M11x Gaming Discussion Thread

I can highly advice everyone to use the latest nvidia optimus drivers! 258.69

They seem to have even more options for optimus, ex you dont pick either integrated or nvida gpu as default anymore, it's on auto! and they work sooooo much better with starcraft II

 

when was that driver released?

 

Has anybody here played The Witcher (enhanced version or not) on the M11X? If so, what sort of performance are you getting?

 

Smooth FPS on med/high... Seems to crash unpredictably every 20-50 mins.

 

Working for me? i dunno. try running as administrator

 

A while ago, its nothing totally new just haven't tried it before now. but so far the best for me!

 

its the one that u need to use the inf from nautis right?

 

indeed it is.

 

Same for me. I gave up trying to get it to work on the M11x. I can't tell you how many hours I spent pouring over all of the suggested fixes for crashes that are out there. Plays perfectly on my Win7 gaming desktop though.

EDIT: In the end my guess is that it's got to be a driver issue.

 

Just bought APB. Sad to say that I'm getting poor framerates on it even on minimal settings :/ 15-25fps.

 

@Lingj - if you search in both this forum, alienware general forum and the games forum there are several large threads that talk about how to optimize APB for great performance.

Good luck,

StevenX

 

Optimized it and I still get 5-20 fps :/ It just seems like a very cpu oriented game.

 

Do you have the R1 or R2 LingJ?

 

I have an R1. I tweaked a bit more and i got about 20 fps average now. I'm sure I can bump it up to 30

 

Bioshock was one of the first games I got on my m11xr2, had no problems what so ever, runs smooth maxed at native res.

 

@All - Quick video of Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4. Included Part Intro and Part Gameplay.

Details 1366x768, All effects enabled, high graphics plus AA.
Over 60 fps stable

I know this title doesn't push the limits it's just a fun, guilty pleasure title that both kids and adults can enjoy.

Best wishes, StevenX

YouTube - Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 PC Alienware M11x R1 (Part Intro Part Gameplay)

 

Do any of you guys use the stock dell 168 drivers?? I cannot seem to get them to use the 335m at ALL no matter what. The beta's and the nvidia 258.69 works fine with the 335m but seems a bit dodgy in starcraft II. anyone?

 

@ Steven,

Is that the Lego Harry Potter Steam has? It doesn't say 1-4 years.. Looks awesome btw, I really want that game!

 

@Thomas - I got this at a brick and mortar. It is also available on steam. Should be around 29.99. It is great. I am almost 40, I love HP. I can't wait until my son is old enough to read it as well. The game is funny and is great to play so far. I need a break from shooting and grenades and flanking and everything else sometimes. Best wishes, StevenX (also it runs outstanding on the m11x. Way over 60fps)

 

Thanks!

I also like Harry Potter, and I have bought just shooters during the steam sale, except for The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom(great game!) so I'll probaly love Harry Potter. I'll buy it when I'm done with the games I bought during the steam sale.

 

Anybody get Risen to work?

I've tried with the 257's and the 189's and get a failure to load physics message. PhysX is up to date. Everything else is up to date.

Figures I get the urge to play the two games I apparently can't play. Just Cause 2 and Risen.

 

Just cause 2 will work with driver 189. It does not work with any of the 25x.xx drivers at the moment. Known driver issue need nvidia to fix it. For risen, is this running off steam? If it is try remove physx from your system. Then launc the game from steam. Steam should prompt you to install physx let then let it do so. After that game should launch.

I have recently encounter weird issue with phyx too. Use to be working fine when I am running on the pre load 189 driver. Update to the 257 beta from Dell and install latest physx works too. However I urge to test out some thing and decide to revert back to 189 but no matter how I install physx my mass effect 2 does not work and keep telling physx error. So that's what I did to solve the problem. Weird thing is after that if I attempt to update my physx to latest same error came back. Not sure why so since I remember it used to work. So now I am running 258.69. Take the oportunity to test out the drivers on my stuffs. However if you really want to play just cause 2 I dun recommend you to update

 

I have a question, which game should I get for my M11X? BFBC2? or Just Cause 2? I really can't decide.

 

Yep, works on my Win 7 PC without a hitch.. damn thing even works on my ancient MSI 1029 laptop. Will keep it on my HDD to test with each new driver update that is released. Determined to get it working the M11x lol.

 

Has anybody had any experience with Microsoft Flight Simulator X? How does this run?

 

FSX runs just fine for me on my R1. I play with Medium/High settings. The things to switch off/down for framerate boosts are the Dynamic scenery (cars and houses).

Smooth as silk most of the time...

 

That is good to hear. I am a bit surprised it runs well on the R1 as I would think that flight simulators would be very processor dependant.

