New "Gaming" Laptop

I am new to these boards and have a few questions.

First, I just bought a new laptop, a couple of weeks ago, from HP. From what I know it is a pretty decent machine. Here are some of the specs:

OS: Windows Vista 64 bit

CPU: 2.8 GHz dual core

RAM: 4 GBs DDR3 (I think)

GPU: Nvidia Geforce 9600M GT

Anyway, my question is, when I play Dawn of War II, I am unable to run it on high settings. As far as I know I should be able to. Also, the movements of the characters are jumpy. Does anyone know why these might be?

Also, is there any guides or tools to boost the preformance of my GPU, or anything. I am somewhat frustrated with this as the laptop was not cheap.

Anywho, If someone out there can help me it would be greatly apreciated.
I am fairly computer literate and should be able to follow any instructions. Thanks again for any help.

 

new drivers are especially important for gpu performance. go to laptopvideo2go.com and click on the forums. try out a few of the newer drivers and use 3dmark06 and games to see which one suits your system best.

 

There are a lot of different ones. How do I pick which one is the best for my card?

I am looking through the different posts in the forums and there are different files listed. Which do I need?

 

turn down or off AA. its brutal on most cards.

 

what resolution you have it at. i dont recommend going past 1280*800 because of the gpu 128bit bus but you maybe able to max it out. if you decided to go higher like 1440*900 or 1680*1050. turn down all the setting to low.

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista64_179.48_beta.html

Try this driver from nvidia.

Seems like you spent most of your money on a processor and not a gpu. Turn the settings down if you want to play the game or return the laptop if it doesnt meet your needs.For newer games to run on high you need to look into the 9800m series of notebook cards.

Also dont be fooled by the price of a laptop, just because it has a high cost does not automatically make it a powerful laptop. Apple is a perfect example of this. Macbook air anyone?

 

9600M overclocks pretty well, you can easily get another 25% performance. If it's not good enough for you return it, HP has what, 14 or 21 days to do so?

 

My 9600M GT runs DoW2 @ 1280x800, medium settings, very smoothly.

 

looks like a nice machine to me! My system has an 8700 and I run games at 1440x900 with medium-high (or higher) settings all the time (depending on the game) I believe I've read the 9600 isn't quite as good but still not bad

enjoy!

 

I play all my games @1280x800 on medium/high settings just fine

If i overclock I can probably getter better performance, but I'm waiting for a cooler

@OP
What res are you on???
What are the various settings on
I haven't played this game so I can't say

 

Dawn of war II is based on a modified Company of Heroes engine and it isn't too demanding it might be something to do with the drivers.

 

Thanks to all for the quick replies. Out of the box, the resolution was set to 1960 by 1080. (Or something like that) That is what I have been trying to run Dawn of War II on. That could be the issue. I will tone down the resolution, this evening when I get off of work. I will also try that driver to see if that helps.

Also, I found a program that will overclock a 9600 GT, but I am unsure weather or not it will overclock the mobile version. Does anyone know?
Again, thanks for all the help.

 

Yeah, lower the res, that should fix your problem.

Which program did you get? I used Nvidia System Tools and it worked fine with a 9600M GT and it the 9600M GT easily handles a 10% - 20% increase.

Riva Tuner also works but isn't as simple as Nvidia System Tools.

 

I used the Riva Tuner. but did not really get it. (How to use it.) I will try the Nvidia System tools. Do you have to download it?

 

I used RivaTuner to overclock my GPU by following a guide on this forum. I thought the guide was a sticky but i can't find it. Maybe some one else will point you in the right direction. The guide had very easy to understand steps.

The Nvidia System tools has to be downloaded by the way.

 

Here is the link I believe laptopnut is referring to - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=219954

 

1920x1080 is a really realy demanding resolution that only higher end gpus can handle. Turn it down to 1440x900 or 1280x800 and you will notice a major performance increase.

 

Yep
A 9600 can play most games at medium/high @ 1280x800

 

DowII should run well on your rig. As said above aim for either 1440x900 on medium settings or 1280x800 on medium/high settings.

