JWest's Notebook Gaming Guide

Revision 4

So, you want to play games on your notebook?
Well, contrary to popular belief, it's not impossible to get a fair amount of performance out of a notebook, it just takes a bit more work than on a desktop.

So, if your interested in how to game on the go, read on.

Table of Contents 1) Choosing a Laptop Discrete Graphics Decent Processor Ample RAM Recommended Specifications Choosing an OS 2) How to Get the Best Performance Out of Your System Find the Right Drivers - Installing Your Drivers Optimize Your System - Disabling Powermizer Overclocking Your Video Card 3) Helpful Tools 4) Results [/TR]

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Choosing a Laptop

Unfortunately, not just any laptop can play all the modern games on the highest settings (hopefully you knew that). If you already own a laptop, check to see how your specs hold up against the list below. If you're in the market for one, you would be wise to follow these guides if you want to play the latest games.

1) Discrete graphics - The most important thing is that your laptop have a dedicated GPU. A powerful GPU will be a more worthy investment than a more powerful processor. You'll get the best performance out of the following GPU's:

NVIDIA:
- 8M series: 8600M or better
- 9M series: 9500M or better

ATI:
- Radeon 2000 series: Mobile HD 2600 or better
- Radeon 3000 series: Mobile HD 3600 or better

Unfortunately, anything below this will likely give you subpar gaming performance or quality.

For some more (and very in-depth) information on GPU's, visit Chaz's Mobile Graphics Card Guide.

2) Decent Processor

- Your processor is very important, though not quite as important as the GPU. Still, a good processor is important for process-heavy games like real-time strategy games. Intel has been a tad confusing with their recent processors however, so let's clear some things up:

Cache memory: L2 Cache memory is important, as it is essentially the "holding box" for a processor's instructions. The more the merrier. Intel's "Penryn" series of Core 2 processors have two differen sizes: 3MB and 6MB.

Front Side Bus: The Front Side Bus, or FSB, is what allows the Processor to communicate with the chipset. As with most things in computers, the higher the speed, the better.

Intel recently released new Core 2 Duo processors along side the montevina platform. Here's a helpful little list:

Santa Rosa Penryns
2.4GHz Core 2 Duo - 3MB cache, 800Mhz FSB
2.5GHz Core 2 Duo - 6MB cache, 800Mhz FSB
2.6GHz Core 2 Duo - 6MB cache, 800Mhz FSB

Montevina Penryns:
2.4GHz Core 2 Duo - 3MB cache, 1066Mhz FSB
2.53GHz Core 2 Duo - 6MB cache, 1066Mhz FSB
2.8GHz Core 2 Duo - 6MB cache, 1066Mhz FSB

What does this all mean? Well, my suggestion would be to go for the 2.5Ghz processor (in either list). You see, upgrading the cache memory from 3MB to 6MB is a more significant change than going from 2.5GHz to 2.6Ghz (in the case of Santa Rosa). My advice would be if buying a Santa Rosa notebook, go with at least the 2.5, it will be worth the investment.

As for Montevina (or other comparable chipsets like the 9400M from nvidia), you'll also want to go with the 2.53Ghz Core 2 Duo. It's simply the most cost-effective option. If you want something better though, by all means do so. It'll just cost you more in the end.

It's certainly possible for you to have a lower power processor as long as you have a powerful GPU. Keep in mind though, that with a less powerful processor, some games may lag. Certain games (like Supreme Commander) have a lot of processes going on at once, and a weaker processor will cause the game to lag.

3) Ample RAM

- Random Access Memory (RAM) is what a computer uses to store all of the data for the programs and services that are running at a given time. The more RAM you have, the more programs you can run at the same time.

What happens when you run out of RAM? Well first, let’s clear something up. You can’t “run out of RAM” in the same way you can run out of hard drive space. When your RAM is full, you simply have too many processes running at once. Once those processes are shut down, your RAM is free again.
However, if your computer hasn’t enough RAM to run all of the programs you want to run at one time, then those programs start using “paging memory”. Paging memory is space on your hard drive that acts like RAM. However, Paging memory is much much slower than RAM, and therfor you will need an ample amount of RAM if you want descent gaming performance.

My suggestion is to have at least 2GB of RAM. 4GB is ideal though, and definitely a worthwhile investment.

4) Recommended Specifications

So, in the end, you’ll want a laptop that’s got at least these specs:

- An Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz or better (something around 2.2GHz will do if you're on a budget)
- An NVIDIA 8600M or ATI Radeon HD 2600 or better
- 2GB of RAM or more

5) Choosing an OS

A lot of people still stand by XP, but ever since Vista SP1, the performance difference has actually been negligible for most games (some perform better in Vista sp1, others perform better in XP). My advice: Go with Vista 64 Sp1. Having a 64 bit OS means you’ll have access to all 4GB of RAM, and with device drivers getting better and better, you aren’t too likely to run into compatibility problems.