 

I think they are... to a degree. Xplane might suffer more with it's famous 'blade element' simulation. I will try xplane 9 sometime when I get round to it.

As I said, tone down the (mostly gimmicky IMHO) dynamic scenery and it all runs a lot more smoothly (especially in the big cities). Whether that is because the CPU is pushed or the GPU is pushed (or both!) by lots of dynamic scenery is another question...?

 

Just been playing again. Like I said a lot of my setting are med/high (textures/models/clouds) I have shadows switched off and dynamic scenery totally switched off. I have both SPs installed and run in DX10.

Framerate target I set to 30fps.

Sitka Approach (beautiful first mission) was averaging 25-30fps
Hawaii Mission (mission 3) was averaging around 20-25fps.

A freeflight in a Cessna using the virtual cockpit in the summer, daytime taking off from Kennedy Intl gave around 10-20fps. (Not bad for a heavy area like New York)

Overall, playable enough in my opinion. As I said, I would like to try xplane next. Maybe later in the week...

 

Im still wanting some one to test aion for me if no one has yet! Its my favorite game.

 

look on youtube, aion runs completely fine on M11x

 

Has anyone tried EverQuest with the M11x ?
I'm wondering what the fps is doing raids in high content of the game.. with atleast 35 players with full settings.. : )

Thanks.

 

Rainbow 6 vegas (1) doesn't work on my m11x. Not even starting up, I guess I'll have to re-download it.

 

Get BFBC2, you will be very surprised at how well it runs. I bought it the other day and oh boy is it exciting. I made a jump from the detail in CS 1.6 to BFBC2 lol so you can imagine the graphical difference that excited me. xD

 

Forgive me if this has already been discussed (i did a search and didn't find anything about it in this thread), but Counterstrike Source seems to have an issue. The fps start out very strong around 60-100 and progressively get worse every couple minutes. By the end of a round it is usually in the low 20s.

My computer is the i7 R2, using latest beta drivers from nvidia, with powermizer manager to set GPU at max performance. I did not turn off the heat protection setting, but I might test that out tonight just to see if that is what is causing this trouble.

Does anyone else have this issue? Another poster said he had a simular problem but I think he was talking about CS 1.6. I don't have any other games to test on the m11x, does the FPS drop in all games or is this a CS issue? Id like to think if it affected all games I would read more upset postings (hinge issue), but it would be very disappointing to not be able to game on this laptop better than experience CS Source is providing.

Thanks.

 

bah! double post!

 

I don't know about CS, but I've been getting ridiculously low framerates on Warcraft 3 (dota). I've been trying to play that until SC2 comes out, but using an in-game fps command, i've been starting at around 45 and dropping down to 20 while moving around the map...kind of ridiculous considering it's an 8 year old game. I've seen other people with this problem as well. There was a 1-star review because someone else couldn't run dota without hiccuping. Anyone have any idea what this is? CPU bottleneck?

 

download some sort of gpu monitor, IE, gpu-z and check your temps while playing. do perhaps 3 different 30 minutes of game play periods where you monitor the temps.

write back if anything is unusual.

you also need to make sure you have the most updated drivers for your GPU, as well as ensure that your internet connection is okay.

my M9750 did the same problem with CS 1.6 and it turned out to be a driver issue. SLI 7950GTX should have ZERO problems running 1.6, so perhaps try out different drivers.

 

Hey, thanks for the responses.

And as far as War3 goes, thats crazy. I used to play that game on a p2 450mhz with a geforce 2 mx 32 mb card. Maybe add the warcraft 3 exe to the optimus profile? Cause those framerates sound like an integrated graphics card to me... In fact there is a youtube video of a old macbook playing war3 in bootcamp with integrated graphics and those are the type of FPS he got...

As for CS:S, I am positive its not my internet connection because I can game on other computers in the house just fine. However, I will the reinstall the latest drivers tonight, as well as a GPU monitor program. Nvidia did just release some new certified drivers, but it looks like its the same version as the beta drivers. Still it couldnt hurt to give them a shot. I will report back either tonight or tomorrow my results.

Does anyone else play CS:S on their m11x that could share their experience? It would be cool if someone else could verify that my CS:S results aren't just my isolated problem. If so, just use the net_graph 1 command or fraps to check your FPS thoughout the game.


Thanks!

 

Blacklight: Tango Down (quite cool 15$ shooter) doesn't play really well on the m11x, has some slowdowns which are really annoying...

E: Nevermind, it runs good. I rebooted the system and it runs OK now with shader detail on 2 (doesn't look really worse than the highest setting).

