How well should my M17 play GTA4

Hi all Ive just bought a M17 specs below, how well should it play GTA4, it plays ok if i turn settings down but seems to have micro stutters, is this normal? Ive been playing MOH Airborne and COD 5 and they too had slight stutters, it was restored using the respawn partition {Vista Premium} as Ive not got any respawn discs, Im going to install Vista Ultimate x64 on a partition to see if things improve.

Heat jesus its like a paint stripper at the back lol...well it does get hot, what temps are normal when idle and gaming?

Re-greasing the CPU and GPU's, i will do this next time it gets a good clean, using silver Arctic 5 paste, any problems with doing that on these? as Ive always done it to mine and my sons Ferrari's.

any help always welcome thanks.

M17, QX9300, Dual ATI M88 XT HD3870 1GB Crossfire, 4GB ram, SEAGATE 500GB 7200RPM, AVERMEDIA TV TUNER ,ILLUMINATED KEYBOARD. Blu-ray, Hi def screen, cost £860.00
Acer Ferrari 4006, 2.2 Turion, ATI X700, 160GB, 2GBram, cost £240.00

 

I got an X9100, 4GB Ram, XFire 3870s, 1920x1200 and I could play on everything maxed (at least maxed as per auto config) and shadows/water reflections on low, with next to nothing stutters.

Only problem was when I got into a fast car and started running. That was the only place where I got slight stuttering but it wasn't all that bad.

Your problem might be the QX9300. The M17 has a slight problem where the northbridge doesn't get adequate cooling when you use Quad Core processor.

This is because the Quad is a wee bit taller than the normal Duos and the heatsink doesn't make good contact with the rest of the components, in this case the northbridge.

Do a search for "Project Freeze" or check the M17 Owners lounge thread for a link to above solution.

 

Ok, I need to pull a Moo here....


With all due respect to the hard work that donda, zfactor and others put into trying to solve the quad core stuttering issue, a gap between the heat sink and the core has absolutely nothing to do with the Quad Core processor hosing up.

The gap does exist. AW filled it with a thermal pad. The northbridge does not reach thermal limits and therefore is not failing due to heat. A gap of air between the heat sink and die of the northbridge would simply not allow the heat sink to soak the heat from the northbridge die, thus causing the northbridge to overheat. This is not what was happening.

I am convinced that because the Quad Core is essentially two dual core dies, that at random intervals the two dies get confused with what each one is doing. Simple as that. I would think that this has everything to do with how the motherboard processes data to the processor and therefore should be controlled by the BIOS or chipset somehow. I had issues with my Q9000 which were never resolved so i swapped it out for an x9100.

The M17x is experiencing these similar issues.

Other laptops have Quad Cores in them and don't have similar issues.

It is currently unresolved, but can be lessened in all cases.

Project Freeze was ultimately successful in lowering temps throughout the M17/Whitebook however.

Bottom line, your rig is more then capable of playing any game on the market maxxed out, no worries there.

 

That doesnt explain how i removed my Qx9300 from my M17 (which had a few stutters) and put it in my M980Nu and now i have zero stutters ever...

not being picky but i cant blame the CPU if it is running flawlessly in my M980Nu

must be an AW thing

 

flextronics


its both the CPU PCB design and the M17

 

You didn't read what I wrote very well so let me spell it out for you again:

Nowhere in my post did I blame the CPU.

 

actualy as pointed in the m17x stuter thread troteling might have something to do with the issue when used as a counter heat methode

and as from my few stutter from my actual m17 it might also be a problem with it

notice that by the way the heat limit specified by the chip maker might not be the same has the heat lvl where a smal heat countermesure is programmed to kick in in the bios

and by the way i remember reading somewhere that putting to much thermal paste betwen the chip and the cooler might have the oposite effect

and if the nb was such nicely cooled it shall not get over the temp of my cpu but i'ts always 5 degres higher




how ever anything between the x9100 and the qx9300 would make anything work very nice how ever don't go for the qx9300 unless you feel very lucky or don't minde putting alot of effort and time on making it work at it's best

 

Ive installed OEM Vista Ultimate on a partition and its fixed all the stuttering in Gta 4, plays well good now, must have been one of the programes that came with the original V2.0 Respawn install, it sound like a hovercraft when the CPU fan kicks in, never heard it that loud before, it must really push the CPU.

Have some of the posts been deleted...im sure there was more than this?