Really need a Pros help with OC'ing CPU and GPU Possibly? Please help.. Read on.

Ok i travel on planes about 4 times a month for my work and i play xbox games. SO i purchased a cheap laptop from dell.. The Inspiron 1520 with a 8600m GT 256 video card, and a 2.0 ghz intel processor, 2 gigs of memory. I bought a few games to play on the plane when i travel and found out... my CPU 2.0 Was too slow for the game.. but everything els far exceeds the minimum.

Now i am stuck between a rock and a hard place since i cannot play these games on my laptop..

Is there a way/Manual to OC my CPU from 2.0 to say .. 2.4/2.8??
and is there a manual to OC my GPU?? I read many forums on GPU and i came acrossed a program called RivaTuner.. still stumped on it.

 

What games are your trying to play? What are your graphics options set to? Also, what are you power options set to (I'm assuming its running on battery power on the plane)?

 

There is no way a 2GHz C2D is slowing you down.
Besides, you can't overclock your CPU anyways.

 

Why do you say that?

That cpu is MORE than enough for the games out today. Cpu matters very little in gaming, the gpu what counts.

 

Im trying to run Gears of war, bioshock and Guitar hero 3, which Bioshock and Gears of war minimum requirement is 2.4 gig and guitar hero is 2.8 intel

thats why i say its too slow.
if my machine can run it which is wont. im sure it would run it just fine.

 

Everything is set to proformance, you can use a ac adapter on a plane now.

 

Have you actually tried running the games? I think they should work just fine.

The requirements for CPU listed for games is done (in most cases) by the old Pentium 4 scale. For general purposes, there are NO games out there that you cannot play using your 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo processor. If it were a Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz processor, it'd be another story. '

You've got TWO cores running at 2.0 Ghz. And each core is better than a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 anyway. Those games will play no matter what.

 

I have tried to only run Gears of war.. the others are being sent to me from best buy, When i try to run gears of war, it shuts off about 20 secounds after running the game. and it says if i want a solution from the internet, i click that and it just exits.

 

The issue is definately NOT your processor speed.

2 things that I think it might be:

1. Overheating. Make sure your computer isn't full of dust.
2. Video Card Drivers: Head on over to http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers and get some newer drivers. Follow the directions for installation after you have chosen. I'd go for 169.04 or 169.09. Make sure you choose the right OS from the left menu.

 

Stormeffect is right those requirements are pentium 4 based, I run those games with the 2.0 cpu you have and they work great, Guitar Hero on a plane? I'd like to see that!! TSA will confiscate your guitar (can be used as a weapon!). Update your driver to 169.09.

 

I just opened it out of the box today, its a brand new machine, I already installed 169.09 since it came with a very low driver, I am going to uninstall it again and reinstall GOW. And TSA hasnt confinscated it yet and i flown many times, and now i got the cool gibson guitar that it is 2 peaces instead of the bulky one. Ill try my best to get this to work since this is the only way to pass a 11 hour flight time.

If you can direct me int he direction, i have searched it over and over, i think my machine would run better with a OC on the video at least, i have 2 xps 410s with 8600 gts, and it even lags with world of warcraft.. usually 60 fps but sometimes down to 30-40.

 

If you are using 169.xx drivers already, than it might be the temps. Check them using RivaTuner. You can also do some GPU OC'ing using that as well to see if you get any performance gains. Also, if you happen to have AA turned on for those games, try to disable it and see if that gives you a boost. Last but not least, what resolution are you playing these games under?

 

Ok, first off, you are going to have to get used to frame rates below 60. An 8600m GT is going to be 30 FPS when things are smooth. I consider anything above 30 FPS smooth.

Your computer might perform a little faster with an overclock, buy why do you want to overclock before even seeing actual performance in a game first? The game needs to be working before an OC matters.

You said you'd installed RivaTuner?

There is a little arrow-tab thingy on the right side in the middle of the program. There are actually two I think, one for hardware and one for drivers. Well, open them up and check for an icon that says driver options or something. One of those panels will open up and show you two or three slider bars greyed out. Check the box above them and they will become active, sliding the bar higher will make it go faster.

Ok, that was a GROSS oversimplification and a really bad description...

Anyway, be careful when you overclock, it is good to increase everything 5-10 Mhz and then apply the overclock as opposed to increasing everything 100 Mhz and applying the overclock. Up the settings in incriments to make sure things stay stable.

Here is a good guide to read, I have it at the 4th page...with all of the OC information, but it is a good idea to read up on the previous pages. You'll want to keep track of temperatures and make sure your graphics card doesn't go above 100 degrees Celsius at any point. It'd be best to keep it below 90 Celsius, if possible.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/article/449/4/