Alienware X51 Issue with graphics card

Question

Hi,

I bought an Alienware X51 a while back, and its been working just fine for playing games so far- Until now... Just a few days ago, I noticed that suddenly all my games were lagging, on settings which normally run perfectly fine. I had decreased framerate in pretty much every game I have installed, and it makes no sense. I scanned my registry, repairing any registry errors, scanned for disc errors, scanned for viruses and rootkits, and found nothing. I also went onto the Dell site and did a system diagnostics scan, and all my hardware, directx versions and everything passed the tests. I even reinstalled my graphics driver, and set the Nvidia Control Panel to use the dedicated graphics card for every program, just in case it wasn't. After all that, I STILL get lag in every game.

I can't figure out why its doing this, it was working just fine a few days ago. I'm thinking maybe the computer is still using the intergrated card for some reason- I noticed that during the graphics diagnostics test, even though it passed, the framerate on the test was really low, around 12 FPS instead of 60. Is there a way to check this? I looked in the BIOS, and it doesn't seem to have an option for turning off the integrated card...

This is really a pain, it pretty much makes having a gaming computer pointless, because it can't even play games. Can someone help me fix this?

Thanks

rfs5052 · Accepted Answer

Hi,

thanks for all your help guys, I have a solution now, as unfortunate as it is... just yesterday my computer died, apparently both the motherboard and the graphics card were faulty.

Not sure I'd buy another Alienware computer again, they seem to have a lot of problems, not just my own, but other people I know as well. I'd consider this question answered I guess, thanks again for helping me try to fix it.

rfs5052 · Answer

Erm, I'm actually not sure, I really don't know anything about hardware, my specialty is software. What do you mean, graphics port? The computer is in the hardware configuration of the manufacturer, I've never opened it up or changed anything. The computer is only a few months old.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

rfs5052, Look at this picture. The #6 discrete video card with graphics ports is on the bottom.

mav711 · Answer

which graphics port are you plugged into?  If not the discrete card then try plugging straight in the discrete card.

rfs5052 · Answer

Hmmm... I'm pretty sure I plugged my monitor into my graphics card, but if I didn't, you're saying that would cause the framerate problem? If not, is there a way to turn off the integrated card entirely?

Ecnad1 · Answer

If you are plugged into the HDMi port in Box 1 on the image, then you would be using the integrated graphics and yes you would lag on high-use games.

If you are plugged into any of the ports in Box 6 you should not be having that problem.

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Alienware X51 Issue with graphics card

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