Curse

Kattar · Mar 31, 2008, 05:49 PM // 17:49

So,

The FPS on my laptop that I use to play at work (shhh) has been crap, basically for a long time. The main reason I can think of is that the gfx is an Nividia 6150 Go.

*waits for laughter to die down*

Today I installed the newest forceware for it, hoping that would help. It didn't. I'm still getting about 17-23 fps in Isle of the Nameless on the lowest possible settings. It's about 10-15 everywhere else on low. High is terrible.

So I figured I'd ask you guys to see if there was anything I hadn't thought of doing.

Here's the specs on my laptop:

AMD Turion 64 x2 1.6 Ghz
2 Gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6150 Go
Windows XP SP2

And it's not laggy connection-wise, it's the gfx as far as I can tell. Since my ping rate isn't high at all, I figure it's gfx.

I've done all the obvious stuff to it, and just wanted to see if there was anything I missed doing.

Thanks all,

Katsumi

EmptySkull · Mar 31, 2008, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Have you tried this?
command line parameters

add -dx8 -noshaders -fps 30

Quote:

Using command line arguments
Instead of using the command line you can execute switches directly from your Guild Wars shortcut:

Right click on your Guild Wars shortcut and select 'Properties'.
In the 'Target Area' field you will see the location of your Guild Wars executable file: "..\Guild Wars\Gw.exe"
Write the desired command line arguments after the quote marks, each separated by a space: "..\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -perf -windowed

in your case it would look like this

"..\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -dx8 -noshaders -fps 30

Kattar · Mar 31, 2008, 05:59 PM // 17:59

Gave me a few more fps, until I move that is. Max was 29 in Isle of the Nameless on lowest settings. About 14 or 15 in outposts.

Heh, I can do command line, as long as it's not Linux or Unix. Lol.

Foslock · Mar 31, 2008, 07:53 PM // 19:53

If you can't lower your settings any more, you could either try some third party drivers, or upgrade your GFX card.

If you are getting framerates that low, it would probably benefit you all around to upgrade your machine, and in your laptop's case, get a new laptop :-p

Kattar · Apr 01, 2008, 12:22 PM // 12:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foslock

If you can't lower your settings any more, you could either try some third party drivers

Did that, didn't help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foslock

it would probably benefit you all around to upgrade your machine, and in your laptop's case, get a new laptop

Thanks (not), I know that. I just wondered if there was anything obvious that I hadn't considered other wise.

Guess not, unless anyone else has any ideas?

EmptySkull · Apr 01, 2008, 12:36 PM // 12:36

I think the problem is the vid card uses shared memory. So it has no dedicated memory. Maybe in the bios you could allocate more for the vid card? If not then yeah, you're gonna need something new. If you get a laptop in the future always make sure the video card has dedicated memory.

Kattar · Apr 01, 2008, 12:47 PM // 12:47

It does have 128 MB dedicated, and since I have 2 GB in system memory it should share 128 more from the system to make it 256 MB.

But whatever, I guess I'll just deal with it for now. Thanks guys.

zamial · Apr 01, 2008, 02:02 PM // 14:02

Have you?

Right clicked my computer>properties>Advanced tab>{performance options} settings button> best performance radio button. advanced tab then allocate more virtual memory?( xtra v.mem wont be faster but it may help.)

EmptySkull · Apr 01, 2008, 02:04 PM // 14:04

O another thing you could do is run in a selective startup- shut down everything save windows and maybe you anti-virus software. That way you don't have stuff running you don't need. You can also get startup inspector and turn off crap that doesnt need to run anyway.

Kattar · Apr 01, 2008, 02:07 PM // 14:07

Virtual memory is set on 2 GB right now. Editing startup is also a good idea. Although it seems to act the same whether I have a few things open in the background or not. Internet Explorer is usually the only thing, if anything, have open.

Performance is set on Default. I'll try it with the Best Performance options to see what that does.

Blackhearted · Apr 01, 2008, 02:23 PM // 14:23

There's really no amount of tweaking that'd save this thing since it has no power to begin with. 2-pipeline chips just can't power anything these days.

Rushin Roulette · Apr 01, 2008, 02:33 PM // 14:33

OK, I have a really dumb (hopefully) Question for you.

When you updated the Vid forceware... did you completely remove the old drivers? I hope that was a dumb question... becaus eif it wasnt, then you have your answer to the lag right there.

Kattar · Apr 01, 2008, 02:49 PM // 14:49

No, I was a little afraid to completely remove the old driver, I just updated it. I wanted to option to rollback easily if it nozzed up my system.

Why would not removing the old one have anything to do with the lag?

gloserous · Apr 01, 2008, 06:07 PM // 18:07

try going to taskmgr and delete the explorer.exe task it helps a bit
when u want it back goto file new command and type explorer.exe

also delete the processes you dont need like anti-virous stuff

and as for your question the gfx card may be trying to use both of the drivers, i'v had this problem even with guildwars when i had two gw.exe in diffrentd folders it would try to use both and make it lag

Rushin Roulette · Apr 01, 2008, 07:03 PM // 19:03

Ahh, well. you just got your problem there Katsumi.

You need to completely wipe any old driver from your system before installing a new one.

Hardware conflilcts are the reason why you are having insane lag. Your computer is atempting to use 2 different drivers for the same component and is confusing itself so to say.

Download a drivercleaner (get someone else to post a good one as I dont know one offhand right now) and wipe any old vidcard drivers from your system and restart your comp (without installing the new one yet)

It will look like crap. but you then install the new drivers and when you restart again it will look normal again, but you will have gotten rid of your lag problem.

EDIT: and dont delete the Explorer,exe whatever you do... it will crash your computer.

Kattar · Apr 01, 2008, 07:21 PM // 19:21

@ gloserous - That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Please the Technician's Corner before you give anyone else bad advice. Especially since someone might listen to you.

Anyway...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rushin Roulette

Hardware conflilcts are the reason why you are having insane lag. Your computer is atempting to use 2 different drivers for the same component and is confusing itself so to say.

Graphics are the same as they were with the old driver. No change with the new driver update even though I didn't uninstall the old one. So I wonder if it will really help...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rushin Roulette

EDIT: and dont delete the Explorer,exe whatever you do... it will crash your computer.

Yeah I'm not dumb enough to do something like that. I used to do that as a prank on people. Take a screenshot and then make that their background. Then kill off explorer.exe and make them think they can't click on anyting on their desktop. Good fun.

Thanks for the warning all the same.

EDIT: Rolled back to the original driver, uninstalled it, reinstall Forceware. I get may one or two fps more than I did. Standing still. In the Isle of the Nameless. Guess I'm SOL on this laptop, eh?

Kamatsu · Apr 02, 2008, 06:25 AM // 06:25

- Defragged your HD?
- Can you dedicate more system ram to your video card?
- ran ccleaner to get rid of the rubbish? (http://www.ccleaner.com/)
- closed all unneeded windows services?
---- Here's a site with fairly full list of services, what they do, what services need what and a general guide if you need them or not:
------ http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
- tried running GW in windowed mode rather than full-screen?- or visa versa if your running in windowed mode already
- tried disabling visual themes?(right-click gw.exe, compatibility tab)
- tried disabling the sound in game?