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XPS M170...Any gaming Issues so far?

post #1 of 11
4/8/06 at 8:43pm
Thread Starter 
Howdy all

Just pulled the trigger on that world-famous $1369 deal but at CNET, some people are reporting freezing issues when gaming . And also, one guy tried to install the NVidia drivers and apparently, he could not as it appears Dell uses their own custom drivers for the 7800XT.

Now everybody knows the Dell video drivers would not be optimized for gaming anyway so is it even possible to use third-party drivers at all? Im a console gamer right now and will run Oblivion, GR, FEAR on the lappie when I get it.

Also, are there any Oblivion owners who are able to run this game at the native res with decent frame-rates while not sacrificing major grahical loss. My 360 is running Oblivion at fixed 30 fps with 'max' settings at 720p on my HDTV, so if I can get similar results on the lappie, that would be a dream come true.

So for people who've had the XPS for a while, did it really live up to your 'gaming' expectations/needs?

Thanks
S
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post #2 of 11
4/8/06 at 8:48pm
running oblivion at 1900x? (whatever, not on lappy atm), it gets 25fps outdoor which is pretty good imo. details are all medium


runs WoW at 1900 with everything on the Highest possible settings with 55-60 fps.


don't worry, your XPS with run fine, just reinstall windows when it arrives.
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post #3 of 11
4/8/06 at 9:08pm
I have not heard of any major problems with the M170. I would reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows once you get it. Then install some newer, non-Dell drivers.
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post #4 of 11
4/8/06 at 9:17pm
Thread Starter 
Hows FEAR or GR by the way?......pretty decent frame-rates??

Thx again
S
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post #5 of 11
4/8/06 at 10:20pm
been playin COD2 on it for the past 4hrs..no hickups at all!!
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post #6 of 11
4/8/06 at 10:28pm
sometimes when im playing a game and i alt tab back into it, css for example the screen might so weird and have staticy colors and lines and there is nothing to do but rebot the laptop, does this have to do with ovreheating of the video card? this has been my only problem.
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post #7 of 11
4/8/06 at 10:40pm
Thread Starter 
Another ques without starting another thread........which should be better for gaming?

-A scaled-down res (i.e.1680X1050) with max settings
- Or native res (1920X1250) with low settings??

This is what I don't understand with Dell....they know running games at native res would ideally require dual-core plus a SLI setup and yet, they preferred not to offer it and still tag the M170 as a "Gaming Laptop". They could also have reduced the native res down to maybe 1680X1050 so that way, it would take less toll on the hardware :-(.

Thx
S
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post #8 of 11
4/8/06 at 10:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SSingh1975
Another ques without starting another thread........which should be better for gaming?

-A scaled-down res (i.e.1680X1050) with max settings
- Or native res (1920X1250) with low settings??

This is what I don't understand with Dell....they know running games at native res would ideally require dual-core plus a SLI setup and yet, they preferred not to offer it. They could also have reduced the native res down to maybe 1680X1050 so that way, it would take less toll on the hardware :-(.

Thx
S
Me personally I'd go with the scaled down resolution with higher settings, me myself I like games at 1280x800 or 1280x720 so even 1680x1050 is too much for me.
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post #9 of 11
4/8/06 at 11:34pm
I have no problems running all my games at native res, this includes FEAR, BF2, COD2, Oblivion, Q4, AoE3, SC: Chaos Theory, Far Cry, Fable, etc.

I love the sharpness of details and perfect contrast you get with native res, and for all those games listed you should be able to run native res without too much tweaking.

For Oblivion I have ultra quality settings, about 50% on most of the sliders, and in the INI I changed iMinGrassSize=80 to 120. Also got the "shorter grass" mod. Grass is really the big video card killer because of the insane density it has at default settings. With these tweaks its a little less dense which has the combined effects of increased FPS and ability to see in the grass, no more losing items in there or being attacked by wolves you can't even see cause of the grass, lol

I'm also OC'd to 450/1300 which is substantial but not extreme.
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post #10 of 11
4/9/06 at 2:07am
Your XPS 170 will rock. Its whisper quiet, packs a huge punch and is still moblie
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post #11 of 11
4/9/06 at 4:55am
You're wrong abotu the M170....We're all enjoying our games at native res at high settings. I love Oblivion on high with HDR and AF at 1920x1200, along with every other game I own. I have yet to come across a game that needed to be taken off of native res of significantly turned down to the point of noticing.

If you're expecting as little as it sounds you are, you'll be surprised.
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