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    Concerning Windows Update.

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by MephistonVMS, Aug 19, 2010.

  1. MephistonVMS

    MephistonVMS Notebook Enthusiast

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    I remember reading something about this. But anyway here's my problem. Installed Crysis and Far Cry 2 and both ran very well. Seems however after doing windows update, that the performance in both games dropped to unplayable. This is not a Stealth Mode issue.

    Now I did install a few other things, mostly games, vent...etc. But nothing I can see that would decrease performance so terribly. Any ideas?
     
  2. Breaking Brian

    Breaking Brian Notebook Evangelist

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    Umm, maybe do a reinstall of those two games.... Run CCleaner or defrag your HDD.
     
  3. taylrjones

    taylrjones Notebook Consultant

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    Did you do any optional updates? such as drivers?
     
  4. MephistonVMS

    MephistonVMS Notebook Enthusiast

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    Blah, i rolled back to factory settings, still the same thing. So far ive installed the Catalyst drivers from dell, the audio driver and...thats it. Installed crysis again, same issue : much lower framerates than before.

    No stealthmode is not on, my temperatures are fine, the cpu hits 52 degrees or so. What would be the next thing to check then?
     
  5. rjm8282

    rjm8282 Notebook Consultant

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    What Catalyst drivers have you installed? I have had problems with low FPS and found usind different drivers helped. But what really helped was a complete re-installation of windows. That worked for me.
     
  6. MephistonVMS

    MephistonVMS Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm using 10.7. The problem can be best described in farcry 2 as this. Other than below 19 fps, everything i do seems to have a lagtime. i click the mouse, it shoots a few miliseconds later. i moove in a dirrection, and the movement speed slows down then speeds up drastically. It's almost like having a 900 Ping in COD, except im offline.
     
  7. Wattos

    Wattos Notebook Deity

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    can you run gpu-z, make a screenshot of the sensors tab and post it? Make sure you check the continous logging checkbox. The screenshot I am interested in is the sensors tab when playing crysis.

    So do the following:

    Run GPU-Z ( techPowerUp! :: Downloads)
    Go to sensors bar
    Check Continous logging
    Run Crysis
    Play some
    Alt-TAB
    cpature screenshot (using the snipping tool inside the accessories folder)
     
  8. MephistonVMS

    MephistonVMS Notebook Enthusiast

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    capture.gif
    here it is.... that looks right doesnt it?
     
  9. unclewebb

    unclewebb ThrottleStop Author

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    Try running ThrottleStop in monitoring mode and check off the Log File option while gaming. This will keep track if your CPU is being throttled and slowed down. It sounds like something weird like that is happening. The GPU looks OK so maybe it is the CPU.

    Clock modulation is a method used to slow a CPU down internally. ThrottleStop should be showing the two different types of clock modulation always at 100.0% and the CPU multiplier shouldn't be sagging down either. What CPU model are you using?
     
  10. MephistonVMS

    MephistonVMS Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeah that did it....looks like even the i5 540m has the throttling issue. Anyway thanks guys.
     
  11. Breaking Brian

    Breaking Brian Notebook Evangelist

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    Try using 10.6 drivers. 10.7 for me SUCKED!
     
  12. dededdee

    dededdee Newbie

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    does system recovery works? try it
     
  13. MephistonVMS

    MephistonVMS Notebook Enthusiast

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    As I mentioned in an earlier post, throttlestop fixed the issue. It's disconcerting that they have not fixed this problem yet. Again, thank you for all of your suggestions. Also Brian, reverting to 10.6 was the first thing i tried. Though it didnt solve the problem, I did notice a slight improvement in frame rates. So its true, 10.7 drivers are subpar.

    Overall, I am very happy with the system. It is an annoyance having to use throttlestop before playing each game, but its not unbearable.