Gaming not on par with m14x...

Hey guys. Now don't take this the wrong way but I love my m14x but I've noticed that it can't handle most games, mainly old ones, to their full extent. Now I dont know what's wrong with my m14x because I've seen people running the same games I do on the m14x with everything maxed out but I'm just not getting the same results.

For example, I can't play crysis maxed out. Even on medium everything things tend to lag. And crysis is almost 4 years old!
I put everything on max for Super Street fighter 4 Arcade Edition and it works smooth in the beginning, no hiccups but after a while it starts lagging a lot. The more I play the worse....and the benchmark gave my system an A. Weird.
This applies to many other games too like NFS Hot Pursuit....its a lag fest nightmare.

I'd like to mention I also made a partition, without formatting, using a built in Windows 7 tool that allows a partition to made without formatting. Nevertheless I still install all my games on the C Drive.

I have also overclocked my system but still experience lag in games. I would also like to mention that I have the 720p screen, 4gb RAM and the i5 processor. Is that making the difference?

Well I guess that's about it. I really want all the help you guys can give about improving performance for games. Thanks in advance.

Also please help me on my other thread.....
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/599454-m14x-defected-ram-slot.html

Thanks.

 

Crysis is a pig no matter what the system. It runs with a couple things maxed on my M15 I haven't tried maxing everything though. The i5 with the 555 should be a pretty decent combo in theory but I could see that pair lacking a little oomph to do the job. Crysis is going to be more of a GPU hog than something like Starcraft 2.

 

Well if your ram slot doesnt work, that might add to it. I can't play crysis maxed either, thats normal. Your Core i5 probably won't be the cause, it's still a fairly good processor, and on 720p it should run older games great. 4 gb of ram is fairly low too, Windows 7 along with the alienware software already use more than 2 gb. And if your ram slot is defective it'll do worse.

 

Bah. Nothing in this day and age really needs more than 4 gigs of RAM short of photo/video editing and CAD stuff. Anything less than 4 gigs might leave a system a bit short winded though. This is coming from a computer running Win 7 on 1.5 gigs of RAM. It did it pretty well but not well enough.

 

I play crysis maxed just fine, i5 shouldnt matter much as Crysis came out in the Core 2 Duo era I believe. Somethings definitely defective. Id call or do something about your ram slot and update us

ex. video I made. ‪Crysis Maxed on the Alienware M14x‬‏ - YouTube

EDIT: And yes, 4gb of ram should be enough. Its gotta be something defective. Did you update all your drivers? Ive heard that sometimes solves issues

 

are you absolutely 100% sure you whitelisted the programs? Download msi Afterburner and check the GPU usage graphs to make sure it is using the gt555m

 

Guys I do have a defected RAM slot but I using a 4gb 1333HZ Kingston RAM on the first slot so I don't think that should be a problem.

And yes I am using the MSI burner...temp goes max upto 82 but mainly stays around 78. I overclocked to 700, 1400 and 1000. Games are using my Nvidia GPU.

And what do you mean by whitelisted the programs?

 

Weird i will try it on my friends m14x. I bought a MBP with 6750m instead of the m14x and it runs crysis ok. Now given the 555GT is a bit stronger i would guess it would run better. Dont remmber if all settings are high or mid tough...

 

Whitelist: to ensure that the game runs on the GT555m and not the far weaker Sandy Bridge IGP.

If one of your RAM slots is defective then your RAM is no longer operating in dual-channel mode, which may have something to do with it. I would get the laptop replaced if I were you.

 

For me, once I updated my drivers, I have never had to whitelist any of the games that I play. I have also not had issues with any of the games that I have been playing, to include Crysis 2, the Witcher 2 and Starcraft 2.

 

Which drivers are you guys using? I downloaded and installed the 275.50 ones. Is there a newer better one out there?

And using 2 RAM slots really makes that much of a difference as opposed to one? Well that sucks because my RAM slot is defected for sure and I can't send it to Dell cause I'm in another country and Dell won't transfer my warranty cause my country doesn't support the m14x model. Sucks for me. Any alternatives? Any idea what has to be repaired and how much will it cost? I don't know how it got defected since it was working in the beginning and then out of nowhere I got a blue screen and it stopped working. This was after my 5th run.

