Battlefield Bad Company 2 Bench and Issues M11xR2

First of all I would like to let you know that these are r ough estimates by looking at Fraps while playing. This is just to give you an overview on what to expect. The results were good on high, and awesome on medium. BUT, wait for my video and I will try to show you the gameplay on both settings, turbo on, and off, medium and high.
Played on a 16/26 rush server

I was using battery. Not plugged.

Benchmark:

Turbo On @ 164FSB.

Medium Settings: All Medium except shadows on low, 1x AA 1x AF, no vsync, no hbao
Frames:
35-40 maximum. nothing going on, running and getting in place, shooting, and targeting.
24-32 Average with people around
12-18 minimum. Sudden explosions and crossing the line of fire,

High Settings: All High except shadows on low, 1x AA 1x AF, no vsync, no hbao
Frames:
32-38 maximum
22-28 average
12-18 same minimum

Turbo Off @ 166FSB

I played probably for 5 minutes. its 2-3 frames lower than the turbo on. then a hardware crash.



Issues:
1. When you add it to the Nvidia control panel, it doesnt stay there. I don't know if that's a reboot work around.

2. It crashes when turbo is on. both software and hardware. 1:10 game ratio. I think this is a heat and OC issue.

3. The most annoying of all issues, Punkbuster kicks you out for detecting multiple direct3D. Its an Optimus issue.

Again, these are estimates while playing. I can see the numbers. so everytime i see them, i take note of them. I will record a gameplay video tonight and probably post it tomorrow or on friday.

UPDATE: VIDEO HERE OF GAMEPLAY
BFBC2 GAMEPLAY

 

man that is terrible! that is not much better than my r1. I had high hopes for BFBC2, if I cant get a steady 30+ fps its getting returned to Dell.

Any chance you can run cpuz and task managet whilst benchmarking to see cpu utilisation and to see what the turbo kicks in to with load on both cores?

edit - thanks for your efforts, have repped you

 

i'll try to do that.. since im at work i was short on time.. but if its any consolation, the average fps is always at 30up.. min average is 28.. again it could be lower or higher, who knows. and the i7s performance is really better than the C2D.

 

cool, well thats ok then. I just hope we can stop the dips when explosions/action occurs. Could it be gfx drivers causing the dips?

I was hoping that the 640um overclocked and turboed would give performance equal to a i5 430m (as they should have similar multipliers, the 640um OCed and turboed should hit about 2.2ghz with both cores loaded accoring to intels specs). I use an i5 in my m15x and the fps never drops below 30fps with all high settings, AA and AF at 1600x900

another edit! could the battery use be stopping the full turbo potential? just a thought!

 

I can get the same on the R1 as arklight... Others on here can as well.

So far I see no difference in R1 vs R2 performance on BFBC2.

Thanks,

StevenX

 

yeah but remember the i5 430m is not a ULV processor and has a higher minimum compared to the i7 ULV thus the lowest frequency on the i5 is not necessarily also the lowest in a ULV proc. And i would think that the M15x doesnt have optimus and has a more powerful GPU than the M11x.. in other words, its more stable than the M11x. The R2 relies on the optimus, and turbo boost, and OCing.

Im pretty sure that some of it has to do with me using the battery instead of the plug.

 

well if it is not significantly better it will be going straight back to dell.
Mine has shipped so too late to cancel now.

I will run a side by side test of the r1 and r2 as well as checking the power consumption as no-one seems to have measured that yet

 

I realise the 640 has a lower base multi, but if it works as it technically should, when BFBC2 utilises all 4 virtual cores it should pump it upto 2.2ghz if OCed. At the moment I dont think it is doing that, hence the low benchmarks.

And yeah the m15x has a 260m but from my testing BFBC2 is mostly cpu bound as I can change res etc and not impact my fps at all.

 

You've got yours overclocked to the dickens, and Arklight I doubt has bothered to overclock his GPU yet let alone optimize his machine (correct me if I'm wrong). Can we please stop trying to justify that the R1 is "no upgrade" over the other? Especially when Arklight can't even get more than five minutes of play without crashing out. Not to flame you (or anybody else) but seriously, all the other benchmarked games have thusfar been heavily GPU intensive. The two CPU based ones (L4D2 and GTA IV) have both seen minor to significant improvements. Plus, he's running on a battery. Now, onto real stuff.



Arklight, what version drivers are you using? Rolling back to 197.xx might fix your problems with the double Direct3D issue.

 

i meant in loading times.. sorry..

 

Im using the Verde, with the modded inf. Yes, i havent OCd my GPU and the only thing i did when i got my machine was install the Verde with the modded inf. I hope Nvidia fixes the stability issue on this one. The old driver switches properly in anyway, its just that the options for it are unavailable. I'll try to uninstall the display drivers later. Thanks for the advice.

 

I guess you have an advantage to see what's going on between the R1 and R2.

 

BFBC2 is not designed to utilize the virtual or hyper cores or threads....feel free to check the EA forums. It does make great use of true quad processors. I hope you get the crashes reaolved. I would check CPU OC and video driver to start with... bw, stevenx

 

Hurry up nvidia and alienware! I purchased a cutting edge gaming laptop, not a bug ridden heap of slag!

