M11x Gaming Discussion Thread

Wait, really? Do enlighten me as mine (ripped off the CD and transferred to my M11x) would not install at all.

EDIT: Welp, that'll teach me for running an unpatched game. 1.08 patch made it work just fine.

 

M11x R1 Core2 Duo SU7300 1.73GHz | 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 | 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M | 500gb 7200rpm hdd
All games tested with free version of game booster and fraps. and stock drivers

sniper: ghost warrior all low settings with post rendering at normal averages around 25-30 fps

Borderlands all medium with shadows off averages 40 spikes around 53 NOTE i wouldn't want lower than 40fps. keeps the game smooth since it's a fairly fast paced game, i can turn up the graphics to average around 30, but it doesn't feel as enjoyable as runnin 40, maybe it's just me. the game still looks great at meduim textures& detail.

Lara croft and the guardian of light everything maxed plays absolutely perfect occasional skip in frames when lots of baddies on screen, but it doesn't affect gameplay. and i recommend a controller of your choosing. it's a pain to play with wasd.

If anyone was wondering torchlight still plays absolutely perfect with the high res textures, which can be found here Here

Runes of magic Max plays great and i've never experience the window'd problem some have

Drift city and track mania nations also maxed out play perfect but you can't play drift city with steam running, the anti hack software for drift city doesn't like it

grid runs like an absolute champ, i didn't change any settings from the ones that were set on install and it's never dropped below 35 for me.

Stalker: SoC with the 2009 patch on default settings runs anywhere from 25-35 for me. the game is fun, but i haven't put more than 2 hours in it so i don't know how its' going to handle a bunch of baddies on screen. I just haven't been in the mood for a serious RPG at the moment.

Hellgate london collectors edition with all updates patches. Game runs fine, bought it b/c of some good memories of back in the day, On wednesdays, but it just doesn't hold a candle to borderlands.

CSS never seen anything below33

Next game on agenda:
gonna try shadows of the collossus on a ps2 emulator,
transformers war for cybertron
resident evil 4 with the patch for mouse and keyboard controls
dead rising 2
lost planet 2
I'll have some updates after i see what's on sale on steam

 

I had borderlands awhile ago and I had to turn it down a lot for acceptable frame rates. I heard the game is a bit overspec'd for most machines but that's the engine's fault.

Stalker with the 2009 patch runs pretty well but when I had it on it seemed to run ok. The vanilla game ran awful at anything higher than basic settings.

And I think you and I are the only people who actually bought Hellgate hahah.

 

Don't bother dude even with my i7 running throttlestop (2.8Ghz) I cant get the CPU power to run this baby. Maybe in a few years on my M11x R8

 

Yeah, console emulation is a strange beast. PS1 is fine but I could not get a PS2 emu going for the life of me. Gamecube was pretty tough too.

 

vindictus works fine with my m11xR2

 

Been messing around with Perpetuum on my R2 (i7 @ 166Mhz + TS) and it absolutely crawls.

 

Damn, there are a lot of PS2 games I never played that would've been fun to have on the m11x


Also, does anyone play Assassin's Creed 2 on their m11x? I couldn't really find any useful posts.

 

I did. R1 works like a charm on standard settings.

 

Assassins Creed 2 requires an active internet connection the whole time you are playing though. Just keep that in mind if you are looking to play it on the road.

 

Awesome, thanks

Yeah, I almost couldn't believe it when I read that, and it was worse than I imagined. Even with a decent internet connection it STILL has random problems that interrupt gameplay.

I paid for several games that I eventually ended up getting cracked copies of solely to circumvent all the annoying DRM, Assassin's Creed 2 being one of them. I'm usually 100% anti-piracy, but I actually regret giving my money to a company that tries to dictate exactly how and where we can play their games... despite how awesome the game is

 

There wasn't a way you could get a legal copy but crack the DRM? I've done that with several games that require the CD to be in the drive.

 

Not that I'm aware of. If it were as simple as a no-CD crack I doubt everyone with the PC version would have been complaining as much

 

The opening cinematics to hellgate london are the best part about the game. and i find that the game is more fun in 3rd person opposed to first person. I feel the game is less buggy and more enjoyable that way.

 

From a pure legal perspective, using a no-CD crack or DRM crack is illegal in the United States.

The DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) states that it is illegal to circumvent, crack, or reverse-engineer DRM or copy protection in any way for any reason. This includes cracking a legitimately purchased copy of the game that you own, and are simply using the crack for convenience purposes.

