Alienware: Missing GPU Cores in M15 R5 Laptop Caused by BIOS Error

It was recently revealed that the GeForce RTX 3070 GPU in Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition laptops appeared to have only 4608 CUDA cores, instead of 5120 cores. Alienware states that this problem is caused by a bug in the vbios.

Alienware informs tech website Tom’s Hardware that the company will soon come with an update for the vbios of the laptop models in question. This update should fix the issue and is expected to be released in mid-June, the company said.

The issue was reported earlier this week by users on Reddit and the Notebookreview forum. Users of those platforms noted that the RTX 3070 GPUs in their m15 R5 laptops had 4608 CUDA cores, according to screenshots from the GPU-Z and HWiNFO software. That’s 512 cores and ten percent less than usual; the mobile RTX 3070 gpu should have 5120 CUDA cores.

Certain users also reported that their GPUs had too few Tensor cores and cores for ray tracing. The GPU clock speeds seemed otherwise unchanged compared to the ‘regular’ RTX 3070 for laptops. It’s not clear if the CUDA cores were actually disabled, or if they were just misreported.

Some users reported that flashing the vbios of an Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition m4 laptop with RTX 3070 GPU fixed the issue, although this can cause other issues. Alienware strongly advises against this. “We are currently validating the fix and expect to resolve this issue by mid-June. In the meantime, we do not recommend using a vbios from another Alienware platform to resolve this issue,” a company spokesperson said. Tom’s Hardware.

The RTX 3070 GPU in the Alienware m5 R5 (left) and a ‘regular’ RTX 3070 laptop video card.
Images: EepoSaurus on the Notebookreview forum