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Optimization Guide for Battlefield 3: For Nvidia Users: Threaded Optimization + MaxPrerenderedFrames: Open Nvidia Control Panel --> Manage 3D Settings --> Program Settings --> Battlefield 3 Set Maximum Pre-rendered Frames to 1. (effect: system prerenders only 1 frame instead of 3, results in less game stuttering) Set Threaded Optimization On. (effect: loading times reduced) FXAA Enable: If you're using NVIDIA Geforce Driver 290.36 Beta or higher, you're able to use FXAA. NVIDIA Inspector is the best choice to activate FXAA. Download NVIDIA Inspector 1.9.6.4: [ATTACH]4105[/ATTACH] Open NVIDIA Inspector and click on the tool-button. Choose Profiles --> Battlefield 3 and under Antialiasing set NVIDIA Predefined FXAA Usage to Allowed and Toggle FXAA on or off to Enabled Danoc1 FXAA Injector: This is an adjusted FXAA Injector for BF3. (source: PCGH Forum) Copy all files to your Battlefield 3 installdirectory. Delete older version before copying the new one. Difference between normal and performance version is, that the performance version has disabled Ambient Occlusion. Attention: If you copy your commands in your own user.cfg file over to Danoc1's file, the user.cfg file has double commands like RenderDevice.ForceRenderAheadLimit and RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable New version 1.3 Beta released: (Changelog see Post#17) Directlinks: Danoc1 FXAA v1.3 Beta Danoc1 FXAA v1.3 Beta performance older version 1.25: (Changelog see Post#10) Directlinks: Danoc1 FXAA v1.25 Danoc1 FXAA v.1.25 performance FpsLimiter: NVIDIA Inspector 1.9.5.11 has a Frame Rate Limiter function implemented. NVIDIA Geforce Driver 280.26 WHQL or higher is required. It's your choice to set a global FPS limit or for a specific game. For all users: user.cfg: This file copied to your BF3 installdirectory (C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Battlefield 3) activates console commands at BF3 startup. Write all tweak or information console commands in the user.cfg file, which you want to have enabled every time you play. Download user.cfg: user_cfg.zip FXAA: Console command: WorldRender.FxaaEnable 1 Danoc1's FXAA Injector is recommended, link above. Performance improvements: Console commands: RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 0 (effect: performance improvements) RenderDevice.ForceRenderAheadLimit 1 (effect: system prerenders only 1 frame instead of 3, results in less game stuttering) Mouse sensitivity: Disable Origin IngameOverlay Origin --> Settings --> In Game --> uncheck "Enable Origin In Game"(effect: better mouse feeling, it's no more spongy) Max FramesPerSecond: Console command: gametime.maxvariablefps X (X stands for the MaxFPS you want, e.g. 60). Ingame Performance Monitoring: Console commands: render.drawfps 1 (effect: current FPS displayed, upper right edge) render.drawscreeninfo 1 (effect: information on the display used, upper left edge) render.perfoverlayvisible 1 (effect: CPU and GPU usage displayed, down left edge) TweakGuides: Battlefield 3 Tweaks and Fixes Geforce.com BF3 TweakGuide Now, that you're prepared...See you on the battlefield.

AMD released the official 11.12 drivers, here's the link for the mobility version: ATI Catalyst Release Notes: Also available now is the 12.1 preview grab them here (direct link): http://www2.ati.com/drivers/hotfix/catalyst_12.1_preview/amd_catalyst_12.1_preview_windows_vista_7.exe Here the release notes, among other stuff they mention a performance improvement for Skyrim. Release notes: I haven't tried either of those drivers since I'm currently using my 6990m as a FirePro card But I guess I'm gonna skip the 11.12 and directly go to the preview, unless it turns out to be not as great as expected. Leave some feedback if you test the new drivers, I'm curious about the improvements.

A proper Dell on-site tech? Yay!

Little update: This also works with the 6990m! (@DR650SE ) I just tested it and am currently running my M15x with FirePro drivers and a 1120 shader M8900 I used the Dell M6600 FirePro M8900 drivers from the Dell site, works fine so far, all settings seem to be available in the Catalyst Pro Control Center. I updated the first post, as you can see the additional shaders bring about 1000 points more in Vantage (GPU), so I'm currently running the most powerful M8900 in the world

