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    Mx17R3 Performance issues in all games

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by nomadgaming, Mar 26, 2013.

  1. nomadgaming

    nomadgaming Newbie

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    Hey guys,

    Just looking for some tips on the Alienware MX17 R3's Performance.

    Before I start, my specs are:
    - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2820QM CPU @ 2.30GHz
    - 16GB DDR3 SO-DIMM
    - AMD Radeon HD 6900M Series (12CU 960SP SM5.0 680MHz, 2GB DDR5 3.6GHz 256-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16) (i think its a 6950 but not sure)

    - Graphics Driver Version 8.981.2-120626a-141571E-AT
    - Windows 7 64bit Pro, all updates installed

    - It sits on a cooling thing with 3-4 little fans
    - I have had it since May 2011

    Over the last 12 months or so I have been getting significant performance degradation on games that I run. It really started with Diablo 3, was fine for a while then just dropped horribly, I found locking the fps to 30 seemed to help. Since then almost all games I play have this problem, Dota2, Starcraft 2, Guild Wars 2, WoW etc, in all games if I locked the fps to 30ish it seems to work, but still not 100% and not consistently. I even run some of these games on very very low graphic settings and have the same problem.

    Most other games like tomb raider, borderlands 2, sim city, assassin's creed 4 etc have annoying FPS issues and jumps (on standard out of the box in game settings)

    Games I used to play in the past like Skyrim, Deus Ex or Witcher 2 that used to run fairly well on high settings, now barely run at all or run at low fps with jerks making them unplayable.

    SOMETIMES if I reboot the computer it fixes it, but rebooting every few hours is getting damn annoying. It only really works for Dota2 and Starcraft

    Anyone else experience this, or have any advice or tips.
    I will be opening up the laptop, cleaning it out of dust and gunk etc and re pasting the CPU (and gpu if Its simple enough as I'm a massive noob)

    I've also checked power settings, spyware checks, anti virus checks, closed ALL back ground programs etc, still get drama

    I have also formatted and re installed windows not to long ago
     
    nomadgaming, Mar 26, 2013
    #1
  2. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    I'm betting that your system fans and heatsinks have a lot of dust in them. Nothing a good clean won't fix and it should get you back up to speed. :)
     
    bigtonyman, Mar 26, 2013
    #2
  3. nomadgaming

    nomadgaming Newbie

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    So you think that's what the problem is, hopefully that is all that's going on. If a clean up doesn't help, would you have any other suggestions?
     
    nomadgaming, Mar 26, 2013
    #3
  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    Alienware-L_Porras, Mar 27, 2013
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  5. nomadgaming

    nomadgaming Newbie

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    Thanks, following the above suggestions has made a world of difference :)
     
    nomadgaming, Mar 28, 2013
    #5