Game Settings and Fan noise Question

Hi! I've been lurking these forums for the past 2 years and just decided to finally sign up today and get a simple question sorted out. Heck I've tried googling it and either I get nothing close it to it or I get a really complicated explanation that I can't understand; the question will be split in two. I don't mind being called a noob when it comes to this, so here goes:

In general, does the video card work harder and make the fans spin faster if you are gaming at higher settings (Ultra versus High versus Medium, and more heat i am presuming)? Likewise, does it work the card less (less heat?) and spin the fans less faster if I were to play games on mostly medium settings with a few highs, or totally on medium OR does it run at the same amount regardless of which settings I game at?

All I can find is people talking about how the M14x will be as loud as a jet when gaming, but are these same people talking about the fan being loud because their playing at the highest settings and (i dont know if im going to be saying this right or even makes sense) playing under close to full load?

Please help out this stupid noobie, as I've literally been an insomniac trying to search for the answer this past week and I've been meaning to buy this laptop.

Would be considering this spec:
Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.9GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
1.5GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M
14.0 inch display (1600x900) (though ill only game on 1366x768)
Up to 750GB8 SATA hard drive (7200RPM) (may swap my SSD in)

I've never played any game at the highest settings on anything I've owned (wish I could but I've never been spoiled or had the time to spoil myself )
and I probably won't on the M14x; would the fan noise issue or any heat issues still affect me? As well if there was a bios update in the future, would you think it would still affect me then?

Yeesh that was a long list of random questions but you can see the amount of curiosity/frustration I've had. Thanks to any and all help! I BOW TO ALL YOU MASTERS!

 

The fans run, while you are gaming using the Nvidia Card also they run when plunged to a big monitor in my situation 24' on HDMI regardless you game or not

If running on battery and unplugged to the monitor this laptop is very silent, unless you go on gaming mode.

You must also know that it gets very hot while gaming, so i would not advise anybody to put the laptop on your knees as you will feel the hit

 

Damn so it doesnt matter what settings I play it on, It will still get very hot in the same amount huh? Bummer =( on the monitor thing too ah well..

 

The fan kicking as hell randomly even when not gaming when plugged for me, however - my is actually pretty cold, but the weather here in Norway aint that warm yet.

 

i can play all the games i own on max (mostly sc2 and l4d 2) fan gets really loud but i don't really care im either blasting music or have my head phones on

 

That never hpend to me and my weather here in south china is very hot, it only kiks when plunged to a Monitor or gaming

 

Do you have a Cooling pad?

 

NO need !!

 

actually id say you do need one. even with a cooling pad my cpu and gpu can hit the high 80s.

 

Almost feel like my post was hijacked... heh so nobody knows whether running games at lower settings produces less heat (i'm being serious here lol I really dont know)?

Fan noise wont be too bad if the fix comes out through the bios they "claimed" to be releasing sometime in the future because I have a desktop that's montrous in showing off its presence, but as long as I'm not pushing the m14x to its limits anyway wouldnt this noise fix be fairly decent as well as keep heat down? Of course if I was gaming on max settings I'd want that fan spinning full blast regardless.

Edit:
Ah and also, does anyone know if running photoshop (just digital painting/concept art) and zbrush would cause the fan to kick in?

 

Photoshop, if you run it on the CPU, it shouldn't cause the fan to kick in too badly, as the CPU isn't really stressed outside of certain operations/functions in photoshop, and only a few photoshop filters can use OpenGL at all.

As for the GPU settings, only if you cap the framerate, and even then, only in certain situations, will it output less heat (whether the fan will actually scale down, is another situation alltogether).

 

Just use the intel graphics for gaming on the go. It will keep your laptop from getting too hot but you will still have the fan running up from time to time depending on the game.

 

I am greatfully thankful to you sir for answering my questions!

 

I don't think it will ever get that warm to cause troubles for the m14x...

You're lucky leaving there.

 

I think the fan noise is a little exaggerated, at least to me. I was expecting blow dryer kind of sound, it's not really that loud. Really it would get drowned out in the sound of the game you're playing.

 

I second this

 

I was thinking along the same lines; many people complaining about this and I felt a little unsecure, but I've literally come upto about 95% sure I'm going to buy it anyways.

I mean it cant be louder than my desktop is, but surely when they get around to actually releasing some fix for it, I'm going to guess their going to implement different levels (RPM) for different heat levels? That 5% unsure comes from whether they really will do as they say and release something that, although may not get rid of the fan noise altogether, would at least adjust the fact that this laptop (correct me if I'm wrong) has only two levels of fan noise, really silent and just stupidly fast with nothing in between. Though, I've a feeling just like the battery issue was solved by taking something away, the noise can't be solved without taking something away either to lower heat that comes from doing so (perhaps underclocking something which would mean a crapload of returns i'm presuming).

 

I also agree, it sounds like my m11x after a year, its not in close to what I thought it would be when people said it was like having an hairblower.

However - in high power mode the fan can kick inn when just idling in windows, but in battery mody to school (that was one of my dealbreakers) its quit like my kitten at mums place when he sleep - make no sounds.

 

yeah, I took apart my m11xr2's HSF, and the DUST agony agony!!

 

Haha, yeah I know! I got shocked of the amount of the dust, and at least my m11x was a pain to open the motherboard all the way to the graphiccard to remove the dust - it mas simply a lot of dust. =(

 

It's not a pain, it just takes a long... long... long... okay, painful time. For those who don't have a m11x, the HSF is inbetween the KB and the mobo, so you have to take apart the entire computer down to the last screw (save the display - which has to be removed, too), in order to gain access to the HSF unit. After which, you can finally dissable the HSF itself to gain access to the sheer, dissappointing amount of dust a mere 5 months will give!!!!

 

Damn and here I was contemplating either buying an M11x R2 for 650.00 or an M14x for 1250.00. These are the final prices too as theyre both offers made by friends to me (though they live across the country). But you two explaining the problematic process of getting to the dust on the M11x R2 HSF I think has sealed this debate lol.

 

ha!! I'm contemplating selling my m11xr2 for a m14x Just the sheer amount of issues cropping up are kinda scaring me, lol...