Should I update Nvidia driver? Alienware Alpha

[BioChrone]

Hello, got an Alienware Alpha i7 like 2 weeks ago and honestly I've been having a lot of trouble so I decided to restore it to factory settings 2 days ago and start all over again on clean. So firstly when I got the Alpha I downloaded GeForce Experience and updated the new GeForce Game Ready Driver (368.39) and I was able to play almost everything on high settings (including Doom) but while playing WoW I was having black squares and shapes all over my screen, I couldn't enable DirectX 11 nor SAO because it said I needed a compatible graphics card. Also wasn't able to even launch Battlefront and Titanfall. After I restored it 2 days ago I haven't updated the driver to 368.39 but downlaoded the default GeForce Windows 10 Driver (353.62) from the Alienware site; and WoW runs perfectly, it automatically enabled DirectX 11 and SAO to Ultra too so I didn't want to update the driver and mess something up. But now when I try to play Doom it's laggy as hell even in the menu screen, and everything is set to low. Any help? Should I keep this driver version or should I update again to 368.39 with GeForce Experience? I don't even know if WoW's problem had to do with this and why I can't play Doom now. Please help. Thank you.

[Cynec]

I googled it, and it appears that the Alpha comes with a modified GTX 860M which is a very weak card. Laptop cards in general are not very good for gaming, and the 860M is actually slower than a desktop 660 Ti which was considered midrange in late 2012.

That said, you generally shouldn't be getting physical artifacts (black squares) unless the hard is overheating or damaged. Look up a program called Speedfan or Open Hardware Monitor and then download Unigen Heaven Benchmark. Let the benchmark run while keeping an eye on GPU temp in Speedfan or Open Hardware Monitor. If the temp is going over 80 degrees C you are in trouble.

[BioChrone]

Thanks for the answer but actually it runs every new gen game at high. The black squares disappeared after I restored the PC, it's fixed now. And the problem with Doom I think it's all about the game and not my system, because I can run other similar games at max settings. I don't want to risk updating the driver and screw my other games.

[Samael]

BioChrone a écrit :

Thanks for the answer but actually it runs every new gen game at high. The black squares disappeared after I restored the PC, it's fixed now. And the problem with Doom I think it's all about the game and not my system, because I can run other similar games at max settings. I don't want to risk updating the driver and screw my other games.

Risk of updating your drivers ? Are you serious ? Updating your drivers. Doing Windows updates and cleaning the dust from your case should be something you do the moment you can and have to.

It's 100% a problem coming from your Alienware.

Why did you not ask a friend to build yourself a computer instead of buying an alienware where you pay extra hundreds of dollars for the same thing ?

I know a lot of people that had problems with their alienware the moment they had it.