Serious Problem w/ Toshiba x205 s7483

Hello all,
I am having some performance issues with my Toshiba x205 s7483.

Here is what I have on board:
T9300 Processor
4gb ram
8700m Gt video card
186.81 Nvidia Drivers


I am getting slow frame rates... I upgraded recently from a t5450 to the t9300 and I have gained no fps at all?

That doesn't seem to make sense to go from 1.66ghz dual to 2.50 dual and see no difference?

Please if anyone can help or direct me in a direction to help?

 

Would help if you mentioned what games you're playing.

My guess is your video card is the problem. It's 2 generations old.

 

I am trying to play Dragon Age Origins. Can I update my
graphics card in this thing?!?

 

While the x205 does indeed have a removeable GPU card, it is proprietary and Toshiba never made a version of the x205 with a better GPU than an 8700m GT.

So in all effect... no there is no upgrade for the GPU there.

However, an 8700m GT is far superior to the minimums for the game.
(OC'd its still slightly better than a stock 9600m GT)

Windows Vista Minimum Specifications

* OS: Windows Vista with SP1
* CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
* AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 2.2GHZ or greater
* RAM: 1.5 GB or more
* Video: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater
* NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater
* DVD ROM (Physical copy)
* 20 GB HD space

You really should be able to play, but probably need to tune the settings down a tad.

The reason for the CPU upgrade not having a noteable effect is that likely at the settings you are using the GPU is the bottleneck.

What settings did you try and what FPS?

 

1280x800
High texture
High detail
2 antialiasing in game and 2 antialiasing in nvidia with enhance option enabled


Gettin like 15-20 fps

what do u recommend running?

 

first, drop antialiasing...

If that isn't satisfactory frame rate, drop textures then details one step at a time.

1280x800 seems reasonable so don't worry about dropping resolution unless AA=off/low/low doesn't cut it.

 

Any suggestions to how I can get a boost out of my setup to run games and make them look great at a playable framerate?

Please help!

 

I would like for the games to look good haha. I hate pixelated look and rough edges

 

Btw I'm also using Xp Pro

 

Well those settings definitely work but it looks like doo doo hahaha. I'm trying to get a happy medium. Tweaking my system to the max

 

You could overclock your graphics card, but you'll have to make sure it stays cool enough.

IMO beyond that you're SOL. The 8700m isn't a BAD card, but it ain't no GTX280.

 

Also in task manager I am only seeing one CPU (windows xp pro) ?

Should I see 2 CPUs?

And how can I tell if both CPUs are active and I am not
running on one leg? How can you activate/turn off dual core processing?

I have not received any frame rate increase from increasing from t5450 to t9300. That blows my mind....

 

If the game isn't CPU intensive then you will no see real increase in performance beyond 2ghz dual core anyways. Yes your CPU is working properly.

OC your 8700M GT to get better frame rate. With a decent OC you can certainly still enjoy any game including crysis at decent medium/high settings at a reasonable resolution (1280x1050 and below). Forget anti-aliasing completely it really isn't worthwhile on mid-range cards unless you like a stuttering blur.

 

Dropp AA and get windows 7... it improves gaming performance a lot...

 

I had that exact same model of laptop. Be careful, my HDD's both went out two months ago...

AA is seriously taxing, especially on older GPUs. I dropped it entirely in most games and was able to get a pretty impressive performance boost as a result.

The 1.66GHz processor was pretty slow, but it would be good enough to run most games. I upgraded to a 2.0GHz on the cheap, and didn't see much improvement except in strategy games. GPUs tend to bottleneck most games.