Alienware M17x R2 low performance on many games

Hello, my current alienware m17xr2 specs are:

i7 Q720
Windows 7 64 Bit
8GB RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870

With or without crossfire, alot of games i played have fps around 20-30. Some dropped to 5-10 during random times. I have a fan below my laptop to keep it cool. But with a mobility 5870 i expect more of it. Anyone have issues with low fps in games?

Games i played with low fps at high settings (not max), no vsync on.
Borderlands
Starcraft 2
COD: Black Ops
Witcher 2
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2: Retribution
Dawn of Discovery
Magicka
BulletStorm
Dragon Age 2
Left 4 Dead 2

Note that I've updated my drivers from alienware website, the latest provided by them is sept 2010. If anyone knows a solution, please let me know. Another question that is haunting me for awhile. Can i use update from ATI instead of waiting for dell update? Because dell is so far behind.

Thanks in advance.

 

1. Check that stealth mode is not on
2. In performance options, make sure it's in high performance mode
3. Under device manager make sure your cards are using the right drivers and not the windows default.
4. Make sure other intensive resource hogging programs are not the cause

You can use the ones from the website but with a bit of cautioned. For example. The 11.5 32/64bit does not work for me at all. When verified it tells me it's 11.3 instead AND the drivers are not loaded for the video cards. Lastly only one video card is up and running while the second doesn't work.

This plagued me for quite a bit no matter how clean I uninstalled the drivers and such. The solution was simple, download the application from the website for the "mobile" video drivers. This in turn will download the 11.5 but only the 64bit version of Win7, larger in size too for some reason, and everything is fine now.

 

Personally the ATI drivers from the Alienware website are very old, and I'd recommend upgrading to at least 11.5 (in fact 11.5b for Witcher 2 as there have been some very specific performance improvements specifically for Witcher 2). Another thing I'd be curious about is what sort of scores are you getting with 3dmark or 3dvantage, might be a good way to baseline and see how it compares to other folks.

Just some thoughts. I haven't encountered any perf problems but only related to Witcher 2 and Starcraft 2 from your list (Warhammer 40K : Dawn of War II ran great as well but haven't yet tried retribution).

Also are you running the latest CAP driver from the ATI website? As that also adds a lot of performance improvements to specific games.

Good luck

 

Thanks for the reply,

@The0ne
Stealth Mode is off. I will give ati drivers a try

@Greywolf22
Is there specific steps on installing drivers provided by ati? I read alot of bad things happening to the laptop if i don't use dell drivers. Do i need to run a driver clean up?
Also, may i know what is CAP?

I will get a 3dmark score now.. will update when i get it
Sorry, pretty noob at these things.

EDIT: 3DMARK06 score: 12072 3DMarks (I can't change the settings since i am using the basic version)
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15758056;js...6/15758056?key=0zEXpSX86DyB5ZNRUwBBpxDYRjAkbh

EDIT: May i know which i should download? http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

 

Hi Jeff,

3Dmarks don't look horrible to me (I'm running dual 4870 and pull around 11500)

Regarding doing a clean install of the latest drivers, I think most folks around here would recommend the following:

1) uninstall existing driver through controll panel and reboot into safe mode

2) run Driver Sweeper to get rid of any ATI residual and Reboot into VGA mode

3) run ccleaner

4) install new ati drivers from :

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

and install the latest Crossfire Application Profile (Cap) from here

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/crossfirex-app-profiles.aspx

5) Reboot

Also with the 5870 make sure you have the latest vbios installed from the dell website as well.

Personally I haven't done the drive sweeper, ccleaner method myself (just typically install the latest drivers from the ATI website which uninstalls the old version and installs it), but many will swear by doing a completely clean uninstall and re-install.

And see if there are any performance improvement. Right now there is a 11.5b hotfix out that specifically addresses the Witcher 2 performance problem but I haven't seen a mobility version yet (not even sure if it's necessary to use the mobility version), so haven't tried it. I have read
on the official Witcher 2 website, that you should disable crossfire until the official fix is available from ATI (which apparently will be the 11.5b driver)

Sorry for the information dump, if others want to add or correct any of the above feel free.

 

Thanks for the reply. I will give it a go and pray for the best [: I will post my results here when i am done.

 

I tried the newest ati package, all games became worst, especially starcraft 2. the game will freeze time to time.

