Trying to increase notebook performance

Specs are in sig.

I have registrymechanic, gamebooster, and AVG and i constantly virus scan, defrag, clean up my registry, and run games in gaming mode. I also have gamebooster and registrymechanic in performance mode. Yet somehow everything is telling me my computer is only running at 50% of its capabilities. how do i increase it? about half of my hard drive is used mostly with games

 

What do you mean by "everything" tells you you're running at 50% of capability? Your graphics card is mid range at best. You can search the forum for info on overclocking but that's really the only way to boost your performance.

 

Unpark your cores, use throttlestop, turn off unneeded services and run it in high performance under the power plan. You should see improvement. Search the hardware forum here to find out how to do all of these. Good luck.

 

You use AVG?

Thats a big problem right there! Big resource hog with no way of turning off the antivirus service!

Recommend you jump to avira or microsoft security essentials ASAP for free, or ESET/kaspersky/norton if you want to pay!

 

Agreed that AVG is probably causing unnecessary slowdowns.
Move to either MSE, Avast or Avira.
All of those are free, and do not impact system performance while providing an effective protection.

Furthermore, remove any and all unnecessary programs from starting up with the computer.
You can use Msconfig to disable startup items, or use Ccleaner to delete unnecessary startup entries entirely.

On top of that... if you have manufacturer installed bloatware... I'd really recommend removing it because most of those functions are already integrated into Windows.

 

Do a clean install, get rid of AVG, disable unused services, and as said above use ThorttleStop to even get more of your CPU.

 

Also get a new laptop, because that is not a gaming GPU.

Just sayin. Cause you obviously, by your post of having a hard drive that is 'half-full' with games, yet you are playing with a non gaming video card.

Sounds like a great idea!

 

No need for an attitude. He simply asked how to improve performance with what he has. I'm already looking how to improve performance on my laptop simply because I could not afford to get an actual gaming laptop. I purchased the Sager NP5175

 

lol, your an idiot. its perfectly capable of playing games like Mass Effect 2, Bad Company 2, Dead Space 2, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Dragon Age 2, The Force Unleashed 2, i could go on forever. I've played all of these games on it perfectly fine sounds like a gaming computer to me. omg i cant play crysis or metro big whoop, they suck anyway. learn what your talking about before you call something that was made for games a "non gaming GPU"

as for everyone else, thanks its actually working really well!

 

I would use CCleaner everyday to clean all the junk from the registry. This resolves computer performance drastically. Then use Tune-Up Utility to clean your computer and uses its turbo mode function while gaming. This improves the gaming performance of the system and it automatically stop all the useless services in the background. I use it daily on my M15x and it is my fav s/w of all time. Also, uninstall AVG and use MSE from Microsoft instead. It takes a lot of load of your ram.

Then use Throttlestop to get the best out of your CPU and it works wonders. Finally, use MSI Afterburner to OverClock your GPU to get that extra framerates. It is a very simple software to use and it is flawless. Just keep an eye out for those temps though because it can be your only enemy here...aside from the who wants you to get a gaming laptop. I would say with those specs, you can run any game in medium/high settins and get a very playable 30+fps in all of them.

Run these steps daily and get the most out of your system. hope this helps.

 

This advice sounds like something everyone should follow, and should be stickied or something, Im gonna go home and do as listed, I alread run MSE, but havent botherd with cleaning my registry.

 

Try it out....will get you an extra 15-20 fps for sure.

Edit: actually there are tons of features in Tune Up Utility that helps you get the most out of your OS and eventually your whole system. I highly recommend it for everone.

 

here is a link to get a free copy of Tune Up Utilities 2010.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/570660-tuneup-utilies-2010-free.html

link worked ok for me last night.

 

One thing I would like to clarify is that cleaning the registry will probably in no way improve performance.
Ccleaner is the most reliable cleaning program as far as registry goes, but cleaning it will only ensure you don't have stray entries that could conflict with new drivers or versions of programs and won't affect system performance.

Besides, once you remove any unnecessary startup entries (excepting MSE for example) and restart your computer... during games, your laptop will already function at maximum.
There is no need to use TuneUP utilities to 'turbo boost' performance because if you already closed everything in the background prior to gaming and have no extra services apart the effective/efficient av at startup, it will ensure that your game runs at max (the rest is down to your gpu drivers and general hardware specs).

In regards to ThrottleStop, I haven't been able to use it with my cpu (integrated hardware limitation), so I cannot speak on the effects of i5.
As for MSI Afterburner... well, there are numerous ways to increase GPU performance.
I would rather use Nvidia system tools for Nvidia cards because it integrates itself into the drivers.
MSI afterburner would likely be the other choice, and a third option would be bios GPU flashing (I did it to reduce the voltage on my gpu to get much lower temperatures and then used Nvidia System tools to raise all clocks by about 25%)

 

Well, that was my point. Turbo Mode in Tune Up Utility 2011 will automatically stop all the unwanted services and programs in the background. Hence, no need to search for a idle process when this program can do it with a single click of a button.

As for your comment that cleaning the registry does not help to improve system performance, you might wanna recheck that because a clean system registry always impacts the smooth running of the system in my book. Not only will the system load time become faster, it'll also impact the programs that are installed in the system.

Guys, I'm using Tune-Up Utility 2011 because it is optimised for Win7. Try it, it's worth every penny. And there is one option to defragment registry as well. It works well but some tend to disagree that cleaning and defragmenting System Registry improves system performance.

 

This gaming mode stuff sounds a bit silly. I mean if you have a quad core already and sufficient enough ram, would stopping all these background services even do anything? I thought 99% of the time the performance is simply hardware dependent, not software.