Some other areas of copyright law (the doctrine of Fair Use) allow you to make a copy of software for backup purposes. However, if your backup copy requires some kind of crack (e.g. to bypass a CD-check), then your backup copy is useless because using that crack is still illegal.






From a practical perspective, most copyright owners will not prosecute you if you legally purchase a copy of their software and use a crack for your own personal convenience.

Doing that is like speeding 1mph over the speed limit - it is technically still illegal, but it is highly unlikely that anyone will bother to stop you.

 

Haha, I gotcha. It's kind of hard to play a game with the CD/DVD in when you lack a drive lol. Besides, most developers are putting out patches that remove the check anyway (i.e. The Witcher).

 

I got some gams on Steam, if anyone wonders if they run/performe well:

Defense Grid: Works great, maxed out

Supreme Commander 2: Maxed out, 16QAA, 60fps, it drops to 40fps when you have around 100 or more units moving around in the screen, have not tested it online

Dirt 2: You need to test the settings, most high settings with around 30 fps and some AA, but the games work perfect and looks way better at those settings than the 360 version that I own

I know the first 2 games are not that powerful to run, but sometimes there are optimus problems, Win 7 problems, Win 64bits problems but there are none with those games...

 

this is promising since the game is downloading right now for me. i couldn't pass it up for 5 bucks. and also downloading alien vs predator and i'm going to check that out.

 

This wikipedia article disagrees with you.

The specific language the article refers to is from Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 117 of the United States Code:

The whole of Title 17 can be found here on the US copyright law website.

Also, contrary to popular belief, reverse engineering is perfectly legal. In fact, there has been legislation passed (in the US) in a number of technological areas that specifically encourage the practice. The reason the issue is controversial with respect to software is because they get bundled with license agreements that have anti-reverse engineering language in it. So it becomes a contractual issue.

 

1) Wikipedia is not reliable as a source of research. That is why it is NEVER allowed as a primary source of information.

Case in point: On August 1, 2006, Stephen Colbert from The Colbert Report wanted to prove a point and coin the term "wikiality" as a satire on creating truth by concensus. To test this, he advised viewers to edit Wikipedia's page on "elephants" to indicate that the population of elephants have tripled over the past 6 months. Sites like Slashdot picked up on this and ran with it, doing drive-by edits of the page.

My source:
McNamara, Melissa. 09 Aug 2006. CBS News. "Stephen Colbert Sparks Wiki War". Available from: Stephen Colbert Sparks Wiki War - CBS News. Accessed 30 Nov 2010.

Just because Wikipedia says that elephant population tripled, doesn't mean it's true. This is why Wikipedia is considered unreliable. It is a great tool to help you find primary sources, but is not a primary source by itself.



2) What you linked (17 U.S.C. 117(a)(1)) is the US Copyright Law, talking about the exceptions to the US Copyright Law allowing someone to legitimately make *COPIES* of software.

Again, I mentioned that there are areas of US Copyright Law that allow you to make COPIES of software for backup purposes. However, applying a crack (e.g. to bypass a CD-check) so that you can actually USE that copy is still illegal according to the DMCA, even if it renders your backup copy useless.


3) In July 2010, US Congress declared exemptions to the DMCA be made. These exemptions allow for "circumvention of copyright protection systems" for the following purposes:

- Removal of CSS encryption from DVDs for purposes of educational use, documentary film making, and non commercial videos.

- "Jailbreaking" smart phones to run apps or to connect to a cellular network

- To replace hardware dongles that act as copy protection for software, when the manufacturer of the dongle is no longer selling / repairing them.

- Removing DRM from eBooks, to allow eBook content to be rendered into a different format for the disabled (e.g. allows text-to-speech function for the hearing impaired).

- Remove copy protection schemes from video games solely for the purpose of good faith testing or security flaw correction.​

Using a No-CD check for purposes of convenience is not covered as an exception by the DMCA.

According to the exact letter of the law, US Copyright Law allows you to make backup copies, but doesn't specify anything about what it takes to use those copies. The DMCA specifically states that you cannot circumvent copy protection for any reason, except in the specific cases that it states as exceptions. And using a no-CD key for purposes of convenience is not one of those exceptions.

In practice, most copyright owners will not prosecute you if you legally purchase a copy of their software and use a crack for your own personal convenience... even though you are technically breaking the law. Just like how most police officers will not write you a ticket for speeding +1mph over the speed limit, even though you are technically breaking the law.


4) I never claimed that reverse-engineering is illegal. I claimed that breaking DRM or copy protection for purposes of reverse-engineering is illegal, unless it falls under one of the provisions of the DMCA granting an exception.