Also I'll try to format everything again and make just one drive and see if things run better. Btw I don't want to reinstall all my games and programs, is there a program or something that'll allow me to back em up and quickly install after the format?

Last thing, I'm using the msi afterburner with settings oc to 700, 1400 and 1000. Max GPU temp went to 82 while gaming and min is 40.

 

You could bring it to a local tech shop and get them to look at it, list whats defective and then call Dell and have them mail you the parts (worth a try; not sure if they'd mail the parts, though).

As a last resort, google the Michael Dell President e-mail address and send a complaint. The people who monitor the e-mail respond within 24hours and usually come through with a positive solution.

 

Hm. Defective RAM slot would likely need the entire motherboard replaced. Perhaps if you can order an m14x motherboard from dell and ask a local tech shop to perform the swap?

 

the GPU in the M14x is only a mid-range card, so don't expect to play intensive games like Crysis on high or ultra.

Crysis was playable on Low at ~25fps on my M11x (with its 335M) but it did lag occasionally.

GT 555: NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

yeah half life 1 will play on high but hl2
NO WAY MAN

 

what? did i miss something?

 

He just came into the thread and randomly said that the 555M isnt a good card based off the bad benchmarks on notebookcheck (not all are bad, bt the 555M ones are bad). The M14x can play Crysis maxed out, but thanks for your consideration frescagod

 

I installed old Bioshock 2, patched to 1.5. I try to play with everything on max. I get 10-30 FPS. Now, that would be pretty ok considering that my GPU usage is only between 10-50% max in-game. Does anyone know anything about Bioshock 2 as it is a pretty old game. Anyone has experience with this??
Basically I am looking for higher GPU usage, or is this normal??
Normally my GPU runs at 99% in all other games 2010/2011 games.

Thank you, peace

 

You need to whitelist it. Go to NVIDIA Control panel, 3D settings, and from there you can whitelist games to use the 555M

 

Thank you Gearsguy. I whitelisted every .exe, incl. launcher.exe in the Bioshock Single Player installation directory. The 555M GPU definitely kicks-in, I can see it on-screen with MSI Afterburner. Now it runs 20-45 FPS (no 10s dips). It helped I guess, but the GPU usage has not changed, it still hangs around 40-50 % and lower. Is it possible that the game is VERY CPU intensive? All my CPU cores are busy at around 50% and get pretty hot. With dirX 10 title the game should stress the GPU to the max.

All other possible M14X settings e.g. performance options are at max.
Gearsguy, have you played the game on M14X??? Or do you know anyone from this forum who has?

p.s. If I run the game in windowed mode, it plays smooth. GPU is used almost always 90%. (almost 1600x900 minus 0.5 cm frame on top and left side of the window). I googled this problem without any success. Anybody here please has some input?

SORTED. Ambient occlusion in Nvidia CP must be set to OFF. But ... with it ON the card uses less resources, with it off it uses 99%. lol FERMI JOINT

 

nah, i didn't say it wasn't a good card. did you read my post? mid-range = good...

that being said, can it really run Crysis (not Crysis 2) maxed with 4x AA at over 30 FPS at 1600x900, or whatever the max resolution is? all i was saying was for the OP to be realistic in his expectations.

 

No, but I play Crysis maxed 0 AA, 16x AF (config) and max settings @ 1366x768 at about 40-50fps with OC. I dont think he said anything about those specific settings

 

he said he can't play crysis maxed out (see below). 1366x768 is also fairly low resolution - i thought the res on an M14x was higher...1600x900 or so. looks like there's a monitor upgrade for that. maxed out, to me, means high res and at least 2x AA.

 

Yeah he said that because something is wrong with his m14x, so.

slowclap.gif

 

ok. i'm not really sure why you're being the way you are.

another guy posted a vid in this thread and his FPS are in the 20s for most of it. if you like gaming with max settings and 0xAA with FPS in the 20s, then that's your prerogative.

