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    In-game stuttering issue

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by Seph-VII, Feb 28, 2011.

  1. Seph-VII

    Seph-VII Notebook Guru

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    Hey,

    So I'm having this weird issue with my laptop when playing games. Just about every game I play seems to be 'stuttering' one way or another, sometimes a lot. I don't want to put this down to lag as my FPS are always pretty high, say never less than 40.

    I have tried everything from the Nvidia control panel, Updating drivers/rolling back again, Overclocking the GPU and reverting back to stock clocks, D3Doverider with triple buffering forced, playing these games at different video settings and resolutions.

    After a few days of troubleshooting I am at my wits end...

    Here's a few examples tested on both the highest and lowest video settings (in-game and forced through the Nvidia CP)

    Batman AA: FPS = 50/100 sometimes just moving or when turning corners and walking through doors into new rooms, occasional FPS drop to 30/40. seems to stutter...

    Dragon Age origins: FPS = high 50/60s forced vsnyc with Triple Buffer enabled. Generally just moving about. I will add that my CPU is probably holding me back a little in this game as the performance benefits from quad core processors.

    Mass effect 2: A very well optimized game which is capped at 60 FPS this runs ok but when I move the camera I experience some stuttering.

    Sims 3: As a test, I would expect to be able to play this game at optimal settings - apparently not. even scrolling the map overhead view of the town stutters terribly.

    Had anyone else encountered any issues like this? Remember this is at highest and lowest in game settings. Forced or application controlled.

    Temps are fine never going above 65 with max stable OC. Please don't mention stealth mode.

    Suggestions are most welcome! Thanks
     
  2. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    Which BIOS revision have you installed?
     
  3. Seph-VII

    Seph-VII Notebook Guru

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    Quick ;)

    Still on A08 - Came pre-installed. You think its worth a re flash, maybe A09?
     
  4. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    It's alway worth upgrading in my opinion, but when you have A08 it shouldn't be a throttling issue.

    I experience some little stuttering from time to time in gaming, but very rarely... your issue seems to be pretty annoying.

    I have no idea at the moment... When I got my system over a year ago I had some serious performance problems after a couple of days, only solution I found was reinstalling... :S It seems a Windows update messed up my system then...

    Since when are you experienceing this stuttering?
     
  5. Seph-VII

    Seph-VII Notebook Guru

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    Well I've had my system for about 2 weeks and its been like this more or less since I actually started playing games on it, which is the last few days really.

    Hmmm I was considering a reinstall if windows but wanted to try and look at every possible aspect before hand. As for updates I always select and install them manually ever since a vista sp2 install messed up my audio, even after rolling back to sp1.
     
  6. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    Yes, that's a good idea imo, installing the updates manually...

    You could try a system restore to a point before the problems happened, but you would need to reinstall all the recently installed software...
     
  7. Seph-VII

    Seph-VII Notebook Guru

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    Maybe a clean install is on the cards... Appreciate the input.
     
  8. inap

    inap .........................

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    have you tried a different video driver?
     
  9. Seph-VII

    Seph-VII Notebook Guru

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    Yep, tried and rolled back, no difference :(
     
  10. inap

    inap .........................

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    hmmm try making a log of your game play using gpu-z and throttle stop and up load it here. also make note of the time it stutters.
     
  11. Seph-VII

    Seph-VII Notebook Guru

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    Should I be using throttlestop with my i5? I thought this was a program that benefits the quad cores and the XM's in particular?
     
  12. inap

    inap .........................

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    you can use it to make cpu logs. i5 can use throttlestop but you can't control the multi and tdp like the xm chips.
     
  13. Seph-VII

    Seph-VII Notebook Guru

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    I'll get those logs uploaded tomorrow then. My issue really is games just don't seem to be running smooth despite having the frames, for instance a drop of frames from 60 to 53 will cause a stutter spike which I don't think should be the case.

    Tried a test running hitman: blood money maxed out, the laptop was having none of it, again I had the frames but not the quality...
     
  14. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

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    If still within the return period, why fight it? Give it back to Dell and let them figure out what's wrong and either give you a new one or refund the price. You should not have to start off flushing out gremlins in a new M5x.