Is the graphic card using the correct driver?
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

 

It is. Well, do a few more checks as suggested and call Dell to replace the card. May be defective. Is it hot? Place your palm underneath the fan on the bottom of your laptop.

 

Is it common to have games not detecting drivers on mobility? So far all games recommend me with low to medium settings.

 

The only thing I can think of is that even though the card is being detected by Windows, with the correct drivers and all, it's not fully operational. Is your desktop operations/refresh slow at all?

 

Nope its not slow. This is the 1st time trying oblivion on this laptop, it detects my card as hd5870m but it recommend all low settings. Same goes for other games. Starcraft 2 doesn't recognise my card at all. Left 4 Dead 2 says my driver is too old.

 

I've got same specs as yours and I have bulletstorm at max setting, I had 60 FPS constant with that. My suggestion is you should clear your old driver in safe mode by driver sweeper and CCclean and then retry with newest driver like 11.5 and CAP3 11.5, google for your link and good luck

 

As djhuydx told you, get:

Driver Sweeper

CCleaner
and instal both of them

1st. uninstall AMD CAP if you have them installed
2nd. Uninstal via Control Panel the ATI package, select custom once the program ask the way you want to proceed and select all the items listed.
3d. Restart you pc, after POST hit F8 and enter in Safe Mode.
4th. Run Driver Sweeper (that you had previously installed), select ATI, analyze, and clean everything. The software will ask for a reboot once is done. Don't reboot at this time, run CCleaner instead.
5th. Run CCleaner, go to the Registry Tab, hit "find problems" and clear whatever it founds. Once it is cleaned repeat the "find problems" tab untill CCleaner find nothing to Clean.
6th.Reboot your system, after POST hit F8 again and enter in VGA mode (640x480) note if everything from the previous steps has been done properly it is not really necessary to enter in VGA mode. But personally i do it to be sure 100% that win7 doesn't load some crap driver by his own will
7th. once in VGA mode install the ATI driver package. i sugest 11.5 or 11.5b hotfix and 11.5 CAP3. note 11.5b hotfix is for desktop & mobile cards, so don't loose your mind finding the proper one. Is one for all.
8th. Reboot and once in windows install CAP.

If you do this way, you shouldn't experience any problem.

9th. let us know how it goes

 

I have played all the games in bold and never had low performance: 60+ performance and in L4D2 I get over 100

Sounds like his crossfire is not working

 

Try to check this: Open Catalyst Control Center.
-Look for the tab on the left: "Power"
-Open that and check to see if: "Enable PowerPlay" is enabled (check mark)
-Select power scheme and hit apply.

By default (somehow), "Enable PowerPlay" was not enabled. I use "Maximize Performance" for "Plugged In," and "Maximize Battery Life" for "Battery."

All I ask in return is post back if it makes any difference.

 

Do you have the RGB LED screen? If you have the 1440 x 900 screen that could attribute to the low performance. The 5870M's in CF doesn't work very well at 1440 x 900. I would suggest connecting to an external 1920 x 1080 monitor to see if things improve.

 

Thanks for all the reply, this give me some hope atleast [: i will give driver sweeper and ccleaner a try. Hope nothing goes wrong.

To make sure a few things before i start:
I am using dell stock vBios, will that affect me using 11.5?
My Bios is A05 (not vBios just to make sure), do i need to update it or it doesn't matter?
Do i need to disable crossfire while updating?
Are these the correct link to download drivers?
(11.5b) - http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst115ahotfix.aspx
(11.5 CAP3) - http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=345127 (I can't download driver sweeper as it has been discontinued. Any help please)
CCleaner - http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Driver Sweeper - http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

@ils
As for powerplay, it is on, i tried disabling it and reenabling it, no improvements on games ]:

@skygunner
How do i check what monitor i have? mine is native 1920x1200 laptop monitor.

I tend to disable crossfire now when testing games, since it doesn't give significant boost on fps. I will try crossfiring after i done a clear sweep.
I notice that games that are low fps will drop lower after 30minutes or so. And it will stay at there.
How about harddisk? will harddisk affect game fps too?

 

If your res is 1920 x 1200 then you don't have the 1440 x 900 screen. In my previous R2 my FPS would drop in Bullet Storm. But my current R2 performs flawlessly. Currently most games except NFSS:U perform very well with Crossfire enabled.

