Making an indie game with GM:Studio and wanted to work away from my desktop so I thought what else to buy but a good Alienware laptop.
I have been using a low end Dell desktop. One of the S models. So low end in fact that you can't fit a decent size power supply into it so I had to buy a lower end video card to put in it that could draw off 300W. Well to my shock, the $1,500 Alienware runs poorly in comparison to that low end Dell. The specs generally are...
Both:
64 Bit Windows 7
8GB Ram
Desktop: (2012)
Intel Core i5-2320 @ 3 GHZ
AMD Radeon 7700
About $600
Laptop: (2014)
Intel Core i7 4710MQ @ 2.5GH (Even though it said up to 3.5GHZ when I ordered it. But it's still better right?
NVidia Geforce GT 750M
About $1,500
Using Game Maker, I have a project that was running 800fps+ on my desktop and can't hold 60fps on the new laptop. It gets down in the teens when the action is going where the desktop can hold 500+
The suspicion is that the on board video card is not giving way to the GeForce. But I have tried everything. All drivers are up to date. Windows is up to date. Everthing is set for maximum performance (power, etc). I have tried disabling the onboard video card entirely but I get a Direct X error when I try to execute the game. But then when I look in the Alienware Commander module I see that the GPU IS being activated, but only about 30% of load, which makes no sense.
I have a topic about it on the game maker forums and have tried every suggestion made: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=630621&hl=
Additionally, other tests I ran with other games revealed this thing is running like garbage. According to GPU tests I performed the desktiop beats the laptop by 20 to 50%.
So, that said, I'm sending this thing back unless anyone knows a reason I should not or something that would fix this issue.