Gaming experiences with the GTX280 in the Alienware m15x
The main page for the m15x can be found here, this page outlines the first hand experiences of one of our costumers.
By Alex Stocksmeier
Since my warranty of my m15x ran out in December, I went ahead and bought a GeForce GTX 280M from mxm-upgrade.com which replaced my original GeForce 9800M GT.
At first my gaming rig:
Alienware m15x 15,4" @ 1920x1200
Intel Core2Duo T9300 2x 2,5 GHz @ 2,5 GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM @ 667 Mhz
Intel Postville G2 160GB SSD
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M
I did not have any problems removing the old video card, though you should clean your heatsink and your fan before installing a new one.
When I installed the new video card I tried a few drivers from laptopvideo2go and their dox drivers. None of them seemed to work. They either sent some error codes, that the driver is not working correctly or the computer ended up having a bluescreen while I restarted it. mxm-upgrade.com then sent me a driver which didn't cause any trouble at all.
Temperatures @ idle for 20 minutes(Not in Stealth-Mode)
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Temperatures while running Ati Tool "Scanning for Artifacts" for about 8 minutes
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Temperatures while running Furmark + Furmark Config
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I know you can't see anything on that picture because of my 1920x1200 resolution, but be advised that Furmark goes pretty hard on the GTX 280M in the Alienware m15x. The temperature climbed in a few seconds to 98°C(!) and I didn't go any further. I'm pretty sure that running this program will get your video card over 100°C in a few seconds like it got mine to 98°C.
Temperatures @ Mass Effect 2(played 30 mins) with max. settings + average FPS
Config: 1920x1200, High Quality Bloom: On; Film Grain: On; Motion Blur: On; Dynamic Shadows: On; Light Environment Shadows: On; Number of Cinematic Lights: 3(highest); Use Spherical Harmonic Lightning: On; Anisotropic Filtering: 16x;
Average FPS: 40-60
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Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 FPS @ Max. Settings
I know that CoD MW2 is not a game which uses your video card very much, since it's still the Call of Duty 2 engine, but I'm gonna give you two screenshots showing the FPS anyway. Temperatur was the same as in the Mass Effect 2 Screenshot, that's why I didn't shot another one.
Config: 1920x1200, 4x Anti Aliasing and everything else turned on except "Synch every Frame"
Average FPS: 40-50
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And now the most interesting part, I guess:
How good does Crysis work with the GTX 280M in the AW m15x?
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This is the config I can play with. I had to put down the Shader Quality from High to Medium, because Crysis was lagging a bit(Around 20-25 fps). Right now it's running with 30-40 fps.
The only problem: The video card is getting a bit too hot with those settings I used. I checked the temperature from time to time and it always was above 90°C. At the beginning, where you're surrounded by a lot of water, the video card was at 97°C. If you really wanna play any game using the CryEngine with the settings I used, get a cooling pad which you put under the laptop(I just ordered the Zalman ZM1500B for my AW m15x). This is the only game I experienced really high temperatures. Any other game like Mass Effect 2, Supreme Commander Forged Alliance and CoD MW2 worked perfectly. I must say that the GTX280M was really worth buying and I'm glad that I upgraded my computer. Thanks a lot mxm-upgrade! :)
