Question Alienware gtx 880m Issue

[Lucc1ano]

Hello all, i have laptop Alienware with graphic card gtx 880m, yea i know its old graphic but its working its job, well at least it should be, i have a problem, my gtx 880m doesnt give a half perfomance it should give, as i looked over internet, graphic cards with the same name gives way better fps and overall perfomance in games, like many ppl were able to play warframe for example at almost high settings on 1080p, i am TRYING to play it on lowest settings possible on 1366x768 and i have fps issues, my 3DMark score is like 600?! others gtx 880m have at least scores like 2500-3000 ?, also what i realized, it doesnt have heat problem, BUT its Frequency or Mhz how u call it, its working around 950 UNTIL i enter any 3d application, once i enter any game or smt its Mhz falls down to fixed 270 and it doesnt move, now iv been lookin if theres any like battery saving mods or smt and didnt find anything, please help i am hopeless

 

[Jayhuge]

What model Alienware? That's a decent-ish if dated GPU. I'm guessing maybe you have an Alienware 17 either R1 or R2?? You should be getting a LOT more performance

From experience with Dell Precisions 4x00 and 75x0 which are similar and same vendor, I suspect an Optimus/Driver mis-install or PSU/Power problem or maybe both. It's a complex area but ...

First check your power supply/PSU supplies the voltage needed, Dell at least throttles based on power at a HW level. I've just seen this big time ...! Then -

1. Turn Optimus off in Bios (I suspect you have it?) ie turn "Switchable Graphics" OFF
2. Run a pre-boot Hardware diagnostic to make sure it "fully" recognises your NVidia GPU
3. Do a complete uninstall of NVidia drivers in safe mode using DDU utility, DDU literally "wipes" all old drivers
4. Reinstall NVidia drivers using (Dell) OEM NVidia drivers first, with Optimus off. Turn the machine off/on ... and test performance
5. If it's working close to your expectations, turn Optimus on in Bios and re-install NVidia drivers, again start with OEM drivers

If it's still not working download Valley benchmark from Unigine, and GPU-Z utility, and post screen shots of the GPU-Z "Sensors" tab when running Valley in (say) "Extreme" preset for your GTX880M and any other GPU .. and we can take a look

Don't upgrade and use NVidia stock drivers UNLESS/UNTIL you have decent/comparable performance, using Dell (Alienware) GPU drivers. The performance gain from driver versions is probably minimal, like 10% only

(FYI I'm running a Dell Precision 7510, Optimus, GTX965m on modded Alienware drivers and a (new) 180W PSU, now getting 5500-5800 on 3D Mark "Firestrike" ... after a lot of trial and error btw)

The right power PSU, turning Optimus OFFas a baseline, and doing a total "refresh" of drivers via DDU really sorted it for me ...