Need help getting the most out of my M11x R2

Ok guys, after playing the SW:TOR beta over the weekend and getting as low at 3-5 fps in some places (albeit rare, the average was about 12-15 fps in crowded areas), I need to do whatever I can to pull the most juice from my m11x before the game releases.

Disclaimer: I'm still early in my CS major in college so while I have a decent amount of computer knowledge, I still have much to learn. So if it's something complicated, I will likely need it explained a bit.

So first up here are my specs:

M11x R2
Windows 7 64bit
i5 520U (1.07ghz stock, OC'd: to 150mhz)
GeForce 335m (no overclock, would like to OC it but wasn't sure on how, more on this in just a sec)
4gb RAM

Ok, so first off. I am currently running throttlestop (TDP/TDC: 30/30).

As I said, I am not currently OC'ing my GPU but I would like to. Another helpful user tried to help me set up MSI Afterburner in another post, but I was a bit confused. I loaded the program and put in the numbers that he told me (550/1350/875), but I was unable to tell if the clock was stable using Kombuster, so I turned it off to be safe (this is the first computer I've ever attempted OC'ing). So basically, how can I tell if the OC is stable? And if it is stable at these settings, is it safe to push it higher, increasing all 3 by 5mhz at a time?

Second, I was only able to get my OC on my CPU up to 150, at 164 it just completely would not turn on. When I tried to restart, the computer just wouldn't turn on and then after a few seconds would reboot with the OC switched to off. So is 150 the max I can ever expect to OC at or is there something I can do to be able to push it higher?

Third, are there any general optimization changes that I can consider to get the most out of my machine. I generally play games with my browser closed and the only programs that I keep open being throttlestop and skype. So beyond that, I'm just looking for general suggestions to get more out of less basically.

Finally, thanks a lot for any and all help, I really appreciate it!

PS: I would prefer not to have to spend any money during this process; being in college and all is hard enough on the wallet!


EDIT: Whoops! Sorry, edited to fix what GPU I have, thanks un4tural!

 

First off what you got is Nvidia GT 335M. You tell if its stable by running kombustor(i use burn-in) and not getting BSOD or messed up discolored pixels etc. i assume it didn't crash or distort, so you were in the green.

You could OC the CPU a bit as well, but i don't do that on my R3. Someone else will have to help you on that.

Also, that seems an awful little FPS for the 335M, lower your settings a little bit, make sure it is actually using 335M as thats FPS i get in skyrim with my intel integrated

Repasting and clearing out the dust is a good idea, if you trust in your fingers and brains. If not just stop the fan and blow some canned air to clear some of the dust... Cause i get considerably more heat out of my 540M when OCing...

Also the usual cleaning out the windows, running registry scan etc. turning off unwanted background apps etc. etc. , It works wonders depending on how cramped it is.

Hope this helps

 

Hey Pyrok, it already sounds like your doing alot of things right anyway.

1. Don't worry, it took me quite a long time to work out whether my GPU OC was stable or not. Mine pretty much maxes out at 530/1250/820. Fairly low, I know, but that is completely stable in any game I play. Some games can take higher OC's fine but as soon as I fire up Crysis or Metro... BAM, BSOD! Furmark is a good way to test stability. Just look for artefacts and osbscurities and then you may have to back off the OC a bit. If it is too high then you will either get a BSOD or the GPU will just roll back to it's 2D clocks. Trust me, you'll know when that happens.

2. Like you've found, every CPU is different. You're pretty unlucky with your OC limitations but hey, you might have a monster of a GPU which can overclock to infinity. That would be much more benifical for gaming! If your CPU is unstable any higher than 150 than I wouldn't try to push it any harder than that. However it could be your RAM holding you back. Upgrading to 8GB is pretty cheap these days so maybe you could invest in some higher quality RAM. Don't bother with anything over 1333MHz though.

3. You sound like you already know what's going on and have it optimized pretty well. You can always give Game Booster a try. Won't make a huge improvement but it doesn't help to try it out. It's a handy way of killing unwanted processes at any rate.

Another thing I can think of is that you may be overheating. Download HWiNFO and monitor your temps when playing a game to see if this may be a problem. If you are under 80*C then you have nothing to worry about.

Good luck and I hope it helps!

 

Thanks for the replies guys!

Sadly I was playing SWTOR with everything turned to low, on full screen, and all options turned off that I could (shadows, bloom, etc). I triple checked and I was indeed using the GT card to play, once I loaded it up on the intel card and was at 5 fps even in unpopulated areas.

I've never repasted or anything like that so I'll try blowing out the dust from the fan, I try to do that about once a month if not more.

And correct, I did not receive a BSOD after the GPU overclock so I will turn that back on and see how it does, I'm downloading Crysis 2 currently (9.99 atm on Origin if anyone is interested) so I will fire it up in an hour and if it doesn't BSOD then hopefully my OC is stable.

I will look into upgrading RAM, especially with Christmas coming up. Quick question though: Is it hard to upgrade components in the m11x? I was told by a service tech once that it was impossible, however this was in my hometown and as I live in a small town and own the only alienware that the tech had seen, I have always questioned his knowledge. And if it is doable/not difficult, can I also upgrade my CPU as this seems to be the constant bottleneck. Or is this not necessary?

While playing SWTOR last night, my CPU maxed out at 87*C and my vid card at 86*C. Is this a problem?


