Can i game on the go with M17x?

hey,
is gaming possible on M17x R3 or the coming R4 with its battery?

 

From what I've read the dedicated GPU will be downclocked a lot (when not plugged in). Thus if you game on battery power, I think you'd better use the integrated CPU GPU (HD3000). (Also to increase battery life)
Benchmarks tell that the HD3000 should perform about the same as the Go 7900 GS (laptop in my sig); depending on the CPU of course.

So it probably depends on the game you want to play. I can barely play BF BC2; but older titles go very fluent on highest settings.

Here are some benchmarks of the HD3000:
Intel HD Graphics 3000 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Since I only just ordered an M17X R3 myself, I don't know to what level the GPU will be downlocked when on battery power; but if it's similar to the HD3000, then you'd better use that one to preserve battery life.

 

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: No unless you play really undemanding games. The gpu (doesn't matter which one) will be downclocked by a lot which makes the framerate drop drastically. Older games however shouldn't be a problem, or even some newer games with very low settings.

 

Or yes, if he has a mains power source everywhere he goes!

 

DAMN. So i need power 24x7?

is it just with alienware or same case for all?

Anyway to stop the downclocking?

 

On the M11x and M14x you should be able to game smoothly on battery. M17x and M18x, no way.

No, you cannot stop the downclock because the battery cannot supply that amount of power.

Ivy Bridge's Intel HD 4000 could work fairly well on battery, its benchmarks are fairly promising - up to x2 faster than the HD 3000.

 

oh crap, this is just sad :/

i guess ill wait till ivy bridge, and if that doesnt improve this, ill have to go to some other brand...

 

Alienware laptops were NEVER meant to game without a power source. My M17xR2 doesn't support graphics switching and gets horribly throttled on battery (basically unusable). Even my Vostro 1500 with an 8600M GT + T7500 gets horribly throttled with a 65 watt AC adapter or on battery.

 

Nothing to do with brand. Atm no top of the range mobile GPU will run full clocks at battery. Simple as that.

 

omg. so what alternative do u suggest? or maybe ivy bridge is the change im looking for?

 

Depends what games you are playing,
I doubt other brands have 17+" laptop that you can play games on the go.

If u want to play games on the go, you really should consider small screen systems.

 

but 14 inch seems too small :/

 

skyrim lags down to 10-20fps without battery, but if you turn down all settings, I am sure you can do better

 

Yea i dont mind lowering the settings to play, but i dont want just to be restricted to my table...

BTW, how long does the battery survive with skryim on battery without charging?

 

No, and no.

Even 2D games like Terraria on the lowest settings stutter and aren't really *smooth* on the integrated graphics.

I've used both a M17x R3 and an M11x R2 and the integrated graphics performance was bad on both of them. If you are playing graphically intensive games, you're going to *need* to be plugged in. That's just the name of the game. Maybe battery technology will someday be to the point where you can game on a battery, but it's not there yet.

HOWEVER... there is a bright side... and that is that our society (American society at least) is outlet crazy. There are outlets everywhere. Outlets at the airport, outlets at Denny's, outlets in the plane seats... hell... there are even outlets in some public parks here. If you can't find an outlet somewhere, you're just not looking hard enough

 

Well i live in india. though we have outlets at alot of places now including metro rail

but only few are available

 

Of course you can game on the go. The 580M will downclock, but it'll still be useable. I could play Unreal Tournament 3 at about medium settings on my downclocked 260M.

What everyone here means to say is that you can't game at full power while on battery.

 

You just can't game well, or play newer games.

This isn't an Alienware issue, and Ivy Bridge won't have anything to do with it.

The problem is that the top end GPUs take over 100 watts of power, which is more than the rest of the system combined. No laptop at all will let you game at full speed with these GPUs on battery, period. I think the highest GPU that will run full speed on battery is like an Nvidia 555m or ATI 7690m.

 

The 580M will downclock to 73.6MHz core on battery and that gives you around 3700 points in 3DMark06

Intel HD 3000 will give you around 4000+ points in 3DMark06

Intel HD 4000 should give around 6000+

The 6990M downclocks to 400/900, but I am not sure on scores. Should be better than both above;

EDIT - WOW, I can actually play Syndicate maxed out, 6990M on battery at 400/900 at 30-40 FPS... but for how long?
Probably an hour max. Not bad. Don't wanna stress my battery but that's pretty sick if you ask me.

 

Read this Alienware Level 3 Engineering document: Why my Alienware M17x R3 downclocks the Video Card when using the system on Battery Power | Dell and you might have some degree of success. I don't own and R3, so I cannot try it. (This does not work on the M18x because the graphics switching is set up differently.)

Check out the rest of the Level 3 Engineering docs posted by DELLChrisM when you have time.

 

Does M18xR1 support Optimus with 580M SLI? If it does, may have to shy away from that, I do not want Optimus.

 

Well I checked my PowerPlay settings and set Battery to Maximize Performance and guess what... 715/900 clocks work on battery and Syndicate runs just as smooth as it does on Power.

You learn new things every day, but this pretty much proves everyone in this thread wrong (even myself). You can game on battery pretty well.

[Not for long and obviously your battery will deteriorate very quickly if you do so...]

 

@Tsunade, not the M18x has switchable but it is manual. You'll be fine.

Nvidia users can turn off powermizer through a registry hack. I still don't recommend it though. It will kill the battery faster. I don't mean drain it but rather the battery's long term life. It will cease to work sooner.

 

That goes for pretty much every system under full load whilst on battery... Just not a good idea

 

I had no idea this could even be disabled, I was under the impression that full load was way too much pull for the battery, and would basically roast it.

 

Thanks i will check these out tonight.

Wow, this is nice I wont often game on battery, but only when im doing long distance traveling.

U have 6990M right? so maybe thats why ur able to play. um....

 

Thankfully, no Optimus on the M18x. As widezu69 pointed out, it is manual through a hardware mux switch, so there are none of the Optimus headaches to deal with.

Cool! I am glad that it worked.

That would not not be good. Did you (or someone you know) find this out the hard way, or just know by applying common sense?

NVIDIA users with a single GPU should be able to use the PowerMizer switch, or an even better tool is NVIDIA PowerMizer Manager. You can use it without registry hacks, so this might allow you to game on battery. It is not possible to disable PowerMizer on an SLI system, even with registry hacks. For some reason it only takes effect on one of the GPU modules.

Another thing you can try with NVIDIA is to create a Control Panel profile for DWM.exe (Desktop Window Manager) and set the power management mode to "Prefer Maximum Performance" instead of "Adaptive" and this will force your NVIDIA GPU to say in 3D mode (P0) all the time. When you want it to clock down again to 2D mode, change it back to "Adaptive" (and reboot, if necessary). This might work effectively for gaming with a single GPU on battery instead of disabling PowerMizer. If someone wants to give it a shot with the R3, I would be interested in knowing if it lets you game on battery.

With the M18x, this WDM Control Panel tweak only works while plugged into AC power. Both GPUs still immediately clock down to 2D mode when disconnected from AC power, unfortunately. At the same time, I would imagine that the battery life would be so short with 580M SLI running at full speed in 3D mode that it probably would not be all that useful.

 

Wow! I was of the very same opinion. I had no idea this could be done. I'd test it, but the most powerful laptop I have has a 555M, so it wouldn't do anything.

Side note: The 555M is a great little card. Unreal Tournament 3 @ 1080p 0AA/16AF and it gets a solid 60FPS. (I know UT3 is an old game, but it scales very well with everything, so I use it as a benchmark in most cases)