How to Get the Best Performance Out of Your System

Ok, now for the meat n’ potatoes.

1) Find the Right Drivers.

This is something that takes a lot of trial and error. There is simply no “best driver”. The drivers for your card are constantly changing, and it will take some work to find the right one for you.

You can find the latest NVIDIA drivers on this forum.

ATI Drivers can be found on AMD's Website.

Installing Your Drivers

When installing the drivers, do it the right way. This translates to doing it the long way.

1) Download Driver Sweeper.

2) After installing, follow driver sweeper’s instructions. They go something like this:

- Go to your control panel and click the program manager (add or remove programs).
- Uninstall your display drivers.
- Reboot into safe mode
- Run Driver Sweeper and remove all traces of your drivers
- Reboot into Windows and install the new drivers
- Reboot one more time, and your drivers will be ready to use

2) Optimize Your System

Disabling Powermizer

You’re going to want to disable Powermizer (as far as I know, this is only for NVIDIA cards). Powermizer is what downclocks your card when not gaming. This can cause performance issues however, so you’ll want to disable it.

1)Hit window-key+r to open the run command (or access it from the start menu)

2) Type in “regedit” to open the registry editor.


4) Navigate to “computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{some huge number}\0001"


5)Scroll down to almost the very bottom. Find “PerfLevelSrc” and double click it. Change the value to “3322”.


6)Find “PowerMizerEnable”, double click it, and change the value to 0.


7) Find “PowerLevelAC”, double click, and change the value to 1.


8) Find “PowerMizerLevel” and change the value to 1.


9) Reboot.


If anyone else has some suggestions for system optimization, feel free to let me know and I'll add them.


3) Overclocking your Video Card
Recommended only for those who have done the research and know what they're doing! Overclock at your own risk!

Yes, I’m aware that overclocking your video card is taboo in the laptop world, but trust me, it will work out in your favor if you follow some precautions.
First, let’s cover some myths about GPU overclocking:

1) Overclocking will cause your card to explode!!

- Not true. The biggest thing you need to remember when overclocking a laptop is this: Don’t mess with the voltage! Here’s the thing. Adjusting the clock speeds simply makes the card run at a different speed than it was originally designed to. In practice, this won’t raise your temps much. My highest temp prior to overclocking was 80C. After overclocking? 83C. Not much of a difference there. However, adjusting the voltage will supply the card with more power than it was designed to accept, and therefore, cause it to run at higher temperatures than it was designed to withstand. In a desktop, this can be remedied with proper cooling. However, in a laptop, you’re basically stuck with the cooling system built into the computer.
So remember, don’t mess with the voltage and you should be fine.

2) You can’t overclock much on a laptop anyway, so it isn’t worth it!

- This largely depends on the individual computer. For example, the 8600M GT’s stock clocks are 475/700/950 (core/mem/shader). Prior to overclocking, my card was about at that level (roughly 470/680/900 ish), but I managed to get stable performance on my 8600M GT when overclocked to 600/850/1400. The performance increase is pretty noticeable, and it’s certainly worth the effort. However, not all laptops are the same. Some 8600M GT owners could only get their cards to about 550 core, and had to underclock their mem to about 600 to achieve stable performance. It really just depends on the computer, so be sure to experiment.


Now, I would like to state that despite what I said above, overclocking is something that I would only recommend to people who have done the research and are willing to take the risk. Although I rarely hear stories of people's cards being damaged by proper overclocking, it is possible that this can shorten the lifespan of your card. Therefor, proceed at your own risk.

So, now that all that's covered, how is overclocking accomplished?
Well, there are several methods, depending on your OS.

Windows XP (32 bit)

There are several tools you can use with XP. I’d suggest using RivaTuner. It’s easy to use and has many useful features. You can also use ATITool, or NVIDIA’s nTune.

Look in the "Helpful Tools" Section of this guide to find out where to download them, as well as links to guides on how to use them.

Vista (32 bit)

RivaTuner and ATITool should work with Vista 32, though they never worked for me when I had Vista 32. I used nTune, and it worked like a charm for me, though it’s not very robust.

Look in the "Helpful Tools" Section of this guide to find out where to download them, as well as links to guides on how to use them.

Vista 64 (Only for NVIDIA cards)
RivaTuner and ATITool won't work with Vista 64 unfortunately, so you'll have to use NVIDIA's System Tools. You can download 'em here. You can access the overclocking via the "performance" tab in the NVIDIA Control Panel.


