Important note for computers with integrated and nvidia cards

As I like to consider myself at least somewhat computer literate this is embarrassing for me to post, but I figured I should just in case anyone else has also run into this issue.

Way back when Ark held its first event, I was the lucky winner of an Alienware M11x R1 laptop. Its been a pretty nice laptop so far, though I don't use it too often as my desktop is usually within reach. However, its always been a bit sluggish when playing games. It struck me as a bit odd, but I just chalked it up to maybe being a lower end model/games advancing too fast/entropia being horribly optimized/etc.

Well tonight was the right mix of distance away from the desktop, frustration and boredom. Nvidia apparently pulls an interesting little trick when a computer has both an integrated gfx and a separate nvidia card. It will decide on its own what process gets what processor. It also just so happens to pick the integrated card for nearly everything.

I followed this simple video:

[video=youtube_share;lFBWXUTnKfM]http://youtu.be/lFBWXUTnKfM[/video]

and bam, the computer suddenly works :huh: Who would a thought entropia.exe would need to run on the nvidia instead of the integrated processor :whistle:

I hope this helps others that may have also won/purchased the other alienware or similar computers. Perforamce after this little fix is stunningly better.

 

Snape it's not the model of Alienware so much as the model of graphics card. If you use Nvidia then its worth checking your set up as you will probably also have on-board graphics. I have an AMD Radeon HD 7970M in my M18X so there are different issues to look at. I haven't bothered cos the performance is kinda awesome compared to my last machine.

 

Checked my new/old x51 this morning even though it runs on high/very high it was running usuing integrated graphics.
i swapped it to nvidia and will check tonight when i get home from work to test difference.