problem with the graphics while gaming in the inspiron 1520

I have an inspiron 1520, config: T5250, 1gb RAM, 8600M GT, 120gb hdd, 1440 x 900 screen.

I am finding few problems while gaming. Everything seems to go in slow motion, especially while playing the two thrones or warrior within, the character goes in slow motion. Frames per sec are pretty good, but the graphics is responding slowly. There is also some delay for the video. Even in low settings of nfs mw, the game is getting stuck up ocassionally. Gaming in my lappi has been not gr8 considering that it is having 8600m gt.

Is it vista, that is affecting the gaming performance or is it bcoz of the slow processor which is a bottleneck? or is it some problem with any system hardware? Hoping somebody wud give a solution to the problem.....

 

Try using 3DMark so you can get solid numbers to compare. You should definately upgrade to 2 GB of RAM if you want good performance while gaming in Vista.

 

The RAM is your bottleneck. Buy more and you will be very happy.

 

I got the same config as you but i have a T7300 processor.. my games are all 250FPS and smooth as silk.

Check you're drivers. it's a possibility that it's you're CPU. Ram might help because games are all stored in memory. But all in all.. drivers or CPU, check those before even laying 300 dollars towards ram...

 

Wow really I have that same processor and 2GB of ram and get no where near that lol don't even get that on my desktop which is pretty high end, did you mean 25FPS? and if not what games are you playing pac man? hehe

 

I agree, update your drivers, remove all your bloatware, but still, upgrade the RAM. It's only ~$80 if you want to go up to 2 GB. 4 GB can be had for ~$200 nowadays. If you're paying 300 for RAM, you're getting ripped off.

 

I play, HL2, CS-S, Doom3, W-ET, CoD..soon bioshock when I get out to buy it.
My Half-Life 2 fully cranked goes between 112 to 250 FPS, CS-S same thing. Doom3 does a good 90 or so FPS, depends how much you got going on.
Everything is at native res (1200by800), besides for doom3 on high, every game is cranked to it's max.

Just fine tune you're OS and theres all the more power going to you're games. I got vista only using 100mb of ram ideal. when it usually hods up half a GB of ram..It's a pig.. lol

Lithus, man where are you finding ram so cheap! I was looking at upgrading to 4GB cuz it's the claimed "sweet-spot" for windows vista.. and just a 2gb stick is like $240, 1Gb going for $160 (Canadian). Stupid Tiger direct and Staples and Future shop..

 

Look at the HOT! RAM Deals (prices are in USD). If you're switching over from HL2, CSS, and Doom 3 to Bioshock, you're going to be disappointed if you expect high frame rates from that game. Bioshock is very demanding and you're not going to get anywhere close to the same FPS as the other games you're playing.

 

The 8600M GT can still pump out a respectable FPS at a enjoyable resolution (1024x640) with Medium settings. But, I agree, you're not going to be able to turn everything to HIGH and expect it to run as smooth as butter as older games, unfortunately.

Anyways, here's some suggestion as to what you can do to speed up your gaming experience:
-Upgrade your drivers first and foremost! You have no idea how much problem old graphics drivers can cause in terms of performance!
-Upgrade your RAM to 2GB... This is bare minimum if you're running Vista + Aero if you want good performance.
-Uninstall all trial-ware, bloat-ware, and crap-ware. Use the De-crapifier (no joke, that's the name of the App) if you're unsure what's unnecessary in your system.
-Lastly, OC your Graphics Card if you're comfortable with it.

 

Yea.. I ain't expecting to see 200fps popin up in that meter when i start playing Bioshock.

Frankly.. if I can get it on high at native resolution.. and have 80+ FPS I shall be happy.

If I don't.. I have my ways of making it do what I want.. lol

 

Theres no way you'll get anywhere near 80 FPS in Bioshock, a 8800 GTX can barely get 70ish at 1280x1024.

 

really? wow..

we'll see when i get a copy

 

Like I stated above, you'd be able to play it on Medium settings at 1024x640 with a 8600M GT... You're not even going to be able to TOUCH the High settings unless you want to play at the awful 640 x 400 resolution (If you want a stable and playable FPS, that is).

 

First of all Thanks a lot to evryone for their helpful replies.........

