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    M11x Gaming Discussion Thread

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by DR650SE, Feb 25, 2010.

  1. mattcadalic

    mattcadalic Newbie

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    Hi guys. Im a M11x R2 owner who have problem playing Dawn of war 2.
    A little about my M11xR2, Got it for nearly 2 months now, enjoying this little Beast very much. Been playing all the recent big titles with no problem at all. ( Bioshock2, Total war series, the witcher, starcraft2, L4D2,..etc). Overclocked my i3 to the max via BIOS. Overclocked my GPU to stable 500/1200/850. After market 4GB DDR3 rams.

    Been using 258.96 driver flawlessly.

    After I purshased DoW2:GTY edition from steam, I noticed that now all the settings in Video options is available ( high and ultra were greyed out in demo version )
    But after Ive chosen my prefered option, Mid and High, Everytime I click accept the game restart and ended up with only Low an some medium options like the first time I boot the game.

    I searched everywhere for a solution, follow every ty advises I founded by googled. Edit launcher, edit config file, \\ Nothing works. The game only allow me to play base on the default setting.

    So I was wondering if any of you guys here been having the same problem, and found a good solution. Help me out guys, if you know how I feel.
    Been enjoying gaming on this little beast, never ask for so much more than Medium-High graphics settings on this beast. Great time until I stuck with low graphic gaming in my 40$ purshase. Spend whole day yesterday try to find a solution... :(
     
  2. Itsbrandon

    Itsbrandon Newbie

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    Do you know what the problem is with the M11xR2 for Vindictus?
    Is it impossible to play because of the Optimus graphics changer?
    If so that's really stupid because the reason I got this laptop was because it was advertised all over the main page of Vindictus since I was looking for a new laptop anyways I got it, and it doesn't even work with the game.
    I find that kinda funny actually.
     
  3. be77solo

    be77solo pc's and planes

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    Anyone tried Lost Planet 2 yet? I'm not sure how it will do, some reports are it's a very well optimized port and has tons of graphics options to scale performance, and others say it's a gorgeous game that it rather demanding. Curious how it will run on a R1... thanks!

    Also, installed MOH yesterday, so far so good in single player, haven't had time to try out multiplayer. Fun game, but way too early to tell real opinions. Performance at native res (1366x768) and med settings, framerate runs between 25-60+, an occasional stutter, but totally playable, and I'm sure with some tweaks it'll do even better.

    Thanks for any info on Lost Planet 2 actual gameplay and not just benchmark tool.
     
  4. DazUK72

    DazUK72 Newbie

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    Hey guys

    Recently installed LEGO Batman and Darwinia on R2.

    Both run flawlessly on highest settings.
     
  5. Jmb0

    Jmb0 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well I think that there was just an update and now I was able to play Civilization V in Dx10 , I had to lower the settings to low/Medium in the late game (300 + turn)

    the game hanged after 2 hrs of play.
     
  6. TalonH

    TalonH Notebook Evangelist

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    I have the R1 with the manual graphics switch. I'm sure if you whitelisted Vindictus.exe then it should work fine.
     
  7. Itsbrandon

    Itsbrandon Newbie

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    I don't mean that.
    Vindictus is blocking me from playing because it's counting NVidia Optimus as a overlay and Vindictus doesn't allow overlays, so it keeps giving me a Unauthorized Program Deteced and disconnecting me after a little while of playing making it impossible to play on this laptop...
    What sucks is this was my main purpose for this laptop, was Vindictus... Now i can't since it's blocking the Optimus overlay.
    Any idea how to possibly fix this?
     
  8. aznboi855

    aznboi855 Notebook Consultant

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    I'm getting the same problem :|.
     
  9. TalonH

    TalonH Notebook Evangelist

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    Ah. Guess you're out of luck then. Sorry.
     
  10. slickie88

    slickie88 Master of Puppets

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    I believe it's been reported that the new 260.89 driver solves the problem with Vindictus.
     
