M11x R2's Performance Suddenly Degraded???

Hey guys,

I bought the R2 last week and installed all the latest drivers from Dell. it played all games installed smoothly for a whole week.

This morning though, I tried to play Modern Warfare 1 and the frame rate (checked with Fraps) was from 5-15 fps. Normally, it plays at a minimum of 40 fps with my settings.

I never overclocked the CPU or GPU so I don't know what could be wrong.

I guess my problem is different because the performance changed overnight. with other threads, the performance usually was bad from the get go.

I checked EVGA Precision and I found out that the GPU was running at 0%. This is just strange.

Any ideas?

 

Maybe you're running your games with Intel GFX?

 

Hey dude, I'm not really sure how that could happen if it was all fine the day before. I'm sure the R2 is using the integrated graphics because it's so slow, but why isn't it using the dedicated card?

 

Wait, was Modern Warfare 1 running smoothly before?

If so, then something fishy is going on with your hardware.
If not, check to see if the Nvidia graphics card is working.

Also, are your other games getting lower then regular performance?

 

MW 1 was amazingly smooth before. No lag whatsoever.

How do I know if the Nvidia card is working? I have EVGA on while playing games and all I see is a straight line for "GPU Usage." 0%. D:

Crysis plays at 2 fps. BFBC2 just crashes before I get any action. :|

 

check your global preferred GPU settings on nvidia control panel?
make sure it is not integrated gfx

 

Really?
Strange.
Use this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/495489-m11xr2-optimus-test-tools.html
Download the tool, and see what it says.

 

Search the forum or google for "optimus test tools" (minus the quotes) for their download link to see if the 335m is activated.

edit: beat! Noah strikes again!

 

It's definitely that MW1 and Optimus isn't working right for the game to detect it, and the game is running off the Intel GPU.

This is a common issue with certain driver sets. This same exact thing happens with GTA: Episodes of Liberty City when using the modded 189 drivers that are necessary to play BFBC2 without getting kicked by PB.

Try a different set of drivers.

I highly doubt it's a hardware issue.

Cheers

 

I got the game to work by doing a right click and selecting "Run graphics processor -> High performance graphics processor." If I don't do that, it runs in integrated mode. Hmm. MW 1 is on my whitelist for Optimus for the graphics card so I've no idea why that happens.

Could anyone link me to the latest drivers for the graphics card? Nvidia or Dell? Should I also update drivers for anything else?

Sorry, I'm not very tech-savvy so it may seem like a basic problem. Thanks to you lot.

 

What drivers are you running now?

 

You can always turn your nVidia graphics card on / off w/ FN-F6.

 

That's only the M11x R1.
He has the M11x R2.

 

I'm using the newest versions on the Dell driver site, 257.30, AO1. Are they buggy?

 

Somewhat.
Really, you need to use a 258.96 driver or newer.
Though you will need to download specially modified ones to make it work.
Read the first post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-258-96-beta-discussion-relating-11xr2.html

 

Yeah, the 257.30 AO1 drivers are kicking me from Modern Warfare 1 and Bad Company 2 servers. Punkbuster keeps saying:

"Multiple Direct3D loaded."

I've no idea what that could mean. And the drivers didn't solve my problem of the games running in integrated graphics mode despite all my games being in the whitelist for the dedicated graphics.

I'll post again after I install and test the modded drivers. D:

 

Ah that....
It's punk buster.
Long story short, Punk buster mistakes Nvidia Optimus for a hack program, and because of that kicks you.
You need to download the 187.89, or something like that.
Can anyone here get us a link to that thread about those drivers?
EDIT: FOUND IT!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/511419-nvidia-optimus-drivers-189-88-r2-only.html

 

Sorry to change the subject here but what sidebar addon is that, that shows the temp and what not in your screenshot?

 

It's called EVGA Precision. It's free. It's useful for checking the temperature of your graphics card, checking the stress different apps put on the card, and also overclocking your card if it's supported.

EDIT: My bad for not reading the question right, Krob189. Open up EVGA Precision. Then go to Configuration (the button next to "Apply"), then click on Monitoring, then tick the box next to "Show in tray icon."

To Noah14: How's YOUR Alienware? Is it running without a hitch? Do I have to perform a driver sweep before installing the Optimus and/or the Verde drivers? Are the modded Optimus and Verde drivers stable? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just confused now because there seems to be so much I gotta do.

 

This problem caught my eye, it may not be it but I remember the old MW had a problem where you had to force the game to use dualcore (or was it SLI) via the game's options regardless of your hardware setup (without it performance suffered greatly...)

 

@first_leviathan
I myself am using the modded 258.96 drivers. They are very stable drivers, and have given only a bit of trouble.
They run well. I play Company of Heroes, Starcraft 2, Modern Warfare 2 and some other games without a hitch form optimus.

As for driver sweep, what you want to do is first download the modded driver (change the .inf file if you need too). Once you have everything setup, you :
1. Driver Sweep The Nvidia Driver.
2. Restart in safe mode (hit f12 as soon as you see the alien face and select safe mode).
3. Install the new drivers (Make sure you saved the modded drivers to your desktop).
4. Restart one last time, and you should be good to go.
5. In the case where things are did not go well and your computer is somehow spazzing out, use system restore to restore the old drivers.
---
I myself did it at first by skipping step 1.
It seemed to work, but I think it made the driver a bit buggy.
So step 1, while optional, is highly suggested.
I know it's a lot to do, but until Dell releases a new driver, this is the best we can do.

 

I'm running the 260 drivers and they work great. Especially with Mafia. The only issue I'm having is PB. Which unfortunately has me not playing my M11x as much as I'd like to