M11x Gaming Discussion Thread

Hooked the m11x up to my Samsung Plasma B850. 1080p overscans, but 1366x768 works perfectly. Crysis at 1366x768 (TV goes to 1440x900 for some reason) on Medium settings gives me 30fps. I use a Xbox 360 wireless adapter and it works great. I have a wireless mouse but no keyboard. Dawn of War 2 plays good with just a mouse, so that's cool.

I ran 3dMark and got around 6400. Better than my iMac with the GT120. That really surprised me the most. Love gaming on this thing, and being able o hook it up to the big screen so easily and have playable fps is just a great bonus.

 

Since it's the weekend deal on Steam I was probably going to grab it for my other computer, but I'll give it a spin on this little fella too. I can give an idea tomorrow since I'll prolly let it download tonight while I'm asleep.

 

Remember the Nvidia Control Panel has screen adjustment options for overscan.
I used it to get a perfect fit on my 1080p screen.

 

Not a huge deal unless I wanted to run some video. But for games 720p is about the best I can do and have decent settings.

 

Oh god, the force unleashed on sale? Must have for me!

E: Wow, the force unleashed is 30GB? ? That's huge! Oh, and does it play with a good framerate on high settings, and nice gameplay etc?

 

Did you check out the metacritics reviews for force unleashed? I usually glance at them once before making purchases on games.

 

I hear SWFU is a bad port.. Aspyr which is known for it's CoD4 port to Mac. I'm not saying Aspry is bad, but the port itself is bad. Something like can't go over 30FPS? It's huge b/c it's all the languages. didn't bother to not seperate them. either way, no go for me

 

@azn = How does borderlands run on this? Friend bugging me to LAN co-op with him lol.

 

Yup read metacritics. Seems like a very bad port so I'm not going to buy it.

Borderlands runs great with depth of field off and some other settings turned to medium (dynamic shadows still on).

 

30GB.... wow.
Yeah, gonna have to pass on any game like that.

 

I have Borderlands off the Steam sale! I really like this game. Let me know if anyone wants to get a game going...

I had another question that I have not seen posted yet, but was curious to know how the recent Macbook Pros compare to the M11x? I use to own the 13" MBP with integrated graphics and found that most games would stutter. It looks like the 15" MBPs have an okay card, but now have the new processors. I am extremely happy that I got the M11x and not wait for the Apple refreshes. I was banking on the fact that Apple would not make any decent improvements, particularly with 13". I guess I was right!

 

The refreshed GPUs are inferior to the M11x's. The 15 and 17 inchers have specs similar to the Sony Z.

 

I read in passing on another forum that the 15/17" only have the arrandale dual core i7s and not the quad core i7s. So I think the Sony Z is the better of the 2.

 

Just tried AVP on my wife's m11x. DX10, high details/texture, normal shadows at native full rez. Over 30fps and it looks great. Game take approx 6 hours on DSL to download from steam. 15 gb
Best wishes, StevenX

 

Does Mass Effect 1 play as good as Mass Effect 2? I haven't played any Mass Effect and I want to start with the first one..

 

Mass Effect 1 plays great on mostly maxed settings. That was the first game I installed when I got the laptop in the mail.

 

Anybody have good settings for Dirt 2? I have it on High with 2xAA. And it looks pretty darn good. Got it on the D2D sale for $10, can't beat that.

 

I downloaded the Torchlight demo off Steam and it's quite good so far, you should try it.

 

Thomas - I have full copy (I purchased) a while back of torchlight. I only spent about 10 minutes on it so far just to test it out. Looks cool.. small size and random stuff which is neat.

Take Care,
StevenX

 

It doesn't play as well as ME2 but yeah it runs fine with some hiccups at times.

 

I wonder if red dead redemption will run on it. It's running on te same engine as GTA4, but I've played it back in October at the First Look event on a "high end" HP laptop, a relatively old Asus gaming latop, don't know the exact models but I'm sure the GPU's were worse than the GT335m. Oh, and they ran at the highest settings except for AA and some other misc settings.

I'd love to play red dead redemption on an alienware m11x

 

You played Redemption on a laptop at a first look event in October??? There is no PC version of redemption announced yet. I hope you did actually see a PC version because I would love to get it on PC.

 

Empire Total War - All details and settings on ultra except AA off, AF off, SSAO off shadows and on Medium. Frames well over 30 in water and 25 to 40 on land. One more to add to the list for the m11x.

BW,

StevenX

 

Ohh Dear I found a game that absolutely tank the Mx 11 like Shattered Horizons.

Red Faction Gurellia. It's all fine and danty while driving and shooting people, but once buildings start to crumble, well...it can drop to 5-10 fps...

I have tried everything to low, I wished that there was an option to disable the "accurate" physics on the building destruction...guess the calulations on the building destruction on Red faction are more cpu intensive than BFBC 2.

Other than that using the 197.16 drivers everything is awesome. I got smooth l4d2 game play even with a huge rush zombies on FIRE at 40 fps when I put the effects to low and everything else on high lol...

Is it possible for the OP of the thread to keep a list of games that the Mx11 struggles or fails to provide a "decent" experience?

