M17 performance problem on the Quad?

Me and some buddies were playing Age of Empires 2 (yes the one from 10 years ago). My M17 started acting up during a point in the game and I figured well that game is pretty old it probably just doesn't handle well on my computer. Well then I go and play Age of Empires 3 later that night. Has some ok graphics but nothing my Quad core shouldnt be able to handle. The game is almost unplayable. I quit the game and with no other application open my GPU is averaging about 30% usage. Is something wrong with my laptop or is there something I could fix? If I were to run a game like Crysis I would hate to see the disappointment in my M17 if this is truly a bad machine.

I had used the computer for about 6-7 hours that day but had turned it off for about 30 minutes prior to playing Age of Empires 3. Could my system just have been too hot?

 

hmmm.... download 3dmark06, and run it. also, use HWMonitor to check your temperatures while you do this. post the results here, we'll look from there.

 

Turn the power settings to high performance.

 

i dont think heat is his problem since playing a game like that should not require that much processing power. You should just run a couple benchmarks to make sure your comp is running the way it should and nothing is defective.

 

Use 3dmark to make sure that your scores are like it should be.

If they are ok try run the game on 1 core since it might be an issue with the game like Left 4 dead crashing when you use both cores to play ir.

 

older games aren't optimized for multiple cores and multiple GPUs, or even the new system architecture at all.

 

Very true. I'd suggest downloading 3dmark06 though as a previous user suggested just to make sure that your computer is running good overall. If it is then there might be a hardware compatibility problem with the game.

Btw I was away for the weekend but im back now.