is Crysis 2 just another game that wasn't programmed with a multitude of system setups in mind? WARNING: INCOMING WALL OF TEXT! Anyway, I purchased an Alienware m17x fully loaded about 6-8 months ago. It's packing a core i7 x920, ATI Mobility Radeon 5870 HD x2 Crossfire, 8 GB RAM. To me, this seems like a pretty powerful laptop that should be able to handle just about any game to date or anywhere in the near future. Am I wrong? I'm seriously debating returning this machine. Crysis 2 is the second game that I've purchased within a few month span where my laptop struggled to run the game efficiently. The first was Black Ops (I can't get consistent FPS without vsync on and the random framerate drops make the game unplayable at points in multiplayer). But, back to Crysis 2. The single player campaign was pretty awesome. Would've been a lot more enjoyable if the screen didn't flicker like the game was trying to induce a seizure, but, whatever. So, I try the multiplayer mode after completing the single player mode and the game feels like it's running at 10 FPS WITH the flickering. What's up with that? Just skimming through these forums, I'm seeing a lot of people experiencing this flickering problem. From changing the .exe name, to disabling Crossfire, to downloading/updating drivers and other files from here and there, I don't even know where to start to try and fix the game for myself. So frustrating. Even on a near $5,000.00 laptop, high-end gaming on a so-called "most powerful laptop in the universe" isn't possible, is it? Digging through forums and the internet for solutions just to enjoy a game the way it should be is getting kinda old pretty fast. I'm trying to look at my options and maybe get some feedback from you other PC gamers. A lot of you seem to have similar systems or systems that exceed mine with superior and more recent hardware. Any advice would be appreciated.

i don't know what is happening but your system is WAY powerfull enough to enjoy crysis 2 maxed out.

You're an idiot for spending almost $5000 on a laptop.

It's more than likely a crossfire bug. ATI has a new driver version coming soon, and crysis 2 is known to be less than cooperative with multi gpu setups

Well firstly, buying an alienware / dell is NEVER a good idea. They are overpriced as hell and unreliable, I just ordered a computer (well, the parts - im building) for exactly $2,045, and it will destroy any laptop out there. If your gaming, a laptop is NEVER worth it unless you REALLY have to be able to move a lot.

As for the performance, its rather strange. The major problems seem to be on the ATI side of things, which I really have no experience with. You should be getting more than 10fps thats for sure.

I did not read ur entire post, but all i can say is...

My Alienware Area-51 desktop is FUKING BAD AZZ AND ALIENWARE RULEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;P

You're an idiot for spending almost $5000 on a laptop.

^^

You're an idiot for spending almost $5000 on a laptop.

^^

You're an idiot for spending almost $5000 on a laptop.
****, I want to be that idiot that spends $5000 on a laptop!

You're an idiot for spending almost $5000 on a laptop.
And an Alienware at that. I don't like you OP.

You're an idiot for spending almost $5000 on a laptop.

What this guy said. You could've built such a nice desktop for this price.
Alienware, really? I would rather flush my money down the toiler, terrible prices.

I'm just trying to imagine what kind of desktop I could build for 5000 dollars.......... I think I'd actually just build a really good PC, but not overkill like some of those crazed enthusiasts, and then put the remaining 3000 dollars to the side for future upgrades..... maybe use it for something else, like fixing my car, or college. College sounds nice, not really that much gaming you can do in college anyways, so it's not like I would upgrade my PC that much anyways.

Your 5000 dollar computer is really only worth at most 1900 dollars. With alienware you are paying for the brand name. I own a Asus g53jw-xt1 which is 1,300 (Cdn) and it runs crysis 2 on medium with no framerate drops at all. If you are looking for a 17 inch laptop consider the G73j Asus series. Dont get me wrong. Alienware is badass but if you dont have the extra money to spend for the glowing logo they arent worth the price. Good luck figuring out your problem OP.

I'm just trying to imagine what kind of desktop I could build for 5000 dollars.......... I think I'd actually just build a really good PC, but not overkill like some of those crazed enthusiasts, and then put the remaining 3000 dollars to the side for future upgrades..... maybe use it for something else, like fixing my car, or college. College sounds nice, not really that much gaming you can do in college anyways, so it's not like I would upgrade my PC that much anyways.

Cant imagine needing more than 3K for a ridiculous system. I built mine for 2K and it runs cry2 at 100+ on extreme, load times are like 5-10 seconds, smooth as hell. 2600k, sli 580gtx, ssd.. most expensive would be the dual 580s for about 1K.

So ya, 3K on the PC itself, then about 1-1.5k on monitors.

I purchased an Alienware
Well here was your first mistake. That laptop would have cost you a few grand less at a different dealer. Hope you had fun getting ripped off!

Also dual video cards == kinda crap. The amount of odd glitches that crop up with them isn't worth the hassle.

Next time go with http://www.xoticpc.com


EDIT: Protip - Alienware is owned by Dell, so don't be so surprised that your big shiny toy is basically an overpriced brick.

Alienware svcks dike. I mean they are a branch of Dell, which is a **** joke in the computer industry.

