ScottRTL Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 Hi Everyone, I just joined the forum and I have done several hours of reading, and searching, I am just trying to get a cohesive guide to everything I need to do here, so I am sorry if I am asking questions that have been asked/answered before, but I tried...Basically I have been out of the OC scene for a while, but I just bought an Alienware 17 (I always wanted an Alienware, but by the time I could afford one, I felt that they dropped in quality, so I held off until the A17)So, I have an Alienware 17/780m 32 Gigs of RAM:I have been slightly disappointed with my experience so far, and it may just be a mix of the odd default configuration and my own ignorance. So please bare with me.It seems my OB Video is always active, even when I set the 780m to be the default video card for anything, if I run a benchmark, it says my video is Intel HD 4800 or whatever... Is this normal? If I press Function F5, it just says it will change and require a reboot, but the Intel HD 4800 is still active after the reboot. The only way I have found to force the 780m to be active was to uninstall the Intel 4800 driver completely (disabling the device doesn't work)I tried to update to the newest NVidea drivers, but it won't let me, I have heard installing the new beta drivers resolves this, but when I did that, I lost the ability to change my contrast via the function button, is that normal? (rolling back the driver fixed that).I understand the concept of flashing custom VBIOS to unlock previously locked abilities but I have a few questions related to that.1.) Should I be flashing the firmware from: http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/1847-nvidia-kepler-vbios-mods-overclocking-editions-modified-clocks-voltage-tweaks.html that is for 700m series? or is there something specific to Alienware 17?2.) Once that is done via http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/2166-%5Bguide%5D-nvidia-vbios-flashing.html, what application is preferred to change my values? NVInspector? or EVGA PrecisionX? Do they have different abilities or pros and cons?3.) Are there guides for NVinspector/EVGA/XTU that can provide me with some values (temps, voltages/fan speeds, profiles) that are tested and not too crazy, to limit my chances of ending up with a burnt brick?4.) Can upgrading the firmware on the 780m mess with the BIOS/vBIOS? Or are these completely different entities that have no compatibility issues...?Thanks, and again I tried, I am sorry if I appear to be an ignorant newb...(and the long post) It is just a lot of information, and quite intimidating to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkylineLvr Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Not sure if the new 17 has the same bios options as the R3/R4, but if it does, have you tried to disable the HD4800 and just have the 780M active? I did that on my R3 when I installed my 7970M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roughavoc Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 I would for sure disable swappable gfx, running off GPU directly yields better performance anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo14 Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 I would for sure disable swappable gfx, running off GPU directly yields better performance anywayAgreed, I switched it due to blue screens and overall the computer just runs better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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