Samaul Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) I got my fully loaded M14x R2 on saturday. I also own a nice Aurora R3 that I do most of my gaming on. With dual GTX 560 ti (s) and a 4.1 GHz liquid cooled 2700k, the Aurora R3 is a tough act to follow when it comes to gaming perormance. I finally pried myself away from my R3 long enough to put my R2 through its paces. The reason that I chose SWTOR for my torture test is that its graphics engine can bring the most powerful GPUs and gaming PCs to their knees in sustained gameplay for several hours. SWTOR can literally fry a GPU that is not sufficiently cooled or properly configured. I want to thank the Empire guild <Imperial Gaurd> and my own guild, <Phoenix Battalion> of which I am the leader on the Jung Ma RP-PvP server for making this test possible. Test machine: M14x R2, 1600x900 display, 16 GB 1600 MHz RAM, Intel 3820QM CPU, Nvidia 650M 2GB Video, 512 MB SSD. Killer NIC WIFI, Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Test conditions: Connection: AT&T U-Verse fiber optic with Killer NIC WIFI Game: SWTOR v 1.3 Faction: Republic Guild: Phoenix Battalion\ Character, level and class: Lyriata level 50, Jedi Consular Sage Seer (healer) Game settings: 1600x900 Very High Scenes: Carrick Station, Tattooine Gameplay: World PvP involving 20-30+ characters I started in Carrick Station with 100+ characters present. There was no perceptible 3D lag. I hit ctrl-alt-f to see my frame rates in real time. The M14x held a steady 35-40 fps in a very crowded Carrick Station with 100+ characters present, no small feat. I then went to Tatooine to lend my healing skills to my guild against the Empire. We started with 8 characters in our ops, the empire about 6-7. I noticed no 3D lag during the speeder ride to Thorazan outpost, the M14x held about 45-60 fps during the speeder ride. Combat started almost immediately upon arrival. I noticed no 3D, CPU or net lag during heavy combat. As more players arrived to join the battle on both sides, I could hear the fan on the M14x pick up speed. Fan noise was acceptable. I held my left hand on the fan/heatsink exhaust to see just how hot the R2 was getting with 30-40 characters involved in heavy pvp combat. The R2 did get hot but seemed to dissapate the extra heat without overheating. The GPU never overheated to the point where frame rate dropped. Frame rates stayed at a steady 30-50 FPS, the game was playable with no perceptible 3D, CPU or net lag. I have seen 2-3 hours on carrick station and large scale world pvp on high settings reduce the most powerful deskop to a whimpering pile of silicon if it did not have the cooling to handle it but not the M14x R2. To be honest, I did not think the R2 could handle SWTOR world pvp on high settings. I know my R1 and loaded M15x did not pass the same test. I expected the R2 to overheat after about 20-30 mins and either clock back the GPU to where I would be getting abouyt 5-10 fps, have a driver error, CTD or throw a BSOD. I am pleasantly surprised that did not happen. Well done Alienware, that is no small feat for a 14 inch laptop! Edited July 10, 2012 by Samaul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haseen Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 So your gaming computer plays games well? lol... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmymillertime Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 a laptop that plays SWTOR World PVP, that is good news, now why cant some desktops with better graphics handle it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafaman Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) Nice write up OP. Similar experience here although I did buy an extra cooler which the system rests on to avoid thermal shutdowns and over heating. Nevertheless, very satisfied with the performance thus far. Edited July 10, 2012 by Rafaman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widgits Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Alienware. Sucker! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaidown Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 considering I play on very high graphics with my 17 inch toshiba qosmio laptop and no lag, the fact that an overpriced alienware can is not surprising at all. TOR really isnt all that demanding.... with a ton of toons, maybe, but your specs are WAY over what they need to be 560ti 1.5 gb video i5 2.5 (boost to 3.1 or something) 6 gb of RAM runs the game solid, ive never felt a glitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorrinRaddd Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Dang you bought an alienware enough said............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socialist Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I wanted to buy an Alienware, but I am a bit old to carry that stuff around. I wish Alienware did some low profile Laptops, something more Macbook-like. I can't bloody blend with the crowd with a black laptop full of pimped up neonz and a sparkly alien head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samaul Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 a laptop that plays SWTOR World PVP, that is good news, now why cant some desktops with better graphics handle it? They probably struggle due to a lack of sufficient cooling. Take a look at adding or upgrading case fans where appropriate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samaul Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 I wanted to buy an Alienware, but I am a bit old to carry that stuff around. I wish Alienware did some low profile