The 30 FPS laptop Gaming thread

This thread was made to counter the other 7400 picture thread floating around the gaming section. While it is a good thread with great shots of a 7400 in action, I felt that some of the games were running crippled at low, almost unplayable, FPS.

Here are two of my games that I worked on until I got them to run at 30 FPS. I will post more in the coming days.

1280x800 settings maxed, HDR off, 2x antialiasing, 8xaf




DOD Same as above, HDR off.



HDR off, Bloom off, 1024x768, no grass, infinite view distance, ini tweaks.




Settings maxed, occasional drop to 25 fps, bot count at 25.




Doom3
800x600 MEDIUM SETTINGS





800x600 High Settings




640x480 HIGH quality




I was kinda peeved about doom3. It can look much better indoors when I run it at 1024x768 on medium or so, but outside is unplayable. At 800x600 on high, the outdoor scenes are on the threshold. Indoor was maxed at almost 60 no matter what was going on. It had the most deviation of all the games I played, and a steady 25-35 range fps was not possible. It was more like 19-60 depending on the environment. Most of my other games stay within range of playable and enjoyable.

My reference shots here are made to be representations of what popular games look like when running at 30 FPS.

The notebook is a 1505 with an ATI x1400, one gig of ram, and a 1.86 core 2 duo.

Feel free to post your 30 fps

 

Mind telling us exactly what settings Oblivion is running at?

 

He said what.

 

In my entire opening section in the Go7400 screenshot, the lowest FPS were in the 20's for one game, which I explained were due to shadows being enabled. The other games were all between 30-60fps. Hardly that all my games were 'crippled' like you are suggesting here....

The problem with running a game at 30fps idle is that in intense situations it's going to plummet into disasterous figures, so it's definately not advisable.

 

What are you guys using to measure your FPS? I'm looking for something to display in BF2142 to use as a base for tweaking my settings. I can't figure out which twitches are from my internet connection (which Comcast has yet to fully fix, argh!) and which from graphics being too high.

 

I think FRAPS is the standard for now, its what places those little yellow numbers in the corner of the pics.

Its a shame you cannot have the water eye candy on, I always thought that was what "made" most of the outdoor scenery in Oblivion.

Oh and try getting the grass texture mod, it will get rid of those awful grids in the ground.

 

It's impressive that you got Oblivion to run at those framerates. Makes me kind of tempted to install Oblivion on my laptop then.

 

ippi your desktop would play Oblivion great, I think I would just stick to that. You must be able to have most everything turned up high at 1024x768 on your desktop

 

In before some fool comes in saying 'you can only see 30 fps anyway' ugh.

 

Some of your games are running at 100 + FPS

I like to run my games with no stutter... as do most people. But I also like them to look as good as possible. Thus, my happy medium is max everything until you reach a semi-rock solid frame rate of 30 FPS. Some older games will be maxed out no matter what, and I understand that. Those are older games that are maxed out.

Oh, and not all your screens show the FPS.

Quake IV for example... what are your settings? Is everything maxed out?
Thats the point of this thread... max it out, make it look as good as possible, but make it playable at the same time. Most of your games are definatly playable, but can they look better?

No need to attack, I am certainly not calling your thread worthless or anything. Forgive me, because I thought your thread contained the Oblivion screen that was running at 12 FPS, and thats what I refered to as crippled though it was not your screen.

 

Oh I know. I play Oblivion on my desktop at 1680x1050 with almost everything turned on except for shadows on grass and it runs smoothly. I was just contemplating playing on my laptop though if I happen to be traveling or something.

 

That's great logic and I agree - you don't want to have an average 30FPS - 40-60 is ideal. In my opinion, the minimum framerate is more important than the average, because that is what really determines playability. Hypothetically speaking, if your game runs at 120FPS, and then in intense situations dips down to 15-20FPS, it's not going to be enjoyable.
It's important to adjust your settings to the point where the framerates stay within a certain range. Too much variability in the FPS is no good.

Check the Mobile Graphics Card guide for info on measuring framerates; there's a questionnaire at the bottom.

I'm also impressed with how well your laptop handles Oblivion. The processor no doubt has a significant impact on game performance.

 

The minimum and recognizing where it happens is what's most important. The max, in my opinion, isn't all that important. Having a max of 120 FPS doesn't necessarily give you a "buffer" of playable frame rates because you can set the max for a given game (say Counter Strike) at 60 and it will only go below that in the most graphically demanding parts of the game. If you keep your max higher, say 120, you will still see the same stuttering at the same point of the game because your computer just can't handle that.

That's why I don't really feel the pictures that were posted here or in the other thread are exceedingly helpful in determining anything. They all look pretty uneventful so they don't really help anyone figure out whether the game is playable (unless the whole game is fighting one unit at a time in an open field).

 

In CS:S, I find de_dust and de_dust2 unplayable sometimes because my fps there drops to ~40fps. Furthermore, turning off HDR doesn't seem to help. In other maps I get 100+ fps, 80fps during firefights with more than 3 combatants in the same area.

 

Aw how unfortunate princess.

 

Ah I know how it sounds , it affects reaction and turning time...if you've ever fretted about having 100 ping vs. 50 ping, you should fret about having 40fps vs. 80fps.

 

All settings maxed 1440 x 900 no aa

15-20 outdoors but like 9 when fighting a lot of creatures

 

ouch thats no fun.

 

The pictures have been massively updated.

 

I'll post some pictures of BF2142 soon to fit the theme... and man I should fix my signature.

 

Hm i tried to attach a picture but it didnt work


Ya well Ive been playing oblivian a lot lately at more like 40-50 fps but i wanted to see what it was like all settings to max. It runs fine unless a lot of creatures are attacking me at once.

 

I don't play games unless I can get them to run at a smooth and consistant level. Heavy stuttering is unnaceptable to me... Playing DOD online was a silky smooth and easy experience. I find that using fraps to track the min and max fps is quite innacurate during online play, for I will get some occaisional reason to drop to 19 fps for a second (not even during intense scenes, I can be anywhere) and if I die and my visual field is looking at a wall, then I have a rediculously high fps.

HL2 is the smoothest of the games I play by far.
Then UT
Doom
Oblivion

 

Why not just record a few clips and post them on youtube. Then people can visualize the difference. It will be particularly helpful to questions like "Can I play this or that game comfortably?".

 

as cool and helpful as that would be you cant really do it because it makes yo ulagg more so they cant really see what your video looks like normally... at least fraps makes you lagg more. idont know what other kinds of video benchmark/recorders there are out there but as far as ive seen they make your fps drop sometimes by only a few frames and other times they cut the fps in half

 

You could set up a camcorder in front of your monitor!... Ok, that would be a bad idea but it's a funny visual.

 

Due to the low resolution of videos posted on YouTube, the quality difference won't be noticeable by looking at them in my opinion. You are best off taking screenshots of particular areas of the game and then putting them side by side.