  11. Skillman01

    Skillman01 Notebook Consultant

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    I runed WOW without the nvidia graphics card......Because I was stupid and I didnt knew you can change it to advanced performance ..... ^^
     
  12. RecklessFable

    RecklessFable Notebook Guru

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    Has anyone gotten Civ 5 yet? I have been considering it, but would prefer not to invest before knowing my chances...
     
  13. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    I have Civ 5. It runs fine on my laptop. But then again, my opinion of "fine" may be different than someone else's idea of "fine".

    All Civ games are CPU-heavy, because so much of the game is dependent on calculating AI moves. There is a graphics component as well, which the M11x handles just fine. But there is still a heavier emphasis placed on the CPU than other games.

    And FYI, Civ 5 is one of the games that is unique in that its performance scales almost linearly with CPU clock speed and number of CPU cores. If you increase clock speed by 50%, you can expect framerates to go up 50%. If you double the number of cores you can use, you can expect framerates to double as well. It's pretty cool. I don't think I've ever seen that linear CPU scaling in a game before.

    [​IMG]
     
  14. nuke737

    nuke737 Notebook Deity

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    I really wish Batboy would split the R1 and R2 gaming threads...
     
  15. RecklessFable

    RecklessFable Notebook Guru

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    Yeah

    /signed
     
  16. jeremyshaw

    jeremyshaw Big time Idiot

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    Since TS came out, it's more of a big deal than it used to be (otherwise, OC'd SU7300 used to come really close to i5).
     
  17. Skillman01

    Skillman01 Notebook Consultant

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    Hello guys I will spend 60 bucks on steam the thing is I just dont know what game/s to buy. I want crysis and crysis warhead. I saw the borderlands deal with all the dlcs and or fallout new vegas. Which one my m11x r1 will run better and which one is the best game?. I've never tried crysis before by the way
     
  18. slickie88

    slickie88 Master of Puppets

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    Buy as few games as will keep you busy until December when Steam has their next crazy week long sale.
     
  19. Skillman01

    Skillman01 Notebook Consultant

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    Oh okay. The thing is I finish games (exept fallout 3 took me days :D) in like 2 normal days and well >.< . I'm thinking in buying L4D 2 or team fortress Idk yet =p
     
  20. slickie88

    slickie88 Master of Puppets

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    Either one of those would be great choices and should keep you busy for weeks, if not longer.
     
  21. Itsbrandon

    Itsbrandon Newbie

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    Where exactly did you see or hear this?
    I'll confirm this right now actually.
    brb 2

    Confirmed.
    Vindictus is now working.
     
  22. luffytubby

    luffytubby Notebook Deity

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    how does Vindictus work?
     
  23. TalonH

    TalonH Notebook Evangelist

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    Perhaps you should try it for yourself.
     
  24. Skillman01

    Skillman01 Notebook Consultant

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    Hey guys Is there any way I can get High graphics on crysis warhead with my m11x r1 2 Gb ram?
     
  25. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    You can probably get close to 25-30fps at native res. It's up to you to decide whether that's an acceptable framerate.

    Don't expect much more, though. Your machine is a little underpowered for Crysis, with an nVidia 335M GPU and 2GB of RAM to try and run a game like Crysis at high res. The Crytek game engine notoriously does not scale well at higher resolutions and detail levels.
     
  26. Vidaluko

    Vidaluko Notebook Evangelist

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    With that m11x, you can have high in all settings (no AA) and maybe get around 16-20 fps, and to tell you the truth, at those fps, the game plays just fine...
     
  27. Darci

    Darci Newbie

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    anyone can say me how well the m11x R1/r2 works wih the Game AION and World of Warcraft!?
    Dont give me answers with Videos on Youtube. I did read many things about WoW on other Forums that says its laggy in Raids ôo". But AION features us 300 ppl.+ raids so, i want to get some feedback from ppl. who used /tried that already....


    Freendly greetings~
     
  28. TalonH

    TalonH Notebook Evangelist

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    Pop in 2 more GB of ram and add in -dx9 onto the target of the crysis exe.
     
