m17x meh framerate?

I've got a brand new m17x with the single 5870, 8gb 1333 RAM, 128gb SSD, i7 720qm, but Borderlands doesn't like being cranked up to 1920x1200 with max settings on everything. It'll run playable in 1680, but still kind of crappy. Do I need to OC my laptop to get better performance? Can't afford a second 5870 right now, so that isn't an option.

 

Some of the M17x have performance throttling issues. It would be a good idea to run a ThrottleStop log file while gaming. When you first start it the program will be in monitoring mode. Just check off the Log File option and you should be good to go do some gaming.

It is very accurte at detecting if you have any throttling issues. Send the log file my way or upload it somewhere like sendspace and then post a link so I can have a look.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStop.zip

 

I'll try that out tonight. I set the performance settings to high performance in the Alienware settings, but haven't noticed a huge difference.

 

It looks like my CO% is almost never going much above 30%...

 

Most of the log looks like this;


05/17/10 19:24:12 16.55 24.1 100.0 100.0 35
05/17/10 19:24:13 15.00 19.6 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:14 13.89 25.3 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:15 14.87 18.4 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:16 16.35 24.6 100.0 100.0 34
05/17/10 19:24:17 13.68 34.3 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:18 13.23 33.9 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:19 13.10 35.0 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:20 13.27 31.4 100.0 100.0 39
05/17/10 19:24:21 13.65 28.2 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:22 14.15 26.4 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:23 14.37 27.1 100.0 100.0 39
05/17/10 19:24:24 14.32 28.1 100.0 100.0 39
05/17/10 19:24:25 13.43 34.9 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:26 13.11 35.9 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:27 13.00 35.0 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:28 13.09 34.3 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:29 13.29 34.1 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:30 13.76 32.4 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:31 13.03 31.9 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:32 13.33 33.9 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:33 13.61 34.4 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:34 13.29 34.8 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:35 13.59 35.9 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:36 13.38 35.6 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:37 13.27 30.0 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:38 14.00 26.5 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:39 13.31 33.8 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:40 13.38 33.9 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:41 13.56 34.6 100.0 100.0 37
05/17/10 19:24:42 13.45 34.1 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:43 13.87 27.2 100.0 100.0 38
05/17/10 19:24:44 14.57 21.8 100.0 100.0 39
05/17/10 19:24:45 15.14 17.9 100.0 100.0 38

 

The low C0% just shows that the game you're playing is only using about a third of your CPU's power and the other two thirds is sitting idle. It's hard to fully load a CPU with the typical games of today.

The important numbers are those two columns of 100.0. That's what you want to see for clock modulation and chipset clock modulation. When either of these two columns dip below 100.0, that's a problem and a sign of throttling.

The default multiplier for a Core i7-720QM is 12 so anything above that means you are getting some turbo boost which is a good thing. The amount of turbo boost you get is constantly changing based on load and how many cores are awake in the active state. As cores go to sleep, the remaining cores can use a higher multiplier. ThrottleStop shows a very accurate average of that.

So far the CPU looks like it is performing as expected with no issues. On the M17x with a Core 2 Quad and SLI, the clock modulation can instantly drop as low as 12.5% which drops the frame rates to the low single digits when gaming.

 

Go ahead and OC the 5870

 

when I ran TS on my old R1 with this game I still saw a 10 to 15 frames per second hit from a 59FPS, so and this is with all the setting on high dynamic shadows take a huge hit in this game, although turning off the feature does degrade the overall picture, I really disliked turning it off and rather they shouldve put a low mid high on shadows.

 

Oddly enough, I toggled back and forth from stealth mode a few times to make sure I was in full-power mode, tried the game again and it ran smoothly. I really wish there was an easier way to tell if you're running in stealth mode or full-power, like an LED indicator or tray icon... something.

Where is the best thread to look for OC advice? I thought I saw something about the i7 720qm not liking to be OC'd. Is there an easy place to OC that won't screw my warranty? Last time I OC'd anything was years ago tweaking FSB settings in bios. Later, Gigabyte had a handy software tool you could run in windows to change settings on the fly without restarting.

 

Does that happen on the R2 version as well or just the R1 with Nvidia cards?

 

For overclocking the 5870, your best bet is the AMD GPU Clock Tool for HD5870, which you can download here: techPowerUp! :: Download AMD GPU Clock Tool v0.9.26.0 For HD 5870

No one has yet figured out a reliable method for overclocking the i7-720QM.

 

Check this forum. Someone made a tray app that shows stealth mode on/off and allows you to toggle it.