Tips for Overclocking

Stability:
When overclocking, you're going to want to stop once your card starts becoming "unstable". Unstable doesn't mean "ZOMG MY NOTEBOOKZ ON FIRE!!!!", it just means the card starts behaving abnormally due to the overclocking. This can be anything from worse game performance to a scrambled screen or even a full system crash. When your card becomes unstable, take the clocks down a bit and try again until you find a stable clock.

Temperatures:
Check your temps prior to and after overclocking (you can use ATITool or NVIDIA's system monitor for this). If your temps are ever above 85C, you shouldn't raise the clocks any more. That's awefully hot, trust me. I would highly suggest that you try to make sure your card stays below 80C. If necessary, I'd suggest getting a notebook cooler of some sort. Check X2P's Notebook Cooler Buyer's Guide for more info.

Overclocking Troubleshooting

1) "Oh no! My screen's all scrambled! What do I do?"
- Don't panic. First, you may want this guide printed out so you're not trying to read it under a scrambled screen Next, navigate to control panel and find the device manager. Under the "display" tab, find the NVIDIA or ATI display driver (depending on your card). Double click on it, then disable the driver. When your display resets, enable the driver again. You should be OK now, so lower those clocks and try again.

2) My Program (RivaTuner, ATITool, etc.) won't work properly!
- Unfortunately, I can't offer much help on a program by program basis, but start by looking at that program's help file. Also, check on various forums (try google) for solutions to your problems.


Helpful tools:

- RivaTuner- An overclocking and tweaking utility
- RivatTuner Guide

- ATITool- a tweaking and testing tool

- nHancer- An advanced profile creation tool for NVIDIA Users

- ATI Tray Tools- An easy to use advanced profile creation and overclocking tool for ATI users

- NVIDIA System Tools- Advanced NVIDIA control panel with support for overclocking, plus some other useful tools for NVIDIA users

Results:

I’ll be posting actual raw benchmarks as soon as I complete them but in the meantime you can check out my videos from my YouTube page.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

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Unreal Tournament III

<object width='425' height='344'><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UUcZv_YPwLc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UUcZv_YPwLc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width='425' height='344'></embed></object>

Thanks for reading, and be sure to leave comments and suggestions, as I will be updating this guide as often as necessary.

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Revision Log

Revision 1
- Initial post

Revision 2
- Added a proper table of contents
- Revised the processor and GPU sections
- Added some of my gameplay videos
- Fixed some grammer/spelling errors here and there

Revision 3
- Updated the Vista 64 Overclocking section
- Fixed a few more little errors here and there
- Added another link in the "helpful tools section"

Revision 4
- Updated the overclocking section with more information.
- A few minor corrections here and there.



This guide is a work in progress. Feel free to give me suggestions for future revisions!

 

Great Post, +1 Rep

How long did that take you?

 

Eh, not too long. 2 nights worth of work
Thanks for the rep!

 

Great post.

One thing I gotta ask though,

You mentioned that you need to search for the driver that suits the user best. Is there that much of a significant performance booth worth going through all the drivers a manufacturer offers to find which provides the best benchmark, or is there an easier way?

Thanks again

 

You'd be surprised what sort of performance impact proper drivers will have. Check around on google to see what people say about the driver you want to install. It's a long process, but it'll be worth it in the end.

BTW, I added links to where the driver can be found in my guide

 

Great guide. Got Vista x64 and a 9700m GT that just refuses to OC. I'll give your method a shot.

Perhaps also, it may be more prudent to just emphasize how the gfx card is by far the most important part of the laptop. A laptop with X9100 and a 9700m GTS will not beat a 2.2GHz C2D with a 9800m GT. You could also mention something to the effect of NVidia 9500m GS ~ 9700m GT should have at least 2.0GHz Core 2 Duos and 9800ms should have at least 2.4GHz C2D (or whatever you think necessary)... I also don't recall cache being too important for gaming. I might be mistaken.

 

Thanks!

Cache is important on processor intensive games (like Supreme Commander).

 

I agree it's mostly about the graphics card. I only have a 2.0 processor with 3MB cache and 1066Mhz FSB but I have the 9600M GT card with one of the newest signed drivers and so far my gaming experience has been great. I've heard my config can just about play some of the High settings in Crysis.
Great guide though.

 

Thanks guys. I'll elaborate on the processor/video card comparison in the next revision.

 

thanks for the great post and how to guide JWest
+1 rep

 

Thanks!

I updated the guide with the suggested changes (and more).