  29. Vidaluko

    Vidaluko Notebook Evangelist

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    I tested the Just Cause 2 demo, max settings, 1366x768, 20-25 fps, to bad fraps does not work to take a screen...

    Is awesome, after played 50hrs in the 360 version of this game, the graphics are awesome, but, the controls are awful, I hope you can plug a 360 controller and play...
     
  30. Skillman01

    Skillman01 Notebook Consultant

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    Another question guys about Left 4 dead 2. The Game runs perfect in max settings in the r1 right?
     
  31. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    You can expect around 40-45fps at native res.
     
  32. Skillman01

    Skillman01 Notebook Consultant

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    wow thats perfect then I'm looking forward to that game I only played the first one. Another question what is AA in games ?
     
  33. tassadar898

    tassadar898 Notebook Evangelist

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    R1 doesnt have hyperthreading I thought L4D2 which has multicore rendering really benefited from hyperthreading so the R2 saw a huge increase in performance.
     
  34. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    Hyperthreading is not the same as multiple CPU cores. A single CPU core with hyperthreading is still one CPU core, despite the fact that it will appear as two cores to the OS. Hyperthreading is basically a "staging area" for data awaiting execution in a CPU core. The idea is that by preparing data for the CPU core to execute, the CPU core spends less time waiting, and more time doing actual work (computations).

    When you go to your doctor's office for a check-up, the office front desk staff will check you in, collect your insurance, have you fill out forms, and lead you back to an exam room where you wait for the doctor. When the doctor arrives, s/he examines you, and sends you on your way. The doctor never has to wait around for patients to check in, because there are always patients in exam rooms waiting to be seen. That is the equivalent of hyperthreading - multiple exam rooms, all waiting to be seen by one doctor.

    The CPU's in the M11x R1 (Core 2 Duo) and the M11x R2 (Core i5/i7) are all dual-core CPU's. You will have the benefits of multicore rendering in L4D2, regardless of whether you are using the M11x R1 or M11x R2.
     
  35. jeremyshaw

    jeremyshaw Big time Idiot

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    However, the i5/i7 are a bit faster in multithreaded applications, nevertheless. They also have a slight IPC advantage leaned on from the Nehalem architecture they are based on. I've had both a R1 and a R2, and the i7 without turbo was indeed faster than a SU7300 (no OC), despite being clocked 100MHz lower. Of course, that was wPrime... So maybe not the best comparison method [2 threads on both setups; affinity set on i7 for the seperate cores], :p
     
  36. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    Yes, there is a pure speed advantage of Core i5/i7 CPU's in the M11x R2 over the Core 2 Duo CPU's in the M11x R1. And yes, when you run a benchmark that specifically targets the CPU like wPrime, then you will see a difference due to pure architectural speed differences.

    However, these speed benefits do not impact gaming as much as they would impact a CPU benchmark. Almost all games are GPU-bound, and do not benefit from incremental speed boosts to the CPU (with the exceptions of GTA4 and Civ5). Anandtech's benchmarks showed a 0% - 10% difference in gaming framerates between the M11x R1 and M11x R2, with a lot of games being closer to the 0% than the 10%.

    The 40fps - 45fps average in L4D2 on max details and native res (1366x768) applies to all M11x users, regardless if they are running the R1 or R2.
     
  37. jeremyshaw

    jeremyshaw Big time Idiot

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    hmmm... I guess the 12FPS jump I saw in SC2 (campain average for the All In final mission) was just a fluke, then. A major fluke that had nothing to do with using nVidia 258 drivers on both. Nothing to do with the fact that I have owned both a R1 and a R2 and can attest to that. :p

    Anandtech also had the lack of Throttlestop, in addition to never mentioning the drivers they used on the R2 review. Even games like Bad Company 2 saw about a 100% performance increase (though I heard one of the patches made it perfom better [relatively] on dual cores, now?).

    EDIT: which is why I don't want to use reviews comparing the two (Anandtech and Hardware heaven), different driver sets. Entirely different driver branches for that matter.
     
