Can my brand new M11x run this brand new game?

Hi all, this is my first post, I have always been a reader and wanted to create an account but have never gotten around to it until now. I got my M11x (R1, 4 gigs of RAM) a couple of weeks ago and bought it with the intentions of being able to play new games on it. So far so good, as all the new games I have purchased play very well, even if it is only on medium to high settings, I am ok with that.

Recently I bought and played The Witcher and really enjoyed it, so I was interested on getting the sequel which comes out in a few weeks but I was distraught to read that as a result of upgrading the visuals so much for the next game, which looks beautiful, that the minimum requirements are far above what my little M11x provides.

Basically my question is: Will I be able to run the Witcher 2 on my M11x (R1) even on the lowest settings? I just want to be able to enjoy it for the gameplay and story at this point and wouldnt even cared if it didnt look as stunning as I have seen, as long as it doesnt chug.

 

By the way, I am aware of the search function and know that game-specific questions like this are probably asked all the time so I am sorry for the repitition, but I searched a few similar topics and couldn't find a clear cut answer so I figured I would create my own topic.

 

you will be fine, did you overclock the cpu in the bios?

 

Indeed, was one of the first things I did. I also OC'd the CPU a little bit. (according to a relatively tempature safe set of numbers that I saw somebody else had on this site) I could probably stand to OC it a little more but havent invested in a cooler yet and don't want to overdo it because I know little about computers apart from what I have read here.

 

iv never used a laptop cooler in my life. and i have my GPU highly overclocked at 605/926/1510. and my cpu pin modded at 1.73ghz. never had any game lag.

 

Ah yes I meant GPU not CPU but I see you clearly understood me. Forgive me I am a noob at this but does pinmodding mean that you just have it permantely set to 1.73 in the bios?

Also if I change my GPU settings to the same numbers as you have via EVGA precision will I get better results in games then I have now? (450/1080/790) And are those numbers adequate? I heard that performance as far as GPU is concerned varies from computer to computer, is this right?

 

for the cpu pinmod, thats done by cutting a pin on the motherboard PLL chip. (what controls the bios test mode and voltage, etc) wile you have the overclock mode on in the bios, windows reports your at 1.73ghz, but its wrong. your running at 1.6ghz. you have a cpu multiplier of x6.0. with the pinmod you get a multiplier of x6.5. resulting in a higher clockspeed, and higher ram timings. (1066mhz cas 6, instead of stock 800mhz cas 6.) and there is no way you can reach an overclock on your GPU as high as mine, i have mine volt modded. (stock is 0.9v and mine is modded at 0.95v) best you could start out with is 550/900/1250. and even then you might not be stable, everyones gpu vary's in overclockability.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, the first section of your last post might as well have been in a different language to me but I understood when you said that I could never have mine OC'd like yours haha. I will try the numbers you suggested and let you know how they work out, are those generally safe numbers to start with? Were the ones I set initially to low? because I was getting decent performance. Also is pinmodding as simple as initially overclocking in the bios was? otherwise I dont think i will fuss with it.

 

Is the 1250 in the OC settings: 550/900/1250 .... is that 1250 the memory clock or the shader clock? because the highest I can take the memory clock using EVGA is 948.

 

550 = core
900 = memory
1250 = shader

 

the pinmod involves opening up your m11x, getting a magnifying glass, screw driver, needle, and a flash light, and cutting a little 1mm metal pin on the motherboard, that basicly takes it off. as of right now, you are running at 1.6ghz, regardless of what windows says.

as for the GPU, if you want to be really careful, clock at

500 (core clock)
1200 (shader clock or processor clock)
830 (memory clock)

 

Thanks a lot ajslay, and yeah pinmodding sounds a little to in-depth for a less tech-savy person like myself, I will tool around with the GPU numbers you mentioned and see what works best. By the way for the sake of the original point of this topic, did you play the witcher 1 or plan on getting the witcher 2? I was worried about shelling out 50 bucks for a new game that couldnt even run at the lowest settings on my m11x but you seemed pretty confident of at least that.

 

no problem at all.
and i havent played the first one, but i was planning on getting the second one.
the m11x is powerful enough to run 99% of the games out there at a good framerate. sometimes theres some tweaking needed to make it even better tho.

 

That was the response I was hoping for, good looks again. Oh and one last question (I promise) what is a normal GPU temp for the m11x because since changing my numbers to the ones you suggested (550/900/1250) I have noticed a little spike in the temp, I think it is about 51-52 degrees right now.

 

without a voltage increase, your gpu should run at roughly the same temp.
before i did the voltage mod on my m11x it would get up to 61C while gaming. but after i did the voltage mod, i would get up to 64C.

thats not bad at all. anything below 85-90C is ok.

 

Cool appreciate all the help, anybody else planning on getting the Witcher 2 for their m11x? Game looks awsome, one of the reasons I got a computer (and diablo 3 but thats still seems like lightyears away)

 

Yep, my m11x r3 should be arriving shortly before Witcher 2 comes out. Already down to $44.99 on Steam.

 

Haha The Witcher rulez all. Welcome to this game man. It is one of my favorite between all that I've played in my life.

I'm excited about the sequel, and I'm waiting for it's launch too.

 

It is good to know that others are excited for the witcher 2 and are getting it for their m11x as well, I just hope that it fares as well on the R1 as it does on the newer revisions.

I am playing through the original one right now for the first time and really enjoying it but don't think ill be able to complete it before the sequel comes out. It is running solid so far at medium-high settings so thats cool, but i know the new one has had 4 years to juice up their graphic engine, so we shall see.

I might just wait and finish the first one and see how the new one plays on some of your guys m11x's first.

 

Hey TH,

I'm waiting patiently for The Witcher 2 to come out as well (already pre-ordered it on Steam). I have an M11x R2 (Core i5 with 4Gb RAM) and am really really hoping that it can handle TW2 (I'm worried though). It certainly handles TW1 fine in terms of performance. I get about 45fps average with all settings maxed out except anti-alaising and small animals (which I've set to 2x for AA and Medium for small animals). Everything else though is up full. Really smooth and still a beautiful looking game considering it's from 2007.

I'm playing through TW1 like you are... hoping to get it completed before TW2 (but I doubt that is going to happen.. it's bigger than I thought). Can't wait for TW2 and will try some of the GPU overclock numbers above to see what this little M11x can really do.

I had to undeclock it to run TW1 without it freezing on me. Spent about 1 month researching every fix I could find on the web, and only just managed to solve the issue with an underclock last weekend. I've now been playing it every night with no freezes or crashes )

I'm also thinking about increasing my RAM up to 8Gb... Can anyone suggest what modules I would be best to buy? I like Crucial RAM, so would probably go for their 8Gb kit. The only problem is that there are 2 different kits both the same price, but I don't understand which is faster.