 

Excellent guide!!!! +1

I will be OCing my video card for the first time soon. As long as my clocks don't get too crazy, my video card will be fine right? Also what effect does OCing have on longevity? I want my system to last me a good 3-4 years and I heard that OCing reduces the life of your card.

Also you mentioned that double clicking on the overclock file will activate the new clocks. How do you deactivate them to revert back to the normal clocks if I'm done gaming? And is it safe to switch from higher to normal clocks often?

 

Thanks!

Overclocking is said to reduce the longevity of your card, but really it depends on what temperatures you have prior to and after OC'ing. If your temps don't change that much, then it won't make much of a difference.

If you want to revert back to stock clocks, double click the default file that you originally copied (that file has your default clocks on it) and it should revert back to the original clocks. And yes, it's safe to do that.

 

That is first time I have seen anyone overclock in Vista 64bit using nTune like that (maybe I just don't get out enough). I will have to try it on my system to see if I can get it to work. So far people have only had success with overclocking by flashing the BIOS of the video cards. No idea if your modded "sysdflt.nsu" has been tried yet....

Great guide btw, good info for the new gamer on the go.

 

Heh, I just came by that method by accident after searching through my configuration files. It works though

 

The screenshots indicate that's supposed to be "PerfLevelSrc" - one of the two must not be accurate. I'm guessing the text . Also - what's setting it to 3322 do? I'm all for tweaks, but I like to know what exactly I'm doing when changing registry settings. Same goes for #6-9 for that matter - I know what they do but others may not.

Also, you probably ought to throw the T7700 (2.4 GHz, 4 MB, 800 MHz) in the Santa Rosa processor list - it's as good as the P8600 which you've already got listed. Older, but as good performance-wise.

And it would be good to at least mention an AMD processor or two. I know they aren't quite as good as Intel's latest and not-quite-latest performance-wise, but you can get a good gaming system with an AMD processor nonetheless - at least if you can find a system that sports and AMD processor and a good graphics card, which usually is quite difficult in my experience.

Good guide though. I'll be changing the registry values (if they aren't already set that way) as soon as you explain what exactly that does. +1 rep, or +3, not sure. The forum was responding a bit slow and when it responded it gave me three +rep given popups - so today may be your lucky day in the realms of forum rep.

 

Thanks! How much of an effect on longevity would it have? I mean are we talking like GPU death within a year or within 2 years or what? And to put this into perspective, I don't plan on adding crazy clocks -- only enough to make it stable and have a noticeable performance increase and of course I would only have the higher clocks when I'm gaming which is only 1-2 hours at a time. The rest of the time I will have normal clocks. What do you think?

 

Yah, that was a spelling mistake on my part. I fixed it though

About the processor, my list was only a list of Penryn's (since that's the series of Core 2 Procs in all new notebooks these days), and the 2.4 GHz proc with 4MB cache is not a Penryn.

About the registry values, to be honest I'm not sure what exactly they do. I discovered this method for disabling powermizer on another forum (it may have been another post on this forum actually). All I know is that it only effects powermizer, and if you uninstall and reinstall your drivers, it'll be back to normal (they're not Windows' registry values, they're NVIDIA's Drivers').

 

To be honest I'm not sure. Really though, you don't see a lot of cases where someone's card died prematurely due to overclocking (at least I haven't seen any, and I check these forums often). You should be OK.

 

Nice job! A very informative guide for the novice and enthusiast alike!

+1

 

Good stuff.

Id have to say 3gb RAM is recommended for gaming on Vista and 4gb is ideal.

For XP 2gb will do

 

The problem when using 3GB is that the RAM won't run in dual-channel mode (assuming you have dual channel RAM, as most modern laptops do). That's why I prefer to stick with even amounts.

 

The real life difference between symmetric and asymmetric (flex mode) dual channel is little to none. Running on a single channel is the only thing to worry about.

Most CPU's FSB isnt even fast enough to fill up the bandwidth of dual channel RAM.

eg:

CPU:
200mhz FSB x quad pump x 8 = 6400mb/s peak bandwidth

RAM :

667mhz x single channel x 8 = 5300mb/s peak bandwidth
667mhz x dual channel x 8 = 10600mb/s peak bandwidth

Intel flex mode/assymetrical dual channel goes in between them two which still has more bandwidth than the cpu

 

Hmm... it appears as though there's a new version of nvidia's toolset. Maybe overclocking will be enabled and I won't have to go through the whole "configuration file editing" stuff. I'll post my results in a bit.

 

Cool, the new nforce tools allow overclocking without the configuration file run-around. I'll be updating my guide in a bit

EDIT: Guide has been updated. And just when I thought I had an ingenious way to overclock in Vista 64...

