M17X: Crysis Performance Issues

Hello All,

Lappy Specs:

9300qx
SLI 280s
WUXGA
128 SSD Drive
4G Mem
Vista 64 bit

I've been playing Crysis and Crysis Warhead and have been running into some very annoying inconsistent performance issues. On high and very high at wugxa res I get playable framerates %70 of the time (25-40), but a lot of times when I just turn, something explodes, or maybe for no apparent reason at all, I go down to 1 or 2 frames a second. I notice that the HD is NOT accessing it during these times. I can't find anything too nasty running as a background process. It seems only the low setting can get through without these irritating slowdowns.

Is anybody else running into this?

EDIT: FYI I have tried the 32bit and 64bit executables and it happens on both

 

have you tried different drivers?

 

Try disabling the 9400m in the bios , this seemed to alleviate alot of the performance issues from my understanding .

 

if you are still using the original drivers that came on the machine, this could be the issue. Try upgrading to the dell 186.12 beta drivers or if you feel like using non dell supplied drivers get the 186.24 drivers from laptopvideo2go. At stock settings the 186.24 drivers seem to work the best for me.

 

I am not 100% sure but I notice the same thing with my desktop (Crossfire HD4870x2) when I put high setting in 2560x1200. I think this is a ram memory problem.
When you turn back suddenly, the computer needs to "build" all the new textures and it explains why you drop. With more memory in the GPUs this effect would be decreased. So I don't think there is anything you can do, except if there is patch mod which allow to modify the code of the game.
Also I think it got reduced when I switched from 4gb C2duo rig to a 6gb i7 one...But it wasn't night and day, just a little bit better. We need 512bits interface a 2gbytes in GPU!

 

It's called microstuttering. It happens with ANY multi-GPU setup and it's the sole reason I got a single 260.

 

You can eliminate microstuttering by playing the game at around 60FPS, which is easily possible with SLI cards.

You can also change the SLI performance mode to Split Frame Rendering in the Nvidia control panel which can create other problems, but removes microstuttering.

But I don't think microstuttering is his problem. I think it's either drivers or RAM.

 

Nah its not micro stuttering, his issue im almost certain is what others had with the 9400m enabled and it would choke the GPUs while gaming. IM surprised mandrake didnt chime in the on this thread but he may have logged before he saw it .

IVe been running SLI forever and never had the Microstuttering issue that i have read so much about , i also would have never bought this machine with just a single card unless it was totally a budget issue. SLI rocks to much not to have it

 

Thanks all, I got it resolved I think. FYI, this was not microstuttering. This was drops to 1 or 2 fps for 3 to 15 seconds at a time

I forgot to mention in the OP that I was using the Dell Beta drivers. I downgraded to Dox 182 and that resolved the issue.

I noticed that Dox optimizations do produce a bit of artifacts now, but that is much less annoying then 1 FPS randomly

EDIT: Forgot to thank ichime for the suggestion. Thanks!

 

Hmm artifacts ? shouldnt be artifacting at all honestly . Either way though glad to see you resolved it .

 

That may have not been the best term. Flickering may have been better way to describe. Especially as objects take on more detail as you get closer to them. I also notice that aliasing seems more pronounced now (I never used AA in Crysis). Also, random noisy pixels. It's all pretty subtle though, but just enough where I did notice it.

 

Have to be crazy not the have SLI, night and day.

 

I havent used his drivers in awhile but some times trades offs are made for performance when these guys make there drivers. Might be why Aliasing and LOD is lower on these vs factory. Have you tried to disable the 9400m in the bios to see if performance increased ? might be worth a shot as well.

 

Yeah, had it disabled from the beginning. Went back to the Dell Beta and sure enough, got the bad drops again. It seems to start up on the second level of the original Crysis where it's morning in the harbor.

Anyone else seeing this with Crysis on the Dell beta drivers? I'm curious if it's just that or if I'm facing a compound issue.

 

It might be stupid but did you check your temps/GPU frequencies?
I had a similar problem with my M1730's third GPU, it was downclocking from time to time for no reason, and the 4th one was downclocking because it was getting too hot.

