Anybody tried "GameBooster"?

Iobit's Game Booster

From the site:

Wonder if it really makes a difference? Sure sounds like it could, and the price sure is right.

 

I tried a program called Gamegain, but only the trial version, but it worked a bit so the real one might be good

 

I tried it before and didn't notice any difference..

 

no difference

 

This is probably useful for people who run a ton of processes in the background because of bloatware and such. If you've cleaned up your Windows installation and have a decent amount of RAM, it's unlikely to do you much good.

 

just set the level to high in process manager, it boosts performance quite a bit if the game is lagging badly processor-wise.

 

Not sure if it helps or does anything at all but I still run it when I game.

 

That is just money making business with no single advantage while gaming. I already lost 40$ on that stupid software.

 

Isn't it freeware? I downloaded mine from them for free...

 

how do you do this?

 

I doubt it'll work.

The only time you'll feel a difference is when you upgrade your actual hardware.

 

Hit Alt-Tab while gaming, or WinKey+D, or Ctrl-Alt-Del to start task Manager, find your game .exe, right click on it and set priority to high. I believe that's what he was thinking of. Also you can check the Set Affinity if it's not already on both CPUs.

 

oh, interesting, I didn't even realize.

What if I set to realtime?

Or anyway to get some programs to save as 'high'?

 

That's not really that great an idea.
If the game crashes or stalls for some reason, your computer will hang.

Best leave processor management up to the os.
If the game is lagging in such a fasion that requires you to do this, then you have too many applications/processes running, sucking up resources.

Stopping those would be a much better way to increase performance.

 

I found a program to lock processes in as 'high': http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives...s-priority-in-windows-task-manager-with-prio/

but yeah, it's probably best to just use msconfig to gt rid of what's not needed.

 

Putting processes with a higher priority doesn't help performance, and in fact it can cause system instability, BSODs, and keyboard/mouse lockups if the processor is ever loaded 100%. Essentially what your telling the PC to do is put a higher priority of CPU usage towards a single process, and divert it from other system critical processes that control all aspects of the PC.

Also, the reason why these "game booster" apps don't work, is because they temporarily disable processes that are already using 0.0xx% of your CPU power, and about 1MB-3MB of ram on average, it's very insignificant, and the difference disabling these causes is pretty much non-existent.

The only true things you can do to boost performance is disable things that are currently using a chunk of your system performance, such as anti virus apps which constantly scan your hard drive and make EVERYTHING slower, and make sure to defrag routinely.

 

err unknown that doesnt make sense.. I always run my games in high if i think about it,and it prevents any program in the background which might be doing activity, to make the game run slower because windows focus more on the process set to high priority.

 

Waste of money.

 

I appreciate all the comments.

I suspect some folks may actually notice a difference while others will not since we all have such varied system setups.

Perhaps those with 1 G RAM will notice a difference while those with 4 G RAM will not, for example.

"Free" is a waste of money?

Now that I do not understand.

 

There are other game optimizer softwares too which costs 30+$. As I said before, I lost 40$ for nothing.

 

Maybe, but I think you are better off saving the cash for a hardware upgrade instead of a software solution that wont do much anyway. Assuming you are buying one of the paid programs. If it's a freebie.. go for it. I use to always try to do major tweaks on my slower systems... but it gets to a point where you end up just wasting your time and causing other problems to pop up.

 

I have vista and by enabling this it stops those "... has stopped working" errors.

 

Yes, this program, "GameBooster" is free.

 

Look here if you want a program to start at high always http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-7638-Start-programs-in-high-priority.html

 

Ah, I misunderstood. I thought it was a free trial or something.

 

Everything that is free has low quality. The developers are not that dumb to sell their program for free unless it is worthless.

 

OpenOffice . . . Several anti-virus programs . . . I think this is a little bit of an over-generalization

 

I agree - not only an over-generalization but a completely incorrect one that somewhat demonstrates a lack of knowledge.

Some might even remember that Microsoft's Outlook (I believe it was Outlook 98) was at one time a free download and at the time was one of the best free programs ever offered.

Besides OpenOffice and programs like AVG, AVast! and others, there are also Google's Picasa (now version 3), IrfanView, Paint.Net and no doubt hundreds of other programs that are free and are very high quality.

On the other hand, some free programs are not worth what one pays for them, so it does make sense to do a little research before downloading something. Especially when some are not only garbage but are designed as some form of spyware/malware.

 

I don't really get that either, the browser I'm using right now was free, FireFox, WinAmp was free, pretty much 99% of overclocking and monitoring tools that increase performance are free. Heck there's thousands of programs on download.com that do a lot of really helpful things and most of them are free. Also if you stick to downloading from trusted sites that only host files that are known to not contain malware or viruses, like download.com, or guru3d.com etc. then you won't ever have to worry about installing garbage software.