 

lol thanks! That helps me out a lot.

 

Holy ****, I think I got a little too excited...

 

Heh, as long as it's stable at those speeds

 

Everything looks great. Isn't that a little too high though? I'm sure I can push it even more. I pushed them up incrementally too and I arrived at those clocks. About to run 3dmark06.

 

Yah, run some tests, maybe play a few games. As long as everything performs fine, you should be OK to push 'em higher. Just go slow

On another note, I think the changes I've made in the past few hours were enough to merit another revision, heh

 

Eh, not as significant of a boost as I thought I'd get...

I went from 4021 before the OC to 4903 after the OC with different drivers.

 

Hey now, 870+ points is pretty good

 

Hmm interesting after playing with the clocks some more, my 3dmark06 score dropped lol but everything seems stable.

Is one clock more important than the others? In other words, should I focus on increasing one clock more while cutting back on the other 2 to see a real performance increase or should I keep raising all 3 at once?

edit: just got up to 5145 in 3dmark06! It seems that adjusting memory/core clocks any higher results in instability but the shader clock went up by an increment of 25 with no problem. Guess I'm just gonna keep pushing that shader clock.

 

You'll see the most noticeable results when upping the core, but the core is also the soonest to go unstable. Then the mem, and finally the shader. Upping the shader clock won't do a whole lot.

BTW, if you start to get worse performance when OC'ing, your card's probably becoming unstable.

 

I can't thank you enough man! I really appreciate all the help. I OCd for the first time using your guide.

On another note, I hope you're proud of yourself for posting this guide and making me spend hours trying to OC my card when I should be studying lol

 

With newer cards: Upping the shader clocks will, without a doubt, provide the biggest performance increase. Then core and then memory which will only make a difference in more demanding games where memory bandwidth is occasionally a bottleneck, but 90% of the time will make no difference at all.
Up each clock seperatly and run ATI Tools artifact scanner aswell to make sure your oc is stable.
You're getting a nice boost in 3Dmarks, dont fry your card though

 

I thought the shader clock did almost nothing? For me upping the core gives me the biggest boost.

 

Core will always give a concistant boost to performance but with shader intensive games (2006+) you should see a significantly bigger performance increase from a higher shader oc. You should also see a increase in non shader intensive games as the shader processors do the bulk of the rendering work in modern gpu's.

I'm probably stating the obvious here but it also depends on what your bottleneck is, for example if your cpu is running at 100% then oc'ing your gpu will provide no performance increase. Similarly if your running a texture intensive game and your framerate is frequently determined by your memory bandwidth you wont notice much improvement by oc'ing the shaders.

That's how i understand it anyway, correct me if i'm wrong

 

No that's right

GPU OC'ing does nothing if you don't have a decent proc or enough RAM.

 

What are the practical results of OC'ing your video card. I always see 3mark scores, but on average what kind of FPS increase do you get in games and is it worth it?

 

A little typo - at the part where you were explaining the processor speeds, you states there's not going to be a big difference in 2.5Mhz to 2.6Mhz.....

Great Guide! I'll be experimenting OCing on my laptop soon.

 

Nice informative guide JWest. + Reps to you.

 

Thanks for the rep!

And it's not a typo There really isn't a big enough performance difference between the 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz to justify the $250+ premium.

In most games, I get an extra 10~ish FPS and I can run them at higher settings, so I'd say it's worth it.

 

The typo is....you wrote Mhz instead of Ghz. But the information is correct.

 

I would give more rep if I could... This was VERY VERY HELPFULL... I just need a little more guidance. I'll PM you about that though. THANKS MAN!!!

 

*D'oh

Fixed it, thanks

And I PM'd you Robin, good luck with the OC'ing!

 

Is it normal that my GPU in windows vista x64 environment get's to 64 C ? When i played cod4 my temp jumped to 81, and I was only playing about 4 minutes to test it out. Powermizer is disabled. (Nvidia 8600m gt) I don't think I can try to overclock anything with a temp like that in not overclocked settings....


and by the way is it possible to set gpu fans to spin at 100% all the time? becouse it's starting to spin, then stops for a while and then starts again, thats annoying thing, i wish they spin all the time, and the gpu should be cooler anyway

 

Well, mine gets to 81-82 C max. Try playing for 1/2-1 hour and see if it gets any hotter.

I don't know about the fans, it depends on the laptop. You could try your luck with SpeedFan, but I don't know if it will work with a laptop.

 

I tried speed fan some time ago, didn't helped. I think i better don't try any overlocking and stay with that what i got don't wanna to lose my laptop

 

Heh, best to play it safe then