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    Sluggish Framerate?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by buddyboy101, Oct 31, 2011.

  1. buddyboy101

    buddyboy101 Notebook Enthusiast

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    This goes out to all of you suffering from sluggish framerates. I excitedly picked up an m11x last year and was a bit surprised by choppy gameplay on medium-high settings. As a newb to overclocking/tweaking, I did quite a bit of research before jumping in. I finally gave into OC'ing today, and I'm glad I did. In fact, I wish I had done it months ago! With a very small incremental tweak, I basically went from 20 fps in Team Fortress 2 to 30-40 fps. I believe there's still more tweaking I can do before any negative effects (i.e. artifacts). For my fellow newbs, here's what I did:

    1.) Update your video card driver. If you're rockin' a 335M, the latest driver is 285.62. Win 7 64 bit here: Graphics Driver - Verde 285.62 Driver - GeForce

    2.) Speedstep - research and evaluate.

    3.) Overlock your CPU. This is accessed through the bios. I went to the max value and haven't suffered any issues.

    4.) Overlock your GPU. I used EVGA Precision, which is very user friendly. A great guide is here: GPU Overclocking Guide So far I've only cranked my Shader and Memory by 25 mhz, which nearly doubled my framerate! Be sure to test for artifacts in ATI Tool (link in article above).

    5.) Close background apps and run anti-malware.

    6.) Here's a really good read about other strategies: Myth vs. Fact: How Much Can Free PC Tweaks Improve Gaming Performance?

    I hope this helps. And experts, feel free to chime in.
     
    buddyboy101, Oct 31, 2011
    #1
  2. hiarieshi

    hiarieshi Notebook Evangelist

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    Throttlestop period
     
    hiarieshi, Oct 31, 2011
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  3. unclewebb

    unclewebb ThrottleStop Author

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    It's not a good idea to share advice that is not proven. If the same myth is told over and over again, the internet has a way of making bad advice become true.

    If you have an M11x-R2, here is a proven way to maximize your performance.

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/524257-how-supercharge-m11x-core-i5-i7-um-cpus.html

    hiarieshi: That is wise advice. :)
     
    unclewebb, Oct 31, 2011
    #3
  4. deadboy90

    deadboy90 Notebook Evangelist

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    yea you should be able to crank up your GPU OC to something like 550/1340/875 (im assuming you have the r1 or r2) but that OC works for most people with most games, and if not bring it down a bit.
     
    deadboy90, Oct 31, 2011
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  5. buddyboy101

    buddyboy101 Notebook Enthusiast

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    GREAT call on the Throttlestop. TF2 fps jumped by 10-20! Also, thanks for the tip about Speedstep. I edited the post accordingly.
     
    buddyboy101, Oct 31, 2011
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  6. buddyboy101

    buddyboy101 Notebook Enthusiast

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    After playing about 30 minutes, the notebook shut down randomly. I imagine this has to do with overheating. Any solutions to this?
     
    buddyboy101, Oct 31, 2011
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  7. Rypac

    Rypac Notebook Evangelist

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    Use HWiNFO to monitor your temps and see if that is the problem.
     
    Rypac, Oct 31, 2011
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  8. Whiplash

    Whiplash Notebook Consultant

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    GameBooster is also somewhat helpful. Reduces my RAM usage by ~10% (of 4GB) and also slightly reduces CPU usage.
     
    Whiplash, Oct 31, 2011
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  9. unclewebb

    unclewebb ThrottleStop Author

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    If your laptop is clean and the heatsink is making proper contact with the CPU, there shouldn't be any shut down problems no matter what ThrottleStop settings you are using. You might have to remove the heatsink and replace the thermal paste with something decent.
     
    unclewebb, Nov 1, 2011
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  10. buddyboy101

    buddyboy101 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Awesome, thanks for the tip. Is there an online guide that shows you how to do this?
     
    buddyboy101, Nov 1, 2011
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  11. buddyboy101

    buddyboy101 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Bump please? Curious how to remove heatsink and replace thermal paste with something decent... Thanks!
     
    buddyboy101, Nov 6, 2011
    #11
  12. deadboy90

    deadboy90 Notebook Evangelist

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    Basically just unscrew the heatsinks from the CPU and GPU, wipe both clean with rubbing alcohal then apply new paste to CPU/GPU. use a little bit and spread it around evenly then reassemble. I recommend Arctic Silver
     
    deadboy90, Nov 7, 2011
    #12