Starcraft II on M11x - General Discussion

So how many people here have tried SC2 with the new 259.22 drivers shown here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ia-optimus-drivers-v259-22-r2-discussion.html

So far at least 1 person has found a framerate increase.

 

No... but if people are claiming increased performance, I will try to verify that claim tonight. I will report back results.

Edit- I really hope that it truly helps.

 

Let everyone know xD

 

Concerning drivers 259.22:
Ran 2 tests:

1. 1v1 replay from same players perspective. Army size got to around 120, and the game wasn't too stressful on the system. 259.22 had a <1 higher average fps (.61 if you wanna get technical).

2. 1v1 "stress test" replay where a player gets a freaking ton of zergies. FPS still dropped into the teens... didn't re run that test before updating to the new drivers, but i think the performance is pretty much the same as I get annoyed when fps hits teens, and i remember it did on the old drivers... if its 15 or 16 or 17 it doesnt really matter at that point.

So feel free to test them out, someone else is reporting more FPS increases in the other thread. I can't say they really made a big difference, but I doubt youll get a decrease in FPS so its worth a shot.

 

i have been playing starcrat 2 for the past 3weeks on my alienware m11x i have the spec of 4gb ram intel core 2 duo procceser and it works excellent in 1v1's you can have graphics on ultra in 2v2 you can have graphics on high/ultra and on 3v3 on high/medium and on 4v4 it can be on high graphics but when you get in a heavy battle i highly suggest you reduce the graphics to medium to reduces the lag but over all m11x can easily handle starcraft 2

 

well be more specific on FPS #'s

Everyone has different opinions on "satisfactory" FPS. Some people can tolerate ~20fps, some cannot. Some require 40+ else they find the game too frustrating.

 

Well I updated from the Dell 257.30 drivers so I guess my increase will be a little different than yours. On the Dell drivers (everything high except for shadows on med and reflection - off), I was getting about 25-28 fps during early to mid game than when the huge battles started (150+ units) the fps dropped to about 15-19.

With the 259.22 drivers (same settings), I ran the replay again (1v1) and got 33-37 fps from early to mid game and than with the same huge battles it dipped down to 18-23 fps. Also the replay was 45 minutes long and the battles were huge...Battle Cruisers, mother ships, storms etc.

 

Sounds like we are within the same ballpark for our numbers then, although I am using a the mix of settings someone posted a little while back.

Still hope we can get some better performance, because I like 2v2. 2v2 has the performance drops more frequently with the increased number of units. 1v1 it only drops into teens when the big battles occur... but anything under ~25 fps is noticeably choppy to me.

Still dont think it should drop like that into the teens... but whatever. All we can do is keep trying out the new driver releases.

 

We should use a standard benchmark to test SC2. The framerate is affected not only by the quantity of units but also by the type of unit and how much of the units are hidden by the fog of war. Even with 200 units, the framerate will not be affected as much if the units are mostly hidden in the fog of war.

I'm not directing this comment at anyone in particular. My point is that we may all be comparing apples and oranges in the absence of a standard benchmark test.

Perhaps someone can post a game replay with massive amounts of units so everyone can test using the same benchmark reference?

 

To CrazyJ: Thanks for the tests. Do you know if the GPU load ever exceeded 50%? There were some comments somewhere on this forum about SC2 not fully utilizing the GPU to 100% load, even when the framerates are low.

 

I think this replay is really good (Its what I used): LINK

It's more than 45 min long with mother ships and storms in huge battles. In this I am getting around 37-40 fps in the early game...mid game it dropped to about 30-33 and in huge battles it dipped down to early 20s and for a few seconds into late teens.

My settings- Native rez, full screen, everything else set to high with shadows at medium and reflections off.

 

I totally agree about the replay benchmark (in fact I suggested the same thing 10-20 pages ago but no one ran the replay I posted).

However, 45 minutes is awfully long, and comparing multiple drivers and/or settings would take forever... Maybe we should just make a replay.

Maybe even make a single replay into 3 different benchmarks; say ~20 minute game

Opening test - 1st benchmark: minutes 1-7: would just be the typically opening benchmark scouting + small battles.
Average test - 2nd benchmark: minutes 7-14 have both players grab gold expansions (in order to fund benchmark 3 quickly) and double the workers for both characters... have a battle with around 80-100 supply.
Stress test - 3rd benchmark: 15-end - grab another expansion, macro up to around 150-200 and have a game ending battle with lots of psi storms/battle cruisers.

It would be easy for replay viewers to use fraps and run 3 different benchmarks that each calculate the average fps. We could even use a player cam to keep the test the same for each viewer.

