GTA 4 and M17X

Okay so I have 2 laptops:

G72GX: GTX 260m, Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53ghz. 6gb ddr2 ram
M17X: Gtx 280m sli, q9000 @ 2Ghz. 4gb ddr 3 ram

I ran GTA 4 on both laptops and when both had same settings, all "high" and same resolution both using FRAPS, the G72GX won with 21-28fps while my M17x had 16-23FPS. I did the benchmark there and the M17x won with 37fps and the G72GX with 30fps, but the gameplay doesn't live up to that. So I heard GTA 4 is a game that uses a lot of CPU power. I also read that overclocking the CPU is not a good idea due to overheating. So what would you guys do to make GTA more playable? Because now I prefer gaming it on my old laptop. In other games the M17x wins, but not in my favourite game, GTA 4. Any help is very much appriciated, thanks

 

Howdies cheifs,

Yeh GTA 4 is a very taxing CPU game.
OCing a little is fine on the M17 R1. You can easily accomplish this through the Performance options in the BIOS. Just select unlinked and then increase the FSB. You should be able to OC your Q9000 from 2.0Ghz to 2.4Ghz.
Give it a try and then check back in windows using CPU-z to confirm the clockrate.

Also if you want the absolute peak performance make sure you update the GTA4 game. Install all the updates and patches for it. It was a very buggy game to begin with and every little bit helps. There are also a lot of tips and tweaks on google about how to improve fps and gameplay.

Also disable the hybrid SLi and integrated GPU in the BIOS. That will give you back your mem bandwidth. Also get 8gb of RAM if you don't already have it. RAM now is very cheap and it will give you a boost in these types of games + just to improve overall smoothness for the ability to run multiple tasks.
Also make sure to update your GPU drivers.

You can also OC your GPUs. Download Nvidia System tools from Nvidia website install performance options. Then in the NV control panel it will open access to a new feature called performance. There you will be able to select both your 280 GPUs one by one and then OC them accordingly. You could try 50mhz increments if you like or just give them a little boost and see how you go. You can also increase the clocks 5 - 10mhz each time once you start getting closer to the max setting. If it crashes or goes all weird no worries just hard reboot your notebook and everything will be back to stock normal settings.

Try all that chiefs and see how you go.

Cheers.

 

Wow thanks! :O
I overclocked the CPU to 2.4ghz and the GPU from core: 583 to 615 on each card. It went from like 16-21fps to 22-31fps! I have patch 4 installed and I think there is a patch 7 also, so it's looking good! Thanks again Reborn, you have helped me 2 or 3 times already the last days

I also tried overclocking it more than 2.4 and it crashed, is there any other CPU that can be overclocked to like over 3ghz? That would be epic xD

 

No worries chiefs.

Yeh thats about the max the Q9000 CPU will OC in the M17x. 2.4Ghz
Some have been able to OC to about 2.5Ghz but it wasn't really very stable.

If your looking for more CPU power the QX9300 will be the best of the best for the M17x R1. There should be some 9100 or 9200 CPUs on ebay as well. Last time a few people recommended them to me as they were just as fast and cheap too. Those CPUs also have more cache and a much higher stock clock rate so OCing them will get you even higher. 3Ghz will not be a problem for them but yeh see how you go now and maybe a CPU purchase can be done in the near future if you choose to. Just another option.

Good Luck have fun!

Cheers.