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Why does my Alienware Aurora underperform?

I have an Alienware Aurora R-2 and its about 4 months old now. It still has all components it shipped with and it performs admirably on most demanding games. However, I am a bit confused as to some thigns. For example, I can play Mass Effect 2 with all graphical setting bumped right up to full with no chugging or framerate drops at all. BUT, when I play a game that uses a much older graphics engine such as WoW, the game sputters to a measly 10-15 fps with everything on ultra. WoW is nowhere near as graphically demanding as Mass Effect 2 yet I cannot play it on any setting other than mid. Whats going on here? I have the recommended specs for a few games as well as the specs for my own system: WoW- CPU Recommended: Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or better You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz PASS RAM Recommended: 4 GB You Have: 6.0 GB PASS OS Recommended: Windows XP, Vista or 7 You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit PASS Video Card Recommended: Desktop: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or better (Notebook: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 200M series or better) You Have: ATI Radeon HD 5670 PASS Features: Recommended attributes of your Video Card Required You Have Video RAM 512 MB 3.7 GB Hardware T&L Yes Yes Pixel Shader version 3.0 5.0 Vertex Shader version 3.0 5.0 Mass Effect 2: CPU Recommended: 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz PASS RAM Recommended: 2 GB You Have: 6.0 GB PASS OS Recommended: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7 You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit PASS Video Card Recommended: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better You Have: ATI Radeon HD 5670 PASS Features: Recommended attributes of your Video Card Required You Have Video RAM 512 MB 3.7 GB Hardware T&L Yes Yes Pixel Shader version 3.0 5.0 Vertex Shader version 3.0 5.0 As u can see, the specs required for Mass Effect 2 are much greater than WoW, yet I can play Mass Effect no problem on all maxed graphical settings, but my comp sufferd horribly when playing WoW on any setting higher than mid. I dont get it. The same thing applies for Rift, which again is not has hard on the PC as Mass Effect 2 is and I ahve the same problem.

Public Comments

1. Actually, a radeon HD 5670 is much better than an 8800GT in term's of performance/price.

   WoW recommend's a GTS 250 yes? Well a GTS 250 is better than an 8800GT i believe. A 5670 is worse than a GTS 250, so if your getting medium setting's on WoW than thats what you should be getting.



2. The HD 5670 is... just 'OKAY'. The fact that Alienware (aka Dell) would ever sell a video card like this just boggles my mind. Even in Crossfire the HD 5670 is only a good. So basically, its nothing spectacular.

   Rift, WoW, Mass Effect 2 are by no means graphically intensive and a HD 5670 should be able run them on high. Try updating your Drivers. If Alienware didn't update them you could be running outdated drivers which aren't optimized for newer games.



3. Mass effect 2 runs like butter on my 5550, but I could see it having trouble with WoW with a full on melee/raid type thing. With updated graphics patches, WoW is pretty demanding, you can see GTX 580's only hitting 60fps with it completely maxxed with 8xAA.

   GPU buyers guide

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7eUh7BbzZ4

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG6uw0QFEFI