Bad game performance (and getting worse)

Hi everybody,

Im new here after some frustrating time with my alienware Mx11.

I have an R2 model from sept 2010.
Intel i7 U640 @1.20 Ghz
4 Gb RAM
which cost me about 1200 eur.

I was expecting to finally play the new games, as this was the maxed out version of the 'gaming laptop'.

Thusfar ive failed to succesfully play several games such as Darksiders, Bulletstorm, Black Ops, Test Drive 2...
The games i do manage to run (like starcraft 2, fallout, fifa 11) don't run smooth at all and i cant even dream of a high quality setting. Lately it s even getting worse to the point i cannot even run Fifa smoothly. I feel pretty frustrated...

I feel like there has to be something wrong in my setup or settings, but I'm not quite the computer wizard. The only thing Ive done so far is setting my energy scheme to high performance, about as soon as I got it. I don't know where the problem lies, or a way to find that out..
Please somebody, is there anything I can do about this or is this the performance I can expect from my 1200 euro gaming laptop?

Thanks

 

Are you sure you're running your games on the NVIDIA GPU, and not the IGP?

Have you whitelisted the games you're playing, to be sure of the proper performance?

 

I hadent yet but i checked it now and they were all allready in the list. No help there.

 

Can you get into the BIOS and force the NVidia on all the time? I know that's how it works on the R1. If that works it would tell us something.

 

thats for the r1 only. the r2 has optimus and doesnt support that

 

Remember. The alienware m11x is the most powerful laptop under 13 inches... It doesn't mean that you will play all the games on high settings. This machine was made for gamers that want portability. There are some titles that only will run in low settings, but you should play all the titles you listed in medium settings. I only had problems with FIFA 11, It was never smooth on my machine...

Try downloading the latest drivers from Nvidia, and be sure to whitelist the games you're playing...

 

1) whitelist them in the NV control panel
2) update drivers
3) Make sure your CPU is not running at 1.2Ghz

 

How can i be certain of that third one DeeVu?

And I never expected this to be the gaming powerhouse with all games in high quality, I did however hoped i would be able to play them, at least in low.

I have an external Medion 22 inch screen hooked up with hdmi to vga converter. Could that also be a problem?

 

uuhh thats kinda funny, this is my main gaming machine, and iv never had a game run badly. all high settings, with shadows off (i dont like the shadows)

i would suggest reformatting your Hard Drive and installing the newest drivers, get everything whitelisted, do some windows optimizations, overclock, and thats about it.

 

1) Well you would know if your processor is slower. You wouldve had to actually gone into BIOS to change it. Only reason I mention it is because you said 1.2Ghz in the original post. Chances are this is not it then.
2) The Screen has no issue. I have a 23inch and run games well on it.

 

Before i forget: Thanks everybody for all your replies!

@DeeVu: I based the 1.20 ghz on the information in the system tab (see attachment). Is this not normal?

 

Yeah everyones will say that but its not a true reading. If you havent messed with speed I'd assume you are running at the normal 150mhz so it should not be that.

 

Have you overclocked yet and or looked in running Throttlestop? If you are doing both and not trying to set Everything to crazy settings the machine will handle almost anything out there... something definitely sounds wrong.

 

I havent overclocked it or ever heard of Throttlestop before. Should I?

I think Ive found a big problem: My Drivers!
When i want to upgrade my drivers on nvidia.com it tells i have currently have version 0.0 installed (no drivers?) for both cards.

I can download updates but i can't seem to install them. For the first one (intel hd) it gives me a message "my system is incompatible". The second one (for Gforce) installs smooth but after restarting it still says i have version 0.0.

Any suggestions?

Thanks guys, ill keep you posted

 

Given where you are in the learning process, I would call Alienware's tech support (NOT Dell's) and have them help you; this will be quickest and cleanest and probably the least frustrating for you and you can see what they do.

Make sure you have the correct (ie mobile) drivers for your system as well...

 

Guys,
After an epic but learnful night of driver installing and endlessly rebooting, I am now playing Bulletstorm on medium graph. A game i couldnt even dream of playing!!I feel like I got a new computer!

I thank all you pro's for takin the time to help out noobs like us, your patience for our stupidity is forever appreciated!