Why is my system so pathetically slow?

Hello, everybody. I've been lurking a bit for answers but it seems that everybody's problem has been solved but mine. I have been getting terrible performance from this computer. If you're wondering, it's an R2, and every option is maxed except for the SSD- that is the 500gb 7200rpm. I have the i7 U640 at 1.20ghz, overclocked right now to 1.50 (it didn't seem to make a difference anyways) with 8gb ram, running Windows 7 ultimate 64bit. This computer should not be slow at all. I am starting to go absolutely insane with frustration at spending as much as I did on this thing and getting terrible performance.

First off, yes, I know how to whitelist. I have updated the drivers including the hand-made .inf file. I have tweaked the bios. I have overclocked. Why is this computer so pathetically slow?

It seems that most people's problems are solved by putting things in the whitelist. I've done this with all of my games and with steam, so it's not that. The Nvidia GPU monitor tells me that my games are, in fact, running with the Nvidia GPU. I am still getting terrible performance. I've turned off Vsync and pre-rendered frames. I still get horrible framerates and input lag.

I'm getting on average of 12 fps in Just Cause 2 and about 13 in Stalker: COP. The only thing that seems to run alright is Starcraft 2, which runs smoothly but with occasional bouts of terrible input lag and framerate drops during big battles.

I'm about at the end of my rope. I'm really about to send this thing back.

 

What settings are you running the games at? I know if you run on medium settings with shadows on low, the M11x can run any game smoothly.
In all honesty, the M11x is not a true gaming machine.
It's more like a hybrid between a regular laptop and a gaming machine.

 

What BIOS and nvidia driver are you using?

When upgrading drivers did you run driver sweeper in between?

What FSB have you set in in BIOS for OC?

Are you OCing the 335?

Are games showing poor performance right from the start?

Are you using the M11x's LCD or external monitor?

Have you monitored temps for CPU and GPU?

EDIT: almost forgot the most important question. Boxers or briefs?

 

Have you got the power plan(s) set right, ie to maximum performance/minimum powersave?

 

Send it back while you can.. trust me you will be happy with that choice.

 

I understand that this isn't a 'pure' gaming machine, but these numbers are way lower than they should be. I keep reading about people getting 30fps in Crysis on medium across the board. I have most of my settings on minimum in Stalker and I'm getting sub-15s. I find that to be totally unacceptable. Most benchmarks I see are getting something like 34fps on stalker with medium settings.


What BIOS and nvidia driver are you using?
Nvidia Driver 8.17.12.5896,

When upgrading drivers did you run driver sweeper in between?
Yes, I did. I did the driver upgrade as detailed on this forum by Kopicha found
Here.

What FSB have you set in in BIOS for OC?
I haven't changed the FSB at all.

Are you OCing the 335?
No.

Are games showing poor performance right from the start?
Yes. It is not a degradation of performance.

Are you using the M11x's LCD or external monitor?
Internal LCD at native resolution.

Have you monitored temps for CPU and GPU?
I haven't monitored temperatures but should that really make a difference if I've just powered up the system and the game has been running for under a minute?

Power/Performance plans-
I have all of the power management settings set to performance. I don't even have a power-saving plan anymore, just in case the computer would try to revert to power saving mode and nullify my efforts.


Oh, and low rise briefs. If any.

 

Not to be rude bodiak, but I would send it back if it's not performing well. Either grab a 15x or a different brand. Sorry to hear of your troubles.

StevenX

 

I'm in a same boat with you. M11x sux. Cant even play older games like Warcraft 3 and low FPS in GTA4.

 

Starcraft 2 on ULTRA settings:
YouTube - M11x R2 Running Starcraft 2 On Ultra Settings!!!!

 

I'm going to call them tomorrow and see what the deal is. I don't want it to do anything that it's not supposed to do- but it's not even doing that.

It seems that returning this thing is becoming my only option. You have no idea how much that pisses me off. I'm home on leave right now and I don't need to be wasting my time with this.

The reason I got this computer was because I currently have a Gateway FX 17" that smokes on games that the M11x- with twice the hardware- can't seem to handle. The problem is that the FX is just too big, too hot, and the battery only lasts about two hours- and that's not even gameplay time. It's cumbersome and when I'm transporting it the only thing on my mind is whether or not my computer is breaking. It's like I'm walking around with a pane of glass in my backpack. It's become such a burden that I decided to get this and give the FX to my brother- and now this thing doesn't even work, and I ship back out in a week and a half. Hopefully they can help me out.

 

I havent ran into any issues on mine so far, but then again I havent thrown much at it. The most graphic intense game ive played so far is Neverwinter Nights 2.

To me the machine overall seems a bit slow, but I pinned that on the fact that I have a SSD on my desktop which makes a night/day difference.

Good luck with calling them. You are probably better off troubleshooting on your own than dealing with their tech support.

 

I had no problems with tech support when I called to get a replacement blu-ray for my M17x. My M11xR1 performs like a champ. Isn't slow at all compared to the last sub 15" I had, the Dell Inspiron 11z.

