Alienware Aurora R4: Crashes & Low FPS

Question

*Wow, sorry don't know why the post shows up like this. It's spaced and everything before I post. Hi there, so I've had my Aurora R4 for about 3 weeks and I've had more issues with it than I've had with my previous HP PC in 6 years. I was cautioned against buying Dell's Alienware because it was riddled with problems but I didn't want to believe that, also the PC case was just too cool. Now I have a $3,000 PC that's barely functioning. Not sure if it's a hardware/software problem or the problem lies with the guy behind the keyboard (I really hope it's the guy behind the keyboard). First problem was only a couple of days in when I started playing Battlefield 4, Single player crashed the PC every time I played it. I know BF4 has tons of problems so I just attributed it to that. Then I bought a 1080p monitor and scaled my games up to 1080p and my FPS dropped by like 30. Much lower than Benchmark scores on the net. My system specs are much more than required for BF4 and I'm getting 30-45 FPS on Ultra AA*AF off, Benchmarks show an average of about 70 FPS Ultra AA*AF Max. Also Benchmarks for ARMA III for my GPU show about an average of 60 FPS on Ultra, I'll be lucky to get 30. Just today I played a game that was running on the source engine, not GPU intensive at all and the PC crashed twice. What gives? If I wanted these low FPS and something poorly functioning I would have bought a console and saved $2,500. Really really hope someone can help me out because this is not cool. :( *When I say barely functioning I mean for gaming because that's why I bought an Alienware System Info: OS: Windows 7: 64-bit Motherboard: Alienware 0FPV4P Processor: Intel i7-4820k 3.7GHz Ram: 16GB .NET Framework: 4.5.1 Display Info: Display Mode: 1920x1080 (32bit) @ 60Hz Display Memory Radeon R9 290x 4GB Multisamplying: 2,4,8 DPI: 96 (100%)

Tesla1856 · Accepted Answer

Here are some general Win-7 gaming tips:

First. be sure it's running FullScreen (not Windowed).

On the game's icon, Compatibility tab (if available) , make sure both are selected:

- Disable Visual Themes

- Disable Desktop Composition

Basically, this dedicates all the video card's resources to the Full Screen game (not reserving part to run the Windows fancy Aero Desktop).

You will know you need it ... if when playing a game, you are brought back to Windows Desktop to answer a prompt about changing your Desktop Theme to a Basic or non-Aero one.

I think Steam Client might do this automatically when running in background, but if running native DRM games or through Origin or something, try it.

C12AZY · Answer

Man, this thread is such an eyesore. Sorry don't know why my paragraphs aren't spaced. I've also tried unparking all my cores with no luck. I lowered all graphics settings to the lowest possible and I was getting 55FPS.

Tesla1856 · Answer

Judging from your post, you should probably just call phone support and let them take a look (I've heard they can Remote Control it).

I suggest you remove games from equation. Benchmark with something like FutureMark or Heaven. OCCT (PowerSupply Test) is good for Stress-Testing.

C12AZY · Answer

Ok, Tesla sounds good. I did benchmark with heaven cores unparked Ultra Settings Tessellation Extreme AA 8x and I had MIN: 8.1FPS: MAX: 84.1FPS AVG: 43.4 FPS @ 1920x1080. Not sure if that's what I should expect given my system specs. What do you think about that?

C12AZY · Answer

API: DirectX11 Quality: Ultra Tessellation: Extreme Multi-Monitor: Disabled AA: x8 Full Screen @ 1920x1080 ..... Also on my Radeon I turned AA to x8 and AF to x16. Supposedly it's supposed to increase FPS in CPU intensive games, basically the CPU sets the core in a dormant state when you are doing small things like going on the web, using MS Office...stuff like that to conserve energy. Unparking the cores is supposed to take all the CPU cores out of that dormant state so you have the full power of the CPU when gaming. CPU does get hotter but I have liquid cooling and it doesn't go past 59C under load. I saw an increase of 10 FPS with the cores Unparked but that's about it.So with the cores parked in the Heaven benchmark I was getting about 33 FPS

Tesla1856 · Answer

There used to be a Heaven thread. If you can find it, compare yours.

I only have Heaven v3.0 installed. If you post all the exact settings from config/start screen, I'll install v4.0 (to be like yours) and then run it. However, my specs are lower than yours. It might help or someone else might post that has a newer Aurora R4 with newer i7 and maybe a nice video card.

What is this "cores un-parked" business?

Tesla1856 · Answer

Supposedly it's supposed to increase FPS in CPU intensive games, basically the CPU sets the core in a dormant state when you are doing small things like going on the web, using MS Office...stuff like that to conserve energy.

Right, but how are you controlling it?

