My Graphics aren't working properly, help!

Status
Not open for further replies.

Stargate Fanboy

Beta member
Messages
2
Hi,

Okay, I recently got an Alienware M15x and it's a great computer, love it, I have had no problems with it until now. Yesterday I went to play Civilization 5, now the computer had been running the game just fine all weekend, fantastically in fact, but yesterday the game had an unbelievably bad framerate, it was so slow it was unplayable, I restarted the computer but that made no difference, I updated the NVIDIA driver, no difference, I check the windows experience index and my 'Graphics' had gone from 6.9 to 2.8, which made me thing my graphics card was broken, but I did a system restore and then it was running fine and the windows experience index was back up to 6.9 for graphics, and it was running civilization perfectly again, but since I restarded my computer (turned it off yesterday, started it up again today) it is running all my games just as badly again, I checked the windows experience index again but so far that hasn't gone down to 2.8 again, I would prefer not to have to do another system restore, the only program I have installed since the first restore was maybe iTunes but I can't remember, my specs are below:

Processor: Intel(R) Core (TM) i5 CPU M520 @ 2.40GHz 2.40GHz

Memory (RAM): 3.00GB

Windows 7 64-Bit (Service Pack 1)

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M @ 1.5GB

Please help ASAP.

Okay I just went back to the Windows experience index and it's done the exact same thing, it said New hardware detected, your score needs to be refreshed, so I ran the test again and the graphics has again gone back down to 2.8.
 
Something to do with drivers, could be windows installing drivers for your GPU on it's own, or your drivers are crashing. What driver version are you using?
 
Also check to see if any Windows Updates installed recently. Check your update history in Windows Update.
 
Some alienware laptops have a dual video card system. An integrated POS for basic navigation, and a dedicated card, typically nvidia. Check your alienware settings and see if there is a sensitivity for when it uses the dedicated card. It is supposed to switch to it when it is under heavy load.

*NOTE*: This info comes from dealing with an mx11 alienware. I haven't specifically dealt with this problem, but i remember seeing the dual graphics feature.
 
Can you provide a source for such a statement, as that idea seems... Stupid...

I've seen several laptops that have the switching graphics on them. Usually integrated Intel HD graphics, and then a dedicated nVidia GPU just like carverd said.
 
I have switchable graphics on mine too. They're fairly common nowadays ;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom