M11x Gaming Discussion Thread

Oblvion plays fine on my R1 (Steam version - GOTY delux) although when there are alot of people inside the Imperial Palace (discricts) the framerate can plummet. Interestingly GU usage doesn't go above 70% (inside the imperial palace again) so we are CPU limited to an extent. I should point out I am running "Ultra" settings frmo the launcher but things like shadow filtering and grass shadows are either low or off (the 335m does have it's limits).

Oblivion (and Fallout3) does stutter in general though as its a known issue with the Gamebro engine (search Oblivion or Fallout3 stuttering to see what I mean). A lot of stuttering can also occur when a new section of the map loads and thus a good old defrag can do wonders if you are really suffering. I am wondering is a SSD would make a big difference here as well as the game thrashes the HD when it does this. An SSD's increased read bandwidth should help here.


EDIT:

On a completely seperate subject I have been having fun with Crysis Warhead. Running the heavily modified CCC v2.0 config (at "high") the game is perfectly playable and looks like it is running at what I can approximate to Gamer settings. As a balance I tried running the vanilla game on Gamer settings and it just isn't playable. I think the CCC configs to ALOT to optimise things like shadows and the like. Normally (as we all know) shadows kill the 335m but this config seems to have struck a balance between performance and visuals.

On a less "wahoo" note though, GTAIV just isn't playable on the R1. Despite setting everything to minimum I just couldn't make it playable. Mind you it drops to under 30fps at time even on my overclocked desktop (1680x1050, max in game settings, 60/100,70 on the sliders). It's obvious from GPU usage that the game loves a nice fast CPU but even on my desktop ( core i7 920 @ 3.8ghz) I don't see full GPU usage so some of it must be due to poor optimisation.

 

@Paddon (and myself)

I found a gameplay video of ArmA 2 on a M11x R1:
YouTube - ARMA 2 Alienware M11x

I believe it's a bit more playable without fraps and maybe on the R2, but still playable

 

Just bought NWN2 Platinum on Steam, and holy crap it crawls. Does anyone get reasonable FPS with shadows turned on? Some quick initial testing suggests it's the most resource intensive setting, but turning it off drastically affects the visual quality of the game, so that's a compromise I'd like to avoid having to make.

Can someone post their settings?

 

I play NWN2 on max everything... im r2 i5 overclock on max with turbo boost

 

Hi Roxxor, I know you have been around these forums for a while, but I have to mention this one... Whitelist it to use the Nvidia card?

 

What FPS do you get? I'm getting <20 with shadows on full outdoors (indoors it's fine). 60+ with all shadows off. I have an i7 OCd to 166.

Do you also OC the GT335M?

The nvidia gpu activity monitor shows that it's using it.

 

roxxor what is ur 3dMark score?

I wonder cuz I own a m11x R1 with the lowest specs(2gb + 160gb hd 5400)...and it scores around 6400+.... with the standart 197 nvidia - intel drivers...

 

Games I've tested on the alienware M11x R2 (nvidia drivers 260.99) - Every game I've played in native 1366x768 resolution.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Runs 30-50 FPS on medium settings) - Multiplayer dips as low as 20 FPS during intense battles on large maps.

Starcraft 2 (runs 35-50 FPS on medium settings. FPS can vary during intense battles- went as low as 20FPS once for a few seconds, but never stuttered or became unplayable)

Borderlands (Runs 30-40 FPS on medium settings)

Oblivion (Runs 40-60 FPS indoors on default settings, 30-40 outside. Managed to get it to dip to 20 FPS when I attacked 8 guards in a crowded town)

Guild Wars (Runs 60 FPS max settings)

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Ranged 30-60 FPS with default settings, full-screen effects, and ambient occlusion.)

Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West (30-40 FPS max settings, 8x AF)

Left 4 Dead + Left 4 Dead 2 - Left 4 Dead 1 40-60 FPS max settings. Left 4 Dead 2 runs 30-60 max settings. Framerate only dropped to 20 FPS on L4D2 for a few seconds once, during the Hard Rain level)

Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers (Doesn't support native 1366x768 so had to run it at 1280xsomething. Runs 60 FPS max settings)

Nation Red (Runs anywhere from 100 FPS and higher on max settings)

Need for Speed Shift (40-50 FPS on high settings)

Unreal Tournament 3: Black Edition (runs 35-40 FPS on default settings in multiplayer matches. Even higher FPS on offline/singleplayer games)

 

Around 7600.

 

wow that's kinda high....but I wonder if I really need to get me a M11X R2....for future games like diablo III...or you guys think the R1 will handle that game in low/mid settings....with at least 25fps.....(meaning playable for me).....

 

The system reqs for D3 haven't been released by Blizzard yet. A good gauge would be Starcraft 2 though, as the requirements are expected to be similar (if slightly higher). People have reported good results with SC2.

BTW, you should be able to easily break 7k in 3Dmark06 if you OC.

 

ok but I will def need 8gb of ram and a SSD hard drive to be able to break the 7k mark.....+ the nvidia 260.99 drivers...

so far.....6447in 3Dmark06 is the best score I ever had coming from a $550 portable gaming laptop....

 

I don't think those upgrades will help in the benchmark as much as you think it will. OCing the CPU alone should get you another 300-400 points. And a small GPU OC would definitely put you over the edge.

You shouldn't be concerned with 3dmark anyway. Download the SC2 demo and see if it plays to your liking. You should also keep in mind that your driver version will dramatically affect your experience. You might also want to consider installing the R1 community drivers to get the most out of the video card.

 

the cpu is already overclocked to 1.6ghz (based on cpuz) which is kinda weird since 3Dmark detect it running at 1.73GHz....so my only option will be ocing the GPU, getting more ddr3 memory and a SDD...gotta say I have sc2 and it runs in mid/high settings with the current specs...

thanks for the info

 

Also, keep in mind thaty SC2 is a strategy game and those use up a lot of CPU cycles. Diablo 3 is a button mashing, action RPG. I would suspect D3 is much less CPU intensive. The graphics options will be scalable, but how will the M11x perform with nice looking detail levels? who can say. D3 will not be out for a while anyway, you will probably have traded up and be on a next generation laptop by then (my prediction). Buy it for the current games you play, trade up when you need more.

 

from what I've read, Diablo 3 will be very scalable. I can run Starcraft 2 very well, so I'm guessing Diablo 3 is not totally out of the question...

My main concern is... will I be able to run the new Elder Scrolls game "Skyrim"

 

If it will be on F3 engine than should be no problem . I wonder what about Witcher 2 on R1 ?

 

Both Skyrim and the Witcher 2 are using new engines (they are not re-using the Oblivion/Fallout or the Neverwinter Nights engine). I am sure they will be scalable, but how will they run with decent quality levels? Only time will tell.

 

Witcher 2 is some sweet looking eye-candy. Some of the developer videos that have been out for a while mention that they wanted it to be scalable, but there's no way to guess what that means until it hits your hard drive.

Pre-ordered a couple of weeks ago. Hope it delivers.

 

I heard they were just using a modified version of the Oblivion engine for Skyrim, I certainly do hope the R2 can run it.. if not, I guess I'll be getting the Xbox version :\

 

Unfortunately/Fortunately Skyrim is being done on an entirely new engine, of course that still means the new one will most likely be filled with bugs, this is Bethesda we are talking about people, so expect it to be essentially prettier then the oblivion engine. I'll just be happy if their characters look vaguely realistic.

 

Anyone in Rift beta? i just pre ordered the game after contemplating back and fourth. the game is going give WoW a crazy run for it's money (I love WoW). it looks fantastic.

 

Killing Floor - anyone have this? It lags on the highest settings on native res. Seems there's no anti-aliasing to enable anyhow, V-sync is off as well.

Anyone?

Thanks in advance.


EDIT: OK turns out it may not have been on the white-list. Checking. Standby.

EDIT2: OK, turns out it's the 266.35 and 266.44 beta drivers that both do not seem to work well as well as the game not being white-listed. 260.99, and the game streams.

 

Okay, but let's remember that the game is created for all cross-platform where the pc seems to be the strongest to date. Much depends on the optimization .... I think there is a chance to play 1024/768 medium. For me it would be enough

 

I've been in a few of the Beta weekends so far and color me unimpressed. It's definitely a solid WoW clone, but that's all it is with some stuff cribbed from WaR and other MMOs. The one word I would use to describe it is generic and I couldn't motivate myself to even get out of the starting area. The whole time I was playing I just kept on getting deja vu and a whole bunch of been there, done that.

Graphics are decent and controls are nice and tight. Lore made me yawn and after the first few quests I stopped bothering to read the whole quest description and just went doing the stupid killing and collecting tasks that game devs seem to think we love. Rifts are just public quests, didn't pvp but heard that there were some issues with people getting flagged involuntarily by jerks.

On the plus side, my m11x had no problems running it. However to say that this will even have any effect on the WoW player base is silly. Why would anyone leave a better game that all their friends are already playing for just a shinier skin? There's a reason why WoW is still the top dog and RIFT isn't taking any lessons. I don't even play WoW anymore and have no intention of buying Cata but I will give Blizzard mad props for keeping me engaged in a game for 4 years.

Even Yahtzee couldn't bring himself to hate Cata: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2634-World-of-Warcraft-Cataclysm

Just to bring my opinions in perspective here's what some other people though of the beta: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/04/rift-beta-events-impressions-from-the-staff/

As you can see some people definitely enjoyed it while I got the same feeling as Jef. I guess I'm becoming a cranky old MMO vet.

 

I have recently bought this laptop and can barely run league of legends on it. its very choppy at the lowest graphic and resolution settings. My in game fps jumps between 15 and 30 depending on whats going on. my graphic settings are all set for performance, whats up? can I actually not play this game with this computer?

forgot to mention i have the i5 processor and the nvidia GeForce GT 335M, 4gb ram.

League of Legends required specs:

Operating System: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7
Processor: Intel CPU 2 GHz
Memory: 512 MB RAM or more
Hard Drive: 750 MB hard disk space
Video Card (graphics): Any DirectX 9.0 capable video card
Sound Card: DirectX 9 compatible audio hardware

 

forgot to mention i have the i5 processor and the nvidia GeForce GT 335M, 4gb ram.

 

Search is your friend.

 

I was playing LoL last night on my R1 which sustained 40-65fps throughout the match whilst on native res. Let me guess, you forgot to add LoL to the white list?

 

whats the white list and how do i do that?

 

The whitelist is where you can manually choose what games and programs you want optimus to use the nvidia processor or the integrated graphics. It is located in the Nvidia control pane. There is an entire thread devoted to this

Edit: Watch this video, it will show you how. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U874jC2blJQ

 

Erm, this may sound odd, but has anyone been getting slow load times when playing Mass Effect 2? It usually takes my load screens (when not on the Normandy) over 1-2 minutes. If not, do you guys think it could be my hdd/CPU? I have the r1 OC'ed to 1.8 ghz and the stock 160 gig hdd by the way.

 

No sorry. My Mass effect 2 runs great. between loading times it only takes 10-15 seconds to fully load anything anywhere.

I'm not very computer savvy, so i can't tell you why you have an issue, maybe its a whitelisting problem? for me when i'm in doubt i always add the program to the nvidia gpu just to be sure.

 

Just reporting in that Risen (with patch 1.10) works great on the R1. It runs at 1024x768 with AA turned down and a couple things set to medium. I probably should have tried a more demanding setup but oh well.

 

Whitelisting is only for the R2, which supports Optimus. I have an R1, which requires physically switching the graphics by pressing fn+6. I'm starting to think this may be because I have an R1 ...

 

Try defragging your hard drive and/or reinstalling ME2, those load times are ridiculous. Do you experience long load times with any other games?

