Alienware m17x r4 low FPS

[learn-by-flying 37]

Moving FSX off the first core using affinitymask will also help.

[estipi 0]

Thanks guys! I see in Alienware forums that I'm not the only one having this problem on certain games. Will look into these things and post my results...

[shamrockflyer 647]

Thanks guys! I see in Alienware forums that I'm not the only one having this problem on certain games. Will look into these things and post my results...

Maybe you should sell your Alienware, and get the Razer Blade http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade

[estipi 0]

Not an option, just recently got my Alienware...cant give up that easily, will fight to get FSX to work! Everything else besides fsx runs great 

[estipi 0]

 

 

As for overclocking, there's no way to overclock non extreme CPUs, unless there's some option that's available in bios to change your base clock (which I doubt). ThrottleStop allows you to change the multipliers, but that's ONLY available for extreme CPUs, you can mess around with the TDP and TDC (My advice, don't touch the TDC and increase the TDP by 20 from it's default value). So depending on the amount of cores being used, you'll only have overclocking from turbo boost.

 

As a matter of fact I do have an OC option in my Alienware bios

[estipi 0]

 

 

estipi, I'm actually running FSX on my laptop too with a 1st gen i7 processor (i7-940XM). There's a strong chance that either your CPU is throttling due to heat, or reaching it's power limits and not being able to maintain the current turbo boost. The 240W PSU that you have should be more than enough to give you power, but once the processor reaches it's TDP or temps go up, it'll throttle giving you low FPS. Keep in mind some Alienware laptops have throttling issues due to how the CPU works and settings in BIOS, but you can download an application called ThrottleStop to help overcome that. I should warn you, using ThrottleStop will push the processor beyond it's limits and temps WILL go up since it'll try to prevent throttling.

 

Jordan, so you are saying that FSX runs fine on your laptop? Therefore I don't see a reason why I cant do the same. And you don't have throttle stop I guess.....does your cpu overheat?

 

Thanx.

[JordanChin 24]

As a matter of fact I do have an OC option in my Alienware bios

Great, but be careful with the settings. You could do permanent damage if you're not careful.

 

Jordan, so you are saying that FSX runs fine on your laptop? Therefore I don't see a reason why I cant do the same. And you don't have throttle stop I guess.....does your cpu overheat?

 

Thanx.

Yeah it runs fine, granted my GPU isn't as powerful (GTX 280M) as the ones currently out. I had throttling issue before, but I found a new bios revision that allowed me to change when the system should throttle (I also have a 180W PSU to give my hardware enough power). Before this new revision I used ThrottleStop to overcome my throttling issues. I now use it just to overclock my cpu only when I use FSX since other games run fine without manual overclocking. I have options in bios to overclock too, but I'd rather just do it on the fly when using FSX instead of affecting everything.

 

My system cools very very well, and I made mods to my heatsink to get better cooling as well. The highest temps I'm getting now is 84*C, and I live in Jamaica where ambient temps are high (ambient temps really influence your laptop's hardware temps). I try not to overclock too much these days, 3.47GHz-3.6GHz is fine for me.

[estipi 0]

I live in Moscow, and its still hot outside now during the summer but not as hot as in Jamaica obviously.  So, do you suggest I do throttle stop via BIOS if it supports it or better via Throttle Stop utility?

 

thx!   

[JordanChin 24]

If your bios supports it, then keep in mind it affects everything, where as you can choose when and which applications to not throttle with ThrottleStop. I suggest trying throttlestop first and if your temps don't get too high, then maybe you can change when the system throttles in bios (if you have that option). Because if temps get too high when using throttlestop, then the bios option will be just as bad and high temps can damage your hardware. As for overclocking in bios, don't push it too hard (keep you temps in mind).

[estipi 0]

No, no such option I bios, only the OC option, I got confused. Will try ThruttleStop, looking at tutorials on youtube.

 

Also a strange thing happened, after finishing a flight and trying to close FSX a fatal error occurs now.....  this FSX software just never gets tired of bringing fun into your life does it?   I've been finetuning in for the last week!!!! I mean, a whole week!

[estipi 0]

Well, I used Throttle Stop, looked a little better at first but not a lot, not at all. Temperatures got as high as 90C..... that's not quite dangerous is it?

[JordanChin 24]

That's pretty high, but as long as it doesn't go over 95*C (100*C is critical, but anything over 92 is critical to me) you should be ok. I would recommend a cooler though. Here's how I have it set up:

 

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2661/1pb8.png

[estipi 0]

_{Jordan. thanks man! I will try your settings....the only difference between our settings is that I have C1E and BD PROCHOT checked and you don't}

_.

_{Anyway, I got a raise in fps more or less to a level where it is nice to fly except for the 3D cockpit where the fps range from 10 to 20 having 13-15 on average. So, I'll get there.}

 

 

_{The only huge problem now is the SMARTASSEMBLY ERROR that still keeps on killing me.}

 

_{Could any of you guys send me a link to a working (fsx) version of the UIAutomationCore.dll file? I would very much appreciate it!}

 

_{Thanks in advance!}

[JordanChin 24]

That's great to hear! You'll probably have to sacrifice some eye candy (autogen, scenery complexity, cloud draw, cloud coverage and light bloom) to get your fps up. You don't want to have C1E checked in throttlestop. That's for the processor sleep states, you don't want the cpu to sleep when fsx is running. BD PROCHOT is THE main culprit for throttling. Essentially that triggers the cpu to throttle when it gets too hot to protect the cpu. When this happens your fps fall to a crawl. By unchecking it, your cpu will try to keep up the turbo boost, ignoring temperatures, BUT once it reaches critical temp (between 95*C-100*C) it WILL throttle. That's hard coded and you cannot get around it. Any temps beyond that can potentially cause long term damage to your hardware. That's why I said to monitor your temps very closely.

 

Get the UIAutomation file here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/3hcl0p7nwt1arc0/fsx_all_inclusive_modern_patch_26-06-13.rar

Courtesy of @adi518

 

Here's also my setup for Nvidia Inspector: http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8099/hhoz.png

[estipi 0]

Thank you Jordan!

 

I'll try to go with your Nvidia settings.

 

Regarding the smartassembly - I've found in the forums here that the latesr FSUCIP update 4.90 fixes the problem, and apparently it did for me too....fingers crossed. 

 

Also, I am thinking of changing my HDD to a SSD for FSX purposes. Currently I have an OS SSD 128GB (not enough space for fsx) and a HDD 750 GB....but the HD is slow as hell..... I think running the fsx from a SSD will get it flyin smoothly....

 

Thank you!