 

‪Crysis Maxed on the Alienware M14x‬‏ - YouTube

EDIT: Also, do you have an m14x or a solutions to OPs problem?

Thanks

 

Gears - It's just not the place to try and convince others anymore. Folks that are into performance, true benchmarks, write-ups are rolling elsewhere. You know where. Dont even try to argue. Let the haters hate. In the end your the one enjoying games on your notebook. If these people don't want to see real results or vids don't waste your time. Too many good games coming to be worried about others who simply cause trouble.

 

Amen.

He didn't even have an overclock on during his crysis maxed video too, and if anyone here says "wahhh overclocking does nothing its stupid 'gt 555m is an stuopied vedio cawrd"

general overclock on gt 555m is usually a 750 with shaders locked. stock is 590. Thats an approximate 27% increase. Let alone it is handling crysis maxed with NO OVERCLOCK IN THAT VIDEO

NBR is not what it used to be.

 

Ok guys good news....i feel stupid. So I got my games working great with hardly any lag. The solution? Placing it on top of a cold surface on a table! This whole time I been playing on my bed, which meant more heat coming out and unstableness. This is great. I can play all games nearly maxed with hardly any lag.

People who are posting vids on how great gt555m runs on high settings are showing exactly what the 555m is capable of. It's the best card but it is pretty powerful. You can run most games near max, just gotta make sure everything is fine with the heating and area your laptop on.

Anyway been playing games with my overclocked card. Starcraft 2 is maxed out and Crysis I put on max with resolution low though. Still looks great.

 

OK sorry for the double post, bad news. While gaming my laptop suddenly stopped charging. My charger still lights up and shows proper Voltage. I went to a person who repairs laptops and he checked everything and said he has to fix/replace the pin. Says it'll cost 20 bucks.

Do you guys think that's the problem? IS the price fair? How do you guys think this happened?? I was running on overclocked settings (been for a few days now) at 700, 1500, 1000. Temp hardly hit 80. HELP!

 

I'm somewhat confused, maxxed out on gears machine is 900p not 768p. Whats the video shot in?

Overclocking at 720p @ 40 frames plus is perfectly acceptable for crysis. to be honest I never expect to play crysis at 900p fully loaded.

Constantly dipping to low 20's at 900p is not. Pretty sure in the video it even drops below 20 at points. So wouldnt called that "handling" crysis at that setting.

Still the GT555 is a good fit for the machine and is an excellent mid range mobile gpu. Shame dell didnt get a bit more exciting with its out of the box specs though ie bandwidth and core/mem speeds.

Then again the things supposed to be portable powerhouse, which I think is what it does well.

@momanx86 next day dell repair not an option?

 

Its running at 1366x768 with all settings maxed.

Playing games at 900p on a 14 inch screen is just excessive, but if you wanna call the m14x bad for not being excessive, go ahead. Ill continue to know its well above average and the best 14 inch gaming laptop there is. Everyone can keep waiting for that "580M" upgrade in the r2.

Back to the topic. OP, did you have the vent on the bottom left covered? (looking at the machine open). That should be the one sucking in air. Also are you going to get your ram/mobo fixed?

 

How is that excessive? 900p was a hardware option. So I buy a laptop with a 900p resolution but I shouldnt be expecting to play games at this?

I was just asking what res crysis was running at? Try not to turn this into another nitpicker

 

Me neither, just saying that I personally think 900p on a 14.0 inch screen is pretty excessive. The "norm" is 720p so I find 720p acceptable for games. 900p drops the fps to 19-24 though

 

I have no choice but to use the 720p screen since thats what I ordered by default. Regret it though after hearing how amazing the 900p is. BTW is there anyway I can get my screen upgraded to 900p now?? ANy idea of the cost?

 

You could call dell but itd definitely cost more than the 75$ it was in customizing.

If not I think it could be user replaced if you got one used or something

 

I'm still hoping they do a 1080p screen RGB Led but thinks that a pipedream.

As gears said, the 900p was the one to get. I'm certainly glad I paid the small amount extra. Not too many games that wont play at highest at that res.