With a little googling it looks like this might fix your problem: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/103/index/766068/1

Here is the app they mention in the thread: http://www.playwrite-blog.net/tools...-2-pc-with-massaffinity-fix-those-load-times/

Apparently it's a bug in the Unreal engine affecting certain people with Core 2 Duos.

 

That was most helpful, you have my thanks, and a kudos.

 

Okay, I'm going to be weird and ask an oldie but a goodie- Klingon Academy. It's been a pain to run in any windows since 98, with any NVidia card since drivers 99.xx and up. I was actually able to get it to run with integrated graphics enabled as the Intel chipset seems a little more "gentle" with DirectX 7. But as I've seen on many other forums and related topics, the starfield in the background of the game flickers and blinks white numerous times per second. When I disable "detailed starfield background" in the options screen, the ships flicker. Anyone else try this game out?

I'm running an R1 m11x, 64 bit Windows 7, Intel Graphics switched on, processor OC'ed, stock RAM of 4GB, and a 640GB 7200 RPM sata drive. With a Logitech wireless blue marble trackball and a bottle of Guinness. (Optional.)

 

Oh and KA crashes flaming and screaming to the desktop if the 335M is enabled.

 

Does anyone have any current/newer youtube videos of m11x r1 playing sc2 on medium/high/ultra on battlenet? Just curious if it's able to perform well beyond just playing against the AI.

Thanks!

 

I don't have any vids of it, but I frequently play 3v3 multiplayer games with my brother over battlenet. The framerate is steady 35-45.

Just for fun I created a 8 person AI match on Insane and saw how the M11x handled it. For the first part of the game, the framerate was very steady. It only dropped to the low 20's when the action really started to heat up. We're talking lots of protoss units with beam cannons and so forth.

I think at a certain point Starcraft's CPU demands just become too much. The game never stops working or crashes, but it can and will drop to 20 FPS and lower if you've got an insane amount of units on the field.

 

What graphics settings do you use for SC2? Also, which cpu do you have?

Thanks!!

 

I am running at medium settings. I've got the Core i7 processor, overclocked.

It will run at High and Ultra too... but obviously your framerate will drop a bit.

 

Ahhh... I meant to ask for r1 users to chime in, with the core 2 duo cpu, sorry. Was considering the r1, since it's so "cheap" now. If you have any information on the r1 on its performance, please share. Thanks!

 

Hey guys, does anyone have R.U.S.E on their M11XR2? How does it run? I searched on YouTube and Google and couldn't find any videos (only one Beta video) of it running the full game.

 

@dookie11 I would've put the same thing as darkdomino and I have the r1. I play all the time. I only get stuttering when a lot of units come together in a battle of more than say 6 people. That said, I keep the graphics on low or sometimes I'll turn the shaders up to medium. I haven't really tried on the Ultra settings; just never felt the need.

 

So in a game of about 4 people, on high settings, what is your fps? Also, which CPU do you have, and is it overclocked?

Thank you!

 

This little machine is able to run TERA absolutely maxed out at 30+ FPS

Im in luuv!!

But for some reason Fraps is not showing my FPS on this game, it works fine in all the other games and it shows the FPS while playing TERA on my desktop... does anyone know why? o.o

Same FRAPS version (3.2.3) on both computers.

 

Dead Rising 2 runs fairly poorly on the M11x R1 with a 1.73GHz. I can easily get 60 frames per second when there are no zombies around and the game never dips below 30 frames per second during cutscenes, but in many parts of the mall the game can be around 25 frames per second (smooth enough for me) and then drop to 15 frames per second. I tried installing the 260.99 NVIDIA drivers and saw no performance difference. The game gives you few graphic options, but lowering zombie quality and shadow quality to low doesn't have a noticeable effect on performance. Neither does turning off 2x AA, so I'd completely attribute the below average frame rates to the CPU.

 

I read that Guild Wars causes crashing to occur. Is that true? I tried asking on the thread about game crashing but no one answered.