 

I agree in all other softwares but in the case of Game Booster, it is nothing but waste of 10 mb hard disk space.

 

First you kept quoting that it was a waste of your money and now you're saying it's crap cause it's free.

Have you even really tried it? I have it and it does as it claims for games and benchmarks.

Instead of flaming for the sake of flaming maybe ya might want to consider bringing something more useful to the table.

It's far quicker than manually turning off unneeded apps. As soon as you're done ya just click a button to return to normal mode.

And FYI it's not 10 mb, it's 1.52 Mb after installation.

 

I am not going specifically on the size of that file. Try googling and you will find that Game booster is not the only the software.There are other paid software which is around the size of file I mentioned. Also you can try seeing benchmarks, there is nothing special scoring with the game optimizer turned on and off. Either you pay or get it free, it will not make any significant difference in gaming.

 

I wouldn't know what I'm talking about with the other products as I've never used them.

I don't need to "try googling" as you put it since the topic being discussed in this thread is GameBooster!

I didn't say Game booster made a significant difference. But it does make a difference. Everyones results will vary depending on how much they have running in the background.

I don't have much running in the background but GB is still good for a few more frames per second. Also gives me a couple hundred more on 3dmark06.

IMAO, thats not bad for free.

You didn't answer my last post. Have you even tried GameBooster? :confused2:

 

I agree, and thank you for that info.

I suspect, as previously mentioned, that folks with 1 or 2 G RAM may notice a little more difference than someone with 4 G RAM. Same thing with CPU's - the slower ones may show more of an improvement in games than faster ones. Of course, the number of processes we each have running are no doubt different, so those with certain ones or higher numbers of processes running in background may also see a bigger difference than someone who already has a "lean and mean" setup.

FWIW - I also have multiple users on my system. One is "Gamer" (for non-online games) where I am not running an Anti-Spyware or Anti-Virus or firewall program, as well as not running a lot of other background processes, leaving most of the CPU power for gaming.

 

Just look at your processes... I have never seen my cpu over 1 or 2% and my ram is never eaten up, this program is not going to do anything for me.

If you on some old turion machine or a P4 with 1gb of ram a metric ton of crap running on your machine, yeah it may help you. However with any semi new machine and proper care of your system not letting bloatware infest your system a program like this is totally useless and seeks to do more harm than good.

 

This program may not do anything for you ViciousXUSMC.

My system is by no means "old" it's the M17 in my sig. I have zero bloatware, or infestations and keep up to date with AVG anti-virus and Spybot Search and Destroy. I assure you my machine gets proper care.

Why would you give an opinion about a program that you don't have any first hand knowledge of? You said, "a program like this is totally useless and seeks to do more harm than good." If you had tried this program I'd say great, could you give an example of how GameBooster seeks to do more harm than good?

I have and use GameBooster and for me it seem, to work as claimed and it has never caused harm to my computer or software.

When you open GB, there is a list of common unnecessay things that run in the background and it gives you the option to uncheck any of them if you want. For me, this is the list:

Application Layer Gateway Service
Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Service
Computer Browser
Cryptographic Service
COM + Event System
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Help and Support
HTTP SSL
IPSEC Services
Logical Disc Manager
TCP/IP Net BIOS
Network Location Awareness (NLA)
Print Spooler
Protected Storage
Remote Registry
Secondary Logon
Server
Shell Hardware Detection
SSDP Discovery Service

Next, when you click the "switch to gaming mode" button, a second window opens and allows you to check any additional programs you want to shut off.

In my case this includes:

Brother Printer Suite
Logitech Communications Helper
AVG Antivirus Tray
Object Dock

In the case of this second additional window, you just press continue or skip.

When you are done gaming or benchmarking you just click "return to normal mode"

So while it seems that I'm the only person discussing GB (the object of this thread) with first hand knowledge of this product and currently use it, I'm sure you can understand why I would respect your comments much more if you too had actually tried GB. Without any experience with Gb, how could you possibly say it's useless and seeks to do more harm than good. Maybe other boosting programs do this but I won't comment on them since I don't knowanything about them.

My experience with GB has been a positive one and greatly simplifies the process of shutting down unnecessary processes for the purpose of enhancing the gaming experience. Obviously results will vary.

To those interested in giving GameBooster a try I think you will be pleased. If it doesn't make adifference for you then you've lost nothing.

 

Yeah, I can tell by your posts, you mean the one you said you paid $40 for?

By thay rational it seems like you would'nt believe in extra cooling, overclocking or anything that will optomize performance other than a nice GPU ant best forceware?

 

I did try this software last time it was posted, also tried the Asus version of it, both of them didnt do anything for me in games.

Of course if I am already at 200fps why do I need more

Seriously though I shouldnt be an exception anybody that has a decent machine and keeps it clean should be in the same standing.