Fun game but needs some patches because matchmaking sucks big.


E2: I play CS:S on my m11x R1, runs fine, got 120fps maxed in the benchmark (or maybe i'm mistaking, could also be with my desktop, not sure, but it runs fine.).

 

Well, I decided to install the new dell drivers tonight, as it appears the the Nvidia drivers are the same as the beta drivers I was using previously.

The verdit: Absolutely no difference. CS Source still runs terrible. First couple minutes its great, and then the fps just keep going down and down and down until its not even worth playing.

As recommended by Lenenly, I downloaded GPU Z to monitor what the GPU was doing... Attached is a text log. It is definitely throttling. Check out the memory clock... !!!! I stopped playing when it was obvious that the new drivers werent helping, and i started getting the urge to throw the laptop out the window. At this point my fps were getting into the 30s, and touched the 20s. I started playing around 10:15 and by 10:19 you can see the GPU starts slowing down. By 10:22 its nearly worthless to play. I turned it off by 10:27. The speed doesn't even necessarily correspond to the temp... and even if it did ~60-70 degrees C doesn't seem too dangerously hot to me...

If this computer does that nonsense with Starcraft 2, (and I am assuming it will), its pretty much worthless too me... I am disappointed beyond words... I swore I wouldn't get another Dell, but I broke that promise and now I regret it.

Does anyone else have anything like this happening to them?

 

EVERYONE... THQ SALE... Metro 2033 $12.50 at thq store. again $12.50... once you pay the serial works at Steam. Confirmed cause i just bought it and did it.

BW, StevenX

 

Sweet deal. picked up 2033. My queue of games is getting a little out of hand...

 

I tested my M11X with Cryostasis against my dad's custom desktop PC:

-Dad's computer-
AMD Athlon 64 AM2 5200+ black edition, stock clock frequencies ~2.6GhZ
4GB DDR2 RAM
MSI KN9 SLI N-Force 570 motherboard
Twin NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB by EVGA running in SLI mode
IDE (yes, I said "pata") C: boot drive, 5200 RPM
alternate SATA drive used for storage/gaming, 7200 RPM
Wireless Logitech laser mouse

sorry to say, my father's aging 2007 build won by a long shot. The frame rate on SLI is beautiful. I think I'll keep Cryo on the desktop and play other games on my lappy.

 

disable powermizer its downclocking at high temps are you on battery? use this tool

PowerMizer Manager | Some More Bytes

 

Earlier today I downloaded the free new free game offered by Valve, Alien Swarm, and I was really impressed. Everyone should download it..being free and all. Four player co-op game centered around exterminating alien bugs, four different classes, somewhere around 40 different usable items/weapons, it's a fun time. It would be cool to play with some of you guys here on notebook review!

 

but sad to say you cant play cryo on the street with your dad pc

 

Whats the deal with THQ "your order is being processed, we will contact you soon" thing? i have never purchased a game from them, do they send you an e-mail or something?

Thanks in advance for anyone who could help me out.

 

I know what you mean .

I would definitely get Metro 2033, but I already have it. Awesome game runs OK (playable) on m11x dx9 1280x720 medium settings.

Here some things about a couple of games I recently bought:

-Blacklight: Tango Down

(15$ online shooter, just released on steam) runs fine(30fps+), and uses AlienFX. For example, if you get shot you see some kind of orange danger icon on your screen, your "headlights" will become the same color. Full health = red keyboard and so on.

I must warn you that it's a pain in the to find games. You can only join lobbies, which sucks.


- Rainbow 6 Vegas (1)

Was just 6,60 with the steam sale so I gave it a go. Turns out to be a pretty good stealth shooter, and it looks good. Plays very well too.

 

Alien Swarm Free now on Steam......Heard it's a pretty fun game.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/4081/

http://www.alienswarm.com/

Link at Steam here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/

I am downloading it as I type...

For the R2 owners, you may have to set Optimus to use the nVidia for this .exe file.

UPDATED:

Ok, I downloaded the game, installed it, but when I try to run it I get this error:

'Failed to create D3D device!"

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?p_faqid=772

Anyone know what's up with this message? I tried to do the solution as written on the faq page, but it still gives the error.

2nd Update:

I get the above error when I am using two external monitors with the m11x AND manually adding the swarm.exe to the white list inside the nvidia control panel. However, if I remove the swarm.exe from the whitelist, and try to launch the game, I am able to open the game successfully with no errors...BUt, the game will be running using the Intel GPU...The game will only run successfully if I leave the swarm.exe on the whitelist, but do not connect it to any external monitors....

I would like to run the game using the nVidia GPU while connected to the external monitor.....any suggestions or solutions?