The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    m11xr3 cpu usage output to 37"

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by Grimgrak, Jul 22, 2011.

  1. Grimgrak

    Grimgrak Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Just curious if there is anyway to lower(cpu usage) it from 75% while using the hdmi on it to watch movies on a bigger screen. I already tried adding windows media player to the "GPU" performance list. No real way of telling if it's being used tho...
     
    Grimgrak, Jul 22, 2011
    #1
  2. dskid807

    dskid807 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    56
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Try using VLC. That can even use Intel graphics for the acceleration. Running VLC with my nvidia card and two 1080p monitors is easy with low CPU usage on my R1
     
    dskid807, Jul 22, 2011
    #2
  3. Grimgrak

    Grimgrak Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I'm using windows media player classic which should be even less cpu intensive than VLC :(
     
    Grimgrak, Jul 23, 2011
    #3
  4. Chiaroscuro

    Chiaroscuro Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Uninstall the old WMPC, and re-install. Watch carefully - there is an option in the installation to enable hardware gpu acceleration.

    I only get ~10% cpu usage when running 1080p content on my i7 r3
     
    Chiaroscuro, Jul 23, 2011
    #4
  5. Grimgrak

    Grimgrak Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    10%??? What size external are you going into?
    mplayerc.exe is a 2mb executable and file... theres nothing to install or reinstall....
     
    Grimgrak, Jul 24, 2011
    #5
  6. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    3,905
    Messages:
    6,116
    Likes Received:
    89
    Trophy Points:
    216
    namaiki, Jul 24, 2011
    #6
  7. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    69
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    56
    screen size is not important as far as I know. What is the resolution and codec used? As others said if you can use the GPU - do so. I think several players support now even if only in beta format.
     
    GNandGS, Jul 24, 2011
    #7
  8. Grimgrak

    Grimgrak Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    37 1920x1200 is what i'm doing ... could have sworn i had it whitelisted wish there was a easy way to tell whether or not the gpu was being used. Will 32bit be any better off than 64bit? Which is ideal?
     
    Grimgrak, Jul 24, 2011
    #8
  9. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    69
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Crap. Forgot R3 so nevermind some of the driver testing
     
    GNandGS, Jul 24, 2011
    #9
  10. Grimgrak

    Grimgrak Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Wow you wern't kidding on a 26 this thing is barely breaking a sweat under 10%.
     
    Grimgrak, Jul 25, 2011
    #10
  11. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    69
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    56
    What is the res?
     
    GNandGS, Jul 25, 2011
    #11
  12. Grimgrak

    Grimgrak Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    1920x1080 on the 37.
    Problem is now it is around 50% but the picture is choppy and the audio is off much like when cpu was maxed out. "selected" this to run with nvidia so not sure why else it's this choppy.
    Kind of weird but when it started going over 20% was when I was plugged in with an older less powerful 65W charger. Soon as I went back to battery it was smooth as butter.
    Wonder if it had anything to do with plugged in but not charging mode. Before it used to charge even with the lower 65W charger...
     
    Grimgrak, Jul 25, 2011
    #12
  13. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    69
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Dont know.... but it can't be the screen size. I have a 40" Samsung@720p & no issues during the short testing I did. For work I'm using dual 24"s@1920 and haven't "noticed" anything. Might do some testing of CPU use and see what happens. I'm using R1 btw.
     
    GNandGS, Jul 25, 2011
    #13
  14. Grimgrak

    Grimgrak Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    85
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Yeah for some reason it's the lower wattage charger that slows it right down.
     
    Grimgrak, Jul 25, 2011
    #14
  15. potentiality

    potentiality Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    45
    Messages:
    174
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    My question is why are you using a lower wattage charger than stock?
     
    potentiality, Jul 25, 2011
    #15
  16. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    69
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    56
    R3 is a 9xW right? If too low it should have popped a warning but I think you answered your own question.

    If it matters, 1080p vids on monitor1 with other apps open on monitor2 (101 processes) I hovered in the 30-40%CPU range.
     
    GNandGS, Jul 26, 2011
    #16
  17. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    3,905
    Messages:
    6,116
    Likes Received:
    89
    Trophy Points:
    216
    It might be because (if I recall correctly) Optimus only works on the primary monitor.
    Though, (again if I recall correctly) DXVA will always run on the nVIDIA GPU.
     
    namaiki, Jul 26, 2011
    #17