The M17 is Alienware’s new thin gaming laptop featuring Nvidia’s latest RTX graphics,
but just how well does it perform in games? I’ve benchmarked 20 different games at all
setting levels to show you how well it runs and help you decide if it’s a laptop you
should consider buying.
Just quickly before we jump into the benchmark results I’ll cover off the specs in my unit.
It’s got an Intel i7-8750H CPU, Nvidia RTX 2080 max-q graphics and 16GB of memory running
in dual channel. It’s also available with 2070 max-q or 2060 graphics too, so expect
lower results with those configurations, and you can find updated prices linked in the
description.
I was running Windows 10 with the latest Nvidia drivers available, and just a reminder we’re
only looking at gaming performance here, if you’re new to the channel get subscribed
for the upcoming full review.
My m17 has a 4K screen, but it’s also available with 1080p and 1440p options. I’ve focussed
my testing on 1080p but have also tested some games at 4K where it made sense, as 4K is
honestly too demanding for laptops even with this level of hardware in most games, unless
you’re fine with low settings. Unfortunately I couldn’t fairly test 1440p here, as I
could not set that resolution natively on my 4K laptop screen. I tested by connecting
an external monitor which did work at 1440p, however this would show unrealistic performance,
as it bypasses the Intel integrated graphics that are used with Nvidia Optimus, resulting
in higher FPS than what you’d actually see using the laptop with a native 1440p screen.
So with that in mind, let’s get onto the benchmarks.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode and not in multiplayer mode, as it’s easier
to consistently reproduce the test run. The purple bars show the results with ray tracing
disabled, while the green bars show RTX on. The RTX results were good for medium and low,
at least for a laptop, and it actually played ok with RTX on at high and ultra, although
for a first person shooter game personally I’d want more FPS and stick to RTX off.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and was performing very nicely, with
over 100 FPS easily possible at ultra settings, though not really that much extra to be gained
at lower settings so I’d probably just stick to higher settings.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on the lowest
possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. Even with all settings at
maximum over 100 frames per second was still possible, with 23% higher average frame rate
with all settings at minimum, and a 24% increase to 1% low.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark, and over 100 FPS was possible
at low settings, with 80 just achievable with ultra settings in this test.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were ahead of the
newer Far Cry New Dawn just covered, again fairly decent results for this test.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and due to a recent game update the replay
I’ve used is a fair bit different compared to my previous tests, so these results can’t
really be compared with my past tests. Regardless even with max settings over 100 FPS was easily
possible in this well optimized game. As this game could reach high frame rates I’ve also
given it a go at 4K, and medium settings or below were required to average above 60 FPS,
though it was still playable at higher.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, as other
players, bots and even different maps in actual gameplay affect the frame rate and this allows
for consistent testing. The 300 FPS frame cap wasn’t hit here, however the results
are still extremely high, able to take advantage of a high refresh rate panel, although the
m17 only appears to have 60Hz with the 1080p screen. Overwatch was also tested at 4K due
to the high frame rates we just saw, and even with epic settings 60 FPS averages were still
possible, during my testing I found it to play fine here too.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark with good results seen
for this test. Low settings were required to hit 100 FPS, though average frame rate
was still good for this test at highest settings, ahead of most other laptops I’ve tested
as expected thanks to the 2080 Max-Q graphics.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, which performs worse than actual
game play, making this more of a synthetic test rather than indicative of actual game
performance. Despite this these results seem fairly decent, though a few FPS lower than
other 2080 Max-Q laptops I’ve tested, more on that later.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and as always I was getting very high frame
rates from this esports title, though not too much of a difference between all settings
at medium or low. I also tested this game at 4K, given as an esports title it runs with
high frame rates, and the results here should at least be playable, but if you’re playing
competitively you won’t be using 4K anyway.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and is a game I’ve found to
benefit from Nvidia’s new turing architecture. The frame rates are super high as expected,
however it’s worth noting I always use the defaults the built in presets set, so 50%
render scale and T-AA.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and almost 100 FPS average were possible at
ultra settings, however there wasn’t really much of a difference at the lower levels.
The results were decent, but not great. The ASUS Scar II with RTX 2060 beat it in average
FPS with the exact same replay file, though I suspect it would be a different story at
higher resolutions.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and I was seeing some
nice results for this test, with 60 FPS possible here at very high settings, and still acceptable
results maxed out given this doesn’t need a high frame rate to play.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and it was running very smoothly without any problems at all, not surprising given it runs
on just about anything and we’ve got some powerful hardware here.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource intensive game, but despite this even ultra settings was able
to average above 60 FPS, which is plenty given this is a game that I think runs perfectly
fine with a solid 30 FPS.
Ghost Recon is another demanding game and was tested using the built in benchmark. While
most laptops score poorly in this test at ultra settings, the 2080 Max-Q shows that
it’s quite capable here, with just below 60 FPS averages, though much higher were possible
with lower settings.
The Witcher 3 was also running very well with hairworks disabled, and once again even ultra
settings were capable of reaching above 100 FPS averages with much higher possible at
lower settings.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and is a game that I always fine to run extremely well on
modern hardware. With our powerful specs here even maxed out we’re seeing over 140 FPS
no problem.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan, and again very high frame
rates from the built in benchmark. I’ve only just added this game recently, so I don’t
have too much other data to go by yet, but I think these results look great.
Shadow of War was tested with the built in benchmark, and is another game that I’ve
found to benefit from Nvidia’s new Turing architecture. The results here were also quite
impressive, with over 100 FPS averages possible with very high settings.
Let’s also take a look at how the M17 compares with some other laptops to see how it stacks
up, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different times with
different versions of Nvidia drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the M17 up the top shown by the red bar, and out of this
random selection of laptops it’s performing second best, higher than the 2070 max-q but
not quite as good as the 2080 Max-Q found in the ASUS GX701 laptop due to thermal throttling.
Basically the graphics in the m17 were constantly thermal throttling, but I’ll cover that
in the upcoming thermal testing video, so get subscribed for that one.
Here are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings, and similar results here too. While
the 1% lows are the same as the other 2080 max-q laptop, the GX701, the average frame
rates aren’t quite as high, again due to suspected throttling on the GPU, however despite
this it’s still ahead of the others.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings, and the results follow the same trend as the other games, with the m17 second
highest out of this selection of laptops, but again not able to catch the GX701 with
equivalent specs.
As we’ve seen in all 20 of these games tested there were absolutely no problems getting
high frame rates even with all settings at maximum despite thermal throttling on the
graphics, however this does come at a cost, you can find up to date pricing linked in
the description. The 90 watt 2080 Max-Q graphics combined with i7-8750H and 16GB of memory
running in dual channel make a powerful combination in this fairly thin gaming machine.
While it does have a 4K screen I don’t really think it’s quite a 4K gaming laptop, I think
that option is targeted more towards video and photo editors, though as we saw some less
demanding games ran ok at 4K. It’s also available with a 120Hz 1440p TN screen, which
I think would be a nice combination with these specs and the 17 inch size for gaming, and
I’d expect that to perform well even with high settings in many games. Alternatively
you can get a 60Hz 1080p screen, and I found it a little odd that there was no 144Hz option
available. You’ve also got the option of expanding graphics with Alienware’s graphics
amplifier as well.
So how do you guys think the Alienware M17 gaming laptop did in these games? Let me know
your thoughts down in the comments, and get subscribed so you don’t miss the full review
and detailed thermal testing of the M17 gaming laptop.