Laptops, something more Macbook-like. I can't bloody blend with the crowd with a black laptop full of pimped up neonz and a sparkly alien head. Just use the Alienware Command center to set the LED color to whatever you desire. My M14x fits in quite well in a business environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonNH Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I wanted to buy an Alienware, but I am a bit old to carry that stuff around. I wish Alienware did some low profile Laptops, something more Macbook-like. I can't bloody blend with the crowd with a black laptop full of pimped up neonz and a sparkly alien head. Or buy a Sager/Clevo high performance laptop. I have a Clevo based laptop with a NVIDIA 485m and play very smoothly with all of the settings as high as possible. Combine it with a SSD and it makes for a great experience. Unfortunately you will pay double compared to a desktop though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpphantom Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Just use the Alienware Command center to set the LED color to whatever you desire. My M14x fits in quite well in a business environment. As does mine, and I change my colour every couple of months. Granted I work at a tech company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazzer Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 The only issue I ever got on my Dell XPS17 was over heating, it now sits on a coolmaster cooling fan and I have absolutely no issues with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedip_enguin Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I've got a m17x R3 whacked up to high, but on the fleet these days it struggles a bit, I'm only rocking a 560m though and i;ve only got 4GB of RAM, planning an upgrade to 16GB soon thought so hopefully that should help with handling the load from all the characters on the fleet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saiaku Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 They probably struggle due to a lack of sufficient cooling. Take a look at adding or upgrading case fans where appropriate. The correct answer is that SWTORs engine isn't as optimized as it could have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yogol Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 a laptop that plays SWTOR World PVP, that is good news, now why cant some desktops with better graphics handle it? SWTOR uses only 4 of my 8 cores (as opposed to other games that use all 8). Not sure why. But the speed is OK with high settings anyway, maybe because of my SSD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yogol Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I've got a m17x R3 whacked up to high, but on the fleet these days it struggles a bit, I'm only rocking a 560m though and i;ve only got 4GB of RAM, planning an upgrade to 16GB soon thought so hopefully that should help with handling the load from all the characters on the fleet. No, it won't do anything, SWTOR never uses more than 3.5GB with me, even on all-high settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedip_enguin Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 No, it won't do anything, SWTOR never uses more than 3.5GB with me, even on all-high settings. Interesting, well at least with 16GB I could ramdrive a fair bit of stuff and speed up some access times a bit. Maybe its the heat, been meaning to get a cooling pad, certainly the cheaper option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkirus Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I've got a m17x R3 whacked up to high, but on the fleet these days it struggles a bit, I'm only rocking a 560m though and i;ve only got 4GB of RAM, planning an upgrade to 16GB soon thought so hopefully that should help with handling the load from all the characters on the fleet. Adding 16 GB of ram will do nothing for you in playing TOR. Unless it happens to be faster ram than your older ram. It would be however because the ram itself is faster, not the increase in amount of Ram. For today, unless you are doing a ton of muiltitasking, 8 GB of ram is plenty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaisies Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 you thought this over way too hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFC-Lawndart Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I wanted to buy an Alienware, but I am a bit old to carry that stuff around. I wish Alienware did some low profile Laptops, something more Macbook-like. I can't bloody blend with the crowd with a black laptop full of pimped up neonz and a sparkly alien head. http://www.originpc.com/ Here you go, from the orginial creators of Alienware (before Dell bought them out). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morfius Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I've got a m17x R3 whacked up to high, but on the fleet these days it struggles a bit, I'm only rocking a 560m though and i;ve only got 4GB of RAM, planning an upgrade to 16GB soon thought so hopefully that should help with handling the load from all the characters on the fleet. 8 GB will be more than enough 4 GB is sometime not ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samaul Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 you thought this over way too hard. I needed 16GB of ram for work/Microsoft .NET software development, ie. running multiple instances of visual studio, SQL Server, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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