So far it's
Shattered Horizons
Red Faction Gurellia

 

Anyone try GTA: Episodes from liberty city? wonder how it perform.thanks

 

good to know eckng, I almost considered RF:G when it went on sale.

 

@fella,

I am quite sure I've played it on a laptop, but I can't find a pc version either... Maybe it was another game (it was at a game event in the Netherlands), or I'm just confused.. Damn, no PC version .

 

not yet. It might be as runnable as GTA IV, or it might still be a bum port. I guess someone will have to try it out, eh?

 

For those interested, the next expansion of Eve Online will add AlienFX support for various events: http://www.eveonline.com/tyrannis/otherFeatures.asp

 

Cool! I stopped playing EVE about 1 year ago, but it's still cool. I've discovered something quite cool too;

You can play Torchlight at a stable playable framerate on intergrated graphics, just turn "netbook mode" on, turn all eye candy off (im playing @ 1280x720), and it plays quite well! Even more playtime on a single charge!

 

You can gta4 on direct2drive for 8 bucks if you're interested. I picked up a few indie games today cause of the discounts they're giving lol.

 

Force unleashed works great. Still playing with settings. Finished with 3 levels now. From 25-30fps always. Details High, 1280x720. PHYSX ENABLED in nvidia control panel. Nvidia control panel choose your own settings NOT "let the application control settings". The bottom line is this... Game works great. DO NOT judge the game by the first Darth Vader level. It is slow and I believe this may be on purpose... After that, runs like butter.

Another game added to the list. Best Wishes, StevenX

 

hey here's some question i want to ask

the games i will most likely play quite alot for the next 5-7 years are probably FFXIV

so

has anyone played FFXIV on the Alpha Server? and how max settings can u go with and how many fps?

and also how about FM2010? (football manager)

it is a CPU intensive game with pretty much large database, is the SU7300 (not OC up for it? ) i mean is the loading reasonable?

 

Messed around with the benchmarking on Dirt 2 to see what I could get. It looked like 1080p at medium no AA was averaging 30fps with a 20fps minimum. My 720p settings got just under 30fps with 2xAA High or Ultra Settings. I figured that 720p 2xAA Medium would probably give me goods fps. I chose the 1080p for now since it looked a bit sharper but the effects weren't as good.

 

Just a thought can I buy COD MW2 on disc and then register it so I don't have to put the disc in to use it? I only ask because my internet speed is not that great and it will probably take about 2 days to download.

 

Yup, if you buy MW2 retail with disc, you still have to register it on Steam. The discs are only for installing anyway so you don't have to download so you're set! After you install you don't need the disc to play as it is a steamworks tied game.

 

loading times for FM2010 on my M11X is slightly slower than my previous Vaio SZ48GN, especially on match days. still playable though.

 

Has anyone played Batman Arkham asylum on the M11x? If you have how did you find it on an 11.6" screen?

 

Airsinner, I played the Batman AA on my wifes m11x when she first got it. If physx is disabled it runs ok 20-30fps (approx). The screen size is personal preference. It was ok to me but others may need more real estate. I would suggest downloading the steam demo and trying it first before purchase. I wish we had enough GPU power to enable physx. Bet that looks fantastic.

BW,

StevenX

 

20 - 30 FPS eh? Hmm I was hoping it would hit at least Mid 50s on the M11x.. I figured it would because the resolution.

 

i'm thoroughly impressed with the m11x. i played Mass Effect 2 with everything maxed, running the SU4100 at 1.3ghz and i averaged 59 FPS through a battle.

i had the screen in window mode tho, because i am a 'gaming multitasker', so it wasn't at full resolution. I believe i had it at 1280 x 720 rather than the full screen. still, it completely rocked it.

 

1280x720 is still pretty large compared to native resolution.. so were you doing alt-tab multitasking? hehe

 

Anyone tested Splinter Cell Conviction yet?

 

beat hazard works fine in Intel HD graphics haha, cept during boss fights some minor slowdown..

 

That game ruins my life. Love Beat Hazard.

 

The first level gameplay looks like a slideshow to me, even with the new Nvidia drivers. But level 2 is quite smooth to me. I'm glad I did not give up too early.

 

thought it was pretty awesome during gameplay it updates with what friends are scoring and doing. Saw you got some high score on a new track.

 

I'm playing torchlight, love the game! Wonder what will be discounted on steam this weekend...

Steam is quite expensive, but you have to buy when stuff is discounted. In December there were huge discounts every day, Operation Flashpoint for 5 euro's, GTA4 for 7 euro's etc..

 

GTA is 4 bucks on direct2drive or something like that... not my style of game but for those who like it...

StevenX

 

Yeah, you gotta go with the stuff on sale. In the last few weeks I have purchased: Torchlight/$5, Fallout 3/$15, The Force Unleashed/$15, Trine/$5, Batman: Arkham Asylum/$15, GTAIV/$15, Dark Void/$15.

I check Steam, Direct to Drive and Games for Windows Live almost daily. I'm kinda addicted to buying games on the cheap