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    Better Performance?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by FancyHat, Jun 21, 2012.

  1. FancyHat

    FancyHat Newbie

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    Alright, I'm pretty certain that I have the same specs as this guy, and while I'm still glad I bought it, I'm a bit disappointed with its game performance so far and was hoping for anyone to give me some tips on how to improve it.

    I've just installed Max Payne 3, and currently it runs okay at lower resolutions at about 30-40 fps. While I realize this is a demanding game (though I might be underestimating it a little...), several games, like Just Cause 2, Fallout New Vegas and sometimes Civ 5 don't run as well as i hoped they would (I haven't tried many games yet, but these are the more demanding games I have on it so far).

    I'm not very knowledgeable of PC gaming and its intricacies (I was hoping to get into this space by buying my own gaming comp.), but considering how expensive this comp was, I was expecting it to run games at a higher rate than it does (not to say it runs badly at all, but its performance isn't as high as I was expecting).

    Are there any tips anyone can give me to improve this? Or am I just overestimating how competent a high-end laptop can be at gaming?
     
    FancyHat, Jun 21, 2012
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  2. kimlo

    kimlo Notebook Geek

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    Well from another Australian who has the same specs (on order) I hope I can play all current games in high settings.

    Laptops will never match desktops in any category though so if absolute high end performances is what you want it might be worth selling and getting a desktop with the same money which will be better spec wise.
     
    kimlo, Jun 21, 2012
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  3. SkylineLvr

    SkylineLvr Notebook Deity

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    Are you on the dedicated GPU (7970M) or the IGPU? Press FN+F7 and reboot. That should fix your problem.
     
    SkylineLvr, Jun 21, 2012
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  4. Altair4

    Altair4 Notebook Consultant

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    It's probably because you're using the integrated card instead of the 7970M. Press Fn + F7
     
    Altair4, Jun 21, 2012
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  5. khetik

    khetik Notebook Deity

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    You are most definitely on IGP. With my M15x, I have no stuttering running the game 1080p everything on highest setting except the msaa. So your 7970m should have no problems at all with this game.

    EDIT: but then again driver support for the 7970m isn't so hot.
     
    khetik, Jun 21, 2012
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  6. imranh101

    imranh101 Notebook Guru

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    That's definitely weird. My 460m maxes Fallout 3 at 60fps. MAXes. And FO:NV uses same engine, would get 60fps too.
    I think you aren't using the right graphics, or you need to put in high performance mode. Or you need to use it plugged in if you havent been.
     
    imranh101, Jun 21, 2012
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  7. vadupleix

    vadupleix Notebook Consultant

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    simply assign the "high performance" card to the game application if u forgot that, the auto assign of amd is usually unreliable. If that doesn't work u might need to consider reinstalling the driver
     
    vadupleix, Jun 21, 2012
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  8. FancyHat

    FancyHat Newbie

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    thx everyone for all the replies

    I did the fn-f7 thing, and I've got my comp. using the graphics card instead of the integrated graphics (if I've got that right; I think that's what some of you were talking about).

    I just tried Max Payne 3 out again, and its working extremely well at the highest resolution, etc, so I think my computers running as well as it should be.

    Thanks for all the help guys.
     
    FancyHat, Jun 21, 2012
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