Question about overclocking an Alienware R4 17' laptop

Question

I just purchased an Alienware R4 laptop. It has an Intel i7 7700 under the hood, and a GTX 1070 8GB video card. I saw videos on Youtube of people overclocking theirs, but I am not able to do the same. When I go into the BIOS, there is an option to turn on the processor and fan performance mode, but when either is enabled, no options appear below it. I tried updating the BIOS, but I get the same thing. There does not seem to be any software option to overclock. Also, when I hit 'ctrl' and 'F7' to change the graphic card mode, clicking on the option to enable only the discrete Nvidia chip does not do anything. All I can do is hit cancel. Has anybody else seen these issues? Thank you in advance!

ejn63 · Answer

Whether or not you can overclock depends on your CPU - the i7-7700HQ CPU is a locked processor - it cannot be overclocked with a BIOS setting.

The i7-7820HK CPU is unlocked - if you have that model, you can adjust the multiplier to try overclocking it (though overclocking is never a guaranteed success).

G_McNuttles · Answer

Thanks! That makes sense!!

G_McNuttles · Answer

Still makes me wonder though why that option is even there in the BIOS. Turning on the processor performance mode does not make any noticeable difference, but turning on the fan performance mode does. It makes the fan run at full blast all the time.

ejn63 · Answer

The system firmware is processor-independent - while the field for overclocking is there, the option isn't unless the CPU supports it.

G_McNuttles · Answer

Thank you! That answers my question. Overclocking is not too important to me, but I have a new toy and just wanted to see what I could do with it. After having this laptop for a few days, it does not need to be overclocked. I even replaced the standard 1TB SATA drive with a 2TB hybrid, and this thing screams!

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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