New M18x r2 Owner(HotS question)

I just got my new M18x r2 today and I have been wanting to play it for awhile. However is it normal for the system to recommend medium/low settings? I have Dual Nvidia GTX 680m SLI. I disabled vsync and went for quality over performance but HotS is telling me to go with Med/low settings.

 

The recommendation is wrong. Can't say why, but I know you'll be fine maxing it out with your setup.

 

I also just initialized integrated graphics. I meant to do it earlier but I was in the middle of a Starcraft mission. Will integrated graphics make it better?

 

No, you want to run on your 680m SLI, what you should do is either, right click the shortcut and say click "run with high performance graphics processor", or you should go to Nvidia control panel, and select high performance graphics processor to run SC2 executable.

 

There was no option for high performance in the right click shortvut for SC2 HotS. At least for me anyway. I did however switch the control panel on the nvidia to Performance however it did nothing to change the "med/low" presuggested settings that the game tells me I should use.

I'm still using Ultra settings on everything and can see a steady 100+ fps so I am assuming that the "med/low" is merely a mistake. However I have seen youtube videos showing settings on Ultra with the suggestion of Ultra. So what could I possibly be doing wrong?

 

The game's suggestion was just wrong. Don't sweat it, you aren't doing anything wrong.

And the reason you don't have that option in the Control Panel is because we don't have Optimus, so the only option for running games is your 680ms. Just to make sure, you have SLI enabled in the control panel, right?

 

It's simply detecting the iGPU instead of the dedicated, not really a big deal............but that being said you don't even have the option of running on the iGPU so ya.....

 

Not sure how it would detect it, considering it's disabled... could be it, though.

 

I do have SLI enabled yes. I don't know, just one of those things that bugs me knowing it should say Ultra all across. Oh well.

If anyone has any other suggestions that would be helpful I would like to hear them. Otherwise I guess I'll just keep playing the game

 

on the m18x, igpu is not enabled concurrently with the discrete mxm cards.

 

You will probably be able to play every game maxed out for at least the next 18-24 months (1.5-2 years)

 

Seph, I have about the same system, and I've seen this on a couple of games (wings of liberty included, though I haven't jumped to HotS yet...)

No biggie - just bump the options up to max and go for it - that's what I've done and the dual 680's have run fine. My best guess is, as some previous posters have stated, that the games are seeing the integrated graphics for some reason and not the SLI setup that's active.

 

What kind of fps should I be seeing then? It hovers usually between 60 fps but can dip as low as 30fps sometimes. This is on Ultra/extreme on everything.

 

Just focus on learning about the beast of a laptop you have. Common knowledge would state to NOT use integrated graphics as your dedicated GPUs are what delivers performance. Not every system reacts similarly to games. Crysis 3 runs great AND terribly on identically configured systems running the EXACT same driver. No one really knows why. There are so many variables that impact game performance and it could be just a 'tick' checked somewhere in an application being run in the background that throws off driver stability. The bottom line is to learn your system.

Download some benchmarks and run to see if you are 'in line' with what comparable systems have (3dmark11, 3dmark Vantage, etc). Download FRAPS for FPS display (for games that do not have built in FPS display commands). Download HWinfo64 to monitor thermals.

Enjoy your beast!