 

I've been running benchmarks this morning and so far my Just Cause 2 benchmarks have clocked averages of 45-60fps with settings on medium, and the most interesting thing about that is that it reads that it's using the Intel HD graphics even though I have the game in my whitelist as well as Steam. When I'm running the game it is in my Nvidia activity monitor, but the game is still running with the Intel graphics. Am I missing something? The game runs alright.
The Stalker: COP benchmark reads very frustrating numbers. I get over 40fps on all of the tests, average. When I load up the game, I get 10. Seriously now, I've got to be missing something. The game is in the whitelist. Steam is in the whitelist. I added the benchmark to the whitelist as well and it runs like a freakin' dream.
I've been busy this morning, hopefully I can call tech this afternoon.

These are the results of my Stalker benchmark. When I load up the actual game- it still gives me 10FPS with about a 1s input lag.

 

Have you downloaded the latest Directx End user?

 

I've had my M11x R2 for one week now.

Same as you mate - all maxed out except I opted for the SSD.

The only "problem" if even that I've had is - I had to upgrade the Nvidia driver myself with Dells latest. I believe having paid £2079, this is something they should have done.

Anyway, I have Crysis running... Optimal settings are automatically set to HIGH. I've changed shadows and water to LOW. With these settings I can really appreciate what this little machine is capable of. It's totally playable with Frame Rates between 22 - 30. Higher than 25 FPS 90% of the time. The lowest I've noticed is 18 FPS but that was for a second or two. (Note: It is running at a res of only 1024x768 but this is its default. Any higher and it'll certainly struggle but that's expected from such a small machine)

Nothing has been overclocked on my system but I must admit the SSD is bloody brilliant. Crysis loads saves games within only a few seconds.

COD4 never drops below 30FPS with all settings maxed out and at full native res.

I have 6 Virtual Machine running at the same time with no probs.

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles with it. I know it's frustrating as these aren't exactly budget machines.

 

@Budiak - Stalker wont use both cores correctly. We talked about this in the main gaming forum. I get great frame rates but when you move to long or run it takes a second to load. If you want to verify, just leave open your performance monitor with each cpu/thread shown. Load up the game, play and you will see what I am talking about. This was brought to my attention but the only solution posted doesnt see to resolve it for us... So .. not our fault.. just bad production/optimization for the game.

BHUP5 - search for the crysis2 thread and add the line for texture cache I included if you haven't done so already. It will give you an extra 5-7 frames...

BW, StevenX

 

Out of all the Stalker games only Shadow of Chernobyl plays well and that's with a lot of stuff lowered. It's poorly coded but I love the games to death.

 

I dont think people completely understand the GPU in the m11x is of MEDIUM quality. Its the best you will find in something this small, but its nothing compared to the likes of a REAL gaming laptop. People expect too much IMO. I dont care if you have a 16 core processor and 8gb of ram, it will still be held back by the GPU.

 

"it reads that it's using the Intel HD graphics even though I have the game in my whitelist as well as Steam. When I'm running the game it is in my Nvidia activity monitor, but the game is still running with the Intel graphics. Am I missing something? The game runs alright."

The way the R2 is set up (because of Optimus) is that when the nVidia 335m is on, it only renders frames, and then it passes it to the Intel IGP to display it, i.e., process and send it to the screen. Compare this to the R1, where either the 335m does both the rendering and displaying or the IGP does both. What this means is when a program asks for the name of the graphics card, the IGP responds with its own, even when the 335m is doing the rendering. Thus, the IGP comes up as the active GPU even when the 335m is active.

 

No- I understand that it isn't a super high-end processor, but it's not even doing what it's capable of. With the video card, this processor shouldn't be giving me 10fps when in the benchmark I get 40+ as well as seeing other people's gameplay videos of 30+ during emission sequences. There's something wrong.
I am starting to lean toward it just being that game though. I'm playing Warhammer 2 - chaos rising on high settings and it looks and plays beautifully, even during big fights.

I did get my Stalker: COP to run much smoother though. I set some of the extraneous visual settings to the lower settings and I was able to eke between 22 and 35fps when outside. When inside it lowers to about 17 fps, which makes no sense. The game is very playable, but I'm still getting killed constantly. Maybe because I stink.
Maybe it is just this game. I turned on the activity monitor and the two processors are not being used the same.

 

Brilliant, Thanks!

 

Budiak-

Can you run 3dmark06, and post your score? This will give us all an idea whether the problem is actually with the hardware / configuration of your laptop, whether the problem is with certain games that you are trying to run, or if the problem is with your personal expectations.

If the problem is with your hardware / configuration, then the most likely reason is because your system is throttling itself for some reason. This could be because of any number of factors - you could have your Power Options set to Power Saver, for example, which throttles the CPU to 50% max by default. Or, you could have a situation that I experienced, where my power supply was faulty, and wasn't giving my laptop a steady stream of clean power, causing it to throttle.