Anyone playing Starcraft 2 Beta on M17x-R2

I just recently received my M17x-R2 with the following specs:

Intel Core i7 920XM 2.0GHz
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MH
1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870
256GB Solid State Drive

I primarily got it to play the Starcraft 2 Beta. On Medium settings at 1920 x 1200 resolution I get at most between 25-45fps....and at ultra settings it drops anywhere from 10-20fps. These values are for a 1v1 game. I haven't even tried a bigger game, with more opponents. Has anyone else played the beta on their machine? Is this the best I can expect? I would like to play at higher settings, but frame rates of < 20fps is just unacceptable.

I made sure power setting is set to performance and stealth mode is definitely off. Just wondering if anyone else is playing the beta and getting better performance out of their system, and what tweaks you might have made. Thanks.

 

On my single 5870 machine in ran ultra great. havent installed it yet on this machine, ill try it now

 

Wow, I did not expect that at all. Same exact settings as my when I had my single card and my fps dropped drastically. I'm averaging 14 fps just staring at my workers collecting minerals.

 

Same problem with my M15x and 260M. The game sure doesn't look fancy enough to cause that kind of slowdown.

 

I ran it on Ultra with no problems

 

hmmm.....interesting. Are you using the stock drivers provided by Alienware/Dell? Did you have to make any modifications to the driver settings?

 

No mods, just stock

 

I'm running on ultra averaging around 50-60 fps on my 4870's in CrossfireX

Does the game utilize quad-core CPU's and Dual GPU's?

 

^
Well it is an RTS, so I assume it uses all 4 cores.

 

Is there a way to get SC2 beta even if you don't have any Blizzard's games?

 

My laptop just shipped and it will be here on the 2nd. So ill test this out with SC2 Beta for sure. Iv been waiting for it for a few years now and can now finally play it.
i7 720qm CF 5870m 1200-screen 128 SSD 4 gigs of 1333ghz ram. Ill try right out of the box see how well it does and let you know.

 

preordering gets you a beta code. I was just plain invited

 

You should be getting much higher fps. On my M1710 (see sig) I was getting a near-constant 20-30 fps on all High (except shadows on low) at 1920 x 1200, albeit with a GPU overclock to 651/737. Of course, with my luck my GPU then decided to go nuclear, getting up to 102 C even without the OC.

 

Ran it as Administrator, and poof, back up to 30 frames

 

Preorder it at gamestop.

OR on there website and get emailed a beta key.

THEN create a battle.net account

 

So anyone can get a beta key? How is the game? worth buying?

 

Yes! Totally worth it.

 

just for heads up, SC2 beta is ending on june 7th.

proof: StarCraft II Beta - English (NA) Forums -> StarCraft II Beta Test Schedule Update

 

Thanks for all the responses. Tried running it as administrator and not much change to my frame rate. Basically I can only run this game on medium settings. Setting the in game options to ultra or even high slows my game to a crawl. Bummer....I really dig the form factor and the screen of this laptop, but it looks like I'm going to be sending it back...

 

Over one game? That's just stupid. Mess around with some settings for the time being. New drivers will come out soon, or try running it on one card. I gauruntee you it's only running slow because crossfire 5870m is still very new and most companies are not jumping off the walls to cater to the, what, 20 of us?

 

Yea, blue's right, im running beta on my M15x w single 5870m, it runs ultra without any problem or hitch, just fantastic!! Im drollin over your machine, just hang in there, they will come up w right driver for you, and SC2 will never look sweeter then. :-D and i got this machine just for sc2 as well, hahah

 

I don't have dual cards. Only running it off a single 5870. I literally have nothing else installed but Starcraft 2 beta and fraps. I have an old XPS M1710 from a few years ago and that laptop can run Company of Heroes on max settings with a solid 45-55fps. I was expecting the M17x to really wow me with performance in the same way, but for the price I'm not convinced just yet. Perhaps I'll tinker with it some more but I don't want to exceed my return window time frame.....

btw, for the person that asked, yes the game is great and lots of fun Just wished I could run it with all the bells and whistles.

 

If your not getting at least 45 fps, you need to double check your drivers. It runs perfect with a single 5870.

 

Stealth mode is off for sure? Sounds like people with the same config as yours are getting nice fps

 

Yep, stealth mode definitely off. Tested it by enabling/disabling to check the difference in performance.

Is this the driver version package from Dell everyone is using?
8.692.2.0

 

Did you check if it was turned off in the BIOS? Stealth mode seems to be very problematic with some M17x's...

 

Let me tell you brother, the same thing happened to me in BC2. I was getting 30 to 40 fps on medium while others were getting 50 to 60 on high. I came here and someone suggested to make sure stealth mode was off and that powerplay was on. I toggled both of those and now I am maxing out this beautiful game while playing in 32 man servers! BTW, I have the 4870 CF.

 

Okay called Alienware about my poor frame rates. Funny thing is....when I gave them my service tag number, my computer was tagged as a m15x instead of m17x. The tech thought that maybe they installed the wrong drivers/bios, so he reflashed the bios and now the system is working great.

Getting 55-65 fps on ultra settings in SC2 beta where I was getting at most between 20-30 fps before.

 

that's the way it should perform. sweet

 

Glad to hear that your problem is fixed. How is SC2 so far? I was torn between it & C&C, but after seeing reviews of C&C I think SC2 will be the way to go. I guess I just need to pre order it so I can get the beta & post my frame rates

 

Not even a question, SC2 hands down.

 

I played C&C but it didn't hold my attention for long. Starcraft 2 is fantastic (assuming you liked the original). The beta is a blast to play, especially now that my M17x is working correctly.

 

Just got my laptop in today and checking out games on it.
SC2 beta. - PROBLEM

Im failing to render rocks, mins, and some gas on some maps. Its not 100% of the time more like 50% of the time HALF the map wont render correctly. The worst thing about this is if im in a match and have units walk into a failer to render zone. I cant select those units anymore and they just stay there.

This is breaking the game for me im not sure what to do. If Dell has a lock on the Video drivers what am i sopost to do about getting better driver support to play starcraft?

 

damn, i can't opt in for the beta. looks like you have to have at least one game purchased in order to apply.

 

Or you can just pre-order it at GameStop... That's what I did. I didn't feel like resurrecting my WoW account.

 

Has anyone used an external monitor on your M17x, and if so - how did it perform in SC2?

I've run into some frame-rate problems doing this (while playing SC2 beta), however I am only using a single 4870, and could be just pushing it to hard; it's a 27" SAMSUNG P2770H 1080 monitor.

When I use that as my primary display, I have to put the graphics settings in SC2 to Low across the board because its so terribly choppy in Medium or High; and completely unplayable in Ultra.

Thoughts?

(I'm going to experiment with some of the fixes that worked for SifuDog, but I'm worried I may just be pushing it too hard to begin with..)

 

I connected my laptop to a Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP using the DisplayPort connector and haven't noticed any drop in frame rates on ultra settings. You're not using a docking station/port replicator are you?

 

Yeah, I am getting the same problem, I don't know what is up, the very first time I played everything was fine, and from then on half the map won't render, and I can't do a thing... Not very fun... Any thoughts anyone??

 

I've been playing SC2 beta over the past couple days on Ultra and haven't had a single problem. Actually the only problem I had with the system was it giving me problems waking up from sleep when I disabled XFire, but that is another issue. Using stock Dell drivers and haven't done any OC'ing.