Ostriig on 6/2/2009 at 01:25
Quote Posted by Aja
hmm, this plan is not working
Erm... why, what's wrong?
Aja on 6/2/2009 at 01:36
Um, well, the "demo" I'm trying to download is going very slowly. I might just risk buying it. I have a feeling it'll run well.
Ostriig on 6/2/2009 at 02:06
Ah, point. At least if we're looking at the same "demo" listings, I can see why, especially given the size. It'll probably run well enough, given your previous experiences with UE3 games, but if you've got other things to play in the meantime, if might be worth trying before buying if you're very specific about the settings you want to run it on.
Aja on 7/2/2009 at 06:43
Well, it doesn't run as smoothly as I'd hoped. Outside combat, the game looks and runs great. But as soon as a few enemies hit the screen, the framerate starts dropping below 20 and it gets, while not exactly unplayable, unpleasant.
I could turn down the settings, but then the game loses a lot of its atmosphere.
EvaUnit02 on 7/2/2009 at 07:36
Welcome to laptop gaming. Closed hardware platforms suck without optimised software, eh? Portability and PC gaming rarely mix. Gaming grade laptops (or "mobile desktops") aren't exactly portable, kinda defeating the purpose of buying a laptop in the first place.
But seriously, turn off V-sync if you have it on. If you have 512MB VRAM, then install Rivatuner and run DXOverrider, which forces triple buffering in D3D rendered titles.
Aja on 7/2/2009 at 08:28
Eh, I didn't really buy the thing for gaming. It runs STALKER just fine, and Bioshock, and Half Life 2, and Thief. Everything else I can play on a console, or else is an indie game that requires no power. No idea how much V-RAM I have, though. I'm thinking 256, though it might be one of those things where it can draw from the system ram (of which I have 4GB, so it shouldn't be a problem).
Ostriig on 7/2/2009 at 15:47
Quote Posted by Aja
Well, it doesn't run as smoothly as I'd hoped. Outside combat, the game looks and runs great. But as soon as a few enemies hit the screen, the framerate starts dropping below 20 and it gets, while not exactly unplayable, unpleasant.
Have you tried some of the tweaks in that article? Depending on the game, it can make a notable difference. For instance, Oblivion can get a solid performance boost when those suggestions are implemented, though it is less spectacular a difference with Fallout 3, where some of those optimizations have already been set in by the devs themselves. Oh, and as Eva mentioned, V-Sync is the first thing to go.
Regarding shared system memory, you can't really rely on it for gaming purposes, it's mostly just the candy that laptop makers use to lure customers into the back of the van. General rule of the thumb, it's your dedicated VRAM that you can rely on and that's it.
P.S. Oh, and if you're running Vista with an nVidia graphics chip, SP1 is a must. Over time, Microsoft rolled out three hotfixes for the OS to address some issues with nVidia graphics efficiency, patches which were later included into SP1.
Aja on 8/2/2009 at 03:16
Right now I'm running Windows 7. I tried Eva's DXOverclocking suggestion, and it made a noticeable difference in Mass Effect. Then Mirror's Edge starting running horribly. Then I defragmented and Mirror's Edge is back to normal, and I haven't re-tested Mass Effect because I suddenly remembered why I stopped playing PC games.
But a question anyway: does DX Overclocker require a restart? After I shut it off it didn't seem to return to normal -- I can't really tell if it's doing what it's supposed to some of the time.
EvaUnit02 on 8/2/2009 at 05:34
Quote Posted by Aja
But a question anyway: does DX Overclocker require a restart? After I shut it off it didn't seem to return to normal -- I can't really tell if it's doing what it's supposed to some of the time.
DXOverrider should only have an effect if its running, under XP anyway. Vista's/W7's DX10/11 might've changed things and I'm not too familiar with either OS (I only started using Vista last week); but I highly doubt it.
Triple buffering can overload your VRAM and negatively affect performance. This is true of more power-hungry newer games.
P.S. You can find out the specifications of your card with (
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/) GPU-Z. I really don't recommend forcing triple buffer whilst having v-sync off if you have any less than 512MB VRAM. Triple buffering is normally used to counter-act the performance hit incurred by having V-sync on.
Sulphur on 8/2/2009 at 07:26
Quote Posted by Aja
Right now I'm running Windows 7. I tried Eva's DXOverclocking suggestion, and it made a noticeable difference in Mass Effect. Then Mirror's Edge starting running horribly. Then I defragmented and Mirror's Edge is back to normal, and I haven't re-tested Mass Effect because I suddenly remembered why I stopped playing PC games.
Hey, that's the best part about PC games. It's all about the foreplay.
Anyhow, try seeing if it's any one particular setting that's bringing the game's performance down. You're not using Anisotropic filtering, I hope.
