Horrible Gaming Experience with 8600m GT

Hello guys

I got an Inspiron 1520 few weeks back with 8600m GT (256 MB video mem GDDR2). I tried to play Oblivion GOTY on this machine and the performance is really horrible, even worse than my 6600 GT on the desktop.

Here are my machine's specs

Intel Core 2 duo 1.8 GHz
2 GB RAM
5400 rpm 160 GB sata HDD
8600m GT w/ 256 MB vram GDDR2
OS - Vista 32 bit Home premium

I am currently using 163.69 drivers from laptop2govideo, and gaming is really horrible. I tried all the settings possible in Oblivion ( I dint configure the .ini file though). I also tried removing HDR or blooming, reduced the grass and water effects, shadows etc, but no improvement. I even tried playing the game in ultra low settings and still its framing!!

Is it something to do with vista or is Oblivion a badly coded game? (which I doubt coz it was working fine on my desktop). I tried running the game in compatibility mode, still no use. The problem is the game frames all the time, indoors or outdoors and at all settings, ultra low or high (dint try Ultra High), same at 640x480 or 1440x900. Should I use another version of drivers?

I also had problem while playing Prince of Persia Warrior Within, played flawlessly on my desktop, but i cant play it at native resolution on the laptop (it frames now and then) and its an old game, same problem with Fifa '07.

I saw that no one with the same gcard and same specs had similar problem, and the 8600m GT screenshots thread really made me jealous of those guys who are enjoying beautiful games w/o probs. I'd be grateful if anyone can help me with this problem, coz I was really looking forward to decent gaming on this machine.Thanks in advance..

 

make sure that yours notebook is plugged to current
also remmember to download the latest patches...

If u use search at the top you may notice that there are people with simillar problems.

 

wolfraider is correct

if the laptop is on batteries, the gpu will be clocked down unless specified

either change your gpu settings to max performance all the time or plug it in the wall

see if that helps

 

Ya I used the latest patches for the game, v1.2.0416 and same for Shivering isles, and i keep the notebook plugged all the time, with high performance setting instead of power saving mode. The system requirements website shows that my system has recommended settings or higher for playing this game.

I searched these forums and found to my surprise that this card is more than capable of playing this game at medium/high settings. I cant even play at ultra low settings w/o framing!

 

Read the 8600M GT Stuttering Fixes thread. May solve your problem.

 

Yeah, if you optimize the game and card and it still stutters then maybe you should send the laptop back. I have a DDR3 version and I run at 1280x800 on ultra high and someone else (odin, I think) runs it on his DDR2, same settings but with XP and it runs fine too.

 

Actually Oblivion is the only game I can't get the stuttering gone. I even experienced stuttering in Morrowind but the fixes I mentioned removed even those. Oblivion however is resistant to my countless attempts to FIX IT!

Uzum I'm sorry to say that I actually gave up on Oblivion. Most people have said that setting the prerender limit from 3 to 2 completely got rid of their stuttering. It didn't work for me though. But, I can play any other game I want with no problems. I played over 30 hours on the Quake Wars demo with High Settings and 1280x800 resolution with a constant fps of 28-31. Yes I know it's pathetic that I spent 30 hours playing a demo but it's a FUN GAME!

 

I would get rid of all the Dell bloatware if you haven't already.
I would optimize vista if you haven't already, I seen a big increase in performance once I did that. (see the OS forum.)
As people have mentioned, latest drivers for the hardware.

 

Thanks for those replies


@odin
We seem to experience the same probs here. Do u think it is due to the coding in the game or some fault with gcard? Can you please explain the prerender limit and how to change it?


@cinner
I read that post on Stuttering Fixes and it was a great thread. I did most of the stuff mentioned in that thread already before posting this thread. I used RivaTuner and TuneXp, played with the options in them but still the game is framing. However FEAR Combat plays really good on my laptop, only frames at maximum settings, but plays fine on high settings on any map at native resolution.

 

Many people blame Oblivions poor performance on the computer on bad coding, so I'm sure that is a part of the problem, but given that other people have been playing it using the same graphics card as you and are able to play it with out the problems you are experiencing I would suspect your problem is related to a software program or setting on your system.