AMDs professional mobile GPUs (FirePro M Series) use the same hardware as their gaming equivalent (Mobility Radeon HD Series) The difference lies in the VBIOS and in the specialized driver. This allows to simply change a 6970m into a FirePro M8900 by simply flashing the appropriate VBIOS and installing the corresponding driver: (UPDATE: This also works with the 6990m, see the update at the end of the post) The advantage of the FirePro card lies in the better CAD and DCC performance, optimized OpenGL support, OpenCL features and AMD Eyefinity technology. In short: The card gets optimized for professional applications instead of games. A 6970m is very well capable of CAD work and a M8900 can still play games, but their performance is optimized for other tasks, and this can make quite a difference. A game uses a GPU differently than CAD software. For example you don't need a high frame rate when designing something with CAD software, but it's crucial that the rendering of your work is accurate and detailed. So if you have a 6970m and need to use professional software once in a while you might want to give this a try. I haven't installed any CAD software on my system at the moment, but the driver seems to work properly, haven't seen any issues so far.The procedure doesn't take long, you only need to flash the VBIOS, uninstall your gaming driver and install the professional one. You can use the M8900 driver of the Dell Precision M6600 workstation, you'll find it at the Dell drivers page. Maybe you find a more recent driver on the AMD homepage. Here are some screenshots of the Catalyst Pro Control Center, you'll probably notice some features which aren't available with the Radeon HD cards: I've done this with my Sapphire 6970m, it'll definitely work with the Dell 6970m as well and it's save to assume that this is true for the Clevo/Eurocom version too. Since there are some changes in hardware IDs you'll need to force the flash. NOTE: This should work just as well when your system has a FirePro M8900 and you want to optimize the gaming performance - simply flash the 6970m VBIOS and install the regular driver and you're done. The Dell 6970m VBIOS can be found in this post. Also a big thanks to @Star Forge for providing the VBIOS of the FirePro M8900!! Here's a 3dMark Vantage run with after applying the soft mod to the 6970m, everything at stock, also in the CPCC. Not too bad imo, same pretty much the same as the stock run I did when I got the 6970m in April. Would be interesting to see some gaming comparisions... but I haven't installed any games atm. EDIT: For M17x r3 users: You need to modify the driver, otherwise it won't install here the instruction, a big thanks goes to @devillucifer for investigating this problem and finding a solution. When I come around to do so I'll post a link to a modified driver so you don't have to modify them yourself. Detailed guide for flashing the VBIOS: UPDATE: This also works with the 6990m. Note that the M8900 VBIOS has the same clock speeds as the 6970m, so the 6990m is actually underclocked with this VBIOS. You can easily overclock it with software or modify the clocks of the VBIOS before flashing, so that you're back at 6990m speeds. But even at standard clocks the 6990m performs better than the M8900 or 6970m, the card has 120 additional shaders which will bring a little performance boost as you can see in the screenshot below, I about 1000 points more on the GPU score compared to the 6970m flashed with the M8900 VBIOS (at the same clocks). UPDATE 1/17/16 DOWNLOAD FOR AMD FIREPRO M8900.ZIP HERE:

"Dell's Rev Davis will host a Dell HANGOUT with Alienware's +Eddy Goyanes (aka Santa Claus) who will be bringing us something special to show you all. Hint: It's what every #Gamer wants for Christmas!! Tune in to find out. #gaming The Live Feed URL will be added tomorrow, so you can check back here for that URL and connect that way if you're unable to join the actual hangout. See you there!" What do you guys think will be announced ? https://plus.google.com/117161668189080869053/posts/UTKhxvVQxbs

yup, same here. they must be having issues. You could download the unlocked A5 BIOS from the great @svl7 here and the AMD driver here those aren't the official versions but both have been tested and working good.

Just thought I should throw my hat in, don't have any dealers with access to different strains here, it's pretty much take what you can get. This particular example is nice stuff, fairly typical of what I get (At least my source has good quality). Pack of smokes for scale.

yeah i will take the alien to the server room after and put it right in the beam of the 19-degrees-shooting air conditoning. but then again, as u stated i probably need more voltage anyways ;-) okay so the max i can get outta my 6990m without crashing 3D Mark Vantage is 864/1233 resulting in 17015 (booooom) 3D Mark Vantage! and as i stated before, my bclk max is 105.50. screenshot to the 3D Mark Vantage run stated in my previous post.

Thanks Jimbo, sell it these days every dollar counts. I can live with 4gb for a few months and get more later. Very nice offer though. Only reason we got a lawyer was because we were on a greyhound that hit the back end of a logging truck. Wife and I were on it moving from florida to new hampshire so I could get better medical for my kidney which down in fl was a nightmare. I got us permanent income we can live on, family is helpin with a place to live for the winter instead of moving into our own place, I finally got medical coverage and with any luck will have a nice alienware to help me earn a little more and give me some gaming fun. You want to do something cross your fingers or pray which ever you like lol, that the doctors here can fix what florida messed up in me. That way the wifey can stop the worries and only see me up at 3am cause of gaming not my health. Again many thanks for the offer really cool to know theres still great people in this world.