Trying to Play Bioshock, but having trouble. Please help.

Hi, thanks in advance for any and all help!

Okay, I'm trying to play Bioshock on my newly acquired XPS M1730, but it just doesn't seem to want to play right. Even when I turn the graphics options way down it is still running very badly, and I would imagine on this machine it should run pretty good, right?

Here are my current system specs:

M1730

Core 2 Duo Extreme X9000
Vista Ultimate
4GB DDR2
640GB HD (320 x2)
Dual GeForce 8700MGT's (Running in SLI)

NVidia Driver: 179.28



Any advice?

 

Update the game?

 

I did.

Setting the resolution down has helped. Didn't think I'd have to set the res down on this machine to run it. Oh well.

 

Maybe it doesn't support sli so well

Not 100% but full detail @ WUXGA might be a little much for this game.

Your running on ac power, performance power plan?
Nvidia control panel settings set to performance, sli enabled/disabled?
Tried any different drivers?

 

Bioshock is fairly demanding, but it should still run really well on your machine. I could play it on medium-high settings on a Core 2 2.6 with a single 8600m GS (at 1280x800 I think). It could just be the much higher res making the difference though.

 

A/C Power, Performance setting, NVIDIA settings all set to quality, SLI enabled, and on the newest drivers.

If I reduce the resolution down two notches from 1920x1200 it plays fine on highest quality. Must just be the resolution...


I'm a n00b to gaming so I guess a lot of it will be trial and error, lol.

 

Quality deafults Anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering to on in the control panel, set it to performance trust me.

 

1920x1200 is a lot for any video card to handle. 1440x900 or around that is a much better resolution for the 8700 SLI's to handle.

 

I believe it's the resolution also. My M1530 with medium settings and 1440x900 zips right through on the demo.

One thing that is critical though - you want to make sure that you aren't suffering downclocking due to thermal intervention. What are your max CPU and GPU temps while you are playing?

 

That was the trick.

It's playing PERFECTLY at 1920X1200, highest in-game graphics settings. Running beautifully!

Thanks for the tip!

Honestly I don't know. This is my first 'gaming' rig, so I am learning as I go.

How would I find these things out?







Thanks for all of the advice guys!! You're a huge help as always!!

 

All you need is Hardware Monitor. Go here to get it:
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Or if your lazy, just click this:
http://www.cpuid.com/download/HWMonitor_113.zip

It's just a stand alone executable so make a directory for it somewhere, put the exe file in that directory, and create a shortcut on your desktop that points to the exe file. Double click your shortcut.

When it starts just minimize it and leave it running. Then go blast away for about 30 minutes or run 3Dmark. Then just go pull up Hardware Monitor and look at what the max temps were for CPU and GPU. Post them here.

It sounds like you're good to go, but this temperature test is something that I do as a rule of thumb on every new system. You want to know right away if temps are a problem.

 

Cool. Just did what you said and going to play some BS for a little bit. I'll post the results....

Thanks!

 

Okay, here are the results....

 

Are you running it in DX10?

You'll get more performance (and similar image quality) by running it in DX9. Though I can't remember if its like Crysis where you get MUCH more fps, or just a little more. Worth checking anyway.

 

How can I check?

 

Just bumping this for slowdown117.....

 

CPU core 1 hitting 98c!

The GPU's look alright being under 80c. I'm a bit concerned about CPU core 1 temperature. As the ACPI thermistor (THM_) tells us is that it is reading 104c. You are now 2c past the boiling point of water.

I realize the X9000 is a beast of a CPU, but I don't think either of those cores should be going above 85c even while being slammed. And thus your ACPI would be under 92.

Here is one discussion right here in our forum:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3663103

What speed are you running the CPU at?

 

2.8



What are my options for lowering the temps?

 

Undervolt, clean out vents.

But seriously, with those temps, might as well call Dell.

 

I'm affraid plasma might be right.

Undervolting will easily buy you 7c or more in temp reduction. But what troubles me is the difference between core 0 and core 1. They are normally within 2c of each other at full load. But you have temps of core 0 = 81c and core 1 = 98c. That is a difference of 17c.

