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Alienware X51 (first generation)

SkidMarkKing

SkidMarkKing

SkidMarkKing

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Hello.

My mate owns an Alienware X51 pc which cost him around the £800-£1000 price mark.

This comes with a GTX550 graphics card I think it is (the point im making is it comes with a dedicated gpu anyway :))

He downloaded some drivers last night and now the monitor keeps going into stand by and isn't picking up the video output.

Im actually an IT technician (only for 1 year) and as far as im aware when you plug a GPU in it takes priority over the onboard graphics. What I think has happened is the driver has actually installed the GPU properly because he said he was always using the hdmi on the motherboard because he didnt have a mini hdmi > hdmi adapter for the GPU.

So for the last 2 years he has owned that PC he has been using onboard graphics instead of the dedicated card even though it was plugged in?

He tried saying its configured so that you can used the onboard hdmi (mobo) and it feeds through to the GPU. This is utter rubbish, right?
 
Hello.

My mate owns an Alienware X51 pc which cost him around the £800-£1000 price mark.

This comes with a GTX550 graphics card I think it is (the point im making is it comes with a dedicated gpu anyway )

He downloaded some drivers last night and now the monitor keeps going into stand by and isn't picking up the video output.

Im actually an IT technician (only for 1 year) and as far as im aware when you plug a GPU in it takes priority over the onboard graphics
Normally yes


. What I think has happened is the driver has actually installed the GPU properly because he said he was always using the hdmi on the motherboard because he didnt have a mini hdmi > hdmi adapter for the GPU.

So for the last 2 years he has owned that PC he has been using onboard graphics instead of the dedicated card even though it was plugged in?
most likely:D

He tried saying its configured so that you can used the onboard hdmi (mobo) and it feeds through to the GPU. This is utter rubbish, right?
never heard of this in a desktop
 
SkidMarkKing said:
Hello.

My mate owns an Alienware X51 pc which cost him around the £800-£1000 price mark.

This comes with a GTX550 graphics card I think it is (the point im making is it comes with a dedicated gpu anyway :))

He downloaded some drivers last night and now the monitor keeps going into stand by and isn't picking up the video output.

Im actually an IT technician (only for 1 year) and as far as im aware when you plug a GPU in it takes priority over the onboard graphics. What I think has happened is the driver has actually installed the GPU properly because he said he was always using the hdmi on the motherboard because he didnt have a mini hdmi > hdmi adapter for the GPU.

So for the last 2 years he has owned that PC he has been using onboard graphics instead of the dedicated card even though it was plugged in?

He tried saying its configured so that you can used the onboard hdmi (mobo) and it feeds through to the GPU. This is utter rubbish, right?
Click to expand...

He could have a system that utilises both on-board graphics and the discrete GPU if it is a virtu MVP setup (which afik was post the Z77 chipset). I think this only works if the display is connected to the HDMI/DVI coming out of the GPU though. So yes, I'd agree, if he's plugged in to the mobo hdmi, he's been using integrated graphics. Surely he noticed this in terms of gaming performance though. What are the system specs and has he run any benchmarks? Has he installed afterburner or precision X to see what's what?

Get him to plug an hdmi in the GPU slot and see if that displays anything.
 
alex_123_fra said:
He could have a system that utilises both on-board graphics and the discrete GPU if it is a virtu MVP setup (which afik was post the Z77 chipset). I think this only works if the display is connected to the HDMI/DVI coming out of the GPU though. So yes, I'd agree, if he's plugged in to the mobo hdmi, he's been using integrated graphics. Surely he noticed this in terms of gaming performance though. What are the system specs and has he run any benchmarks? Has he installed afterburner or precision X to see what's what?

Get him to plug an hdmi in the GPU slot and see if that displays anything.
Click to expand...

Yeah ive told him to buy a mini hdmi > hdmi converter which he has done now :)

I know surely he should have noticed rubbish graphics as he has been playing Crysis etc :/
 
As Alex said, he could be running a Lucid Virtu MVP setup in i-mode. Under this setup, the monitor is plugged into the onboard connector. In-game rendering is done on the GPU, then output from the on-board connector. Never had a system that supported Virtu myself, but that could explain how he's been able to run Crysis with the monitor connected to the motherboard rather than the GPU.
 
This is why PC gaming continues to go from strength to strength... so long as people have nvidya and ayylmaoware they will think they are "getting 60fps all maxed"... measured "with their eyes" and never touching the menu.
 
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