m15 R2, OLED slow FPS

Question

Hi Everyonem

This is a weird one!

I purchased an Alienware M15 R2 OLED (i7, 270 MQ, 16GB RAM) two weeks ago and love it.

However there is one peculiar bug, as follows.

Playing Forza 3 and 4 as examples (fps displays in game):

When I play on the laptop screen in 4k, I get 40fps BUT when I play with the exact same setting outputting to my Panasonic 4K TV (HDR), with no changes at all: 60 fps!

I have tested this in every possible outcome I can think of. As soon as I plug the HDMI cable into my laptop the game jumps to a solid 60fps on the TV. When I disconnect the HDMI lead, even mid game, the laptop OLED screen falls back to 40 - 43 fps.

I have heard before that laptop screens can be a bottleneck and using an external display can improve performace but this makes the OLED in the laptop near useless.

Does anyone have any ideas?

All drivers are up to date via the Alienware Update software and the display is set to 60hz on both the OLED monitor and TV.

The Nvidia control pannel is the same for both the laptop and tv, I do not adjust it. It has got to be a bottleneck with the laptop outputting internally to the OLED.

Thank you very much.

Paul

PaulCathcart · Accepted Answer

Thank you so much for reapsonding.

It turns out to be a factor of two things.

1: Yeah, the power setting. I wrongly thought fan spead "performance," was the fastest thermal setting instead of using, "full speed," so I was indeed throttling power to the cpu costing me a few fps.

2: My M15 R2 is not Gsync on the monitor and all graphics data is passed via the i7 cpu integrated grahics before making it onto the screen. This causes a small bottle neck of a few fps. When I output directly via HDMI or Diplay Port this goes from the graphics card directly onto the screen with no cpu integrated graphic bottle neck.

Thanks again for your reply.

Paul

Judethecat · Answer

The 4K TV is likely greater than 60hz refresh yes? (newest are 120 hz or greater) and it’s able to keep up with a higher frame rate than the laptop screen. Newest Alienware Area 51 m 4Kscreens are only 60 hz ... they are not TVs.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @PaulCathcart  you could be experiencing power and frame rate throttling. The m15 has a Hybrid Power Design and requires both the ac mains and the battery power to run power hungry, demanding games. There are instances when this is not enough power and the battery charge keeps reducing, such that your m15 will refuse to run the game. Check that your m15 has the most powerful main battery installed and that it can retain a 100% charge. Check the ac charger power rating and if unsufficient, get a more powerful charger.

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m15 R2, OLED slow FPS

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