Tesla1856 · Answer

Copy and paste from something other than NotePad (like WordPad) and the Carriage Returns should be preserved. Bugs me too ... I think they changed the code a bit during last Forum Upgrade.

You can also edit here after pasting.

C12AZY · Answer

I controlled it with a 3rd party app that unparks the cores. Did it once to see if it had any impact on my FPS, it did but I didn't feel like 10FPS was worth a hotter CPU so I put them back.

Tesla1856 · Answer

I controlled it with a 3rd party app that unparks the cores. Did it once to see if it had any impact on my FPS, it did but I didn't feel like 10FPS was worth a hotter CPU so I put them back.

I guess it's a secret app then ... that's cool. Anyway, I would undo that, because ...

If you set Power Profile to High Performance

Install All CPU Meter Gadget

and then run Prime95

... you can clearly see CPU cores go to 100% when there is enough processing to be done.

Tesla1856 · Answer

Well, here they are. Not sure what this proves because my 3-year old AMD card is clearly in a different class (speed, memory, etc.). Running it on DX-11 Extreme is a bit much for it. DX-11 more high-to-normal settings (less extreme) it does fine.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0

SETTINGS

API: DirectX11

Quality: Ultra

Tessellation: Extreme

3D Stereo: Disabled

Multi-Monitor: Disabled

AA: x8

Full Screen

Resolution: System (1920x1200)

RESULTS

FPS: 8.0

Score: 200

Min FPS: 2.1

Max FPS: 29.3

System

Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit

CPU model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 930 @ 2.80GHz (2807MHz) x4

GPU model: AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series 13.251.0.0 (1024MB) x1

Settings

Render: Direct3D11

Mode: 1920x1200 8xAA fullscreen

Preset: Custom

Quality: Ultra

Tessellation: Extreme

------------------------------------

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0

SETTINGS

API: DirectX11

Quality: Ultra

Tessellation: Normal

3D Stereo: Disabled

Multi-Monitor: Disabled

AA: x8

Full Screen

Resolution: System (1920x1200)

RESULTS

FPS: 10.2

Score: 257

Min FPS: 2.5

Max FPS: 33.1

System

Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit

CPU model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 930 @ 2.80GHz (2807MHz) x4

GPU model: AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series 13.251.0.0 (1024MB) x1

Settings

Render: Direct3D11

Mode: 1920x1200 8xAA fullscreen

Preset: Custom

Quality: Ultra

Tessellation: Normal

-----------------------------------

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0

SETTINGS

API: DirectX11

Quality: High

Tessellation: Normal

3D Stereo: Disabled

Multi-Monitor: Disabled

AA: x4

Full Screen

Resolution: System (1920x1200)

RESULTS

FPS: 23.9

Score: 602

Min FPS: 13.9

Max FPS: 51.2

System

Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit

CPU model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 930 @ 2.80GHz (2807MHz) x4

GPU model: AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series 13.251.0.0 (1024MB) x1

Settings

Render: Direct3D11

Mode: 1920x1200 4xAA fullscreen

Preset: Custom

Quality: High

Tessellation: Normal

Tesla1856 · Answer

I suggest you try to compare Synthetic Benchmarks from these reviews to yours. https://www.google.com/#q=Radeon+R9+290x+review

Tesla1856 · Answer

Also on my Radeon I turned AA to x8 and AF to x16.

I set mine like this so this stuff can be controlled from each game (as allowed). If you want to over-ride, create a App Setting Profile for the game's .exe

C12AZY · Answer

No luck with my FPS still. Checked some benchmarks with a System similar to mine except I only have 16GB Ram. Test System: CPU: Intel i74960x 3.6GHz Overclocked to 4.3GHz RAM: G.Skill 32GB GPU: Radeon R9 290x 4GB My System: CPU: Intel i74820k 3.7GHz Overclocked to 4.3GHz (*FPS was bad before the OC also) RAM: Alienware? 16GB CPU: Radeon R9 290x 4GB ARMA III Test Sys: 1920x1080 Ultra Quality 66.2 FPS ARMA III My Sys: 1920x1080 Ultra Quality 25-40 FPS, 60FPS If I look up at the sky. *There was no mention of AA*AF in the test so I turned it off Battlefield 4 Test Sys: 1920x1080 Ultra Quality 68.9 FPS Battlefield 4 My Sys: 1920x1080 Ultra Quality 29-45 FPS, 50 looking up at the Sky *No mention of AA*AF so I turned it off So I'm missing about 20-30 FPS. Not sure why?

C12AZY · Answer

^ Copied from WordPad, no spaces :(

Locked Topics – Alienware General

Alienware Aurora R4: Crashes & Low FPS

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