Why is my performance so bad? (Alienware m15x)

Hello all! First time posting; if this is in the wrong place or format, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it

Long story short, I purchased Age of Wonders 3 and my framerate is just awful (12-17 at best). I know it just came out and has some release bugs but even with all settings on low it just runs terrible. At first I thought it may be my GPU but after looking at the Windows Experience Index (have no idea how credible that is) it seems like my CPU is what is holding me back.

CPU: Intel Core i7 Q 740 1.73 ghz
GPU: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850
RAM: 6 GB
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Again, if this is the wrong place to post or if you need more information, please let me know.

Thanks!

 

If you're trying to run the game at 1080p resolution, even low settings are going to cause low performance since your hardware is now four generations old. Try dropping down to 720p or 900p and see if things improve.


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reduce settings to low or medium and the framerate will go up they recommand a GTX 460 so you should be ok

 

Windows Experience Index isn't the best way to measure performance.

Your CPU and GPU is quite old, especially the CPU, upgrading to i7-940XM would help but that can only do so much, you can upgrade the GPU to 680M (I think that's the fastest card you can get in your M15X, not sure if 780M or better would work), either of these upgrades probably won't be cheap.

You can try overclocking 5850 with something like MSI Afterburner, that should give you couple of extra FPS.

 

try to use rivatuner statistics server with hwinfo to find out if your cpu or gpu is bottlenecking your system.

 

He can get a 7970M there for sure.. I don't think it would require as much modding a a 680M etc and the 15x was designed for AMD cards... OP, I suggest you at the 15x forum and try upgrading your laptop otherwise, lower the settings to 0 and play

 

Hello Nera, welcome to NBR.
Look-up stealth mode and make sure it's not turned on on your M15x.

 

They recommend a desktop 460, which is the mobile 580M.

 

Your laptop should run that game, probably not at high settings, but something low / medium for sure.

You could check the basics, that you have an up to date graphics driver, that your not running in 'stealth' mode, etc.

If you want to look at upgrading your hardware, then Graphics card first (for the biggest performance increase). Nvidia 680m / 770m (680m is the best all round card) or an AMD 7970m are the ones to aim for.

 

I agree with this, it could be just the drivers because the machine should be able to run it at least on medium.

 

5850M aint bad actually. It is better than the 460M. Due to it`s high shader count when OCed it performs very close to the 6970M. Still a decent card and therefore able to play recent games at least at medium to high. This with no anti-aliasing and perhaps at 900p (low 128bit memory bandwidth limits performance somewhat)

Forget very high at 1080p though. You will need a nvidia 770M or 7970M at least to achieve that playably.

 

So ?
I said he should be okey not that he will run it at ultra 1080p 32x csaa

 

His card can OC incredibly I have read. If he pushed it it wouldn't be that far behind even the 580m

With the crazy prices mobile cards now demand it is worth squeezing every last drop from your existing gpu !!

Example the 7970m and 680m are both more expensive than they were when brand new 2 years ago. Or least as expensive. New cards cost upwards to a 1000 bucks not worth it for a meagre 100% boost over a heavily oced 5850m

 

You are looking at up to 10 bucks for each additional 1% performance gain! Crazy.

Wait for maxwell and in the meantime kill your 5850m by ocing it to the very limits. Nuff said!


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But the 800M series mobile cards have already been released. Can we expect 800MX maxwell cards like the gtx 675mx was a kepler vs the fermi gtx 675m do you think?

 

Well apparently the 860M GT is maxwell isn't it?

 

Yes but still on 28nm. No sign of any 20nm stuff at all yet :-(

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