Alienware M14X / AW14 Gaming Discussion Thread

[n3ocort3x]

ok will post them tomorow or in 2 days... np

[mw86]

Thanks a lot and grats on the increase in performance with your overclock!

[n3ocort3x]

Yeah but it´s possible do get more performance than this... this locked BIOS is resposible for sleepless nights... do you know a good program where i am able to make ingame videos ?? or i have to do it with my digicam... ?

[mw86]

FRAPS is good... I think Steven's made a lot of videos see what he suggests.

[Stevenxowens792]

I just record 30 seconds at a time with FRAPS. Then I use Windows Live Movie Maker which is free with windows 7 (just download it from microsoft).

Good Luck and Thanks for the benchmarks.

[n3ocort3x]

ok will give it a try... currently working to fix my Debian Linux on m14x... (no Ethernet, no WLAN, no Optimus), when i´m finished with that I record the videos

[saintkotipelto]

Help, i just got a brand new M14x , but please tell me if i need some extra configuration (BIOS,Nvidia,Battery,etc) to make games run with extreme or hardcore settings smoothly, i tried hardcore with Crysis 2 but there's some lack with the movement, i also tried ultra settings with starcraft 2 and but it wasn't sucessful at all, to slow even the game tells me that reduce the graphics to better perfomance, so please tell me your config's.. Greetings..

[mw86]

It's probably only certain graphic features bringing down performance. I don't know that you'd be able to adjust stuff and still get Extreme or Hardcore to work... but play around... Steven should have a precise answer for you. Example in GTA 4 I get much better performance with 4 shadows or less otherwise it stutters a lot for me.

[Stevenxowens792]

Coming up in the next 40 minutes. About 2 minutes and change long. I've had the game for about 2 months. I purchased and downloaded from a UK site as they had the game back in April. I played it for a while on the m15x and then lost my saves when I had to format to sell it. All in all it's ok. Very console feeling. Much less sandbox then even the last Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising.

I will move this thread under the gaming thread by tomorrow. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up! Thanks! So far over 6000 views for my videos that have the Techinferno front end. Would love to see the community grow just a bit (at a healthy pace).

Best wishes, StevenX

[Stevenxowens792]

@mw86 - I think we got Saint helped out in one of the individual threads below with whitelisting, crysis 2 configurations and so forth. I dont know much about SC2 but Im sure someone plays it on here and can help.

@Saint - you doing ok? Did you get everything working ok? Let us know.

Thanks!

StevenX

[Stevenxowens792]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13M0tKelLrY

Should be 720p available in just a few minutes.

Thanks!

[saintkotipelto]

Thanks yes i did, Crysis 2 runs smoothly now with the AdvancedGraphicsoptions and the MSI Afterburner overclocking, about Starcraft 2 i did a little search and find out that my problem is FPS dropping, after some tweaks to the Variables.txt graphics file configuration still can't get it to Fix de dropping of FPS , all i can get is 30FPS in some stages of the game.

[Stevenxowens792]

It will drop a little due to GPU utilization but with overclocking and the config tool for crysis 2 you should always be in the 30s. Many things come into consideration like the temperature of GPU and CPU and if they get too hot they will "throttle". You may want to use a tool like GPUZ or EVGA Precision will give you the GPU temp. Throttlestop will give you the CPU temp. Each computer is different so I can't tell you exactly what the temp should be. My general guideline is that if your cpu is over 90c it's getting a bit too hot.

GPU if your over 80c it's starting to get a bit hot.

Some good advice is to always make sure the rear of your notebook is raised to allow better airflow while you play games. I notebook cooling pad or just some simple items around the house to raise the back end of the notebook without covering the air intake helps greatly.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Best wishes, Stevenx

[bbish937]

hey how long can u usually play on battery with these types of games, and does a cooling bad also extend battery life b.c the fans and comp have to essentially work less to cool itself off?

[Stevenxowens792]

@bbish937 - Cheers and Welcome to T|I. Gameplay on battery if you use my settings can be anywhere from 50 minutes on the low end to over an hour on the high end. The GPU is set to balanced and the cpu can be set anywhere from 75-95. My advice is to set it at 75 min and 75 max. It's still at 1.5ghz on all 8 cores when needed. Cooling pads help but most are ran off USB which will eat more power. My advice would be to turn off all the alienFX lights when playing on battery, lower the LCD down to maybe 2 or 3 settings above minimum. Turn off all items not used in bios like LAN, HD Wifi or anything like that.

Good Luck and again thanks for posting.

Best Wishes,

StevenX

[n3ocort3x]

First I want to say sorry because I wasn't able to post some in game videos of dirt3 yet. Time isn't on my side but I will post them on the weekend...

