Hi mjdart,

I will be glad to help you. Request you to provide me the complete system model. I will check and let you know the updated driver for this model.

m81X r2

Processor: Intel Core 3rd Generation i7-3740QM Processor 2.7GHz (6MB Cache, 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium x64 & Reinstall Windows 7 Disc

; Mic 2.1 Megapixel Certified Full HD Camera with dual digital microphones

Media Reader: 9-in-1 Media Card Reader

The 7970M GPU can be buggy with the wrong drivers. I think many M18x R2 owners with 7970M CrossFire are having good results with this driver.

AMD Catalyst™ 13.2 Beta Driver

If you want the Alienware recommended driver, it is available from support.dell.com. You can enter your service tag or manually select the system. Here is a link to it:

AMD Win 7 driver for Alienware Notebooks 

Thanks, I guess I'm running the immediately previous drive to the beta version you mentioned. The official Dell version for Alienware AMD machines is new as well, I'll lookat that beta and check it out as well. thanks again

It's new for Dell, but the driver is from last year. Initial feedback (small sample) in this thread seems to favor the AMD 13.2 b7:

forum.notebookreview.com/.../725358-new-alienware-recommended-video-driver-amd-includes-7970m.html