If someone is willing to create this with me, I would be willing to try it out (far from a super starcraft player, but i'd give it a shot).

Otherwise, maybe UnivHQ could pick out certain segments to benchmarks from his 45 minute replay... say 2-4 5 minute sections and we could just fast forward to those parts.

Let me know.

 

Yes, during my tests yesterday GPU load did exceed 50 (not all the time however). At some point, I am going to do more GPU load tests comparing GPU load during 2v2s and 1v1s. I feel like my 1v1 replayers were getting a higher average GPU load on both driver versions (compared to 2v2).

One would think that those results imply a CPU bottleneck... but ... CPU load is not even close to 100% in 2v2, which I would think imply that there is not a CPU bottleneck. If there a CPU bottleneck, I think its because SCII does not use the CPU very effectively, rather than the CPU is just too slow to "feed" the video card the information for higher GPU load.

Hell if I know, I will just keep posting my tests, and you guys can decide whatever you want.

 

SC2 Runs great on my M11x.. and I go between my desktop and my laptop. How can I bench it for you guys?

 

I tried your settings and I maxed out at 22 fps after the first tank was out. I'm running the i5 @ 1.54 with the 259.22 drivers . Are you running with the factory image?

 

I have the i7 OCed to 164...Not sure what you mean by "factory image" though. Maybe try setting shaders and post processing down to medium and see how much performance boost you get.

 

I just got my m11x, but my r2 i7 cannot even run it on medium, i have it set to be running nvidia graphics and what else can i do.

 

Do you have the latest graphics drivers?

 

Im sorry im a real noob with this stuff, I dont think i have the latest drivers. and i dont know where to get them T_T. I hate being a noob

edit: ok thanks for telling me about drivers i got it, thanks

 

I have a suggestion people... How about one of you sets up variable.txt for starcraft II with alsolute minimum settings, everything on low maybe even add "fog = 0" and then do some replay tests. That way you can rule out the GPU and the tests I have done funny enough shows the same fps 50 at the beginning 15-30 mid / late game just as if I put all the GPU heavy stuff on medium or high. My old old core2 2,5 ghz with a crapp 128mb 8600m runs on the same suuper low settings (because the gpu is old) but it runs with 115 fps in the beginning and 55-85 fps mid / late game in comparison. Nvidia drivers won't change the fact that starcraft II and the i7 ULV right now does not go well together.

 

hi instantcold,

did you get your M11x R2 to run starcraft 2 smoothly?

regards,
jlenriquez

 

I was able to run it on Medium but I changed a few settings. Ran great actually! What I did was that I put my global gpu settings to integrated, and only a few applications run with with the 335m. I also have the menu option enabled in the right click so I always select it to run with the 335m. I have yet to try online multiplayer.

 

Whatever it is worth - my R2 is playing Starcraft wonderfully on high settings. It kept resetting GPU vs integrated sometimes early on - but that finally got resolved.

Silly computers, think they're smarter than we are...

 

Just my 2 cents.

I got my m11x r2 a few weeks ago. Installed SC2 last week. At first it ran a bit choppy and this was on 1360x768 medium settings. But last night, I tried right clicking on the SC2 shortcut and chose the menu option of running it via the 335M and lo and behold, everything was fine.

 

what nvidia drivers?

 

258.96

I overclocked it, too. I'm currently at work, so I can't list the overclock.

 

258.96 should have profiles auto downloaded, or maybe thats 259.22 only

It presets applications it believes will require the GPU like 3D games

 

I am about to pull the trigger on a laptop and I'm torn. I can't find any reliable info on which m11x plays this game better.

If I link a replay file, can someone with i7 overclocked with HT On AND Off and someone with the C2D overclocked please benchmark it and post results?

 

I like this idea - running a test under the exact same settings on an R1 & an R2. I'm available to benchmark - I'm running an OC'd C2D. Maybe we should use fraps, and use settings that work well for the m11x? Here's the settings that I use for smooth 2v2+ matches and single player gameplay:
View attachment 54891

I notch it up to this for single player cutscenes and 1v1 matches:


So I'd recommend going for one of those two setting sets (depending on what type of match it is), and then me / whoever else would run a fraps benchmark test of the replay and post the results here. Maybe PM me to send me the replay or something?

 

put it this way. I OC my i7 to 166mhz. GPU stay stock. Use SC2 default high setting. I can play 2v2 online 2 humans vs 2 cpu and FPS starts at about 50. At the end of game it stays 20+ even in heavy battle. And I dont think I see it dip below 20 at any point of time until the game ends. I kept the in game FPS counter running right from the beginning of the game.