 

I don't disagree with any of your points except:

The provision doesn't only cover copies, it covers adaptations as well. It would appear then that this law and the DMCA are at odds with each other.

 

i thought it was the same rule as an emulator. it's legal if you own the game but illegal if you don't.

but lets move back to some game discussions

Dirt 2 also worked great for me. playing with a 360 controller. all meduim settings with textures max. native resolution. average 40fps

 

When US Copyright Law talks about "adaptations", they mean in a way that transposes onto a different medium. So, you could take a copy of software that comes on CD, and make a copy onto a DVD or hard drive instead.

Again, this is a case where making a copy is perfectly within your legal rights - but resorting to a no-CD check that circumvents DRM / copy protection to actually use that copy is illegal.

Yup. It can be confusing as hell.

US Copyright Law was written just before 1800 to basically cover copyright for printed medium like books and newspapers. The DMCA was written about 200 years after that, covering copy protection for digital works.

One problem is that copyright law has not caught up to the pace of technology. The other problem (my opinion) is that the DMCA is overly broad,
and gives the copyright owner far too much control. Either of these two, by themselves, can cause problems. Combined together, and it's a mess.

There are a LOT of grey areas in Copyright law right now that are being sorted out. For example, is it legal for you to rip a DVD that you legally own, so that you can watch it on a laptop without carrying the DVD disc around with you? Is it legal for you to take MP3's you ripped from a CD and copy them onto your smartphone, laptop, computer, etc so that you can listen to that music wherever you go? Those are all still grey areas, as far as the law is concerned.

 

Yeah, there are things like crowd and that stuff you don´t see unless you pause the game that can be on med or even low, to put other stuff you see in high, or the cockpit view, if you don´t use it (like me) there are like 4-5 settings that can only be seen in that view, you can put those in low, and like I said, put other in high like trees, water reflections, etc.

I have highs (all stuff I don´t need/see in low) vsynch on (this games has some serious screen tearing, and is worse in the animations outside the races) and 4xAA, running at 30-35fps, I´m gonna try more AA later...

I also use the 360 controller, got 80 achievements points in like 20 min of play...

 

Just wondering, my R1 is using only 2GB of RAM, would it be advisable to upgrade to 4GB for better gaming performance?

I don't run any others programs when I play games but well..Just a thought.
I don't do any multitasking on my m11x as well.

 

Yes, go to 4GB, there are some games that the m11x can run that ask 2GB (sometimes because Win Vista/Win7) and you are gonna be at limit.....


Also, here is a picture of dirt2 with fraps, the benchmark was 31.2 FPS on average:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b245/VIdaluko/dirt2_game2010-11-3014-52-32-54.jpg

 

Oh, that looks sweet! I just picked up Dirt 2 on Steam for dirt cheap (pun intended)
for my desktop and now I'll just have to load it onto the R2.

 

4GB will certainly help for more modern games. Remember even with careful process management you will still be using between 500MB and 1GB of ram for background processes. Your integrated GPU will also use a little bit as well.

When you have 4GB this doesn't really matter as you have ~ 3GB of buffer but with 2GB you only really have ~ 1GB to "game" with.

Back to the games.

Having just bought Metro 2033 in the steam sale (for £5 - couldn't say no really as I enjoyed the demo) I thought I would try it out on the little M11x. I was genuinely suprised to find it playable (once I enabled DX10 which seemed to boost performance greatly (not complaining of course). Everything was obviously set to low but at the native resolution, setting it to normal dropped the framerate too much for my liking.

Frame rate was between 25 and 50fps indoors. Unfortunately I ran the intro section (outdoors) in DX9 so I don't know if performance could be improved there (it was a little choppy for my liking).

GPU overclock is a must though, I'm currently running 550/1320/1760 which seemed to help smooth things out in general. I will try my afterburner max GPU overclock of 585/1404/1760 later.

For what it's worth Metro can bring even my desktop to it's knees (not bad considering I am running two GTX460 1GB cards with a 26% overclock).

 

I also just picked it up for a fiver. Been playing with settings all morning. Is there an internal FPS counter? I got the feeling that it runs slower on DX10. Been trying to get it playable on high, as even on normal, there's a HUGE difference in visuals. It's relatively smooth indoors at 1280x720 on high and DX9 (by "smooth", I mean maybe 30 FPS, but with no counter I can't say exactly). I OC'd the CPU to 166 with TS at 100/100, but to be honest, there's no noticeable improvement compared with no overclocking. Perhaps it's time to OC the GPU.

 

There's a benchmarking tool.

Look in the folder where Metro 2033 is stored (C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Metro 2033\), and you should see the benchmark tool there.