As an old liquid nitrogen overclocker I want to say something:

CPU's (intel) are build for temps around 74 degrees under load. Everything above will damage the cpu and result in slowing down processes. In my opinion the m14x has a really strong (and loud) fan. I never had temps over 71 degrees. alienware should remove the bios lock of the nv gpu so it will be possible to clock over 800 on the core... you can raise the core over that mark. But you never get more than 800 because vof its oc protection. Also they should allow to give the nv gpu a little bit of extra voltage. The gpu isn't on its limit... its far away from that...

The next thing is the so called overclocking tab in bios... cmon guys... 3 MHz extra on the bus resulting in 40 MHz cpu speed... that's really a shame...

There is so much power in that laptop and we are not able to use it in games...

[Staff Sargent]

Ok I call myself a pc gamer or at least I was, back when I played it was all about the frame rate and not about the max settings. Now it seems its all about having the game graphics extreme and settling for playable fps. Is this the way it is now?? If it is and people are getting playable fps with the highest settings that means I should get great to extreme fps with having my game graphics set to low-medium.

For example a game most people should know Unreal Tournament. I would use the lowest game graphics settings and still keep it nice looking to achive 70+ fps but it seems if this game was new today everyone here would want high level game graphics and settle for 30-50 fps which seems a little strange to me or I am just getting old.

[mw86]

I do know a lot of people want to play games that may be beyond their system but try to tweak the game and the computer to be able to get by on okay performance rather than the game not working at all.

[n3ocort3x]

no you´re not OLD... xD I have a lot of so called "oldies" on my Alienware (UT3, CS1.6, HL2) I Love this games and they have very high FPS. Also I want to say that I´m not that kind of "FPS Junkie" Most games are playable from 27FPS upwards.

BUT (and yes... this BUT have a dedicated space in this Post)

I don´t understand why it is necessary to lock the GPU and CPU. I´m interessted in maxing out my system, I want to test settings and show what is possible to bang out the hell of that m14x. I don´t need this for playing games.. I only want to know. And I don´t understand why I pay a lot of money for that notebook, only to be a "guest" on my own System and on my own BIOS (You can laugh... but I feel so). I want my systems fully controlled.... by ME because I paid for it)

I hope you understand what I mean...

[Jimbo]

I don´t understand why it is necessary to lock the GPU and CPU. I´m interessted in maxing out my system, I want to test settings and show what is possible to bang out the hell of that m14x. I don´t need this for playing games.. I only want to know. And I don´t understand why I pay a lot of money for that notebook, only to be a "guest" on my own System and on my own BIOS (You can laugh... but I feel so). I want my systems fully controlled.... by ME because I paid for it)

I hope you understand what I mean...

I 100% agree.

[richg211]

hey guys, so upon buying my m14x, i was wondering it the i7 2630, 4GB Ram, and the 1.5gb gt555m will be able to support these two games? im not much of a computer guy so i wouldnt know. Thanks!

[wbabt007]

Hi Rich, although there is no official Minimum Req specs yet here are some tentative ones .

Battlefield 3 MW3

Minimum System Requirements

Processor: Dual Core

Memory: 2 GB

Hard Drive: 15 GB for Digital Version, 10 GB for Disc Version

Video Memory: 512 MB

Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

DirectX: 10

Keyboard and Mouse

DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements

Processor: Quadcore Processor

Memory: 4 GB

Hard Drive: 15 GB for Digital Version, 10 GB for Disc Version

Video Memory: 1024 MB

Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

DirectX: 11

Keyboard and Mouse

DVD Rom Drive

I honestly think that the machine you have in mind will be more than enough to play those titles. If something see if you can add more RAM, RAM is always good, RAM is your friend.

[richg211]

Hey Wbabt, thank you for replying. I guess i probably should invest in some more RAM, but for the time being i'll just stick with the 4gb, until i need more. I also have a question. When overclocking your m14x, what would be some safe overclocking stats to input into the bios? Thanks again.

[Alex Six]

As wbabt007 pointed out above the Recommended requirements are far surpassed by the m14x. BF:BC2 runs at about 35/40 - 60Fps at all high with vsync on and AA at 2x at 720p (1366x768) {i have teh 600p screen and it look NICE at 720p} BF3 runs on teh same engine as BF:BC2 (Frost Bite 2.0) so if anything at all high with vsync and AA im sure it will run at 30+ FPS

and as for Mw3, Mw2 runs at a sexy 40Fps+ on all high with AA and vsync. so Mw3 should as well

trust me you( and I, as well) will have Zero issues with these games.

[Stevenxowens792]

BFBC2 is frostbite engine 1.5

BF3 is frostbite 2.0

Frostbite Engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Im thinking medium to high for BF3 @720p but time will tell. We have plenty of cpu with the I7.