Running Call of Duty 2 on a dv4000 with a X700

Im just curious if anyone with a dv4000 is able to run Call of Duty 2 without it lagging terribly? I have a X700, 1.256 gigs of ram and 1.83 mhz so I figure it would run fine. I'm able to run Far Cry fine on nearly max settings but I cant seem to get Call of Duty 2 to run without lagging. Any suggestions?


While I'm at it, would it help a lot if I just stuck in another gig of ram to have 2+ gigs?

Also can some explain the differences in resolutions for gaming? I know its a stupid queston but I really don't know what the hell the technical difference is between all the resolutions and if I should be running a certain one with my widescreen laptop.

Thanks guys

 

The higher the resolution, the more lines are drawn. Therefore, it's more precise an image and more detailed. This also means the graphics card has to draw more data, use more textures and generally push more information through it's pipelines faster to give you the displayed image.

The default resolution on the laptop will be the highest it supports(aka native resolution) and that will be the best looking resolution to run at. Of course, many games don't support widescreen resolutions, so you may have to choose a standard view resolution that's similar and depending on your video card settings, it may stretch the image to fit(this can vary...and some games have customizeable options to get them to support widescreen in a limited fashion...check a forum on that game title for more info).

Throwing in another Gig of ram would help. I'd guess 2GB is the max for that laptop(for most out there, 2GB is the limit...very few support more than that as most only have two slots).

 

Anyone advice as to why the game might be lagging? Even the intro video lags.....

 

CoD 2 is an extremely demanding game - don't expect to run it at high settings.

On my X700, I can run it at 800x600 just fine. Since you have a 128MB card, set down the textures to medium. Also, keep off the dynamic lights. Running the game under DX8.1 (options in-game) drastically improves performance, because the shaders are not as complex.

 

While you here ChazMan, can you explain to me over and underclocking? Would it run better if I "Overclocked?" And would my battery last longer if I "underclocked?"

Thanks.

 

When you overclock the card, you run the processor/memory beyond what it is specified to run at. Most of the time, components (with the exception of certain ones, mainly for desktops) can be taken beyond what they are specified to run easily.

To your questions - yes, your performance will be better if you overlclock correctly, and battery will be improved by underclocking.

I can't stress this enough - overclocking can seriously mess up or ruin your video card, so only attempt it if you really need the extra performance.

For overlclocking your X700, take a look at this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=31609

Cheers,

 

Thanks for all the advice. Your reccomendations let me run the game much smoother and its playable now. My last question is is underclocking hard and is it dangerous like overclocking? I was thinking I could underclock playing games like Warcraft 3 on plane rides but I'm not sure. Thanks again

 

Underclocking will not have any negative effects on your video card as far as I know. I would make a post in that ATI Overlclocking thread and ask about that.

 

Just for note, I played call of duty 2 with absolutely no slowdown at 800X600 with everything set to medium and high, and I'm on a HP zx5000 2.8GHz P4 with a Radeon 9600 128MB. So I think you should at least be able to run all graphic settings on high at 800X600.

One thing to activate if at all possible is anti-aliasing. Even if your resolution is lower, turing on AA is really useful on games especially nowdays with all these wargames having a lot of jagged-edge structures (usually a result of them being blown to bits ). I forget what website I saw this on, but it had pictures of Battlefield 2 at some insanely-high rez without AA and it looked horrible compared to 1024X768 with AA on.

 

i can play cod2 on the 1400 x 900 resolutions which is the good one, but its not completely smooth, so i play it on the resolution just under it, and it looks fantastic. ive got a nvidia 6600 128 mb. Im going to make sure though, that my next laptop (when merom comes out) will have the best video card.

 

Cod2 has compatibility issues with the X700 as the X700 doesn't fully support the type of pixel shader (or something) which Cod2 uses. That's the main reason for the slowdowns. If you were using a 6600Go (which usually has a slower clock speed) which does support the technology Cod2 uses you will have no lag at all at higher resolutions.

 

Where have you read this Budding? I play CoD2 so I would like to know more about this.

 

i think he means cod uses shader model 3 and the x700 only suports the versions of shader model 2