EDIT: I'm currently running Kombuster with the numbers I specified earlier regarding MSI Afterburner. Kombuster is averaging 6 fps and I haven't had any BSOD's or irregular looking pixels.

 

Well you can upgrade the hard drive and ram easy. They are just a few screws away. In theory the CPU and GPU upgrade would almost be impossible because they are soldered onto the motherboard. I have heard people wanting to try. Dont know if anyone succeeded.

To get stable overclock with the cpu you need quality ram that can adjust to the pick up speed of the CPU. The stock ram sometimes just doesn't like to cut it unfortunately. I planned on getting some better ram... however I am thinking about getting an m14x next so I may not bother cause my overclock is good enough for everything out right now and soon to come out.

I run at 85c (after dusting) and it doesn't stutter as much with the new drivers. These chips are stressed test over 120c (my friend worked with intel and dell). So I am sure they can take that heat. But who really knows.

 

They can handle those temps fine but it is Dell that will cause the components to throttle at temps much lower than those rated safe by Intel.

You can take a look at the throttling that's occuring on the GTX 580M in the M17x forum. I think it starts throttling in the high 70's!

 

Ok so how can I tell if I'm being throttled because of heat?

And also, if I'm going to buy new RAM, how exactly do I know what kind I should purchase?

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

This is the RAM that I've got and it works great. Alot cheaper then when I bought it...

G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model

Any sort of RAM along those lines will be good though. The stock RAM is Samsung.

 

Ok great, so if I order that would I possibly be able to also increase the OC on my CPU?

Edit: Also, will I need to worry about any extra heat or power consumption? If so, is it something to truly worry about?
Edit #2: I just placed the order for the RAM on newegg.

 

new ram might help with a higher stable OC. i was lucky enough to get an R2 that can OC @ 166 with stock memory and stable temps at about 70ºC gaming at full cpu load.

higher OC does consume more power and maybe a little more heat.

i just ordered some parts to do the Heatsink Mod which members have reported dropped temperatures by as much as 10-15ºC

 

You can use a program called IntelBurnTest which is a stress test to see if your CPU overclock is stable or not.

 

Running OC'd with ThrottleStop will increase your temps a bit but it shouldn't be by too much and certainly nothing to worry about. Upgrading the RAM isn't a sure thing to enabling a higher OC but it is the most probable thing that is holding you back. $40 is damn cheap for 8GB of RAM. It was way over double that when I bought some last year!

Oh and good call there townfries. If you can survive 5 runs of the IntelBurnTest on maximum then you know your clocks are rock solid.

 

Hey I had a thought, go into your BIOS and set your nvidia card to stay on, then try playing, I heard someone else was having problems with getting the nvidia card to come on even when it was whitelisted. If that doesn't work try having msi afterburner oPen while playing for a while. If it's still playing poorly alt+tab out of the game and check the msi monitor, if the gpu usage bar is staying at 99% then It's th gpu holding you back, it not it's the CPU.

 

Thanks for the continued help guys!

The heat-sink mod looks interesting however I wouldn't trust myself under the hood of my computer without someone able to watch me and let me know I'm doing everything correct, so I'm gonna have to hold off on that one for now I suppose.

Quick question regarding OC'ing my GPU, after seeing you guys discussing using IntelBurnTest to stress test my CPU, is there any program that will allow me to stress test my GPU in a similar fashion or is going with Furmark my best bet?

Edit: Disregard that question about my GPU, I just noticed the "stress-test" option on Furmark. Sorry!

Edit 2: For some reason my nvidea card will not show up in furmark, even after I whitelisted it, furmark says that it's being rendered by my intel card. Any suggestions?

 

Hmmm... the Nvidia card normally comes on for me.

Just double check that you whitelisted the right .exe in the Furmark program files. If not, I'm not too sure what is going on. I'll have a look on mine anyway and see what's up.

 

Ya, I've triple checked. It was even selected to use the Nvidea card automatically. I also tried forcing it to use the Intel card, restarting Furmark, then whitelisting to the Nvidea card again but no-go. I've googled it, but I can't find anyone having the same problem as me.

 

Hey Pyrok, just checking; you do see 4 threads in task manager right? furthermore, you could start task manager set it on the performance tab, game a little an check the processor and memory stats, it might give you a clue about what might be your bottleneck.

 

Are you using the volt-modded BIOS? If you do that you can further overclock your GPU a little bit.

 

Negyuh: When I open task manager and go to performance, there are 4 different windows under the CPU Usage History tab, is that what you mean? And the only issue with that is that I have yet to see another game that gave me such horrible performance (other than Witcher 2 on launch day), I play SC:2 on medium-high, WoW on ultra, etc... So I'm not sure if playing another game will give me the same results, but I'll definitely try later and let ya know!

DivineAura: I'm not sure what that is, the only real changes that I've made within the BIOS screen was to enable my CPU OC. Other than that I haven't changed the BIOS at all (not counting upgrading them to 1.04 or whatever dell recommended).

 

I've tried everything that I can think of, but Furmark is still not recognizing my nVidea card, i've googled the problem and no one else seems to be having this issue (that I can find). Any ideas?

 

Is the nvidia card coming on for ANY game? If not the motherboard needs to be replaced

 

Yeah, Furmark is the only program that won't recognize my card. It always comes on for games, and I've never had a problem with the card not activating when a program was already whitelisted. This is the only problem of this kind that I've encountered.