R1 or R2 Please Help, just one determining factor

Hi so I'm new to this board and fairly new to computer gaming. I'm a college student and need something portable but with power. I'm dead set on the m11x but just need to know one simple thing. For me Oblivion is the single greatest game of all time, and I simply want to know if running oblivion would be any different on the R1 as opposed to the R2. And what kind of settings can it be played on. I'm really not interested in just benchmark tests I just want to hear it from someone who's played the game a lot on the m11x. Thanks.

 

Definitely get the r2.. I'm a college student too, but the processor in the r1 is a terrible bottleneck.

I do a lot of things... I just ordered my r2 a couple hours ago on the phone.

My advice is to call and order it, you can haggle the price down. I went from my conigured ~1400$, to ~1000$. I spent 3 hours talking to the guy though...

 

Yeah I really like everything about the R2 except the Optimus issues are kind of turning me off of it. I know it will get fixed but honestly I would rather just have manual control of the video cards. But as I said Oblivion's (and WOW's) performance are really important to me. And Optimus sounds like a nightmare from what I read in that thread.

 

Yeah, it seems like that to me from what I've read so far. But don't let that discourage you.

Consider the fact that the people who have the problem... write in a thread about it. The people who have no problem.. DONT.

So don't think it's some major issue, for all we know it's not even a problem but a little bump in the road for 1/10th of the owners.

 

If you are buying the m11x purely as a gaming machine, and plan to do nothing else with it, than I would suggest the m11xR1 for you. The m11xR2's benefits come from running, in addition to games well, non-gaming applications better(Applications specific - CPU intense types will show noticable improvements). Although, with improved driver updates over time, more games may also perform better with the R2. You will have to walk into any purchase with your eyes open, and be prepared not to throw in the towel too soon.

 

If he plans to game 100%... then he should buy an underpowered single core processor? Ok. lol..

 

Also, do remember, Optimus issues can be taken care of through updates from Nivdia. It's just a matter of time till all the issues with optimus are ironed out.

 

ummm it's not a terrible bottleneck. There isn't THAT much real world difference. I'm currently returning an i7 (it's a nice machine don't get me wrong, but the whole optimus thing is a little ridiculous IMO. The drivers should be fully working and stable in a product being sold, not basically have your customers beta testing for you.) I have bought an R-1 instead, half the price, and I can switch graphics when I want, not whenever the drivers THINK it should. I have used both i7 and R-1, there is very little real world difference, maybe slightly (very slightly) snappier on the i7, for general usuage you really wont notice much of a difference, unless you're doing specific tasks, even then, the i7 isn't going to be able to do much more then the R-1, just will be able to do it a little faster. Games wise, there isn't much difference between the 2 for most games.

 

OK well that's pretty much what I wanted to hear. I take it ESIV does fine on either since it wasn't mentioned at all.

 

R2's been out for a while.. regardless of whatever problems have been happening, they are certainly going to be completely ironed out anyday now.

They are not going to leave them with bandaids... lol. They run a business, not a f**king charity. Theyll fix it.

 

UM the R1 does have an underpowered SINGLE CORE? It's a core 2 duo. It has two cores. And anyways drows told me what I needed to hear. Whether Optimus gets fixed tomorrow or not I think I'll stick with choosing when my computer does what. Thanks very much everyone.

 

Oh and tk it sounds like you're trying to convince yourself as much as you're trying to convince me, no offense I'm just saying.

 

r1 use to come with single core...

Giving you advice, if you don't want it, don't take it. But no need to be a smart as$ . No offense :wink:

 

R2 and the r1 are both good devices, in the end it just boils down to preference ^^

 

That's more reasonable. So does any no one know about Oblivion's performance?

 

*anyone*
>_>

 

It would appear not.

 

I'm similar to you in the fact that Oblivion's performance(and FO3) is the main concern for me in buying this laptop.

In doing some web crawling I managed to find this video of Oblivion being played on an R1.

Needless to say I was impressed with what I saw.

I also messaged the creator of the video and he highly recommended it for playing Oblivion and said I should also check out the new R2 versions.

As a side note I plan on ordering an R2 with the i7 this Thursday and Oblivion is the application that it is most important to me running well.

