Help Please :( Getting Notebook to Run EQ2 Nicely

I'm having problems with my current laptop and gaming. Before I start in on the issues, I should say that I already know that the video-card isn't "designed" for gaming. However, that said, I've also read in enough places that it 3Dmarks rather high and is capable of numbers around the same as the Geforce 8800M (though I imagine that's rare and with an inf tweak running Geforce drivers).

Let me preface with some background. I had purchased from Dell a Precision M6300 notebook. XPS systems were unavailable to me, the computer was to be used for gaming, and was supposed to be build to handle high-stream games. I had used the machine to smoothly run WoW and LOTRO at a high graphics quality. I was pleased with the animation, detail, and rendering. Then I tried Everquest 2. My computer couldn't handle EQ2 at all. It would stutter badly in several areas of starter zones. I was able to play my first character to level 16 before the stuttering became intolerable. Then I started to investigate why my computer that was supposed to "be able to play any game on the market," wasn't comfortably running a three year old game unless it was on a high performance/bad graphics mode. I called Dell, they saw the computer wasn't built to my desires, and eventually they sent me a replacement computer with a better graphics card. So my new system:

Precision M6300 notebook
* Processor: Intel T9300, 2.5 duo core processor
* Hard drive: 120 GB SATA hard-drive
* RAM: 4 GB DDR2 ram
* Video card: NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M graphics card
* OS: XP Pro on Service Pack 3 ​

All drivers are their current stable versions.

For reference, here is the old/returned system:

Precision M6300 notebook
* Processor: Intel T7800, 2.6 duo core processor
* Hard drive: 120 GB SATA hard-drive
* RAM: 4 GB DDR2 ram
* Video card: NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M graphics card
* OS: XP Pro on Service Pack 2 ​

Now here's my problem...

When I had my old system, Sony's technical support told me that the stuttering I was experiencing was a result of my graphics card. After a lot of research, I agreed with them. I believe upgrading to a Quadro FX 3600M card should have solved this problem. From what I've read, the card is essentially the same as a Geforce Go 8800M with different driver architecture. It 3dmark06's lower than the Geforece Go 8800M but about double that of the Quadro FX 1600M (my old graphics card).

Even if I couldn't run EQ2 at the highest graphics or even "very high quality" without a modified INF changing the driver recognition to Geforce drivers, I still think that the stuttering should be less. But it's not. Also, whereas with the Quadro FX 1600M graphics card my only real issue was stuttering, when testing the new card (or rather computer) in EQ2 last night, I was experiencing stuttering, general 3d rendering problems (things looked way too flat on the screen and then would *pop* into a 3d), the graphics seemed a bit cloudy and not crisp, and occasionally and almost undetectably (yet still noticeable), some graphic anomaly would happen. This was that the game area would sort of look undone or wavy -- as in not designed and just a mess of color -- in a half-inch line across the mid-top of the screen that would then disappear (it reminded me of an old tv set that isn't getting the picture clearly and showing translucent squares). The anomaly was so quick I wasn't sure I noticed it the first time, and had to look closely for it subsequent times, but it did happen.

So now I'm confused. My old system (albeit with stuttering) seemed to run EQ2 *better* than the current one which should, by all rights, be a better system.

I'm not really sure what the differences between these two are other than processor and video card. The video card was a substantial upgrade. Though a more CAD based card, it should be able to handle gaming and directx applications reasonably well. The new processor is 0.1 Ghz slower (T7800 @ 2.6 ghz v. T9300 @ 2.5 ghz), but, the 9300 has a larger L2 Cache, a smaller lithography, and a higher thermal capability. So they should handle similarly.

What I'm wondering is if there are some system-set up modifications that I need to make to get this to run as I think it should. If not system modifications then graphics card modifications. Something feels amiss, but more in a configuration (rather than hardware) sort of way and I'd love to fix it.

At this point, I can't really get a new computer and so I'm stuck with what I have. I'm hoping there's a way to get it all to work how I think it should.

If anyone has any good ideas, I'll love ya for them.

 

what video settings are you running in game??

Do you have any settings setup in the nvidia control panel?

Turn shadows off..completely.

Give this a go. A bit outdated, but it should still hold true.

http://eq2.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=8&meid=125

let me know if you still have problems.

what server/class?

<--- Dieuh @ AB server.. 40 bruiser

 

Hey Dieuh, thanks for the link, I've never seen that before.

Currently I'm playing an Inquisitor on Crushbone named Innuendo, previously I was playing an Illusionist on Najena. I started the inquisitor last night after logging into my illusionist and still having stuttering and graphics problems. I decided to try a different realm to see if the problem were server related rather than my computer, and also try a different class to see if it was a problem with the Fae start zone, so I made an Arasai. It didn't work out that way unfortunately.

