Getting a few extra FPS?

Alright, I have a Thinkpad e520 with 6630m and i5 2410m. I play various games (Men of War Assault Squad, Skyrim, Napoleon Total War) on an external monitor and while I'm fine with around 10 FPS for each, I'd like to see if I could do something to improve that.

Since I keep CPU Z and GPU Z on my laptop's screen while I play, I noticed that the temperatures of the GPU and CPU are around 70, which seems fine to me. Maybe I could overclock the GPU and CPU if I bought some type of cooler or cleaned my fans?

Also, I have 4 GB of RAM at 670mhz, might upgrading that help?

 

you can overclock your GPU. use Sapphire TriXX.

 

what's the resolution of external monitor, probably you are playing on too high res to look good, honestly things will look similar on your lappy screen with lower res and you will gain a lot of fps happy gaming! total war is crazy

 

You have enough RAM.

 

Seems awfully bad for a 6630M.. although the RAM is enough, but it's just DDR2, which is slow.

 

I'm using a 1920x1200 monitor, so that is the reason for the low FPS (other then on Napoleon, which is also low on my 1366x768 screen, Skyrim and Assault Squad both run at 30 FPS otherwise). I'll try overclocking my GPU.

Also, would putting my computer on a stand and putting ice gel packs under it help temperatures? Or would it be useless or even damage my computer?

And the RAM is DDR3, according to CPU Z. What kind of improvement would I expect from upgrading to say, 1300mHz?

 

Ah yes, that GPU is really meant for running at 720p or 1366x768 resolution for the most part. You can't upgrade the GPU RAM, it's soldered to the motherboard. The RAM you're referring to is the system RAM. If you were using the intgrated GPU (part of the CPU) then it would help, but in this case, no it will not.

 

I meant if I would see any difference in general performance from upgrading the system ram, mostly in running multiple applications such as GIMP, Excel, Word and Firefox with a couple of tabs at the same time.

 

More RAM might help depending on your useage. Although 4GB is more than enough for most users. After using your laptop in your typical "heavy usage" sceanrio, press CTRL-Shift-Esc, click "performance" tab and see amount of RAM used. If it's less than 3GB I'd say there's no need. But also keep in mind that if you have 2-3GB of stuff open, and are playing games, then it might push it over your 4GB RAM, then it may help.