 

I've had my R2 for a couple weeks now and the only Optimus issue I've had is using the newer drivers and getting kicked from Bad Company 2 games, but I have a feeling that's a Punk Buster problem not Nvidia. Other than that I haven't had any problems with games or applications, I'm fairly confident that if I can run some of the games I've been running on the settings that I have been using that Oblivion will be fine.

Actually, how about I put my money where my mouth is. I'll go dig up my Oblivion disks and install it. Will take some time getting it patched up, but I'll let you know in a bit.

 

The M11X has never had a single core processor, ever, period. Also, while the common misconception is that the C2D was a bottleneck in reality it never was, and we see that now that the R2 came out and it gets the same and sometimes worse FPS in 95% of games. In the professional R2 reviews the only game it really ran better was BC2. That means that in the vast vast majority of circumstances the C2D was a good match for the 335M.

Also, the R1 or R2 should run Oblivion just fine on all high. It runs Fallout 3 which is a newer version of the same engine, so you should have no problems.

 

The i5 and i7 CPUs do improve the average FPS on many games, and also the minimum FPS gets improved. So overall, you'll get a more stable and pleasant gaming experience. The maximum FPS isn't too important here. This is all apparent in the reviews.

Also, BC2 is a game coded so that work is divided on to more cores/threads. This is also where the i5 or i7 CPUs shine, and will continue to shine for future games.

The only fishy thing about the new i5 or i7 CPUs is Turbo Boost. It lives its own life, and the frequencies are decided by thermal monitoring. Overclocking isn't really combining well with Turbo Boost for this reason.

 

Wow you guys that have done the last like 4 posts are really helpful. Thanks. How about C2D, what can it be overclocked to?

 

The results really speak for themselves.

Alienware M11x R2: A Legend Reborn - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

The i7 improves it some, but at the cost of battery life, more heat, current Optimus issues, and a significantly higher price tag. It also doesn't boost it up so much in most games where something unplayable becomes playable. BC2 is really the main case, in things like GTA4 which were unplayable on the R1 they generally remain unplayable on the R2. It is a personal decision each person will have to make based on the games and applications for the system.

EDIT: The C2D OC's to 1.73 Ghz.

 

Thanks just so no one thinks I was being sarcastic I rep'd a few of you. I've decided that the R1 is more for me.

 

the c2d can be overclocked to 1.73 ghz. the i7 can be overclocked to 1.49 ghz, but remember the i7 has turbo bost which can boost the cpu up to 2.26-to-2.82 ghz depending on how the i7 is overclocked. i am one of the people who has been unsuccessful at overclocking the i7 to the maximum allowed fsb frequency. like mackan said overclocking with turbo boost is definitely hard on the system and i think may lower performance because the cpu has to throttle to a lower temperature to compensate for the additional heat generated from the very high turbo boosts.

 

Reporting in as promised - I ended up picking up the deluxe Steam version with all the DLC (hence the long delay) but sadly it crashes on me when loading. Not sure if it's a multi-core or video card issue. I've added the Oblivion.exe to the "High Performance" list with no luck.

Now, I am using the pre-installed 189.* drivers though but until the Bad Company 2 issue is fixed by Punk Buster I wont be upgrading anytime soon, as much as I would like too.

I'm actually eager to get this working since I never actually played any of the DLC.

 

I would agree.

At the end of the day j_phillips8, either version of the m11x will be a good buy as a school laptop.

 

You got me to log in just to comment!
You hit the nail on the head!
Beta test while using / ticking your warranty away. I am so confused on what to buy just because of the bugs I read on the R2.

I love the battery life of the R1.. but would prob. get the R2 just because of the upgrade in technology.
It wont be until about 40 days from now and the free upgrade to a i7 deal will be gone im sure.

 

Buy the r1, read my review I've owned both.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/499197-dj-josh-review-m11x-r1-vs-r2.html

 

Okay, I don't know if you're still reading this topic. Get the r1.

Settings? Fully maxed. All the sliders set to the right. Full HDR. Very rarely, if ever, lags. And this is also with a horde of custom modifications, not the least of which are texture upgraders.

