m17x-r2 WoW flickering, stuttering w/ 5870 (CF)

In short:

- when crossfire is enabled, there's often screen flickering in WoW (didn't notice that in 3DMark06 or Vantage) but the game runs quite smoothly otherwise
- when crossfire is disabled, on one card there is quite a lot of stuttering, even on medium-high details , and fan is on very high quite often than with CF. Let's just say it's pretty unplayable even when solo questing.

This is all with stock drivers, clocks etc.

The amount of problems with this laptop is unbelievable.

 

my CF 5870's haven't arrived yet. But from what iv been reading about the new GTX 480 and how many problems and how they don't scale in performance I'm almost thinking about canceling my order after been waiting 11 days for this thing and its still not built.

 

Have u tried any other games? or is it just WOW?

 

I tried APB beta, even with single 5870 on native res and high details it runs very smooth. The flickering thing and stuttering I've noticed only in WoW (and I've been running quite a few 3DMark benchmarks). In crossfire setup, my bechmarks are 13k Vantage and 16.2k 3DMark06 so I think there isn't any kind of throttling going on. This is all stock and nothing is overclocked ofcourse.

I thought of trying ATI 10.5 drivers... but guess what it seems Dell modified the vBIOS on graphic cards and you can only put Dell's drivers. -.- (I don't know if different drivers would help but I'm willing to try another ones.)

 

Whew so I'm not the only one.
10.5 does NOT work well for WoW. All I have to do is just LOOK at dalaran from a distance, and my framerates decrease.

 

Yeah very weird. m11x runs WoW amazingly smooth, only on really really crowded scenes (25man raids with plenty of effects) on Ultra (all details max) there is some little stuttering, but it was playable. APB on the other hand quite the opposite. lol..

 

There was a post about this with a video few days ago, but can't seem to find it now. It was with a single 5870, but it was flickering also. Kinda bummed now since was going to play wow on m17x too.

 

I mean it's sort of OK when you run in crossfire, the flickering isn't THAT bad... and sometimes goes away. But it's noticeable...

Btw, my drivers aren't 10.5, I have these:

Driver Packaging Version 8.692.2-100203a1-095371C-Dell

EDIT: Found settings that seem playable on Single 5870 (lol!):

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2515/wowscrnshot052910160450.jpg

 

Try out different settings for Catalyst A.I., temporal FSAA, transparency FSAA, etc. and see if that helps any.

 

found it http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/486243-big-video-problem.html
It seems like its DELL drivers that are causing the problems.

by liquidxit2

 

Yeah I am trying out changing settings 1 by 1 and observing the result. I will report the best settings that I can setup for single 5870 (since I can't get rid of flickering on CF).

Btw, fortunately I don't have the "big video problem" the graphics doesn't fall apart like in that video.

 

i dont think its just the new cards that are doing this... my wow likes to vary from 30-100fps in 25 man raids.. and thats just sitting there in ICC while were doing sod all

 

I am not talking about raids, but pretty much walking around alone. And, as stated, it works perfect on 335M btw (on Ultra details).

 

Well I do not have crossfire but just a single card and I mostly have around 40-60 fps on Ultra settings. But in SW I will have fps on 25 -35. What kind of fps are you guys getting on ultra settings with crossfire enabled?(I am still thinking about getting an extra HD 5870 card).

 

Dalaran 30-50 fps with CF.

Btw update: I had a driver crash then had to reinstall them. After that, the flickering with CF seems to be reduced by a bit and is actually playable now. (lol...)

ATI drivers = meh...

Oh and if you buy extra CF card, I think you will need a more powerful AC adapter. I got a giant 240W one.

 

The power adapter is really small compared to my m1730.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/487852-improving-framerates-crossfire-5870-a.html
problem solved, for single cards as well

 

Well it's not really solved if all you do if nerf graphics to oblivion, and get better FPS.

You can do that inside the game as well, overriding game settings with the ones from Catalyst (as someone mentioned in that thread) doesn't really make it any different.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but I was wondering if Dell normally forces people to use their own approved drivers, as seems to be the case with the 5870? I'm just not sure I want to go down that road. In other words, is this standard, or the exception?