  38. Kacy

    Kacy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey. i got M11xR2 i5, 4 gb ram and I have serious problem with fps in cs:s

    So If there is any cs:s player here willing to help please do so.

    Even when everything in nvidia settings is set to full performance and with fps cfg i still get max 90-110 fps which is really silly number.

    On my PC with amd 64 x2 dual core 4200+ and (I guess 7 years or more old) radeon x700 I get around 170 fps so its really dissappointing when i have less with m11x r2

    Got any ideas whether this is because of bad settings or this notebook really is worse than 7 years old pc ?
     
  39. Skillman01

    Skillman01 Notebook Consultant

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    Are you sure is not lag?
     
  40. TalonH

    TalonH Notebook Evangelist

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    There was a fix for that in one of these threads. Did you whitelist hl2.exe?
     
  41. kiwidaniel

    kiwidaniel Notebook Consultant

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    i would like to know what post you are talking about.
     
  42. stevenxowens792

    stevenxowens792 Notebook Virtuoso

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    @Jeremy and All - Lots of items, working in concert can impact or improve game performance. Quality Drivers are essential. Both CPU and GPU can be important. Game that are of GPU emphasis obviously get little performance boost when CPU is increased. Games that require heavy computation like ARMA2 or SC2 or CIV5 will benefit greatly from higher CPU clocks and more cores.

    Battlefield (as an example) is a weird one. It's both gpu and cpu dependent. Even though the gpu utilization is > 70 percent in most cases, it relies heavily on it for details. CPU is an absolute must for multiplayer but again utilizes only 50-65 percent. I benched heavy before and after from a I3-350m to I7-720qm and got a huge boost in frames. The delta was 21 min to 29 max. Details were 900p, all high, shadows low, hsao disabled, no vsync, 2XAA and 2XAF. My averages floated around 61-63fps. After cpu swap, same settings, the averages increased to 81fps-89fps (depending on map and frag particles/smoke).. I was very pleased to say the least.

    Other games, such as Just Cause 2, I benched before and after and got a .34 increase in frames. Sniper Ghost Warrior I got a 5-10fps increase.

    So it really depends on the Game Developer to disclose the game requirements to make play enjoyable.

    Good Topic of discussion. No party here is right or wrong. Good information like this thread keeps us informed as to what others are experiencing.

    Best Wishes, StevenX
     
  43. kiwidaniel

    kiwidaniel Notebook Consultant

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    steven do you know about what fix TalonH is talking about relating to Kacy's problem for counter strike source? I am really disappointed because i only get 120 fps (video stress test with 260.99 drivers).
     
  44. Kacy

    Kacy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeah ofc i whitelisted hl2.exe and I can obviously can tell the difference between lag and fps. Also for the highest stress test result I could get was 170 which is rly low, as stress test's result should be 2x, 3x higher than normal game play fps.

    Also 260.99 drivers

    Truly disappointed
     
  45. kiwidaniel

    kiwidaniel Notebook Consultant

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    you got 170 on your alienware m11x r2? can you explain how you went about doing so... what are your settings for your drivers? What are your in game settings? are you using any external application like gamebooster?

    video stress test as in the one that is in game correct?

    are you also running your game at native resolution like i am?
     
  46. Kacy

    Kacy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well It's hard for me to recollect all these settings right now, coz Im continuously trying new cfgs and nvidia settings but i checked it at 1280x1024 on external monitor, ingame stress test, no external applications. No gpu or cpu oc in windows, but ofc cpu turbo and oc in bios. I guess that time I set everything in nvidia on performance
     
  47. kiwidaniel

    kiwidaniel Notebook Consultant

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    hmm well im running the native screen and i did not overclock. maybe its the over clock?
     
  48. Kacy

    Kacy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Perhaps. Also it's really annoying that I' cant get nhancer to work with this m11x
     
  49. kiwidaniel

    kiwidaniel Notebook Consultant

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    btw if you havent already done so, enable multicore rendering :) it boost fps by a good amount.
     
  50. Kacy

    Kacy Notebook Enthusiast

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    I enabled multicore rendering as soon as I got my hands on cs:s
     
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