 

1st. in order to use any AMD driver other than the one provided by dell you need to flash your video cards bios at the latest bios version, A01. A way to verify what V-bios you have, download and install gpu-z. On the Bios version you should find 012.020.000.027.037640. this is the last V-bios. If you have a previous version you need to have the dell driver installed first, then you can flash the cards. Afterwards you can proceed with AMD driver sets.

Also i sugest you to update to the latest A10 system Bios.

You don't need to disable crossfire while installing the drivers and yes, the links are the correct one.

another link for driver sweeper in the case that you had trouble downloading it, |MG| Driver Sweeper 3.0.0 Download (i hope i'm not breaking any rules here, in case sorry)

Hard disk don't do nothing for gaming. Granted, having an SSD will improve loading time, and in some case texture loading time, wich indeed remove some stuttering if it depends by this.

 

Thanks for replying.

Updated bios to A10. I enabled my Raid 0, do i need reenable Raid 1?
Do you guys use default CCC option for 3D application settings? I am still getting better fps, but 30-45fps in borderlands...
Starcraft2 better, but still choppy, sometimes it falls below 30.. but back up to 60-70 fps.

**Something i notice that is weird, At dell support website where i download drivers. If i choose to let dell get my service tag, it will give me m17x drivers instead of m17x r2 drivers. Is this a known issue?

 

Be careful about raid config or you may loose your data.

I missed the part where you said that you have a raid array.

Raid 0 will allow you to sum your hdd space and to almost double the performaces.
Raid 1 will mirror your drives, making a copy of one to the other. If system fail you will have the ability to switch to the other drive and continue working

Normaly i keep the settings on CCC as they are. Mipmap set to high quality, AI on advanced, triple buffering on and the rest application controlled.

 

Just to be sure, I can only enable 1 raid at a time?

So far non of my data is lost, hopefully, been testing games but still disappointing results ]: No idea what is wrong anymore..

 

there are controller raid that enable the array to work 0+1 but this on desktop system. to have it working this way you must have 4 hdd. (2 pair in raid 0, the raid 0 arrays in raid 1 between them)

right now if i'm right you are running: A10 bios, A01 V-bios and either 11.5 or 11.5b hotfix drivers with caps? is that correct?

 

I double checked my raid, i only need to enable Raid 0. Thanks for the info though.

Ya you are right, those are the drivers i am using now. Still not getting 60fps or more in borderlands / starcraft 2 (most noticeable at 4v4) and other games i mentioned.

 

Open GPU-Z and see if it says Crossfire enabled or Disabled but available or just disabled. It could be you crossfire cable is not plugged in. In borderlands I get 60-80 FPS occasional dip to 50. It seems like your crossfire is not working.

 

Cross fire is enabled. Really have no idea what is wrong though.
It seems that when i play team fortress 2 with xfire on, its fps is choppy, without crossfire its smooth. But maybe team fortress 2 doesn't support xfire. Other games remain the same.
How i wish i get a m17x r2 without problem, so annoying..

EDIT: When i use CCC and go to AMD CrossFireX Diagnotics, and i press identify GPU, it shows 1. Is this correct or it should be 2?

EDIT2: Could mcafee be the culprit? Since it has real time scanning on. If so how do i disable mcafee?

 

Have you installed the latest CAPS and done the driver reinstalls following the directions posted? Have you tried un checking enable crossfire, restart, and install the drivers again, then enable crossfire?

 

I had issues with fps dropping a while back. In games like starcraft 2 my fps would drop from 60 to 20-30 ish for 5 seconds or so at random times. Same with crisis 2. I opened my laptop and cleaned the heatsink. Solved the issues of fps dropping. If you have had your laptop for quite a while might be worth checking your temps as dust can really clog up the heatsink

 

All done, re-checked many things, redid alot of steps.. still the same, i am giving up. Thanks for all the help though [: appreciate it!

Any tips for calling dell to exchange my laptop? Or they won't do it?

 

If you're using bios a10 switch to a09. Had the same issues with my r2 and sent it in. Dell changed my bios to a09 and i installed a10 to check if it was the issue and it was for me. You really have to battle them like I did though if you want a replacement

 

Hm i am still waiting dell support to reply me. I notice something while i turn on my GPU-Z while playing starcraft 2. Haven't test on other games.
My 2nd card reach 108C temperature at highest, and my 1st card is only 86. I think this is a serious problem. Any idea what is causing this?

Whats wrong with a10? May i know how to downgrade it to a9?