at the Inspiron G7 but don't like the fact it is mostly plastic. Any suggestions or advice on a do it all laptop would be great.
Hi there. I bought my Alienware M17 R3 last december and till today, Dell warranty has change my battery twice. In Idle (no games running, no usb port conected, no wifi, no surfing) the original battery last 55 minutes.
With the first change it last 01:10. And just today they have change it again, so no news regarding the new battery.
Talk to both of the techs guys that came to change the battery and both of them agree in that this kind of powerfull laptop might be over the 3 hours of battery specially if you are in idle and not in a gaming mode.
I would say maybe heat is whats dragging it down? what kind of components do you have @abakxm? Also I think you can equip a higher capacity one too incase you have the lower configuration. Also check out the battery life of every battery they send you so you can make sure they're not used. I would also recommend setting it into power saving mode with the lowest clockspeed set.
What do u mean with components? Video card and ram for example? if thats affirmative I have an Nvidia super 2080, 32 in ram, and basically that.
I already check the new battery today and it last less than one hour. 100% at 04:56 pm and 5% at 05:53 pm where my screen shutsdown due to battery configuration.
I also check the papers of the product and ask Dell about and answer cuase the product sais it was REFURBISHED.
In relation to Heat, dont know that much. The test that I have made with the laptop only with battery has been in idle, no programs, no wifi, no surfing so no much heat into it.
Could you download HWmonitor from CPU-z website? and the PRO version specifically since that can help you identify the health of the battery and see if its really used and they just put it in there.
My son and I both have the m17 that we purchased a few months ago. Both have always had less than 90 minutes of battery life. From everything I read online it just seems that the battery life is just that short.
Hi @kbrown2858 welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
Alienware m17 R3 laptop has Hybrid Power Design which allows the system to maintain full performance under extreme heavy loading conditions. Power is supplied by both the ac adapter and battery. Prolonged extreme heavy loading will result in performance issues and/or battery drain while the ac adapter is connected.
If laptop Hybrid Power Design is not acceptable, consider getting a gaming Desktop with large wattage power supply unit, that will play power hungry games or applications for long durations.
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from user that is not employed by Dell. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
I also had similar battery performance at the start. Thought I'd put this here for anyone asking because this is applicable even to later alienware models with battery issues even though it's so long after the post. It's not about making a huge compromise.
What you need to do is to turn off some settings that drain excessive battery, one of the things that drain a lot of battery is the tobii eye tracker. Uninstall it completely unless you want to use it, make sure drivers and everything is gone or it might re-install itself. I think most never wanted thos addon because it's close to useless except for quickly dimming your screen or waking it up when you look at it, at least I don't see any real perk except for the fun of something new to test.
The most important thing is to make sure that your laptop does NOT use its dedicated gpu when not needed, there are settings to make sure it uses it only when you want it to, like when you drag up the power settings. But the thing that will make the biggest impact of all is the CPU. For some reason, they seem to think it's a bright idea to make it run overclocked all the time. When I just got my laptop, it was running at like 3.4ghz 24/7 and never slowed down, that's what drained the battery. Go into advanced power settings, find "processor power management" and set that to perhaps 5% plugged in/on battery and 80% on battery/99% plugged in. Then your laptop's cpu will start working according to manafacturer settings when not needed. Of course, you could set the maximum state even lower when you're on battery and 100% when plugged in. I set it to 99% because I enjoy my laptop being cool and without fans ever running even when plugged in. When you want to game or do something intense, you can use alienware command center or just a power slider to change all these power options. I also changed intel graphics power plan to maximum battery life.
After that, I had a laptop that never had to turn its fans on, was fast for everyday stuff and that had a battery life of up to a bit over 7 hours at best when it was new. I could've gained even more battery life by further reducing the CPU when not plugged in but that affects performance too much. Now, a bit after 2 years of everyday use, my I get barely 3 hours and starting to drop below that on a full battery. Chrome drains more than necessary battery and VLC tends to drain a lot as well, otherwise it'd last longer. But 3 hours is still far better than many others here. Found this topic while trying to search for a replacement battery because I've been having issues with it suddenly turning off after reaching 5-10% and the battery time isn't enough for me and can't last me through more than half a day at university.
ejn63
10 Elder
•
30.7K Posts
1
October 28th, 2020 08:00
Every system involves trade-offs. You'll never see hours of runtime from any notebook designed for gaming; it's a secondary consideration. Conversely, you won't be gaming on a system that's designed to be ultra-lightweight with long battery runs like the Surface or 13" XPS models.
It depends on where you want to compromise. There are systems at the mid-point between battery life and performance - just as there are "all season" tires for your car, which aren't ideally suited to dry performance or snow use.
There is no one best compromise here, but the 17" XPS models are the mid-point. Equipped an FHD screen and GTX video they'll run a good deal longer on a charge than an Alienware will. Equipped with a 4K screen and RTX video, the battery life will plunge to Alienware levels.
It all depends on where you want to make the compromise.
ejn63
10 Elder
•
30.7K Posts
0
October 28th, 2020 04:00
Some do support Optimus, while others don't. The RTX series GPUs and systems that ship with high-refresh (and GSync) screens are hardwired to the nVidia GPU, so the battery runtime will be much shorter.
