HELP pathetic performance from my notebook!

i have 2.2 core 2 duo, 1gb of ram, 256mb geforce 8600M GT, was running counterstrike for the first time with high settings on a small map, ran smoothly, then when low settings on a big map, it started to have lag spikes, whats the problem with this? how do i fix it?

if my system can barely run cs, how can i expect it to run cod 4?

 

Sounds more like an internet connection problem.

What kind of service do you have? Ping?

 

ping was like 40, so i doubt it was it

 

There's no reason for it to run poorly, I have a 2.0 C2D, 2 gigs of ram, and a 7900GS 256 meg card, and it runs CS:S on the max settings perfectly on any map. Your specs are not much worse than mine, so maybe it is the internet giving you some issues... try running an offline game and run around to see if you get any slowdowns.

 

Maybe reinstalling the drivers, worked for me. And like Dan said, you should be running the game maxed out.

 

Just wondering, are you using Vista or XP?

 

im using vista..

ALSO I JUST FOUND ANOTHER ISSUE.

after playing the game for maybe 30 minutes, the graphics get extremely messed up, its unplayable, and all i see are shapes and lines. it gets very, very distorted.

 

Perhaps it's a Vista thing :S Or slow internet thing.

I have 4 Gig Ram with Vista and 8700 graphics card - but it lags when I play on the net.

 

You using wireless?

 

It sounds like a problem with your graphics card to me if you're getting messed up graphics. What are the temperatures like after 30minutes when it starts to happen? You do sometimes get distorted graphics when graphics cards overheat.
If it's not that is your laptop plugged in when this happens and do you have any power saving settings switched on?

 

Try updating your drivers and open the console in Counterstrike and type net_graph 3 to show your connection stats to see if you are getting any lost packets or are being choked

 

my temp is at 52 c after playing cs for like 30 minutes, my fps in cs is around 100. thats why i dont get it, my ping is 50 even when i hardwire it directly. is it the lack of ram? i have 1gb right now, but regardless, it should be alright, right?

what driver should i install for my graphic card? what driver is the best for it without overclocking it?

i ran 3dmark basic and got like 2900..

 

You're using Vista and only have 1Gb so that's the main problem. If you're using premium and above turn off the Aero interface and the sidebar. Defrag your drives and make sure everything hardware-related is defect-free.

169.04 are the drivers apparently optimised for Crysis. I don't overclock or use benchmarks so I can't tell you if the performance is that spectacular relatively but the driver is stable and works for lots of people so download it off laptopvideo2go and see how it works.

Edit: Don't forget to set your Vista power management options to high performance when you're playing games, it won't work well when set to power saver.

 

your 3d mark score is fine

 

Yeah your main problem is defenitly RAM. You have Vista, and only 1GB...defenitly not good for gaming. Vista uses a lot of RAM, and if you want to do some hard core gaming, you need 2-4GB, preferably 4.