 

200fps,very impressive! What game/settings? Is that on a laptop or a desktop? lol

On my M17 I average about 33fps playing Crysis with everything maxed except for shadows which are only set to high. Maybe it's easier to notice the difference on a laptop.

Granted, the difference isn't significant, but it doesn't cause any harm to a computer.

 

Pretty much any game and my laptop & desktop are about even except the laptop has a slower cpu so more cpu bound when you get into very high fps.

Crysis is the exception, as you know since you have 3870's crossfire doesnt work too well with Crysis, and its a very poorly coded game. DX9 its very good like in the 50's but DX10 drags it down to low 30s with all settings maxed.

quick specs

Desktop

Q6600 @ 3.6ghz
4gb ram @ DDR2 914 4-4-4-12
2x 4850 in crossfire

Laptop

Q9000 @ 2.7ghz
6gb ram @ DDR 940ish 4-4-4-15
2x 4870m in crossfire

I have to use vsync or I get crazy high fps and my room turns into a sauna from all the hardware power. Oh GTA4 is also another game I dont get insane fps in but I get in the 50s witch is really good.

My guess is this program has much less effect on a quad core, as most games are dual core, my other 2 cores are easily handling any of those tasks your turning off, and my ram is never saturated while gaming, the gpu ram is more important.

 

I just tried out GB: it works beautifully.

Far Cry 2

Before GB: I was running it at 1024x768, mostly medium/low specs and still getting playable although poor frames.

After GB: Bumped up to 1440x900, settings between Ultra High, Very High and a few Medium. It ran without a stutter.

Granted these results would be less noticeable for those more tech savvy among us, but I'll admit that I'm not the best at knowing which processes I can kill at any given time for a boost.


Regardless; I noticed a significant and extremely easy way to boost my performance with this nifty little program. I don't have time for it now, but over the weekend I may put together a more comprehensive comparison with and without GB; full game display specs; and various games of differing technical difficulty.

 

Glad to hear it worked well for you Sentient 6!

Yeah Vicious, I should try DX9 and watch the fps go up. Plus I've heard the ATI 3870's are very CPU dependent as well so I'm glad I didn't get one of the base processors. At least the 33 or so fps I'm getting is smooth as silk. I see you've got the W90, nice. I can't wait to get a pair of the 4870's for mine. Rumor has it that the 4870's A.W. is working on will have DDR5. Don't know if it will make any significant difference though.

 

I opened a thread on this games booster at the beginning of March, It was integrated into ASC at that time.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=358240

 

Good to hear that it made a difference for you, Sentient 6.

The above Quad Core comment was something I was going to mention when I got back to this thread, too.

Many newer games will take advantage of 2 cores, but really don't do much different with a quad core. So, it makes sense that if the OS is doing it's job, the game will get most of 2 cores and any other processes will run in the remaining 2 cores - meaning GameBooster won't really do much for them other than maybe free up some RAM.

I'm running Game Booster on my notebook (in Sig) but am not really seeing much of a difference. I haven't "Frapped" it, yet, so maybe I'm getting a FPS increase that I don't notice. Also, as I've mentioned, I run it as user "Gamer" and have many of the background programs already limited, meaning my system is already not running a lot of excess stuff.

Still, I see many of the same services as Rob41, so it is probably doing something.

I say try it - if it doesn't seem to make a difference then uninstall it and you're no worse for wear. On the other hand, if it helps you run a game that you couldn't run acceptably before - don't worry, be happy.

 

Ah, I obviously hadn't seen that or I would have posted in that thread.

According to the IObit website, Game Booster 1.0 Final was released April 20, so being so new I thought it might be worth discussing.

I haven't downloaded ASC (Advanced System Care Free Version 3.0), so am not sure if Game Booster remains part of it or not.

 

Not a problem i will just ask a mod to move your 5 page thead onto the end of my 2 page one LOL

 

Are we getting paid by the lenght of our threads?

 

Yup. Thats correct. I done want to mess with my gpus and cpus by overclocking it and producing more heat. But thats you, using game booster in
integrated gpus and beating the 3dmark of 98m.

 

Oh yeah if you get GDDR5 and its clocked properly (not throttled down for heat reasons) it will be maybe as much as 30% faster. However based on my testing with the W90 it will be hard to extract that speed unless you have a VERY fast cpu to go with it. Most people that have used my modified bios and overclocked there cards told me it didnt work. Until I tell them to go run something like Vantage High/Extreme where the gpu is under high strian and the cpu is not. Then the boost was very clear.

Ram always has made more of a difference than core speed on mobile gpu, if you overclock you core & ram separately and run some benchmarks you can see that really easily.

Run a test like Vantage Extreme so that way you put max load on the gpu and the least amount of load on the cpu, and then look at only the gpu scores.