I got my friend who owns a Asus N82 with a proper mobile i7 CPU (not ULV) and GPU is same as ours to run a test on SC2. When playing side by side. Honestly our performance are quite identical. You also see FPS drop on the N82. But just that it normally maintain a slightly higher FPS.

I dont think there is any issue with R2 on SC2 but its SC2 itself that is at fault that Blizz need to wake up with. Bear in mind the Asus N82 has the closest spec to R2 but with a better processor still perform fairly identical to M11xR2 with i7 in gaming. We have tested not only SC2 but a few other games like Borderland and few others to justify that there is nothing wrong with R2's gaming performance.

 

Thank you, I will find a replay and pm you tomorrow. I have to ask, why medium textures? 1GB should be plenty for high.

I am not doubting the R2's ability to play SC2 well, simply trying to decide if it is worth the $300 dollar premium. I am also wondering if the SMT on the core i helps at all. SC2 doesn't use much more than 2 threads and the higher heat output/power use may lead to less turbo. It also may hurt overclocking.

 

If you have any intentions on playing sc2 competetivly, the m11x r2 is not for you. i you wanna play old fps games, you should be fine.

 

I wish they would just offer a regular mobile core i3/5 option and call it a day. Laptops with much weaker cooling run those cpus just fine.

 

Not true.
If you set the shadows to low, and everything else to medium, you can get FPS of 40 and up. It can be used competitively. Now of course your one of those people (not saying you are, just saying people in general) who can't stand anything but high or ultra settings, the M11x is obviously not for you.

 

with everything on low, including textures the m11x r2 does not get more than 35 fps max mid game, and lower depending on where you look.

also unfortunaltely you need close to 60 fps on the m11x r2 for it to be real smooth. the cpu bottleknecks sc2 badly.

I play to win, not to have ultra settings

 

Can it 40fps on custom maps like Evolves or Income Wars ?

SC2 demand on the system can vary dramatically depending on the situation. My desktop for instance can drop from 40fps on all Ultra to 15fps just because a mothership flys over my units.

 

Is there a native command to draw the FPS on screen in SC2? Or would I have to use Fraps to see my FPS?

 

^^^
Press Ctrl + Alt +F to enable the FBS in SC2.

 

15 pages... so? what's the optimal config for r1? i'm on all ultra, runs greate on skirmish 1vs1, about 20fps on hard scenes.

 

I run on all high and med shadows on the m11x R1 and it runs great on 2v2 and 1v1's. I haven't tried 4v4's though.

 

by the way there's also seems to be some issue with the threaded optimization (driver multicore support) at the moment with Nvidia drivers according to reports from BFBC2. So this could be one of the factor that you will not get optimum performance as well. Like people ever reported the utilization of the load is low yet getting low fps. I have personally experiment this last night trying out without multicore indeed I do see a pretty huge jump in fps like 60fps most of time(i capped my fps at 60) however the drawback is its quite unstable as it will kinda throttle up and down between 30s - 60 from time to time. In the next drivers Nvidia is suppose to input a fix on the multicore support in their drivers which is suppose to fix BFBC2 shuttering issue. Lets see how it goes as it might help/improve SC2 performance as well. Drivers should be out next week. Whether do we need a mod or not still unknown at this point of time.

 

R1 all settings on high (1366 x 768 ) except for shadows forced to blob via varables.txt.

1 v 1 Melee - 47 (max units at battle) - 60 FPS (starting)

Campaign (Final battle - All In) - Starts at 55 FPS, drops to 25FPS at intense waves.

 

I have all my settings on medium with blob shadows and I'm lucky if I can keep 20 FPS in 1v1 during a battle..

 

@All - check my optimization post on the first page.. try it and see it if helps a bit for online Starcraft 2 please. Let me know!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/513360-new-m11xr1-optimization-must-have.html

Best wishes, StevenX

 

funny thing is, if you put them all to low.. your fps will still be around 17-20 during 1v1 battle. useless!

 

Well I returned my R2 and got an R1 so I don't dip that low anymore :3

 

Haha really? thats great!

 

everytime i go to play SC2 the all the settings are set to low and everytime i try to run it on high it lags. i was wondering if you guys can help me solve this problem. i have an alienware m11xR2 i7 processor 4gb ram

 

What driver are you running? With the 259.22 drivers, (on high) I get 35-40 fps early to mid game and around 19-25 fps when a huge battle occurs.

 

im new to this so how do i check my drivers?