World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - M17x R1 & R2 Discussion

Hello i've installed the 260.99 driver version, fps have improved but they are not very stable, Do the -d3d11 trick works also for 280 graphic cards?

 

I don't think that card supports DX11. Ultra water, Ultra shadows, and excessive AA are what I believe to have the most impact on performance. I was just messing with it this morning. The water effects are really nice, but they are just too much on Ultra for my computer, even with a healthy overclock.

 

So when i check my driver details in the device manager for my 5870's it is version 8.763.0.0

Is that outdated? I thought i had the most recent from AMD

 

How do you insert it?
Everytime i do it tells me it is not valid

 

Thats what she said

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\Config

SET gxApi "D3D11"

Or add '-D3D11' (without quotes) to the end of the desktop shortcut under its properties. Like this: "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\Launcher.exe" -d3d11

 

gotcha, thanks!

 

I'm not sure why people are having so many problems. I run everything maxed (except shadow which is two below due to the old shadow glitch). In northrend I get a consistent 70ish fps and up to 180fps at some points. I am using crossfire and it is working (uses both cards). I actually have the latest dell drivers with 10.11 CAP and latest vbios.

I do take a hit when I switch to dx11 but not much. And when I'm in highly populated areas I dip to around 40ish, but still very playable.

 

Hey ya'll,

I'm currently deployed, but I have my M17X at home waiting on me for when I get home in 3 weeks. I was curious if anyone has done any of the new raids/dungeons and if so what sort of FPS are you able to get during the boss fights? I'm hopeing that the system in my sig will be able to max all of the settings out, but after seeing this thread it looks like I might have to be dissapointed. Thanks for any input you can give, can't wait to start playing again.

 

You guys crack me up. I have been playing WOW since it was released. You guys do realize that you are talking about a 6 year old game right? Yea, I know they recently revamped the graphics and it is harder on the graphics card, but come on. You have the finest machine in the world. If it is not playing Cataclysm, you might should just leave it alone and play. There is NO WAY it is lagging on Ultra settings. If it is, it must be about 90 degrees in your house or you have repasted wrong, etc.

 

I am truly not meaning to be rude, but this just isn't possible.

 

TurbodTalon, personally i can say that i'm running it with v-sync on and triplebuffering active. The game stays 60 FPS no matter where or how. If i disable v-sync i experience the same performance as RedViking. Liquid detail setted to High, Shadow setted to High, view dist. on High, particles on ultra and all the other goodies. Really i'm more than satisfied from how this machine is running whatever i'm throwing at it.

 

I believe he means that all of his settings are completely maxed, as in Ultra. I can achieve the same results you're talking about on High as well. I am getting 60fps strong by running modified Ultra settings. Shadows and Water are set to 'Good', and AA is set to 4x. Everything else is maxed.

 

ah ok, i got it

if he means "everything" maxed out then looks a little bit unrealistic. i'm agree with that.

Water on ultra, sunshaft on high (or whatever it is his max setting, i don't recall it) and shadow on ultra are really heavy to render

 

So I just got my new m17x about two weeks ago. 6GB ram, gtx 285m sli, and the q740 processor. It has pretty much everything I wanted EXCEPT the upgraded screen (kind of regret not getting it, is it that big of a difference?)

Anyways from the start its been giving me tons of problems. I was really hoping you all could help me? First off, the laptop hard locks constantly. I did not expect to pay so much for a nice machine and have it constantly hard lock on me 2-3 times every half an hour. It generally only happens while playing wow, but sometimes it will happen just with regular use of windows. The screen will either start flashing random colors with several horizontal lines on the top of screen, sometimes it will just go completely black, or sometimes the screen will just completely freeze on what I was doing, sound will still work, mouse will SLOWLY move, but computer is completely unresponsive to anything other than the power button. Also, i have received several BSOD, with the same error, something about "a clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor core"

I have done everything I can to trouble shoot it, temps are fine, drivers are good, bios has been flashed, literally everything I could think of. Should I call alienware and have a service rep come out? I paid extra for the warranty, I just hate dealing with customer service, I shouldnt have to after paying this much... I would prefer them just send me a whole new machine... SORRY for the wall of text, but I'm sure you all could imagine my frustration. Thanks for any help!

 

Since you just recieved it, I would call Dell. Have a tech come out. It sounds like you have checked the basics.

 

I'll give it a shot, but if the first tech visit doesn't fix it I am going to raise hell and ask for a new machine, I paid way too much to have a laptop that performs like this. Are their techs any good?

 

agreed something is going on, I can't say I've ever had my machine hard-lock on me...at least not yet.

