M18Xr2 (SLI 680s) - WoW Sluggish FPS

Just a year ago, in the MOP expansion, I was hitting numbers above 120 FPS in open areas and 70-90 in cities. Now, a year later and I'm getting 60 FPS in open areas, and in raid groups .. 12?

Can anyone with similar hardware tell me if its the expansion that really requires such an incredibly more powerful computer, or if there's something wrong with my rig?

Thanks!

 

Are you running the latest Nvidia drivers? I think they are 344.75. As for why - didn't they redo all the character models for the latest expansion? I logged in just to look around but haven't played much really so, can't offer any advice but the models do look more detailed so maybe if you have everything still cranked up to the max like in MoP, you might need to back some things down now just to see if it's wow or if it's hardware related. Just a guess.

 

Yea. They bumped up the requirements a lot. After doing some digging, it turns out the M18XR2 really isn't that much of a beast. Although its decent, the power supply is underwhelming and the system starves as a result. More over, the throttling in the CPU and the underclocked video cards put out at least 30% less than a desktop could with the same hardware. I'm following the various guides on building a dual PSU, flashing the mobo and cards to unlock their overclocking ability and disable all the throttling garbage, etc so I can get this thing back to spec.

 

Actually, M18xR2 is more of a beast than any laptop anywhere except a Clevo P570WM3 with a 6-core desktop CPU. Something seems to be not working right for you. Either your machine is goofed up, needs to be cleaned up, tuned up or something. There are not many single GPU desktop configurations that are as powerful as an M18xR2 with an Extreme CPU and 680M SLI or greater GPUs. Unless you have a significant overclock on the GPUs, a single 330W AC adapter is more than adequate. It's not enough with a Haswell Extreme CPU and 780M SLI and greater with a substantial overclock, but it takes some serious 680M SLI and Ivy XM CPU overclocking to deplete that 330W AC adapter. Unless yours is getting weak and needs to be replaced. I've had a couple of them go back.

 

Here's my 3dmark performance:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Alienware M18xR2

After doing a couple searches on their site, it's right inline with all the other Alienware M18XR2s with my proc and video card, so there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the hardware. Sadly, I think its underwhelming. Maybe I need new video cards? Maybe a new proc? Mr Fox .. you're an expert on these, I see your name everywhere. I'm building a dual PSU no matter what and I have a triple cooler coming (sadly, I have a single). Should I be saving up for new video cards, or should I OC these till I break them and then get new ones? =)

 

Something is wrong with your system. I was recently upgraded from m6600 (i7 2720qm, firepro m6100) to m6800 (i7 4810mq, firepro m6100) and im getting steady 60 fps on ultra details (minus shadows) while recording gameplay in raids. Directly comparing to old m6600 thats an upgrade from 45ish fps wth high details and no aa. Conclusion is check your cpu for throttling. Wows fps stillcdepends on every mhz cpu can give to it and yur system with marginaly less or equal cpu power and way better gpus should give equal or better fps.

 

Here's my 680M SLI Fire Strike: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2

A dual PSU mod would serve no purpose running a modest 3840QM CPU and the GPUs at stock clocks. You only need it for heavy overclocking, so don't waste your money doing that as a solution. If you want to do it just for fun, that's another thing, but it won't fix this problem. Looking at your Futuremark System Info scan, it appears you may be running a stock 680M vBIOS (719 core clock), which will suck. (With the vBIOS mod it will be 758 and boost clock will also be 758. LINK) You need the modded vBIOS to get the best performance. It's probably throttling when it shouldn't be. I would start by getting the correct vBIOS mod for it from Tech|Inferno. That may fix your performance issues.

 

100% planned to do that. I have a bookmark folder with a dozen posts from you and others on mods I was planning on doing. Flashing the bios on the vid cards was definitely one of them! I'm still going to do the PSU mod, not just for the purposes of fun, but because its likely I'll upgrade the vid cards and processor as prices continue to drop. Might as well get that out of the way =) Thanks Mr Fox!

 

After flashing the 680M's bios and overclocking the core and memory by 200, and then using the default values of Level 3 in the motherboard (I flashed it too) I pulled the score up from 7000 to 8075:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Alienware M18xR2

I ran it 3x in a row and its stable.

Now I'm on the hunt to find some recommendations on what is recommended on the 680ms. So far all I did is crank up the clock and memory because the voltage is locked by both MSI Afterburner and Nvidia Inspector and I don't know why?

If you have any posts you or any other experts have made that give some general templates on what someone with my cards should try out of the gate that would be greatly appreciated =)

 

Yes the only reason the 330W power brick is insuffiient for a lot of overclocking is the cards go from around 100W to 230W when pushed requiring an extra 260W for SLI overclocking, however at stock they are fine

 

Perfect. Well, I'm glad I already have a second PSU on the way, and the project box and all other parts to build a dual PSU using Mr Fox's guide are already on my shelf. =) This is fun! I haven't OC'd a rig in a long time and this Alienware seems very capable with some minor investments.

 

Yep it's one of the best platforms out there as Mr. Fox mentioned.

 

Your numbers still don't seem right to me. I have the exact same R2 (same CPU and GPUs) and I far exceed that when I'm playing WoW maxed out. My system is bone stock and hasn't even been opened up in 2 years. (I should probably make time for that though, dusting and re-pasting would probably be good)

I'll post screencaps when I get home.

 

I removed all the drivers using some utilities, reloaded the latest, cleaned up some things and tried it again. 100 FPS outdoors, 40 in raids. So, its better, but not great. I have a new power supply in so I'll try that to see if its better indicating that my current one might be bad. Either way, I'm going to do some crazy overclocking soon, possibly coupled with a Windows reload after Xmas and see if I can get some more out of this thing.

 

I'd have a look at throttle reasons along with detailed cpu and gpu numbers with benchmarks to test the performance is correct before benching it.

 

How do you see if throttling is an issue?

Also, along those lines, I've seen people talking about the use of the Intel XTU application. After installing it, I decided not to touch anything because most of it is over my head. Is there a guide anywhere that can break things down? I work in IT, I'm tech savvy, but I don't know enough about modern CPU architecture to understand half of how the various settings affect CPU, bus, speed, memory, etc. Back when I was in my 20s overclocking was much simpler =)