As far as video settings go, just to see how my machine handles the game I've been using the pre-set options. I've tried it in all modes. They pretty much "feel" like this:

Extreme Quality - Not playable. This doesn't surprise me at all though.
Very High Quality - Playable, but heavy stuttering in certain areas, some low FPS. Oddly what would appear to me as more graphic intensive areas such as the void tempests don't necessarily have stuttering issues, whereas other areas with less animation or detail may stutter heavily.
High Quality - Playable but heavy stuttering in certain areas. Not much different than very high quality except higher FPS.
Balanced - Oddly worse than Very High Quality/High Quality, some hitching.
High Performance - Playable, still some stuttering, graphic quality though is depressing.
Very High Performance - Completely Playable but the graphic quality and appeal is horrible.
Extreme Performance - The same as Very High Performance​

I've also tried enabling/disabling triple buffering and vsync, but that hasn't done much.

In the forceware control panel, on my previous graphics card I had gone through every item of the advanced configurations to set them how I want. But, I haven't really messed with this computer yet because I wanted to start with a clean slate and adjust them piece by piece to this game. To be honest, I didn't notice a massive difference when adjusting the graphics cards options in the NVIDIA control panel on the FX 1600M -- slight but not massive -- and using the advanced settings versus setting the card for it's auto-options and selecting "Quality" over "Performance." The FX 3600M may be different though, I just haven't had the time to tinker with it yet.

One thing that I did last night that helped a very small bit was to set my paging file in the virtual memory to -0-. It made it slightly easier to play but still not great. That could be coincidental though, it was getting late and I'd imagine that as the online population dropped I was going to get a "slight" performance increase.

In addition to the graphics problems mentioned, one thing I also noticed last night that I forgot about was that everything in the game that had any sort of glow to it was really bright and blinding. But, while making adjustments in the games display options and my computer it either went away or I became used to it, so I didn't think much of it.

 

Hmm, I wonder if it's the workstation GPU causing issues.

 

Reading up on workstation gpu's and that specific card, I think that may be the issue. It did feel like a configuration problem whereas my last video card clearly was having a hardware problem. I guess I was hoping for a "click this button in the NVIDIA control pannel/windows" type solution. I think I'll try installing Geforce 8800GTX drivers on it tonight (since it is essentially the same card built on the G90 GPU) and hopefully that will make it run right for gaming. I've copied and pasted the specs for both cards below, before I go and tweak an inf file so the FX3600 card will run the 8000M drivers, can anyone tell me if this appears right or if they think that changing the drivers will work?

NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-8800M-GTX.8836.0.html
Series: GeForce 8000M
Pipelines: 96 - unified
Core Speed: 500 MHz
Shader Speed: 1250 MHz
Memory Speed: 800 MHz
Memory Bus Width: 256 Bit
Memory Type: GDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory: 512 MB
Shared Memory: no
DirectX: DirectX 10, Shader 4.0
Current Consumption: 35 Watt
Transistors: 754 Million
technology: 65 nm

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-FX-3600M.8834.0.html
Series: Quadro FX 3600M
Pipelines: 96 - unified
Core Speed: 500 MHz
Shader Speed: 1250 MHz
Memory Speed: 800 MHz
Memory Bus Width: 256 Bit
Memory Type: GDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory: 512 MB
Shared Memory: no
DirectX: DirectX 10, Shader 4.0
Current Consumption: 70 Watt
Transistors: 754 Million
technology: 65 nm​

 

try to look around on google for a drive mod to turn the FX 3600M in to a 8800M

 

Good idea to do google search to see if there's a program out there that will modifying it less work. I will check that out once I get home. Before I do that though, I was curious if anyone knows if changing the driver will make the card work better for gaming rather than CAD.

Also, if I can't google-hunt a program to make the driver switch one-step, I think I can download the 8800 forceware from NVIDIA's website, go to laptopvideo2go.com and get the editable INF file. Get my graphic cards device ID from the driver string under the hardware properties. Locate in the downloaded INF file my specific graphics card and the ID number, and the ID number for the 8800 card. Copy both to a notepad. Delete my card completely from the INF file searching for card name and device ID. Then search for the 8800 card by name and ID and replace the ID for the 8800 with the ID for my card everywhere it appears. After that, keep the INF on my desk-top, and completely remove my graphics card drivers including doing a registry and unused files clean-up utility. Boot the computer back on, let windows do it's plug and play action, decompress the drivers for the 8800 card to a directory, replace the pre-packaged INF file with my modified one, and then install the drivers from the set-up utility in the driver package I decompressed.

I think....

That seems about right anyway. If it's not, any ideas?