If Oblivion is your main game, you have no reason to go to the R2. Oblivion runs fine on the R1. Perfect. Flawless. You'll get better battery life as well.

Mind you, I have the "better" r1 processor - the SU7300 I believe it's called? And four gigs of RAM. That might be an influence. But if you get those, get the R1. You won't regret it.

 

Yes yes I'm going to be ordering the R1 or picking it up at best buy as soon as I can. Thanks again.

 

Get the R1 and avoid a costly mistake.

 

To follow up, though it seems at this point only because I said I would, The crashing was on Steams side. I had to reboot Steam a couple times so it would finish downloading files for the Deluxe edition, strange. So after that the game started up and runs great on Ultra High settings. Grant it I never got out of the starting dungeon due to that fact I got it working while on lunch break, but I'll be playing it once more because This has actually got me excited for it all over again, realized I never finished it.

 

I'm highly skeptical of you saving $400 from a $1400 machine by haggling them? What did you say and what discounts did they give you?

 

200 off in coupons
and talked my way to another 200. What's the big mystery?

dun care if ur skeptical lol .

 

I tried talking them to give me $100 on top of EPP $193 off and they wouldn't do it. All i got is free ground shipping. Doubt you got $200 on top of $200. LIES!

 

Note that this is not the first time NVIDIA doesn't deliver on a promise regarding their drivers/hardware.

While I don't expect Optimus to be one of those broken promises, when it comes to computers (and common sense, in general), base your decisions on what they can do NOW, not on what they're promising to do later.

 

haha sorry about ur bad luck man. I spent a lot of time talking to people on the phone.. god it was tiring.

I was ecstatic when i finally snagged an AMAZING deal.

This particular guy had worked at dell for 10 yrs. He has more power than a 1-2 yr employee, or evne a 5 yr employee. Takes luck and work.

Spend the time.. you can't expect instant gratification my friend.

 

On my r1 not overclocked, and with a bunch of mods, I'm getting 35-45 fps. Bunchmarking the game, I noticed that there's a bit of stuttering, but I never really felt them while playing through the game.

I would expect on an r2, the game should run flawlessly on higher settings.

 

Oblivion runs like butter on highest settings and using the hires texture mods on the R1. More impressive though is I have Fallout 3 GOTY with the massive 3 gig retexture of the entire game running on mostly highest settings smoothly. Game looks utterly amazing with this mod! I personally believe the R1 give far more bang for the buck, plus battery life and a cool running system are actually important to me as well.

 

ministry,

You took back the R1.. bought and didnt like the R2.. why ?

Why not get another R1)?

*wispers .. how is the envy 14?

send me a message if you will on your thoughts about the m11x r1 r2 and envy 14: )

 

Hey so I finally got my R1, and couldn't be happier with it. But I wanted to ask you guys who played/play oblivion on it one more question: will playing off the steam version run just as good or better than the disc?

 

It should.
I mean, there should be no reason why the digital download version will not run as well as the disc version.

 

I don't know about the disk version on the m11x. But the Steam version runs flawlessly on max settings, WITH a number of high end texture replacement modifications as well. You should have NO problems.

However, a couple minor bugs. I have been unable to turn off borders - which was very useful for a few mods - and I cannot for the life of me take screenshots. Irritating to say the least.

 

I thought the R1 had the SU4100. That chip has 2 cores too.

 

Well, I admit, my R1 has the SU7300 and 4GB of RAM. BUT. Mine runs Oblivion flawlessly. As in no stutters or hiccups. As in no problems.

 

yep !

 

actually the turbo boost thing does have some debate. i think many including myself always think that the boost only kick in for a short moment when app needs more power while also all depends on the heat and power consumption. but base on my monitoring lately. i am surprise by one test. i OC'ed to 166 on my i7 and ran the FF14 benchmark. and i was looking at how the cpu is working. from start of the bench to the end. boost is always there. and it ranges between 2ghz - 2.6ghz just never go below 2ghz in short. so i am quite confuse here. some ppl mention that on games it will always be on load thus it will remain at the base clock say 1.5ghz for my case after OC. but it dont seems to turn out that way.