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Started by SgtShidner59 | | 13 answers
Sub-Optimal Performance (graphics)
Alright, I have a bit of a complication I've run into here. It regards my new laptop, its graphics card (which i read on a testing site is quite good and has good reviews gaming FPS-wise) and its rather sub-optimal performance once actually used. Just wondering if there is something i have not done right, some switch i have not switched, or some change i need to make.

So the computer i have is an Alienware M17x R4. It has a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU @2.40GHz, i have 8 gigs of ram installed, 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor, and its graphics card is a AMD Radeon HD 7970M. (Any other information needed for better advising i can provide)

Alright, well the problem is i looked at a rating/testing website that had reviews, stats, and comparisons of this particular AMD Radeon graphics card. The site is this: http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970M.72675....
*What i was mainly looking at was the tested FPS rates near the bottom that views how the card performed on low, medium, high, and ultra settings to see what i could expect.*

Well, the test bed they used for testing these particular graphics had: Intel Core i7 3610QM 2.3GHz
Radeon HD 7970M (850 MHz), 2048 MB (1200 MHz) GDDR5 8 GB RAM....what i saw was that i was using a faster processor, same amount of ram and such. So i thought "hey, i can do these FPS numbers or maybe even slightly better!" but i was hoping for something around the listed rates.

Now i don't have any of the games they list there, not for lack of wanting, but for lack of money...but i did initially test it out on a game that i play passionately and very often...that game is World of Tanks. Now it initially said it 'detected a change and will make the recommended graphic changes' and it set the initial settings to high. Upon entering the game, i got FPS rates around 15-20...maybe 24 or so. So i set it to 'medium'...I got around 28FPS. Finally i set down ALL the settings to the lowest of the low wherever i could, well i am getting out 29-36fps currently. Now this game i play is not as graphically pretty or complex as a vast majority of the games listed on that site so...i'm very VERY curious...is there something i overlooked? Why am i getting unbelievably sub-par performance out of a card which looks to do quite well? Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
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September 16, 2014 8:12:01 PM

I also play world of tanks and have come to the conclusion that it is a badly optimised game. I can run War Thunder (great game. If you like wot and other free to play games, try it) and other games on medium/high/ultra settings while I can only run wot on low settings at a measly 25 to 50 fps. My guess would be that the game does not like your lower cpu clock speed considering the game STILL does not have multi core support in late 2014. Anyway, good luck.
September 16, 2014 5:54:11 PM

Yeah i've been trying stuff for days, downloading the original drivers, the CCC, using that to convert the settings to 'High Performance' so it uses the AMD on certain applications or games, but the integrated for everything else. Switched the main game i play to 'High Performance'....and yet, no change what...so...ever...in graphical performance or FPS rates. I just don't know what to do. I've exhausted every option i can think of. and yes, i tried the FN+F7 approach which is supposed to manually switch the cards, nothing happened. -_-
a c 118 U Graphics card
September 13, 2014 10:22:18 AM

I believe that laptop has a function to switch between the two cards by pressing FN+F7. You can try that.
September 13, 2014 8:41:50 AM

That was helpful, it identified that i am using the Intel integrated graphics card (that was the default one it popped up with upon installation, i assume that's what that mean, yes?) so now the question is....how do i get it to use the powerful AMD card, over the integrated one? Cause as you recall, when i 'disabled' the integrated...everything went to hell. :/  Boy...i thought this was going to be simple haha
a c 118 U Graphics card
September 13, 2014 4:39:19 AM

Get GPU-Z and check which graphic card is been used
September 13, 2014 4:32:33 AM

Well i disabled the integrated graphics and everything slowed up MASSIVELY. The resolution was way off, and i achieved a whopping 1 or 2 frames a second in just the garage screen on the game. I re-enabled it, then disabled the AMD chip, same result. It only runs at that underwhelming performance if both are enabled. Needless to say i'm thoroughly confused.
a c 118 U Graphics card
September 13, 2014 4:14:38 AM

It could be that you running on the integrated graphics. Make sure your laptop runs at the maximum performance in the power settings
September 13, 2014 4:02:37 AM

Alright well while i'm trying to figure out this...mumbo-jumbo, i believe is the technical term...i also noticed that my laptop has an integrated graphics system (Intel Ivy Bridge-MB GT2 - Integrated Graphics Controller [E1/L1/N0/P0] [DELL])....now, could this be activated and running instead of my high-end graphics card? Therefore lowering quality and performance graphically?
a c 118 U Graphics card
September 13, 2014 3:55:14 AM

SgtShidner59 said:
Well i do not know how to register temperatures or how to find that out (i apologize, i'm not incredibly tech-savie in that regard).
And...thermal paste? (Again...tech-saviness...)


There are different software temperature monitoring programs.
CPUID HW monitor: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
HWinfo: http://www.hwinfo.com/


Thermal paste is a compound used to eliminate any air bubbles when placing a heatsink on top of a cpu or gpu chip. It allows transfer heat from the cpu to the heatsink.
September 13, 2014 3:47:51 AM

Well i do not know how to register temperatures or how to find that out (i apologize, i'm not incredibly tech-savie in that regard).
And...thermal paste? (Again...tech-saviness...)

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