Is it possible to have vista using just 100mb of RAM?!? Ixon, please explain how to achieve that..... even in the windows classic mode, it eats away above 400mb of my RAM. I haven't installed much softwares and most of them running are what came preinstalled with the system.

Everyone has suggested of upgrading the RAM, but the point is, these problems have ocured while playing relatively older games like the prince of persia 2, 3 and i know ppl playing them smoothly (i.e. without the slow motion) with 1gb ram in vista+aero, T5500 and ATI 1400. But I haven't updated my graphics card drivers yet, so there is a big possibility of that being the problem.

once again, thanks to everyone for their valuable suggestions......

 

I've gotten quiet a few PM's on that claim. It's actually easy to get a OS that usually uses 300+ mb's ram when ideal to use 100mb or less. I have had success getting xp from 332mb ideal to 80mb ideal and vista running around 446mb ideal to 107mb ideal.

This isn't hard not easy it's really tedious. and theres really no guarantee you can get it as low or lower, depends on the system configuration and what peripherals they use ect.

First off
(1) Stop, Disable useless services running in the background, there are many guides online do doing this. I find services is usually the big contributer to the issues. Goggle this or vista, www.blackviper.com which has very good guides, for speeding up Vista and optimizing services.

(2) Turn off annoying or useless GUI effects and elements. Aero itself sucks up 30 - 50 MB alone. Although it's ugly as sin, their are nice plain themes out on the net. Using classic helps.

(3) Minimize the amount of background applications running. If your tray is full of a bunch of little applications running, theres a big contributor. Even applications windows runs in the background are useless.

(4) System tweaks, they are you're friend, once you can get everything running at a minimum, such as unloading .dll's from memory, freeing space, ect.

(5) Stopping processing running at startup, at startup, vista makes a copy of the last known boot configuration, group policy, it detects IDE drives, meanwhile, new laptops don't have IDE buses. It also logs crashes, and scans the disk. And trust me that just a few things..

Even if you can't get your vista lower then 300mb or 200mb ideal memory usage, be aware you've most likely stopped a lot of little 'red balls' from bouncing by distracting that A.D.D (the attention disorder) diagnosed Processor from getting distracted from focusing on the game. Remember when you're running you're games, the processor goes back and forth focusing on w.e goes by.

Which brings me to my next tip, prioritize you're system. Basically force your processor to pay attention do you're game or w.e over anything else.

The amount of success you achieve will really vary. I've been able to optimize one system good others not so good. But the more crap you got going on, the better. Simple. Plus some tweaks, example writing logs that you opened notepad, meanwhile you're on battery and you hard drive is powered down, it's just stupid. So really, if you really get into the guts of you're os, you can save in performance and possibly increase battery life.

Just Google tweaking vista, there is many software available. just make restore points before you stick you're hands in to deep.

I'd get into details but i doubt this is the place to do it. I'll write up a guide and post it on my upcoming blog soon.

 

Triple_Dude I was wondering, where do you go to get your video drivers for your 8600M GT? I have an Inspiron 1520 with the 8600M GT and I haven't upgraded any drivers yet. To be honest, I hate updating drivers. I've had nothing but bad experiences with drivers (too many blue screens in the past for my liking). But, I really think I need to update my Nvidia drivers. Where did you get yours? Do you use laptopvideo2go.com? Which driver would you recommend as the best driver for Vista and the 8600M GT? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm not a newb, I just tend to shy away from drivers. Heck, I don't even like driving myself! XD

 

For nikhils88, I think I understand your issue. It seems as if your games are running at a fine framerate, but the animations are lagging. This sounds like a driver issue to me. Try updating to the newest version of the driver for the 8600M GT. There is also a slight chance that the RAM is to blame, but this is very slim.

For everyone, has anyone been able to run S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at a respectable framerate on the 8600M GT???

For Triple_Dude, I COULD NOT believe that there is a program actually called the "De-Crapifier"! The thought that ran through my head when I first read it had me busting out laughing! It was hard for my mind to reason that programs that people spent their time on writing would actually be referred to as "crap". I guess my reaction to this was simply, laughter. And lots of it. I kind of felt bad about laughing so much about it, but in the end, it actually IS crap!

That is, by far, the best name for any program on any platform IMHO.

XP