From a hardware standpoint your system is just barely off in categories that have been noted to boost performance in Oblivion. Users who have upgraded cpus to 2.0+ ghz have noticed a performance boot. People have noted upgrading RAM from 2 to 3 or 4 gb have noticed an increase in performance. Finally people who have upgraded their hard drives from 5400 to a 7x00 drive have noted faster initial loading and faster loading when turning outdoors.
Given all of that you can still obtain decent performance with the hardware you have.

Do you have the latest Vista patches installed? I have read other posts stating that people who had problems in both the games you mentioned were able to correct it after installing the patches.

Here is a tweak guide to Oblivion that may help you:
http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

You should get performance better than the first post here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=152628

Wu Jen has a stronger system than you, but his post shows how much of a difference tweaking (including the ini file) can make:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=45637&page=141&highlight=the+elder+scrolls

 

The prerender limit is discussed in my guide. I have come to the conclusion thanks to several people on this forum that our frame skip issue in Oblivion is due to the game itself. As you have already stated the 8600M GT is enough to play Oblivion smoothly. The 8600M GT is a great card in my opinion (of course after it has optimized.) So don't be disappointed with your card.

^I'd like to edit a comment in the above paragraph. The issue with Oblivion is due to Oblivion and it's compatability with our card. Nothing wrong with the card, only the game's programming.

 

Well, I don't think that is entirely true. I got rid of my 8600GT Oblivion problem completely when switching from Vista to XP. So software other than Oblivion itself must be playing a part as well.

 

I hate Vista. I have it on my 1500. Games that work work OK. But some games - Dark Messiah, Fear Combat, just won't run and give me error messages when I try to play them, even with compatibility mode set to XP.

 

That may be some other issue. Fear combat works with Vista fine.

 

Oblivion is probably the most graphically-intensive game out there.

Partly because it is coded badly, and partly because there is so much damn stuff going on at the same time.

 

How do people know that Oblivion is coded badly? don't bite my head off I'm just being curious!..

I thought Oblivion was a tough one to run as every single item you see is a 3d model with no use of backdrops and also with it drawing hidden(obscured from players current view point) objects? or is that second bit where the bad coding comes in?

 

Thanks for all those inputs, but the problem remains

I installed latest stable drivers for 8600m GT (163.69), installed latest patches for the game, latest patches for Vista, and did everything I could (I dont want to overclock the gcard ). I think its either the bad coding in the game or its just compatibility issue btw Vista and Oblivion (but no improvement when I played it in compatibility mode). I dont think there is any prob with the machine as I could see the game stuttering even in Ultra Low settings!!

Anyway i guess i have to live with it FEAR Combat works fine on my laptop, smooth gameplay even at high settings (not maximum though), at native resolution.

Anyway thanks

 

My gameplay is not even close to those figures on the XPS 1330..I'd be more than glad if I can experience the same FPS in the game...I'm not really worried about loading times but the stuttering really annoys me coz I played the game on my desktop with 6600 GT and XP service pack 2, worked really well..

Anyway tahnks to Odin's guide, the gameplay improved a little if not much, I changed the Vsync option and prerender option and i could clearly see a marked increase in performance, but stuttering is not completely gone, Thanks for all the help..

 

go play with your mac somewhere lese please. This isn't a rant on vista thread.

 

i'm sorry but this isn't a pro-vista thread either. we all have opinions, learn to respect them. at least havok provided some insight on why he doesn't like it, unlike you...

 

I believe we can all agree that Vista does have it's problem. Most of us will agree that SP1 should (hopefully) fix most of these issues. No software is ever released in a perfect pristine state. You have to deal with bugs and issues if you want the latest technology. Microsoft has been very good about fixing their problems in the past and I'm sure they'll pull through this time as well. Vista does have the potential to be a great OS, but right now it's just a good OS.

 

me, i don't dislike vista, i just think it doesn't provide enough benefits for me to switch from xp. plus, the whole flashy-animation thing is just not my style.

 

my brother in laws 1520 doesnt seem to run as smooth with a lot of things with his 8600gt as other systems with the 8600gt i have used. i would agree to start with a fresh install and get rid of all the extra garbage thats on there..may not help but i can say when we did this to his system it ran so much beter all the way around..