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    Mass Effect Stutter

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by zmarselle, Mar 11, 2011.

  1. zmarselle

    zmarselle Notebook Guru

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    Hey all,

    Having a strange issue with Mass Effect (1)

    Running on the R1, OC'd to 1.7, upgraded to 4 gigs of ram and the 250 gig 7200 RPM HDD.

    No matter what settings I run the game on, I get about 35+ FPS normally, but no matter what the settings are, or what I am doing in game, I will get frequent stutters where my FPS will shoot down to about 20, and then shoot right back up. I run gamebooster before playing as it would seem that it would be a processor issue with something else going on, but I can not figure out what.

    Just got my M11X, the only things I have installed are skype, AVG, Malware Bytes, and steam with some games. As far as I can tell I stop the processors for all three things before playing..

    anyone have any advice?
     
  2. tears

    tears Notebook Evangelist

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    Do you have any other programs active while playing? Do you try and multitask (i.e. Use Alt-Tab to switch to another program/desktop) while playing Mass effect? Did you meddle with the graphics, hen notice the chop? From what I noticed there's slight chop if you do the aforementioned things.
     
  3. zmarselle

    zmarselle Notebook Guru

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    As far as I know, I disable any processes that are not needed. What do you mean by meddle with the graphics?
     
  4. zmarselle

    zmarselle Notebook Guru

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    Can anyone else comment how their performance with ME1 was?
     
  5. tears

    tears Notebook Evangelist

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    By meddle with the graphics settings, I meant adjusting things like grain effect, resolution, quality, etc. I got stutter mildy once while I was playing, but I honestly never got that. Maybe there are background system processes that are chewing away at available CPU power?

    And what driver are you on? Please don't say a beta driver...
     
  6. zmarselle

    zmarselle Notebook Guru

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    I am on the original driver loaded on by Alienware/dell, 197.72 I believe.

    Also Tears, what settings are you using?