M11x R2 i5 and BF:BC2 - Playble FPS in Multi-player?

Hi guys,

Just picked up a refurb. M11x R2 i5. My main goal is to be able to play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (BF:BC2) multi-player at a rock-solid 30FPS. Have you guys been able to achieve this?

If it matters, my unit has 4GB RAM and a 250GB 7200RPM HD.

It looks pretty promising according to this review (but this is one of the only things I can find...everything else is i7!):
Review Alienware M11x R2 Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

I called Dell to haggle on price and such and they gave me $60 off ($786.37 after tax, now) and a 21 day no questions asked return. So I guess I will find out soon enough, either way.

TIA!

 

Well seeing as my R1 plays it on low/medium at about 20-30fps. Id say you are fine.

 

Well, I have heard that due to the lower clock speed the i5 can oftentimes be outperformed by the C2D. BF:BC2, however, is a more advanced, CPU-bound game so I wanted to see how the i5 fares specifically versus the C2D. From what I have read the C2D is not reliably solid in BF:BC2.

 

Yeah, seems that way. BF:BC2 is not really a game for the C2D.

 

Yeah, I have the same specs as you and I play just fine. Just be sure to check out the throttlestop thread to maximize your CPU performance.

Edit: Here is a link--> http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/524257-how-supercharge-m11x-core-i5-i7-um-cpus.html

 

Remember when it comes down to it... It's not BFBC2 that you should worry about...

ITS BATTLEFIELD 3... <skies part... Angels begin to SING>

 

I hear ya. This M11x is just going to be a toy/tide me over until I pick up a Sandy Bridge-based lappy (probably the Lenovo Y470 with GT555m in May). The resale value of Alienware is pretty great on eBay, so I figure no matter what it will be an inexpensive loaner to tide me over. Or...perhaps I fall in love with it and it suits my needs. Who knows! I have a PS3/360 too.

 

@Liquid and all - Remember.. to get max performance during gameplay, you MUST DISABLE ALL VIRUS SCANNING. Completely disable it. Meaning, set the software to disabled, set the service to disabled. I remember also disabling the windows firewall. Meaning setting the firewall to OFF setting the service to Disabled. (I would turn these all back on when casual interweb surfing). Your cpu usage needs to be zero when idle. Everything that does not need run should be turned off and disabled. All alienware CC should be disabled and the service should be DISABLED or stopped.

I post these things because as time moves on we have some folks cycle out of the forums and new folks cycle in. The goals are still the same. Minimum cpu utilization, maximum frame rates during gaming.

Every FRAME counts. Take every frame prisoner.

StevenX

 

were those stock clocks and no throttlestop? i'm pretty sure i5 with TS performs better... unless if that new r1 fix really performs (but even so).

 

BC2 is playing fine in campaign mode (30-50 fps), but when i jump into online it is like 12-18 fps....Maybe i need to change drivers? which one is best for this game? Or is there something else i may have to do?

 

Also i bought this laptop refurbed and just noticed whoever had it before me installed dx11...is that what i should be running?

 

M11X R1/2 is not good at running CPU independent games. Sorry but BFBC2 will get FPS drops like that. Online requires more processing then offline. Theres a M11X network throttling optimization for a loss of sound quality. Excellent optimization! Just search it up.

 

r2 i5 multiplayer runs fine here, i dunno

 

which drivers are you using? also what directx are you running?

 

Since you are on the R2, have you tried the current NV reference driver?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-267.24-beta-driver.html

 

I am running the latest GPU drivers which is 266.58. I am confused however about the fact that my laptop came with directx 11 loaded on it...i thought my laptop didnt support 11? should i be using 9 or 10? also where the hell do i download it if i do need one of the other? i am not very bright on this kinda stuff

 

you dont need to download 'DirectX 11' - for one, the 335M does not support it.

Here, do this (I run the DX runtime updater from time to time and have never had an issue doing so) -

Download details: DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer

Run the web updater and if it finds any DX files outdated it will apply the relevant update.

The current NV Reference driver is the one I linked to - v267.24. Give that a try. No need to uninstall your current driver, just download the NV driver and select custom install ----> Clean Install.

Reboot and then check out BC2. See if it plays better.

If it does not, reinstall the 266.58 driver.

 

266 nvidia drivers, 166mhz over clocked, throttlestop, whatever directx it came with.

 

I didnt download directx11, it was on my laptop when i got it : /

 

Yes, I know. Windows 7 includes support for DirectX 11. Don't worry about DX.

 

bc2 mutiplayer plays pretty good on my r2 which i was surprised!

I just got done playing a match of it hook up on my 28in 1920x1200res and with mem settings i was getting mostly always over 30fps but it can dip down in the 20s but not often i say that's pretty good for this little laptop

With the laptop screen 1366x768 im seeing 40s and 50s avg

Just tried high settings and im seeing about the same fps but it will go down to 20s but too me its still playable, And whats funny it outperforms my g50vt in my sig on this game... lol


Really nice too have this much power in this small package for mobile use