 

Well maybe not but I get much better performance with my i5 540 than a P9500 @ 2.53ghz. Both rigs had a nvidia 260m and same settings. The i5 never dips below 30 and is usually in the 70-80's. The P9500 used to drop down to low 20's and never got above 45

 

how much battery do you get on your i5 machine?

 

I get 2 hours surfing with my m15x with 6 cell. Specs in sig. I used to get more with my clevo m860 with P9500 & 260m

 

How heavy is that m15x? Is it really 9lbs? I can't imagine carrying it around.

 

yep it is. really heavy thats why I have the m11x, the m15x rarely leaves my home.

 

damn. :O That's not a laptop... thats a space station!



at any rate, its clear to see what compromises AW had to make to get a smaller chassis and better battery life out of m11x. I am just glad they didnt use Atom processors like some other 11 and 12'' subnotebooks.

 

I was hoping to get an m15x.. but yeah, i saw the spec sheet and it says it starts at 10 lbs. That was the deciding factor, the weight.

 

Yeah it is just under 2" thick. Lots of hardware.

 

Ninja- your I5 has the gtx 260 with a 256 video bus...not 128 like the 335mGt. Thats a huge difference and I would expect nothing less... Stevenx

 

@Arklight

How did you install the modded drivers and which version? I tried the 256.21 last night and they gave me way worse results than the 189.69 or what they are from Dell.

Do you somehow choose the nvidia only in Bios too or?

 

@thomaskc.dk


here is the post where Nautis modded the .inf for the latest 335m driver in Nvidia.

Latest Nvidia Driver with modded inf

 

@arklight

Thanks a lot.

 

Yes but steven, you are missing my point! the game is not GPU bound. You can put it on all low with the 260m and still get poor performance with say a C2D (take my clevo with 260m and P9500 as an example). Yet, replace that with an i5 or quad and the FPS shoot up.

The 335m is more than capable of playing BFBC2 at medium settings with a good frame rate, its the cpu that is the limiting factor. This is where I was hoping the 640 would excel with its OC and Turbo boost

 

Ninja - it makes perfect sense as your clevo with a standard 260m also has a 128 video memory bus. Only the higher end GTX 260s have 256 bus. A little research on the 260 goes a long way... bw, stevenx

 

I don't think you get what he's saying, at all.

 

Anyway, have any of you actually seen performance gains from using the modded 257.21 drivers over the latest Dell?

 

Another issue is that (old and new driver) when you try to add it in the nvidia control panel, it doesnt save. I add it, apply the settings High-performance nvidia processor, then close the lid (mine is set to just turn off the display) then count 3 seconds, when i open it again, it disappears from the profile.

 

so it sounds like R2 is just an overpriced netbook. Might as well get R1 @ cheaper.

 

Im starting to think the same; and I was so excited about the R2. The R1 is cheaper, has a better battery life, a vga port, and you don't have to deal with the buggy optimus.

 

Looking4pftnb - I dont want to be negative and these guys assume I dont get there points.. unfortunately they are mistaken on several items. BFBC2 does greatly rely on cpu, it however still is GPU dependent. The game is difficult to benchmark since it is not built in. The truth is the I7 is not going to magically part the heavens, turn water into wine and bring world peace. it is roughly 400 to 500 mhz faster (duo core) processor (turbo and oc) without the hyper threads/Virtual-core. Games DO NOT utilize hyperthreads or virtual cores at this time. Comparing other computers helps to give you an idea of POSSIBLE performance but you can't swear on it. Each game is developed differently. Without notes from the developer, you have to utilize trial and error to see what helps with performance or hinders it. Some people assume that when they lower the resolution below 1280x720, that it will increase fps. In most instances it actually hurts it, as the processing is pushed from GPU to CPU. It all depends on how the games is written. I wouldn't automagically buy into any benchmarks until you see this proven and proven again.

To stay on topic... I get 34.66 fps on single player for settings on all medium. This is AVG not min or max. This is recorded by FRAPS using F11 and logs are stored in my benchmark folder. I would expect the R2 to get about 37-38 fps on single player, AVG on medium settings and x16af (my settings). I would encourage everyone to download fraps, install, run games and log benchmarks (not on screen but in logs) and make sure you change the priority to below normal or low as to not impede game performance.

Good Luck,

StevenX

 

well, the gta 4 benchmark with an avg of 30+ fps has me sold. who knows; maybe another tweak could increase some other games drastically. Right now I believe the R2 is more like a prototype machine, and has a lot of hidden potential, and this community really has gotten together to experiment with it. If you stick with the R1, you already know what to expect and that may be what you want. But I'd like to go with something that seems to have more potential every week.

 

At any rate this is far away from what davidgilmour18 predicted!

But to be realistic, BC2, Crysis, GTA4.. These games are some heavy coding. Maybe we should be happy they run at all?

BC2 perhaps stings the most as I can see the long term appeal for people playing the multiplayer, but it's also my understanding that bad company 2 is just a title ridden with problems and complications on the pc?