It's just about impossible to game at anything but the most casual level on battery with any system -- and these systems are designed for performance, not battery runtimes. You may be better off buying a desktop system for gaming and a battery-efficient ultraportable for office work. You may well find it less expensive than buying one high-end gaming notebook.
PierJ1
1 Rookie
•
11 Posts
0
October 28th, 2020 05:00
I really wanted a portable powerhouse, you said here that the RTX series are one of the culprits for the bad battery, if I got GTX then would the battery be better? If so would it be significantly better (hour/s) or just marginally better (
I currently have a surface pro and really hate it, I want a high end feeling quality laptop, I have been looking at the Inspiron G7 but don't like the fact it is mostly plastic. Any suggestions or advice on a do it all laptop would be great.
abakxm
2 Posts
1
June 9th, 2021 10:00
Hi there. I bought my Alienware M17 R3 last december and till today, Dell warranty has change my battery twice. In Idle (no games running, no usb port conected, no wifi, no surfing) the original battery last 55 minutes.
With the first change it last 01:10. And just today they have change it again, so no news regarding the new battery.
Talk to both of the techs guys that came to change the battery and both of them agree in that this kind of powerfull laptop might be over the 3 hours of battery specially if you are in idle and not in a gaming mode.
Hope this info might be useful. Big hug.
A51-06
5 Practitioner
•
3.1K Posts
0
June 9th, 2021 17:00
I would say maybe heat is whats dragging it down? what kind of components do you have @abakxm? Also I think you can equip a higher capacity one too incase you have the lower configuration. Also check out the battery life of every battery they send you so you can make sure they're not used. I would also recommend setting it into power saving mode with the lowest clockspeed set.
abakxm
2 Posts
1
June 9th, 2021 17:00
What do u mean with components? Video card and ram for example? if thats affirmative I have an Nvidia super 2080, 32 in ram, and basically that.
I already check the new battery today and it last less than one hour. 100% at 04:56 pm and 5% at 05:53 pm where my screen shutsdown due to battery configuration.
I also check the papers of the product and ask Dell about and answer cuase the product sais it was REFURBISHED.
In relation to Heat, dont know that much. The test that I have made with the laptop only with battery has been in idle, no programs, no wifi, no surfing so no much heat into it.
A51-06
5 Practitioner
•
3.1K Posts
0
June 10th, 2021 06:00
Could you download HWmonitor from CPU-z website? and the PRO version specifically since that can help you identify the health of the battery and see if its really used and they just put it in there.
kbrown2858
1 Message
0
July 22nd, 2021 19:00
My son and I both have the m17 that we purchased a few months ago. Both have always had less than 90 minutes of battery life. From everything I read online it just seems that the battery life is just that short.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
0
July 22nd, 2021 20:00
Hi @kbrown2858 welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
Alienware m17 R3 laptop has Hybrid Power Design which allows the system to maintain full performance under extreme heavy loading conditions. Power is supplied by both the ac adapter and battery. Prolonged extreme heavy loading will result in performance issues and/or battery drain while the ac adapter is connected.
If laptop Hybrid Power Design is not acceptable, consider getting a gaming Desktop with large wattage power supply unit, that will play power hungry games or applications for long durations.
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from user that is not employed by Dell. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
Marcus8799
2 Posts
0
September 17th, 2022 03:00
I also had similar battery performance at the start. Thought I'd put this here for anyone asking because this is applicable even to later alienware models with battery issues even though it's so long after the post. It's not about making a huge compromise.
What you need to do is to turn off some settings that drain excessive battery, one of the things that drain a lot of battery is the tobii eye tracker. Uninstall it completely unless you want to use it, make sure drivers and everything is gone or it might re-install itself. I think most never wanted thos addon because it's close to useless except for quickly dimming your screen or waking it up when you look at it, at least I don't see any real perk except for the fun of something new to test.
The most important thing is to make sure that your laptop does NOT use its dedicated gpu when not needed, there are settings to make sure it uses it only when you want it to, like when you drag up the power settings. But the thing that will make the biggest impact of all is the CPU. For some reason, they seem to think it's a bright idea to make it run overclocked all the time. When I just got my laptop, it was running at like 3.4ghz 24/7 and never slowed down, that's what drained the battery. Go into advanced power settings, find "processor power management" and set that to perhaps 5% plugged in/on battery and 80% on battery/99% plugged in. Then your laptop's cpu will start working according to manafacturer settings when not needed. Of course, you could set the maximum state even lower when you're on battery and 100% when plugged in. I set it to 99% because I enjoy my laptop being cool and without fans ever running even when plugged in. When you want to game or do something intense, you can use alienware command center or just a power slider to change all these power options. I also changed intel graphics power plan to maximum battery life.
After that, I had a laptop that never had to turn its fans on, was fast for everyday stuff and that had a battery life of up to a bit over 7 hours at best when it was new. I could've gained even more battery life by further reducing the CPU when not plugged in but that affects performance too much. Now, a bit after 2 years of everyday use, my I get barely 3 hours and starting to drop below that on a full battery. Chrome drains more than necessary battery and VLC tends to drain a lot as well, otherwise it'd last longer. But 3 hours is still far better than many others here. Found this topic while trying to search for a replacement battery because I've been having issues with it suddenly turning off after reaching 5-10% and the battery time isn't enough for me and can't last me through more than half a day at university.