Age of Conan and DV9500

Please help me. I have been playing Age of Conan the past few days and it has made me want to get a desktop! Well, I don't have the funds at the moment so I need a fix asap that can last me a month or so.

I started out with a really bad FPS, then I adjusted the settings to what the forums recommended and am getting 20-30 which is just not something I'm used to (used to 100+ in WoW). Also, over time I eventually just drop to 8 FPS and it doesn't move from there no matter what I do.

I also got an Out of Memory error last night (yes, it uses a ton of memory).

I'm trying to figure out what I can do with my PC to make this livable for the time being before I rip my hair out. I have experience with laptop hardware and feel comfortable doing whatever (I have changed out my LCD myself successfully for example). I just prefer the price be minimal since I want to invest all I can into a desktop when the moment comes.

My current setup is the HP Pavilion DV9500. Windows Vista 34 bit.
Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4 Ghz. (ugh, I think this is where my problem is)
Quanta 30CB Motherboard
2GB RAM (I'm not sure how to upgrade it to 4 at all since I can not find out what kind to replace it with grr!).
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS, benchmark shows as 1GB. (I think it's 512 though).
I'm not sure of the speed of the HD. This was a laptop to replace a ZD8000 in warranty that kept burning out so I'm not 100% sure of all of the specs.
17" widescreen monitor, game and general setting is 1680x1050. (looks odd any other way)

Thanks in advance!

 

At 1680x1050 I don't think you can do more.

On my 8600M GT at that resolution,

Shadows Off
Ground water reflection normal
View distance 100%
Textures High
Bloom
Grass Off
NPC View 50%

I'm getting 15-25 FPS. Change the shader model 3.0 to 2.x, you'll get like 8+ FPS

 

turn down shadows all the way and make sure particle view area is at like 49m, thats all you need, this will help alot, and play at like 1280x800, it still looks good

 

Well, even if I have water off, view distance less than 100%, and bloom off but grass on, I'm getting like 8 FPS (sometimes upwards of 30/35 like I said, I don't know why all of a sudden it just dropped like that, but before it averaged 25ish). 25 is just horrible though, to me anyways.

I have it on Shader 2.0. I notice a huge lag on the 3.0 or 2.x. It's been addressed on the forum too. Along with high detail producing better FPS than the low/medium. There's some glitch that switches it back to 3.0 for whatever reason, I checked and still with the low fps. I think I read something about the game not using the full video card which could be another problem. Pay 50$ for a crazy buggy game, go figure. I've adjusted all the in game settings to no avail, I can't get at least 40-60 FPS no matter what.

I'm not all the concerned with this particular game, it's more Warhammer in SEPT but I'll have a desktop by then if this doesn't sort itself out. I'm going from a laptop lover of 3-4 years to hater over this, cause I can't find much of an upgrade in the area of a laptop with the same amount spent on a 2.66 Intel quad core, 8800 GT SLI dual video card desktop ($1300).

 

Under video, go advanced, then texture option and the first option should be to increase system memory texture cache size, increase it and see if it helps.

 

Yep, done that already Snow. First thing I did was go to Age of Conan forums so I'm looking at the issue outside of the game settings now.

 

is your gpu overclocked

 

Uh, doubt it. Only thing odd I've done with it was install drivers posted on another laptop forum (not sure if I can mention it here).

I've been wary about any overclocking as it gets so hot as is that it makes me sweat even with the A/C blowing on me (and I've got it on a hard wood surface on my lap).

My last laptop, ZD8000, burnt out quite a few times just running WoW (granted quite many hours) then they gave me this, don't want to repeat it lol. Fried mobos something fierce.

 

try changing drivers, i'm not sure which ones are good atm, but

www.laptopvideo2go.com

 

i use 169.04 for overclocking

but for the 8600m gs i recommend 174.74

 

...Agreed Drivers can and have always had issues with the changing times...

~WiseMan

 

Find out what the best drivers are you can get, as has been mentioned. Also, your GPU and the fact that you play in high resolution are definately your problem. The 8600M GS isnt exactly a powerhouse. I havent played AoC (yet) , but I'd be VERY surprised if in fact your cpu would be the problem. Its pretty rare for the CPU to be the bottleneck in games, in fact , your CPU is pretty fast imho

 

Ok well, sorry I never updated.

The reason I have it on High is because if you read the forums you will find FPS drops with low and med. In RL testing, this is pretty accurate as far as my PC goes. I had updated drivers from that website already.

I dropped the res and all has been fine until today (it didn't make much of a difference if anyone cares, just make sure you pick the right one). Was getting like 30-35 fps on avg, I even hit 60 sometimes. New patch and now I get 7 FPS MAX all over again. I hate this game. Actually, I love the game play, but this company needs to fix this issue since it's incredibly common.

I've gone to the point of looking at 2k rigs just to play this game and it hit me today that this is crazy. I meet the recommended req's, they need to update them but not everyone has the money to run out and buy top of the line setups. I couldn't find a significantly better laptop (worth the price) and AoC does not agree with the SLI laptops anyways. I'm still debating what I want to do with my money since I get the feeling this game is not going to be around very long at the rate people are complaining about performance issues.

AoC is NOT Crysis, if the graphics were visually stunning then I could understand.

 

I think you are right. If you are satisfied with your current laptop , just stick with that. AoC might run a little better on it in time. Also , spending a huge amount of money just to play that one game is probably just a waste. Unless there are a lot of other newer games you want to play such as crysis or world in conflict I'd say it isnt really worth it.

If you are a big fan of MMO's, just wait till warhammer age of reckoning is released, its supposed to run on hardware that is slightly dated and people are pretty enthusiastic about it. It should be released in just a few months.

I've been through the same. At one point you are not satisfied with your rig, you go searching for something better, then find something thats even better, then after reading forums you want something even better still,.. and you end up almost buying a PC that is 1k over budget. Dont do it

 

That's exactly what I've done too. There was an article of how to build a new rig for AoC for under 800$. It started there. $800 is reasonable, my first computer cost more. But then I started reading forums and it still felt "dated" (even though it isn't, technically everything is dated). I almost bought the GTX 280's for example. But it hit me tonight that I really love laptops and I don't think the investment in a top of the line PC to play AoC a few hours a day is worth it. I may change my mind, I don't know. I would only be playing WoW, War, and AoC on it. If it comes on a console I'd probably go that route for this exact reason. Right now I'm itching for a new TV and recliner but can't have everything.

I do have a slight update, I installed the newest drivers, 175.19, and now I'm averaging 20 fps. Still not as good as it was. AoC did something since I had been going for so well for so long. But it's playable with 20, just sucks to know I can never end game at this rate and I'll probably cancel my sub. But I really feel this is software related cause as I said, it just isn't Crysis and I meet the rec's.

I'm looking forward to War, will probably pre-order the CE.