 

Should I just request a whole new computer? I can't beleive im going to have to play this game with tech support now sending guys over to replace things and trouble shooting. I looked into this problem and its not uncommon with the m17x, and people have had tech guys replace vid cards/mobos/etc and it still persists

 

If you just recieved it, ask for a replacment asap, you will feel alot better. I had mine replaced, Dell wanted to replace the mother board on my two week old M17X R2, I said no way, replace it. Ask them is expodite it, say its a Christmas gift

 

If there are any, the problems are not in the hardware, but in the (old) WoW engine. Or the drivers, if you use the older ones.

 

Not sure about this, the laptop is weeks old. I have had no issues running WoW on Ultra Settings on an external monitor to boot. WoW can run on almost any system. It maybe sofware, I agree, but why spend a ton of time trouble shooting, unless its just a WOW issue.

Does your system lockup on other apps besides Wow?

 

Yes, very rarely it will lock up on simple tasks just like using internet or something. Something is wrong, I received it on the 8th, Im going to try to get a new one expedited to me.

edit: and trust me unreal25, there are most definitely problems, unless these hard lock crashes every 20-30 minutes were included in the 2400 dollar price tag...

 

This sucks... I play wow alot and will be getting a r2 in the mail any day now. You guys are scaring me.. So which updates and for what (gpu/bios) will I need running 2 5870s?? If I crash once in wow ... WOW I'll literally pack it back up and demand a refund and order another mbp 17

 

I would not worry about having any issues playing WoW on your new M17X R2. WoW has always worked on mine, even before I updated anything on it. Your new system should have the lastest Bios and Vbios, just get ready for fun

 

I play WoW quite extensively and have yet to have ANY problem that's not actually related to Time Warner Cable. 10.11 drivers, latest VBIOS, crossfire on, everything ultra except for shadows and ground clutter (because otherwise I can't see my goblin). I have no idea why do you get lockups. I can guarantee mine works fine even on 6-8 hour gaming sessions.

The ONLY time m17x has EVER locked up on me is when I was using Google Video/Audio Chat. There is some stuttering with these settings in WoW if I try to watch a HD movie at the same time. (I like to alt+tab a lot so I always have other stuff running.)

I'd try doing a Windows reinstall, installing all the drivers manually, updating everything and then see if there are still problems.

P.S. MBP17lol.

 

unreal25, have you ever compared crossfire on vs off?

The reason I ask is, while I know it did "work" with crossfire on, it worked much better for me (2-3x the FPS) with crossfire off. I did a ton of testing with different installs, drivers and settings etc and I never saw crossfire outperform a single card in this particular game.

With a single I usually ran almost everything on ultra and no AA at max res with a single card. It ran pretty good, but there were times it dropped FPS a bit. With crossfire on it was around 25 FPS and 70 FPS on a single card in the same spot. It was very repeatable, and most other games ran better with crossfire on so I know my crossfire is working great. Only a few (don't know them offhand, written down at home) were better with it off, WoW being one of them. I have since stopped playing so I can't even compare anymore but it's interesting seeing a report of crossfire + WoW.

A little side note, and a bit off topic. Crossfire and eyefinity also works, but I have not found a single game where it outperformed a single card, and most of the time it was actually much lower FPS and choppier. Another interesting find. So I have to run my games in single card config most of the time now I don't expect double the FPS like some games gain from crossfire (BFBC2 is a great example of perfect crossfire scaling), but even 10% gain is better than -50%

 

Hi Dajohu, now granted I'm running with 4870's and not 5870's in crossfire, but I had the completely opposite response. In crossfire I can consistently hit 60fps with most settings on Ultra with the exception of a couple of settings...view distance (which is at High) and one other setting on high (escapes me currently) at 4X AA. When I accidentally had crossfire turned off, I saw a noticeable frame rate drop (30-40fps). So for me, I see a significant improvement with crossfire enabled (of course I'm also running 10.12 drivers with the latest profiles installed as well)

 

With the latest crossfire application profile and the latest 5870 drivers from Dell I get zero problems in WoW on max everything but shadows and clutter.

I've tried it with and without crossfire and it made no difference. Now I have it set to run in the DirectX 11 mode that I think was posted earlier in this thread.

 

I THINK i KNOW WHAT MY LOCKUP problems have been coming from...a trojan or some virus because this past weekend my account was...HACKED !! Luckily Blizz got me everything back wihtin one day, nice hmm! So now I have a question, shoudl I reformat my computer (both) or just restore them? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

 

Oh pls tell me this mofo is not playing it in Ultra Shadow settings lol

Even the latest gaming Desktop PCs are lagging when you use Ultra settings on Shadow

 

hey so i was just wondering if anyone else experiences this but my system in Org lags alot even on lowest settings sometimes drops to about 7 fps mostly when people are around.