If I had to guess at what the cause is, I would say that the heat plate that sits on top of the CPU has uneven coverage over the CPU. It would be as easy as tweaking the heatsink tensioners (at the CPU part of heatsink assembly), cleaning off the crummy thermal pads that Dell uses, and applying good thermal paste (Thermal Compound Mod) if you had an M1530. But since you have the M1730, that's not an easy thing to do.

You have to seriously dismantle the machine to get the heatsink assembly off on an M1730. It's a brand new machine and you have to have experience with this stuff, because if you break something while pulling it apart (like a newb would do) then not only is your machine broke, but you might not be able to lie your way out of it when it comes to warranty replacement.

How much experience do you have with PC repair? Have you ever done a heatsink mod? Have you ever completely torn apart a notebook?

You might not even care what the answers are, as you may very well opt to just call Dell. But be advised, you have no idea how clumbsy or negligent a Dell tech might be. I've dealt with 4 of them.

One tech that was going to replace my mainboard started tearing my machine apart like a bull in a china shop. So I told him to stop right there. I notified him that I used to be a notebook technician and had torn apart over 500 notebooks at the company I worked for. He kindly steped aside and allowed me to perform the mainboard removal and installation of the new one, while he coached me a bit, telling me where the screws were.

The result was an excellent installation.

But my experience there was a rarity. You could easily get a tech that is a real moron. But if you have no other option then just go ahead and make the call to Dell.

 

I have never dismantled a notebook. As far as the field tech being a moron.... I have dealt with the same field tech for the last three years (this machine was a system exchange for a troublesome e1705. The tech who comes out really doesn't look like he knows all too much, lol.

What worrys me is my Dell account says I have no warranty on this machine since it was a system exchange, so I may be SOL.

 

"my Dell account says I have no warranty on this machine since it was a system exchange"



Why would it matter? You should have full warranty. I would not let them off so easy. If I were you I would likely be yelling at people right now.

On the bright side, if you have a friend that really knows how to work on this stuff, then let them dismantle it and pull off the heatsink. This can be fixed, but the heatsink has to come off and thermal compound must be properly applied. I would help you but chances are that I am very far from wherever you are.

It's not that difficult for anyone that has disassembled a notebook before.

Of course you could always leave it as is and downclock the X9000 a bit. But that of course would be holding back your CPU a little. Try clocking it down to 2ghz or so (can you do that with that CPU?). Whatever you do you have to get rid of that 98c temp. CPU speed is NOT critical to your game performance. But you want those GPU's nice and cool.

Don't forget undervolting.

 

I will probably give them a call and see what I can do. I got this machine by constantly ing, so I may be able to change their minds about the warranty, haha.

A friend of mine is a Mac tech, I am sure he can take care of this thing if need be, but I'll try to get Dell to do it first.

I live in California.


[

Yeah, I'd rather it just work right from the MFG. Thanks for all of the help, and I'll give undervolting a try!!




A quick unrelated question, cause you seem as though you would know... What is the advantage of overclocking? I can overclock this machine from the BIOS, but I can't really see when I would ever need to. Unless it helps with rendering and whatnot. I am a graphic artist, and I know how important RAM is for what I do, but is processor speed all that important?



Thanks!

 

I would not OC at all. CPU core 1 is already in the redzone with it's temps. And processors are so fast now days that overclocking isn't really going to give you such a huge boost (at least not CPU's). You will only succeed in pushing your temps higher and destablizing your rig even more.

For what you do for a living, that extra RAM will go alot farther than a CPU OC. I would not do it.

I would also not OC the GPU's. You are already in the 80's with those temps.

One thing I would do right now is follow the undervolting guide. It really does work wonders. I myself, and thousands of others have undervolted and it's well worth it. My CPU score actually went up in 3Dmark2006 because I undervolted. At the same time I dropped about 8c in core temp.

Edit: The reason that GPU overclocking IS giving good results is because we are dealing with low clock speeds. It's like the good old days when our CPU's were running under 1ghz. Overclocking a Celeron 566 to 850 gave incredible results in those days. Today, you can get the same effect with the GPU's only running between 450mhz and 750mhz. Taking an 8600M GT and pushing it from 475 to 625 will easily get you 1000 points in 3Dmark.

CPU's are just too fast now. You can still OC them, but the gains are not like they were before. Taking a 2.0ghz CPU and clocking it to 2.4ghz (an increase of only 400mhz) won't buy you much.