I mention this since you notice "artifacts"/flickering, and some drivers are known to give higher temps than others (I don't remember about dox's 182 but it's worth checking IMO)

 

Artifacts in some games in certain situations are an issue with 182.xx and 185.xx Nvidia drivers in general. Some of the optimizations Nvidia did in those drivers weren't exactly clean. 186.xx and above (as well as 181.xx and below) don't have this issue.

 

on top of what he said the Dox modified drivers are enhanced for performance not visual quality so artifacting and visual glitches can be worse than standard official nvidia drivers.

 

M17x GPU's don't go over 65c usually

 

even so, the gpus are safe to run in the 80c and even the low 90c at max load as they are rated for 110c i believe

 

Are you running in battery?

 

i get this issue on the Dell Beta drivers so that is the cause, hopefully we get some decent drivers that fix this.

 

Try the xfastest 186.24 drivers, They are not great for gpu overclocking they seem stable and fast at stock settings. I broke 16k with no gpu overclocking in 06 up about 400 points from stock settings with best previous drivers, also vantage score was up about 300 from stock settings with best previous driver.

But if you plan to do benchmarking w/gpu oc then these drivers don't work so well for that the dox 182.46 still seems to be the best for both 3dmark06 and vantage with gpu overclocking.

 

On one of the other threads there is something about this,I had the same issue on crysis warhead,very anoying the fix...disable the wireless card,and the batterie,or remove it.I was dubious at first but it fixed it completly.

The thread is on sager and clevo called crysis stuttering buy argh,good luck

 

Thanks all. Also for what it is worth, 280 temps are in the 60s and AC is in.

Rarden, that's an interesting note. I felt like this could have been a hardware conflict and if what you are saying is true, then the problem is in fact a compound issue (Dell beta drivers conflicking with wireless card).

To confirm this, do you know what drivers you were using? Thanks!

 

Tried the xfastest 186.24 drivers. Same issue. Maybe it's a 186 thing?

 

Fix doesnt work,
I am also having the same problem with any game and with either driver.

Also when the stutter does happen, i hear a twitching noise from my powerpack

 

The driver version is 179.28 vista,most stable and bug free driver for me so far,I have never owed an sli notebook,but try using one card and the fix maybe through process of elimination we will find the problem Good luck

 

Update on this one: I understand that my issue now is what everyone else is calling a "stuttering" issue. I installed Rightmark and alt escaped out of Crysis during an occurance and noticed that my QX9300 dips down to 1200 mhz or so then slowly crawls back up. So I'm closer to the heart of the problem. It's not a heat issue as the CPU is running at 43 degrees or so. It's not an overclocking thing as I put everything back to stock. I can't reproduce while while running prime95, so this one is whacky whacky. My last idea is maybe I have a bad AC adapter??

 

Hello all, well got my m17x, but im having the same problem as the first post.... randomly crysis or cod4 drops to 2,3,4 fps then goes back to normal... it does this here and there like every 3 min...

so before you guys can help

i did the following:

system restore (twice)
tried nvidia stock drivers and the new beta
tried a hard reset
disabled the 9400 chipset

and this stutter happens even on all settings LOW with fast FPS
and im still getting stutter problems on first person shooters...

street fighter 4 not so much, but the audio skips...

any ideas??? oh and the RIGHT side of the GPU makes clicking noises...
when it stutters the clicking goes in and out... like its having a hard time reading

Thanks.

 

Does everyone having this problem have Quad-Core?

I noticed for everyone with sigs that seems to be the case.

I played through Crysis without a issue on Dual-Core 260's only slowdown I got was the final battle on the aircraft carrier.

 

LosAngeles, do you have mcafee installed on your laptop?

 

I have the Q9000 and single 260m and i can run crysis (so far, playemaybe 10 -15 mins) on very high. although i did lower the resolution. would it be better with higher resolution but lower details?
also i noticed a strange noise last night when loading the main menu, it stoped as soon as it started loading the game. any idea what thats about?

ps. is it bad to use the laptop on my lap? gets really hot when playing crysis, other than my leg, will anything get hurt?

 

You should rest it on a flat surface when gaming . Get a small board or something like that to put between your lap and the machine.

 

ok, thanks

 

and that's not for the benefit of your legs, its to stop the fan inlets on the base getting blocked by your legs and causing either of the GPU's or the CPU to overheat

 

Exactly. I was not speaking for his legs at all and just the machine .

 

Nope its not on my machine.

dell is going to send me a new lappy.