 

No. I have been in Orgrimmar a lot lately with all kinds of idiots running around. I saw it hit 46fps. I run all settings maxed ACCEPT for GOOD shadows and GOOD water. 60fps all of the time. Seriously.

 

mebe its ma cpu, also im runnin 10.12 drivers and profile

 

Well, that's a small CPU and you're running 4870s.

 

i guess ill just have to hope for optimizations in wows engine

 

They patch the game so often that you'd think it would be as optimized as it could possibly be after this many years. Who knows. Just slowly dial settings down until you're happy with the performance. A 920XM CPU is around $450 on ebay.

 

guess ill have to start savin up then, would u say its worth it?

 

On my config below I was getting 30 FPS on Ultra (minus shadows) in fullscreen mode. Then I switched to Windowed mode, and it jumped up to 70 FPS virtually anywhere.

I disabled Crossfire all-together and all of my games run much, much smoother.

I'm still running stock drivers and vbios (the flickery kind) because I am scared to update it during a school year.

 

also would a ram upgrade help or proly not?

 

I have a desktop running a GTX 470 OC and I can run absolutely everything in ultra, shadows, etc. and it runs over 130 fps easily. So you should be able to run everything fine. I think a lot of people are having issues with crossfire and sli, those just don't seem to play nicely with a lot of games.

WOW has always been notoriously hard on video card and processors for some reason. It puts a higher load on the machine than Crysis, your temps will skyrocket the minute you start playing WOW.

 

I had problems a month or so ago getting crossfire to get better results than a single GPU. Now I and getting a little better performance in crossfire than single (about 20%). It's not much but better than nothing. I was playing at absolute max settings (ultra plus 8x AA) but a few spots it was choppy so I dropped AA completely but still everything at ultra. I can't beleive how much better it's running than it was a month ago. I'm assuming its the wow patches plus I'm running in directx 11 mode now too because I'm using the same wow install folder I've used for years.

I can play in eyefinity mode but then I have to run a bunch of mods to get the interface looking right, plus I basically have to only run on one card in eyefinity, so my choice is either meduim in eyefinity or ultra in single so I've been doing single.

 

What frames are you getting?

 

Well what you quoted was from my tests a month ago (account had expired so I could not do any more testing), and at the time it was 25 fps crossfire vs 70 fps single card in the same spot with the same settings. It was right around the same time I was starting to use eyefinity, so I wonder if those results could have clouded my memory (eyefinity does do just that, xfire on yields lower fps in every game).

Anyhow, I had a 10 day trial on my old account so I tried it again and wow! Now I run everything setting maxed out (except no AA) in directx 11 mode and have had no problems yet. Many times it's pegged at 60 fps so it's a totally different experience than I had previously. I tested crossfire in a fairly predictable spot in Orgrimmar, (I had to pick a spot where it wasn't pegged at 60 otherwise the test would be worthless) and without xfire it was 45, and with it was 55 (in that particular spot). So not much improvement, but better than nothing. It did seem to stay at 60 (I am using vsync) much more with xfire on than off, so regardless of the "small" fps gains I do like the way it's working with crossfire now.

 

i got r2 with i5 520 and 5870 x-fire and is it normal to get 20-30 fps? i get about 18-30 most of the areas. including unpopulated areas

 

I am currently getting 45 fps in Ogrimmar with CrossfireX enabled. As soon as I leave the city it jumps to 65+ fps and can range up to 120fps depending on the zone. I was only getting 24fps when I was using the ATI drivers but when I switched back to the Dell drivers I saw a big jump in fps. I am running everything in Ultra (except shadows and water-both good) and I have Vertical sync turned off.

 

I have 2x5870's with Crossfire enabled and I typically get an average of 55fps in Ogrimmar.
Cap at 60 everywhere else (vsync is enabled)

I have my settings at custom with "good" as a starting point.

I could up some more of the settings (basically max it out but then drop the shadows, clutter and water settings to best or good) but I am fine with it as of now.

D.

 

Same as debaucher here. Most of the settings are on high (including water, shadow and sunshaft, anisotropic 8x, no AA, v.sync and triple buffer active)

60 FPS all the time, it drops as low as 55 in Stormwind if really crowded

I'm on AMD 10.12 with Cap profiles

I run the game with the -d3d11, in order to use DX11 features

My WOW experience has never been so good. I'm really enjoying the game.

 

Anyone care to speak to this? I read this from time to time... does Dell do anything more than sign off on a given driver?

 

I am using ATI's 10.12 with Cap profiles also, running WOW on Ultra even in Ogrimmar with no problems, looks great. Sure it gets alittle choppy around the broker, but that's to be expected. The Dell drivers have not been updated lately, I would think as long as you strip out the old drivers using somthing like Driversweeper, and doing a fresh install, and also making sure your Vbios is updated, you should be good to go.