Update 6/11/21: Alienware issued the following statement regarding this issue: Last week we discovered that the new Alienware m15 gaming system was limiting CUDA cores in the 3070 configuration. We have released a firmware update to resolve this incorrect configuration. Please see this support page for the updated vBios.

The original source is as follows.

Is this a case of wrong vBIOS or is something afoot?" some Alienware m15 R5 gaming laptop owners have discovered within GPU-Z that their RTX 3070 laptop chip has 512 fewer CUDA cores than it should have After discovering that the RTX 3070 laptop chip has 512 cores less than it should have, he is now trying to answer that very question. [It is fairly standard procedure for laptop manufacturers to change the clock speed and TDP to match the laptop's cooling solution and power supply. However, reducing the number of cores to achieve a more usable card is not usually done.

Nvidia's mobile RTX 3070 GPU has 5,120 CUDA cores, which is already 768 cores shy of the desktop model. However, some Alienware m15 R5 owners on Reddit and NotebookReview Forums have noticed that only 4,608 cores are reported on GPU-Z, which is even less (via Videocardz).

Even stranger is the number of TMUs and ROPs reported, 144 and 96 respectively.

The TMUs should be 160, but the reduction here checks out at the lower core count: 4,608 cores would be 36 SMs, for a total of 144 with 4 TMUs per SM. 4,608 cores would be 36 SMs, for a total of 144 with 4 TMUs per SM. This is less than expected and not ideal, but it makes some sense.

But as for ROPs, there should be 80 total in the RTX 3070 mobile chip. What we are looking at here is a full 96 ROPs for the GA104 GPU, which is only on the RTX 3080 mobile GPU and the RTX 3070 desktop GPU.

Alienware R5 owners have since tried several different options for a fix, and these include flashing the vBIOS, a potentially dangerous operation for gaming laptops as it can lead to GPU bricking . In this case, it is doubly dangerous because the GPU is soldered to the laptop's motherboard.

Therefore, those who attempted this deserve kudos, as they may have been able to figure this whole thing out in the process.

The BIOS for the Alienware m15 R4 laptop, when loaded into R5, brings back the 5,120 CUDA cores in all their glory. As a result, users also report higher performance, so it appears that the GPUs within the affected R5 laptops were underperforming due to vBIOS underreporting.

Users are hoping for an official fix to avoid the pesky flashing process, but this is not a permanent solution for those affected. Many have turned to Dell support for answers, and we are tracking to see if there is an official response as to what is going on.

In the meantime, those with affected R5 laptops may want to contact Dell support directly and be the first to know that a fix is coming soon. As I said, flashing the vBIOS can be risky business, so I recommend waiting until there is a more authorized fix.