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    Poor gaming performance on brand new M17X R3

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Feathers_McGraw, Aug 9, 2011.

  1. Feathers_McGraw

    Feathers_McGraw Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi all,

    My M17X R3 arrived just the other day, and after playing a few games and fidling around, I've got to say I'm a little dissapointed...

    So heres the setup I have: GTX 580m, 8gb ram, i7 2820QM.

    Now basically, source games like dod and tf2 are running at between 25-40 fps, which for me seems very low considering I was getting these same fps rates on a 5 year old laptop at roughly the same graphical settings! Even more worrying is that games such as red orchestra are running at around 20fps!

    I have no idea what is causing this. I have a feeling it may be due to the GTX 580m not actually working at all, and instead games are running off the intel sandybridge integrated graphics. I though this for a few reasons, firstly the GTX 560m wasn't showing up in the dxdiag or cpu-z, only the "intel HD graphics 3000" (the integrated graphics). Secondly, the fps in game doesn't change from when the power plan is changed from "power saving" (which is when the integrated graphics are used) to "high performance", which is when the GTX 580m should kick in right?

    I've also tried pressing FN+F7 to switch between integrated and discreet, but just get a box appearing stating "Your graphics solution is automatically configured for optimal performance".

    I really hope someone can help me here, otherwise it'll have to be a call to dell which I could really do without, as I'm sure you all know why!

    cheers,

    james
     
    Feathers_McGraw, Aug 9, 2011
    #1
  2. Brabostaan

    Brabostaan Notebook Deity

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    Did you game with or without the AC adapter?
     
    Brabostaan, Aug 9, 2011
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  3. Feathers_McGraw

    Feathers_McGraw Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yep, charger is plugged in. could it be a driver issue perhaps? I guess not tbh, I mean the GTX 580m is pretty recent right, so drivers can't be out of date.
     
    Feathers_McGraw, Aug 9, 2011
    #3
  4. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    Make sure you are not running on the IGP.
     
    Mechanized Menace, Aug 9, 2011
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  5. Feathers_McGraw

    Feathers_McGraw Notebook Enthusiast

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    Could you explain how this is done? The only way I know of doing it is by pressing FN+F7 and this gives the message I wrote in my original post.

    cheers
     
    Feathers_McGraw, Aug 9, 2011
    #5
  6. Brabostaan

    Brabostaan Notebook Deity

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    Try to re-install the Nvidia drivers from the Dell site.
     
    Brabostaan, Aug 9, 2011
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  7. Feathers_McGraw

    Feathers_McGraw Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ok, I'll try this. Any other ideas are most welcome!
     
    Feathers_McGraw, Aug 9, 2011
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  8. maxtek

    maxtek Notebook Consultant

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    Some other dude had a similar problem to yours here. His fix was a clean re-install of windows and gfx drivers lol.
     
    maxtek, Aug 9, 2011
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  9. zoolian982

    zoolian982 Notebook Deity

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    zoolian982, Aug 9, 2011
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  10. steve1ddd

    steve1ddd Notebook Evangelist

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    the game you are playing probaly isnt being detected properly by optimus...go into your nvidai settings and add the exe
     
    steve1ddd, Aug 9, 2011
    #10