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.

    graphics problem... maybe.

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by Morphic, Oct 17, 2010.

  1. Morphic

    Morphic Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    im having a problem in a couple games, even though im getting high frame rates, i get stuttering. while playing a racing game called split second, it gets so bad that its almost unplayable, and playing world of warcraft..... i get well over 100 fps, but i can still see the game stutter, almost as if a lot of programs or virus scanners are running in the background, and none are.

    ive uploaded my gpu-z log in hopes it may help.

    M15x
    specs are i7-740
    ati radeon 5730
    4gb ram.

    thanks for looking.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. taylrjones

    taylrjones Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    51
    Messages:
    237
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Do you have vertical sync on?
    What settings are you running? WOW is terribly optimized for multicore, or at least it used to be back when I played. There was some sort of trick where you could change a file to make it realize the cores better. Also, split second is very demanding. I have the 5850 overclocked and can't play it on the highest settings.
    Also, what drivers are you using?
     
  3. Morphic

    Morphic Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    im using the drivers currently on the dell site (driver version 8.763.0). as for split second, even on low settings it seems to stutter, runs fine for a while, then starts to stutter. vertical sync is not checked in either game. with WoW, i get FPS of 96-200+ depending where i am, but even at those fps, while moving, the game stutters. not sure whats going on.
     
  4. Scarface'd

    Scarface'd Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    93
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Check stealth mode isn't enabled... Just throwing it out there :D

    Try upgrading to the latest BIOS version as well if you haven't already?


    EDIT: Your temps look fine, good even! Could be a case of throttling here...
     
  5. Morphic

    Morphic Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    stealth mode is not on, and the bios for the laptop is A08.
     
  6. miahsoul

    miahsoul Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    75
    Messages:
    1,372
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Turn on vsync. Anything over 60fps will looks choppy and have tearing because the max fps that can be seen on a 60hz screen.
     
  7. Morphic

    Morphic Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    this isnt screen tearing, this is more like the computer lagging. i turned vsync on just to see, same problem.
    on a side note, while installing a game or a virus scan kicks in or even updating steam, i cant even play a game, any game i play seems to drop down to like 1 fps. i thought these multi core cpu's could do more at the same time?
     
  8. taylrjones

    taylrjones Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    51
    Messages:
    237
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    What's your memory usage? Make sure you're not going over 4GB and using pagefile.
     
  9. shinob!

    shinob! Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    169
    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Don't mean to butt in,but i have been using GTX260M to play Split Second & there was no stuttering at all.GPU drivers is Dell 257.38,V-sync off,grahics detail set to high.
    perhaps u can try turning down the resolution a notch to 1600x900? it really does not make too big a difference in 1600x900 when u are screaming down the tarmac with explosions everywhere,IMHO.
     
  10. inap

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

    Reputations:
    4,417
    Messages:
    7,827
    Likes Received:
    19
    Trophy Points:
    206
    the gpu-z log looks fine. try using throttle stop and log your cpu while gaming.