I'm getting 35-45fps average on the settings below no problem, really smooth. Currently using Nvidia 179.48 and O/C GPU to 600/800.

Enjoy.

(Oh another tip, ensure you have the latest directx (google for download) installed on your machine also, has caught some peeps out in the past).

 

Guys and gals, he's running in 16:9, so stop recommending 1440x900 and 1280x800.

1280x720 is the resolution you want to go for.

Dawn Of War 2 is a demanding game, and your video card will not handle all High settings. Texture detail is what's killing your card, so try out jayq's settings but @ 720p, and let us know how it runs.

 

Drivers and Vista set up made a huge difference to me.

Some of the newer hacked drivers wouldn't work very well for me at all, some would lock up and fail regularly. I'm running a 9650m GS which I think is similar to the 9600 GT, I would think you should be getting good results with your machine.

I would set restore points and play with different forceware versions, that's what I did so it was easy to roll back. I ran the FEAR benchmark after each driver install or Vista tweak to see my FPS changes with everything on max. I do not recall the exact figures as it was a while ago now and I am at work, but it atleast increased two fold, and that is no exageration over the manufacturers drivers.

On another note, I also had teatimer on from spybot which I later found was raping my CPU at 40% intermitently when playing online games and would make it run like a 486 for a while, so I kill that when running games now, so it may be worth to check what is running in the background while you are playing.

The best thing I found was to run the game, then tab out and start resource / perf monitor and check CPU load and mem usage and what the computer is doing when you play.

And as mentioned, I haven't noticed any improvement using AA, just that it can slow things down.

Cheers,

 

If you baught it for mostly gaming, i would return it if you are within the timeframe to do so. you can get a laptop with a much better GPU for the price you spent on that rig... otherwise enjoy watching high-def movies with it

 

Especially if it's an HDX series HP notebook. You can have a kit equipped with a 9800M GTS for less than those prices.

 

LOL!!! Alienware??? well i guess if you got money to literally throw away...

 

Alienware, even if you do have money to throw away, I wouldn't go for that.

 

Alienware's speed is nothing unachievable for cheaper elsewhere.

Effects I can't argue with as they are highly subjective. Personally, a gigantic laptop is more than enough to send the signal that you've got some serious power.

 

WHAT IS THIS GUY SMOKING!? There are plenty of laptops with superior performance to Alienware for cheaper. Even if the Alienware is way underspec'd you can get a powerhouse of a sager for the same $$$!!! Obviously he is trying to sell a product he knows little about.

I'll give it to alienware in the effects department though... only dell's 1730 can compete in the gaudy light effects department...

Not saying they're not powerfull, jsut way over priced!

 

Its because of how they are built. You have to price it out. Typical $3000 AW laptop.


Cpu $300, $ Gpu $400, Case/Body $100, Ram $100, Motherboard $150, Monitor $200, Speakers $50, Keyboard $25, Touchpad $25, Blueray Drive $80, Card Reader $20, Alienhead $1550.

See it has an extra part that the identical laptop from another brand does not have, the Alienhead. So you cant say the other computer is better for $1450 as it is missing that part.

Clearly AW owners understand this and think the Alienhead is worth the extra cost.

 

Harsh.

 

Lol

 

anyone else jealous of people having expensive laptops and dont know anything about the hardware :/

 

we do you mean jealous????
i just sold my prevuios system
ocz whitebook
[email protected]
4gb of ddr3
2 wd 400gb hdd raid 0 800gb
2 3870 crossfire
1920*1200
all well under what alienware would of charge for their setup it comes up to 3,800

mines was well under 3,000.
dtwn has many laptops that cost more then aleiware and performed better
victuos(sorry i spelt your name wrong) has a w90 which was better then any alienware out for about 2,200

i'm deciding on a new expensive computer. that doesn't only have looks.
so when you say jealous please be more specific

 

Idyllic -

I've learned that in a lot of situations there are people with more money than sense.

From what I've seen though, most of the folks on this board (the ones attempting to help others, anyway) certainly know a bit about the hardware of the systems they are discussing.

Just an observation.