Alienware m17x r3- no full speed on Skyward sword

[darkokills]

2670QM
8 GB DDR3 1600
GTX 580m


so those are the relevent specs of my machine. I cannot get skyward sword to play full speed for jack. I have tried everything. The recommended version plays slower than the newer builds but I still cant get solid 30fps for some reason. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[dannzen]

next time build a pc rig for 800-100bucks
and buy a buisness notebook for around 500bucks...
win win

[NaturalViolence]

What speed are you getting?

[darkokills]

I am getting 22-26 fps. I thought there would be a setting I could change to even it out and get 30. I tried lowering the internal res but no matter what setting (3x and below) I still get the same frames? I just hope its not a perfect storm of my cpu being just too slow so at lower resolutions it cant run full 30 and when I beef up the internal res the GPU kicks in and is also just barely to slow to run that at 30. It just seems like that at least. I have my setting currently set to exactly what is suggested in the forum post for the game.

---

I do have a desktop too! And that runs amazing.

2600k
8 GBs corsair vengeance 1600
2x GTX 570's SLI
4x Various ssds
7 TB standard HD space (5 different drives)
1000w silverstone 80 plus PSU

[admin89]

PAL : 25 FPS max
NTSC : 30 FPS max
You have NTSC version ?
Check your CPU clock speed with "Realtemp" when running dolphin . You CPU may be underclocked

[darkokills]

PAL : 25 FPS max
NTSC : 30 FPS max
You have NTSC version ?
Check your CPU clock speed with "Realtemp" when running dolphin . You CPU may be underclocked

I have the NTSC version. I used Throttle Stop as it has a percentage monitor for throttling. NO throttling on this machine (suprising actually). However, I was able to lock my cpu frequency to its turbo boost speed using said program. Unfortunately it looks like at 2 cores used is sticks at 2.7 way far away from the max of 3.1; at least far away for something like dolphin. I cant help but be disappointed with this as I paid an unreasonable amount of money for this damn thing lol. While I can play literally every wii and game cube game on my desktop pc, it just doesn't let the wiimotes have their room as I have only a 30 inch monitor that I cannot view well from a comfortable distance. I had originally planned to use this machine in my front room on my 50 inch plasma, for both screen size and wiimote "breathing room". Oh well maybe another year or something of updates will improve the speed enough that i will get my glory. Thank you all for your input, I appreciate your time and knowledge.

[SlickDragon]

What you want to aim for with your i7 2670qm is sustaining 2.8Ghz on all 4 cores indefinitely. The advertised maximum speed of 2.8ghz with 3-4 cores running cannot be maintained after the short interval of the turbo unless you boost the turbo tdp manually via a tool like XTU. Here is a quote from NoteBookReview member SlickDude80

1) I'm talking about keeping your multiplier high (to Intel specs) so your turbo speeds are high forever. unfortunately, we can't adjust the multiplier on a non-extreme CPU so we can't make the turbo any higher. But we can work with what we have and keep the turbo speeds as high as possible (which in effect is an overclock). On my 2820, my turbo speeds will drop like 400-500mhz eventually, so if i can keep that 4-500mhz, in effect, its a 500mhz overclock.

your turbo fluctuates because of lack of power. The way the intel turbo boost works is there is a short interval and a long interval. During the short interval, your tdp is set at 55w. You'll notice your turbo speeds are very high. After say 30-45 seconds (whatever is set in the bios), you'll notice your turbo speeds drop off because the tdp drops to 45w. You can't maintain 3.8ghz when your power has been cut down. It is near impossible to sustain Intel advertised numbers unless you manipulate your tdp

To illustrate this, run PRIME95 8 threaded mixed test and monitor your cores with HWINFO64. You'll notice at first that your speeds are very high...then they start to tail off after the short interval. On a 2860qm, It doesn't matter if you use throttlestop or some other app. Your turbo speeds will drop after the short interval...you'll probably drop from the 3.8ghz range to the low 3ghz range on load.

So...download Intel Extreme Tuning Utility 2.1, set your MAX TURBO TDP to 57w. It will only use 55w, but you have to set it to 57w (perhaps due to some vdroop). Then run your test again with PRIME95 + HWINFO64. However, keep an eye on your temps as it will have bearing on how high you will be able to sustain your turbo.

Here are a few of the threads discussing how to do that http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienwar...ide-8.html , and http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienwar...oblem.html , note that there are hundreds of threads regarding maximizing your m17xr3 speeds all over NBR, so if you need more help you'd be advised to go there as the members specialize in tweaking laptops to their unparalleled capabilities. Unfortunately Dolphin Forum members aren't very knowledgeable regarding laptops so its best to maximize your R3 with help from NBR, and only then worry about finding the right dolphin settings for each game.

One other thing you may want to do once you've stabilized your turbo speeds indefinitely is to overclock your Cpu via BCLK overclocking. You may be able get your cpu up to 105mhz overclock or so, which would be a 5% overclock. Here is one of the many threads that discuss how to go about doing this http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienwar...-sort.html .

The good news is your graphic card is top tier, and as such you'll be able to get extremely high internal resolutions. However you may want to research the known m17x R3 580m throttling issue and try to follow the proper steps to fix it. Here is a link discussing the issue http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienwar...tling.html , also http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienwar...stake.html , and there are hundreds more if you have the problem and wanna solve it. In anycase good luck on your overclocking

[AnyOldName3]

Usually a 5% base clock overclock on a sandy bridge requires water cooling, and you are using a laptop, so only increase it 1% at a time. You may be lucky enough to get to 105MHz, but you probably won't, so be careful.

[NaturalViolence]

Usually a 5% base clock overclock on a sandy bridge requires water cooling

uh......no it doesn't. I'm not sure where on earth you got that from.

[SlickDragon]

Usually a 5% base clock overclock on a sandy bridge requires water cooling, and you are using
a laptop, so only increase it 1% at a time. You may be lucky enough to get to 105MHz, but you probably won't, so be careful.

????? Must be the daily laptop myth on dolphin forums, I'd be tempted to sit back and watch them propagate untethered, but then I'd feel sorry for the victims of all this propaganda. Millions of laptop users have BLCK overclocked (more than Desktop users even since our chips are usually locked, yet the desire/need to overclock has not been quelled) via programs like setfsb/setpll or unlocked bios, and I can guarantee you very few have a custom water cooling setup for their laptops.. If that statement pertains to desktop users as well then your either trolling or living under a rock, as people have been able to get 5Ghz on Air which is a 50% overclock, not a measly 3-7% which BLCK overclocking usually gives.

Also an average laptop reaches about 104-105mhz, and a fair amount can attain even much higher, so no need to hamstring the OP'S hopes... mayhap you should get back to watercooling your 3Ghz sandy bridge??