 

Apparently, it's a mistake at the moment that we're unable to install new official ATI drivers. 4870CF systems can use them; 5150Joker from this forum got a response from I think Alienware engineering team saying it's not intended that you can't use ATI drivers but it seems to be ATI's (or rather AMD now) fault. I can't speak with 100% certainty, but it looks like a temporary exception.

 

But that is the same as me(actually I often have 40 - 63 and occasionally 30) And it is running smoothly as well? How odd I would have expected a frame rate around 80-100 when in crossfire Also I have never touched the settings as mention in the solved topic.

 

Blame the drivers

 

Also sometimes a game will cap the FPS to 60 FPS or so. WoW isn't the best benchmark for ATI 5870s - it doesn't want to be friends with ATI drivers that were shipped with 5870s.

Apart from that, there isn't a standard benchmark, so I can't say exactly how many people there are in the scene etc... it may differ.

 

I haven't been on wow in a few days, let me see what fps i get in dal

 

It won't record the counter, but I'm getting an average of 21 fps sitting in arguabley the center of Dal. Fullscreen, every single setting on ultra, ghost effect, etc.

 

I was playing SC2 today with everything maxed, it was running very well, but in one game none of the minerals rendered and I couldn't mine anything. It wasn't a very fun game, needless to say.

 

Well in SW I get 20 fps today I try to keep away from that place as the it seems like the card cannot handle all the details on the houses as well as the activity on ultra setting. However, in my home land Dalaren, Astrana and Darkshore etc(night elves) I have no problem at all as I always have 40 to 60 fps. I better try on custom setting with everything on medium setting later today

 

Shadows really kill the peformance on the ATI cards from what i remember in my short time with that game... Also the game is FAR more CPU bound then anything .... Electrosoft had something in his signature showing how much more CPU reliant the game is then GPU....

 

Well in that case my i7 620m should do better than my core 2 duo 2.66 desktop CPU Only that this is not the case as I can run the game on ultra settings with my desktop and the ATI HD 3850 card just fine without lag or low 20 fps This is odd. I mean I do not stay much in SW anyway but I just found it strange that the performance can be so different.

Edit: I just tried to set the setting for shadows on 2 and everything else on highest(would be ultra if not for the shadow thing) and now I hardly get anything below 58 (max 64!!!)fps and the graphic runs so smoothly!!! And that is even in Storm Wind Man these shadows really stresses the ATI HD 5870 card. Rep for you Happy, happy, joy, joy!

 

Hello guys, I also recieved my M17X a few days ago and am an avid WOW player. Wow plays very well for me, pretty much the same as my desktop system which had a Corei7920 and 5870ATI graphics card (desktop). Unreal do you have any photos or videos of the flickering you encounter?

My fps is around 20-30 in the centre of Dalaran but even with monster PCs, you hardly get much higher in Dalaran, more to do with your connection I would believe. Otherplaces I am on 70+. This is with CF on.

 

I used to believe that it could be the connection but now I think that the shadows are rather demanding to calculate for the ATI HD 5870 card(In big cities there is a lot of shadows to keep track of) and that must be the reason for why fps drops to 20-30. My point is this: When I have everything on ultra settings then I get 40-60 fps most of the time but in SW I get 20 fps and some lagging as well. After I changed shadows to level 2 and everything else maxed out I get 58-64 fps all the time and even in SW.
About crossfire then I would suggest that as long as the flickering issue is not solved then run on one card instead of in crossfire mode and use my setting as above and then it will run like a dream

Edit: I shall travel to Dalarn and test this within a few days.

 

Remember the WoW graphics engine is old and really bad. If they redesigned their engine we could get 100 FPS and much better graphics.

I don't think ATI is to blame for the low FPS in WoW.

 

This is so weird I have like 10 frame rates since they maintained the servers last week. Odd... I have tried to adjust the settings in the video but I can only get like 20-30 frps if I chose the worst resolution and the lowest video settings... Any help or suggesting would be welcome.