Get a refund on the laptop ASAP. And BUILD YOUR OWN PC, a tower! A **** laptop with all that **** in it? Dude of course games will struggle! The heat in the laptop must be killer!! DX

Hi,
I also have an alienware PC.
Mine's an Aurora Torchbearer desktop, with an AMD Phenom II X4 925, 4GB of RAM, and one Radeon HD 4870 X2, which I bought about a year and a half ago.
Join the club! This computer has given me nothing but trouble since I got it. I had to send it back to Florida for repairs twice! Plus I had to buy Win7 from alienware for an extortionary price just to keep my warranty.
But never mind that.
If you bought your alien 6-8 months ago, then don't even bother trying to return it. Believe me, I've tried. They don't accept returns after 30 (or maybe it's 90, I don't remember) days.
But just try to be patient, hopefully the patch that's supposed to come out this week will fix some stuff.
As to the flickering, I was experiencing that too. Renaming the .exe file worked for me, also you can try this app for tweaking the setting of C2: http://www.wasdie.blogspot.com/
And lastly, today ATI released a driver update (at least for the 4870) that sometimes gets rid of the flickering. I recommend installing the update first and if that doesn't completely help try the app.


Hope it helps, (my main problem is that I can't login to the multiplayer with my gamesas account, hoping the patch will fix that )

4Strings

Seriously 5K on a laptop?

One - as much as alienware owns as a PC brand they now svck cos Dell bought them out.

Two - for 2K I bought a desktop two weeks ago that owns your PC. Custom built myself.

Three - seriously 5K on a laptop?

Four - for 5K I could destroy your laptop with another custom built machine.

Five - seriously 5K on a laptop?

Hope I could help enlighten you. haha

Honestly, you paid WAY too much for the setup you're using for it to crap out on you and be buggy. I just spent a mere $504 (which is definitely chump-change in the world of gaming computers) for an ASUS M4A78LT-M motherboard, 4GB DDR3 ram, GeForce GTX460@1GB, and an AMD Phenom II X4 465 BE, and my computer runs Crysis 2 on extreme, and even Crysis 1 with Natural Mod maxed out, flawlessly. Not posting here to brag, I'm just trying to prove a point.

When you want something nice with computers, build it yourself. You'll save yourself A LOT of money, and it's really not very difficult. You can even build laptops if mobility is an issue.

But really, figure out whatever you can do to get a warranty on that thing, get the money back, and build yourself something better for less than half the price. And do whatever you can to avoid multiple CPUs and SLI/Crossfire. They make graphic cards and multi-core processors powerful enough nowadays that there's not really any point to having more than one.

Cheers.

You're an idiot for spending almost $5000 on a laptop.

Your right

It's more than likely a crossfire bug. ATI has a new driver version coming soon, and crysis 2 is known to be less than cooperative with multi gpu setups

It seems like the crossfire isn't crossfiring and the gameplay should be a lot better than what it is currently running at. What I'm wondering is if this lack of multi-gpu support for games is a common trend or not. Bulletstorm seems to play fine on maxed settings as well as Starcraft II, Medal of Honor and Homefront. It's just Black Ops and this game that have been raising the flag and wondering about my system.

Well firstly, buying an alienware / dell is NEVER a good idea. They are overpriced as hell and unreliable, I just ordered a computer (well, the parts - im building) for exactly $2,045, and it will destroy any laptop out there. If your gaming, a laptop is NEVER worth it unless you REALLY have to be able to move a lot.

As for the performance, its rather strange. The major problems seem to be on the ATI side of things, which I really have no experience with. You should be getting more than 10fps thats for sure.

I travel frequently and this configuration at the time seemed to be top of the line for mobility. The price wasn't really the issue, I just wanted the ability to take a powerhouse on the go. Maybe it's the Mobility series of GFX chipsets and their performance output?

First of all, you're not an idiot for spending 5,000 on a laptop. I'm assuming if you spent that much, you had it to spend, so what is it to others what you got? I don't get the need to insult people constantly in forums; it's a sad statement about the poster, really.

I think what they are saying is that you could have bought a similiar machine for much cheaper from other sources (i.e. asus). But that has nothing to do with your question.

In answer to your post, I'd say nothing is wrong with the laptop per se, but I constantly hear folks with ATI cards complain about issues with games; far more than I hear complain about the nvidia cards. Now, ATI has great hardware; but the drivers are suspect, and without good drivers, the hardware is useless. I think this is your issue. If you can return the laptop, I'd do so if I were you and buy and Asus g73jw. They built the new one with a gtx 460M. You can buy two of them for what you spent on the Alienware and I suspect have the same quality. My sons have the older g73 and it's been wonderful. The ventillation is probably the best I've seen for a laptop. It will push some serious heat out the back...and that means it's not in your laptop. Now, this is a gaming laptop; battery life will svck unless you are very careful with power management; and even then it will just svck less.

That is my opinion of course. Others may disagree. But good luck getting it to play. I really love the game.

Why the hell did you pay that much for a laptop, I am not trying to be a dike but you could have got a the most epic desktop with that kind of money. My desktop from cyberpower pc is almost as good as yours, and I paid a hell of alot less than you did with a monitor. Anyway, just wait for a patch.

"5870 x2 Crossfire"

There's your problem OP. Try this program: http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=33008 and use the Multi GPU option. See how that works out for you