Serious Performance issues [HL-2]

Hey,

I've been using the main site for years, and have used it as a guide to purchase 3 laptops. But i've been scratching my head about this one.

I recently started to get back into some PC gaming, since i got my laptop a while back I've generally been doing a lot of music and casual gaming. But i've recently got round to completing my way through the HL2 episodes, with terra-bad results.

The Specs of my laptop are:

Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo CPU T2350 @ 1.86GHz
1 GB DDR-2 PC-5300 (I know this needs upgraded)
ATi Radeon Mobility X1600 128mb
120 GB HDD
Windows Vista Home Premium

Motherboard is apperntly MTC with a legacy bios acording to SIW.

Its made by Zoostorm (PCNextDay)

I've been running HL2 ep 1 and 2 on second lowest rez, low texture, medium models, low shaders, no HDR. It looks pretty awful and still is running at 10 - 14 fps. Im scratching my head because i've done all the usual things like turn off all the gfx in windows and loads of processes and stuff and seem to be getting no-where.

Also i think the ATI card was meant to go up to 256mb with hyper memory, but can't find anything. Thanks for anyhelp and advice and stuff, I do think the GFX drivers could use an updating coz i haven't done that in a while but can't see it making masses of difference.

 

Just in general, you don't have a gaming laptop. The CPU is also pretty weak, as with many source games do depend a lot on CPU power.

 

I know its not a hardcore gaming laptop or anything, but I was thinking I could get better performance than I've been getting. I might force the game to use DirectX 8. But the CPU is well above the reccomended for the game, so its a bit odd.

I only spent £550 on the laptop 2 years ago, but with the specs versus the game was hoping to coax a bit more out of it.

 

Are you running the game with the laptop plugged? It the laptop set for high performance in the battery options?

I am just trying to discard possibilities for that issue. I hope this helps.

 

I would see what you can do without spending money first, then I recommend dropping the cash and upgrading to 3GB of RAM.
Vista loves more RAM - is it possible that it's paging stuff to the hard drive when you're playing HL2?

 

I think it's definately got to be the ram. 1GB isn't enough for vista, especially not gaming on vista as the OS eats almost all of that by it's self. I think it is paging the hard drive because your out of ram. getting a 2GB kit should quadruple your framerate if it is caused by paging.

Get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220229 and it will fix the problem if it is caused by insufficient ram. It's only 19$.