 

omg, thanks for that benchmarking tool. A godsend. I can confirm earlier posts that going from DX9 to DX10 increases performance (~10% on my system). In fact, DX9->10 and turning off PhysX gave me an average bump in FPS of >22%.

 

The new AvP plays great. i enjoy framerate over graphics anyday so i'm always shooting for around 40 fps. game averages about 35 with vsynch on. 1x AA and medium settings. Games pretty fun so far. like a first person dead space, a horror shooter. but i'm enjoying it so far

 

I am using MSI afterburner on screen display to show my FPS (and to confirm overclock and memory usage).

I don't really understand why it runs faster in DX10 compared to DX9 but I tried again at lunch and the same increase was there. Oddly MSI afterburner shows the game running in DX11 mode when I select DX10...

I assume the boost is down to efficiency rather than visuals.

I will have a play around with the resolution as Normal was not playable for me, at least not at the native resolution. I doubt the 335M will be capable of "high" at least not without massive drops in action scenes.

Overclocking your GPU is a must especially if you want to try to run "high" settings. Metro 2033 is also a very GPU limited game (my gpu is often pegged at 99% load) and hence any boost will be welcome.

Do you have any results from the benchmark tool which I could compare to?

 

How does one tune off physx? Or is this an in game only option?

 

There are two ways:

1) You can turn it off in-game by going to one of the game menus (Options, Gameplay, Advanced Settings, etc... it will vary from game to game), and turning off "Physics" or "PhysX"

2) You can turn it off for your entire system by going to nVidia Control Panel --> 3D Settings --> PhysX Configuration, and disabling it there.

 

IIRC the option is in game under the video settings menu.

EDIT: Sorry this is in relation to Metro 2033.

I am not sure about turning if off completely in the Nvidia control panel. I only have the option of Auto, 335m or CPU on the Physx menu.

 

Sorry I didn't make myself very clear... I was wondering if there was an option to switch physx off for the whole system not just in one game.

I checked in the Nvidia config and have the same as Xaser...

 

No Probs, I would actually like to know the same answer as I definately recall you used to be able to turn it off.

I am running the 258.98 drivers (I may be slightly out on the last two digits there).

 

Yes I remember seeing an option to turn it off in an older driver too. I am now running 260.99.

 

any draw backs from turning off physx?

 

Sure do. The settings I'm using are:

1280x720, DX10, High, AAA, AF4X, PhysX: disabled
min fps: 10
max fps: 51
avg fps: 22

With quality set to normal, looks like this:
min: 12
max: 56
avg: 28

That's with the internal benchmarking tool, which is a bit intense imo. Also stock GPU clock.

 

No, except the obvious - you don't get PhysX support in games.

 

Any recommendation for a 2x2gb ram kit for M11xR1?
Would love to pick one set up this coming Christmas

 

You should be fine with any 2x2GB kit from a reliable vendor like Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, OCZ, etc. I, myself, tend to like Corsair memory.

Be sure to get:
4GB kit (2x2GB) DDR3 204-pin SODIMM.

Speed does not matter. The Alienware M11x runs its memory at 800Mhz. I believe that the most common laptop memory kits for DDR3 run at 1066Mhz or 1333Mhz. You can buy either speed, but remember that you won't get any performance benefit, since the memory will run at 800Mhz anyway.

 

Except when overclocked, but then it will run at 1066MHz.

 

Does using the overclocking feature in the BIOS the M11x also increase clock speeds on RAM? I had thought it was only CPU speed.

 

anyone tried ARMA 2 on M11X_R2 ? Any input on that , please ?

 

Yes it does, the overclock on the m11x changes the FSB speed which also controls the speed the ram runs at. There is another type of overclock which changes multiplier of the CPU only with extreme or unlocked CPU's but that is not available with the m11x.

 

Anyone tried Two Worlds 2 ? . Thanks for your reply , and as usual greet .
Pit .

 

So I guess i'm a late bloomer and went on a whim and bought mass effect 2. Oh holy cow. I say down at around 11 yesterday afternoon and realized it was 6 before i knew it. This is the most immersive, pulls you in and doesn't let you go game i've ever played. And that's saying a lot b/c i have diasgnosed a.d.h.d. like crazy and can't play 1 game for more than an hour or two at a time before i have to switch games. this game is amazing. I was never a big fan of space/ sci fi rpg's but this changes my view on everything. and the m11x runs it like a champ and i haven't had any slow downs or drop in frame rate yet. only realy problem is every once in a while i get a black box around the text on screen. but that started after i started using MSI so that might have something to do with it. if you even have a slight interest in this game. buy it.