 

What is the symptoms of too much cpu OC?

My R2 i7 is at 162mhz FSB but just had a random windows lockup (mouse, HD, everything just froze and had to use the power button).

Is that because of the OC or what is peoples experience?

thanks

p.s most other R2 users seem to be able to do 162 stable? no?

 

its still kicking me out.. Multiple Direct 3D loaded.

 

Just had another totally random lockup was OC'ed at 160 doing just simple windows stuff, nothing I havent dont for the last 5 hours just suddenly freezes

trying without OC now... anyone?

 

You're getting poor performance while running on battery? Shouldn't that be a given ... ?

 

No.. it's a main feature of m11x that there is no throttling. AW wanted to make sure, you could get some good gaming when unplugged!

 

@All...
1. BFBC2 has a new patch coming out Monday. (I posted in main alienware forums since so many folks are trying to bench here but they moved it to games...)
2. Nvidia cards have speed scaling which is called powermizer. I have a little registry hack I downloaded a long time ago to turn this off. It's similar to all the alienware stuff that tries to adjust your speed to maximize battery power. I disable all this mess. The R2 owners may want to look into this as well. http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...izer-switch-get-most-out-your-video-card.html
3. Driver 257.21 (and .15) I had similar issues with R1 as you are having with it. My settings in Nvidia control panel would not stay properly. I un-installed, re-installed, installed as admin, install directly from hardware device screen... It was not successful so I reverted back to 198. Does anyone have a contact within Nvidia to offer feedback on the 257 driver set?
I know beta is now on 258 series.

BW,

StevenX

 

Hello all,

My experience with BFBC2 and the M11X R2.

The R2 is much faster than the R1 using the same graphic settings. I used the same settings davidgilmour18 posted in the other thread.

My old R1 struggled pretty hard to play BFBC2 when there were more than 10-12 people on a server. It would dip down to the single to mid-high teens on many occasions making it very difficult to play. The R2 however has zero issues keeping up on a 10-12 person server. After realizing this, I went out of my way to find 32 man rush and conquest servers and was still able to play pretty comfortably. Yes there is still slow down but it rarely goes below 19-20 FPS which allows this game to be played pretty smoothly. It was virtually impossible to do this on my R1.

I have over-clocked my CPU only to 150 FSB as the game was locking up when I tried at 160 FSB (haven't had time to find the sweet spot yet).

Compared to my SU7300 R1 running over-clocked @ 1.6ghz, the R2 feels about 30-50% faster with BFBC2. I haven't done extensive testing but it should be pretty obvious if anyone can do a side by side comparison.

Now the cons,

-More expensive (although with discounts, my R2 ended up being cheaper than the R1 I sent back)
-The i7 in the R2 runs much hotter than the R1 (10-15 Celsius hotter under load)
-The R2 power brick is too hot to handle. It would probably burn your hand if you held it for more than 5 seconds.
-Although much faster than the R1 with BFBC2, it still struggles on some of the maps and will hamper your play compared to a full blown desktop. This isn't very surprising but if you were planning on replacing your gaming desktop computer with the R2, you may be disappointed.

In the end, I'm pretty happy that I returned the R1 for an R2 as it allows me to play BFBC2 comfortably now.

I'm going on vacation soon so I wont have time to do videos or anything as I'm busy preparing for that. Hopefully owners who have both the R1 and R2 (I sent my R1 back already) can compare the game side by side.

 

On my r2 i7 , I get an average of about 35 FPS , In combat or just running around , my settings are :
All medium except shadows which is at low , AA on x2 And AF on 4x Game looks amazing and plays great , I only get dips when im inside smoker but besides that its fine. even online i get similar FPS to this.

Note: my CPU is not overclocked nore my graphics card and im not using Beta drivers , Ive basicly turned it on and installed BFBC2.

 

What drivers are you using? I'm getting 19 FPS which drops to around 16 FPS on a busy server with my R1...

 

Can the R2 guys please load and run FRAPS. Don't worry about the on screen fps, just setup F11 for logging. Play a match hit f11 at the beginning and f11 again at the end of match before splash screen. (splash screens show false performance). Then check the AVG FPS in the logs as well as MIN and MAX.

This will help everyone tremendously. Thanks!

Steven X

 

@madpacket


Did you have any trouble with punkbuster kicking you out of the game because of multiple direct 3d loaded?

 

No issues with punkbuster or optimus here. I'm using the stock R2 NVIDIA drivers on Dell's website. I did my own installation of Windows 7 and just downloaded all of the available drivers on Dell's site.

If I get time before my vacation I'll try to do a fraps average and then post my results here.

A theory of mine,

It's possible the added heat is caused by the new "soft touch" casing as the older casing on the R1 seemed to act as a radiator.

Thoughts?

 

yeah, i wish they could've just changed the screen cover. Wow, a new installation.. it might be a factor.

 

Problem #3.10 : Getting kicked off Bad Company 2 by Punkbuster with a “RESTRICTION: Multiple Direct3d loaded” message
Solution: Update punkbuster with PunkBuster Online Countermeasures

PunkBuster Online Countermeasure