m11x R2 GPU running at PCI-e 1.1 only. Cause of laggy gameplay.

gpu-z is showing the my gt335m is only running at 1.1 which i believe halves the performance compared to it running at 2.0

can you guys post your gpu-z screenshots also.

i know this is the reason playing games sucks on my m11x r2. because i have another laptop hp dv7t with gt230m running at pci-e 2.0 and it's faster compared to mine.

 

pcie 1.1 shouldn't be enough to bottleneck the GPU, as it is not at a high enough performace level. I'm betting the dv7t has a full power CPU, which is likely giving you the performance boost.

 

tried MSI afterburner and kombustor.



GPU load can't even reach to 100% because bandwidth limited to pci-e 1.1

i hope you guys can post a screenshot of gpu-z (latest version) for your m11x r2

 

how do you know it is because of the bandwidth? I can run Folding@home on my m11x, and the GPU will peg 99% and steady, which is near max. Even if it is, I gaurantee that performance will not double.

 

Can at least confirm my R1 also shows PCI-E running at 1.1

 

i've had issues before with the PCs i've fixed that their GPUs only run at pci-e 1.1 causing the laggy gameplay. of course the usual culprit of that is the GPU not being seated properly on the PCI-e slot.

but where talking of a laptop here. AFAIK, the GPU is embedded on the motherboard itself... so i was thinking that this might either be a BIOS or driver issue.

im still also waiting for other m11x r2 users to post their GPU-Z screenshot

 

jiggymf confirmed that his also shows the same. Do you have the games set-up like this?

 

done setting the game, specifically guild wars 2 to use high performance settings. also tried the default high performance setting also tinkered with the pwoer management mode and some other settings in the nvidia control panel. still not getting a very smooth gameplay.

@L-Porras
Mobile Intel® QS57 Express Chipset - Overview
the QS57 chipset of the m11x R2 supports pci-e 2.0.
then i think this might be a bios or driver issue. there should be some kind of option on the bios to enable pci-e 2.0
or a driver update specifically for the gt 335m to enable pci-e 2.0
i hope you can forward this issue to your alienware team about this issue. because i believe that if only gt 335m uses pci-e 2.0 instead of 1.1, the gameplay would increase significantly.

 

somebody did some tests on a desktop, using tri-7970's, same hardware, only changing the pcie speed setting: PCI-E 3.0 vs PCI-E 2.0 vs PCI-E 1.1 - AnandTech Forums

Pcie-1.1 decreased performance by 10% connected to very high-end GPU's running an intensive game at a high resolution. I would doubt a lower-end GPU like the GT335m would need more bandwidth than a 7970.

 

real world test. max settings on guild wars 2.

look at the FPS. only 5fps ingame.

look at GPU load, can't even reach 100%

even though GPU has been overclocked to 510mhz/920mhz, it's only utilizing less than that.

so i'd like to request for a bios/GPU driver update that can solve this pci-e 1.1 issue since QS57 chipset that is used by m11x r2 supports pci-e 2.0.

 

I'll get the issue escalated to the engineering people, it might take a while to get an update. I'll ask why is it 1.1 and if there is a way to make it work on 2.0. Take into consideration that even though we work with Intel Chipsets we normally tweak and change some settings for them to work stable and along with the power consumption that we require. Besides that, Guild Wars 2 on maximum settings will require at least a GTS 450 according to the requirements sheet. The 335m present on your lappy has only a 30% of the performance of that card meaning that you will only be able to run that game well on low-med.

BTW found a thread about the game on the m11x saying the same, it will run on low-med settings.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/652115-guild-wars-2-playable.html

 

and this makes my point. pcie 2.0 will not help a low power GPU.

 

Yup, we are on the same side here. 1.1 PCI-e should not make any noticeable difference in gameplay.

 

and that's why i'm showing a screenshot of my system running guild wars 2 and that it's not utilizing the FULL power of the GPU. see the GPU load not even reaching 60% and even though it's overclocked it's still not making use of the extra speed...

example, last month i fixed a desktop PC because it's running at PCI-e 1.1 only. common cause, DUST.... so removed GPU, cleaned pin and pci-e slot. from 10fps gameplay to 40fps because it's back to pci-e 2.0

another example, my old dv7t laptop having gt 230m GPU (which should be slower than the gt 335m) has a better FPS compared to my m11x when gaming because it's running at 2.0

@Luis porras
i hope you can forward this to the right department. i do believe that the bottleneck is the bandwidth which is caused by the pci-e 1.1 limitation... and i think a bios update or a nvidia dell driver update will do the job to enable pci-e 2.0... bottomline, anything that can make the GT335m run at PCI-e 2.0...

every percent of performance increase counts. if that 10% can give you an increase of fps by 5-10, then that's so so good.

 

And I would bet that is more likely to do with the CPU than the GPU.

Quote from GW2 thread: " Right now, the client is heavily dependent on the CPU".

CPU bottleneck causing problems. pcie 2.0 won't help that.

I would bet the dust was causing the GPU to throttle. cleaning the dust fixed the throttling.

I would bet the better CPU in this laptop is giving you the better performance.

10% of 90 fps is 9. 10% of 15 is 1.5. not that much of a boost, and remember. it limits the high power desktop card by 10%. it likely will not limit the lower power gt335m.