 

This is true. Overclocking or upgrading is pretty much the only way to get significantly better performance. All the services/defrag/registry cleaning etc will get you 0-1 FPS at most, unless your system is just clogged down with junk.

 

His delivery was poor, but naticus is right. The GT 330M is your bottleneck, so system tweaks mean very little, and will not improve your framerates.

Overclock your GPU.

You are a funny guy.

 

It may not give him that much of an increase but for my desktop I definitely get a big increase. My desktop is running an old geforce 7300LE 512mb. I over clock the core clock to 650 and the memory to 960 and my fps increases are drastic.

 

Am I? Then Dude, you are Ignorant!!!

I meant by following ALL the steps,he'll get a raise of 15-20fps. I mean thats why we overclock our system,don't we? To get those extra frame-rates!!! Read the entire post once more. Why should he go and upgrade his computer when the OP clearly states that he is pretty satisfied with the gaming abilities of his system. And following these above steps will definitely give his system a boost.

 

Yeah let's bet on that.

I'm not saying that he won't see any(minor) improvement, but 15 to 20 fps is like adding a second GPU. The GT 330M just can't cover the overhead.

 

15 to 20 fps? thats impossible. even on an o/c thats nearly impossible since that would equate to something like a 150% increase in gpu performance.
the steps sgt describe will make your system a little snappier( depending on how cluttered it was to start with), and may help in windows startup and game load times. but it will not help when the game is running which is wholly gpu ( and sometimes cpu)hardaware and driver dependent
kevin jack is right.

 

First of all I'd like to pipe in here with my thoughts.

330m isn't a powerful GPU by any means, but it's also very capable, I wouldn't slam him because of it. Not everyone plays latest games and with max detail and needs 60fps, and my M11x with the GT 335m plays everything I've thrown at it including Bad Company 2, just sacrifice detail and resolution.

Secondly, ccleaner on a daily basis doesn't help much. Clearing out your startup apps doesn't help much unless they are consuming CPU cycles, otherwise it's just consuming RAM. And unless he's got 2-3GB of "stuff" in RAM then it most likely won't affect performance.

Finally, any tweaks and/or OC that is done, may improve fps by 20% at most. That means 36fps instead of 30fps, but most likely a 10% boost is realistic.

 

1. Clean windows (no optimizators, cleaners etc. if you must - go for CCleaner now and then)
2. Newest drivers (graphic (ATI - 11.4 drivers and new 8.85 (beta 11.5) are soooo much better than anything else before - like a new card), sound (in case you use 5.1 or audio enhancements), chipset (for all mainboard controllers)
3. Correct windows settings in device manager and registry (cpu (parking and throttle with Intel core cpus), disk (caching optimizations), network (various modes and features), chipset (USB contollers, Intel disk controller optimizations), disable (and remove drivers for) unneeded devices like fingerprint reader etc...)
4. OC GPU (easy 20%, more advanced stuff can give you up to 30% (mem latencies, overvolting)
5. Optimized and patched games (bugs, resolution, textures, effects etc...) - people seem to play games at not optimal settings for their systems - sacrifice something like blur, postprocessing etc... and gain higher framerate - it will always pay off in playability. While I was a semiprofessional FPS clan member I played FEAR at lowest settings getting 20% better scores due to high FPS, less smoke, shadows, debris and other unneeded details. I don't say you should do it, but just using this as an extreme example of what I call high playability. F1 2010 can be tweaked to get me 1 second per lap just because I have a chance to react better. And around additional 1 sec while I play on projector if I set refresh settings right (bigger picture helps a lot but projectors do have lag). You decide if it is worth it.
6. disable all not essential services and processes (also AV and other not needed stuff while gaming). Gameboosters work nice but you'll get not too much gain in speed. Games get a bit more responsive and smooth though.

Additional stuff for better system overall:
1. SSD

And if you want:
2. laptop cooler and fan control (make it silent in windows and use fan while gaming)
3. projector for race sims

That way you can usually get a decent performance. And with all my laptops I always got a feeling that they could do more - and they could. All my laptops were GPU overclocked (and now overvolted), cpu undervolted, fan tweaked, windows clean and configured and drivers updated. Nothing more.

 

^^^^^
All this is unnecessary. OP has nVidia GPU anyhow so ATI drivers won't help.

Bottom line is:

(1) Overclock your GPU.
(2) Remove any CPU hogging resources
(3) Monitor RAM usage and if what your game requires + what you have loaded in the background > 4GB then upgrade your RAM or eliminate processes.

SSD may actually help for a game like WoW, but won't benefit most other games except for faster loading times.

 

I still think ALL of this is not unnecessary I know OP has Nvidia. I was just telling my experience with drastically improved newest drivers (with my recent ati GPU although I have had nvidias too).

SSD helps always when something is needed to load into RAM. Some games like loading all the time. But the point is that Windows always need something from the disk. And Windows is always on and running while you are gaming. I guess the game can load most of it into RAM and VRAM, but still disk activity happens from time to time. Some people find it annoying while playing as it can cause stuttering, peaks in CPU activity or other things not welcome while playing. Superfetch, backups, AV activity, updates, etc.. SSD is expensive, SSD is small, but really it is a great performance booster for laptops generally. That is why wrote "Additional stuff for better system overall:" above SSD.

 

I would simply remove the trash = format the drive

then install the best driver that the people with the gt 330m use

then I would simply overclock it.

Since I own a 4670m GDDR3 I know that your gaming capabilities is kind of not the best, but its not the worst. Your only bet is to oc the card, plain and simple

 

I disagree on the SSD. Games like WoW *WILL* benefit from and SSD if the rest of your system is under par. Otherwise most games have levels that will load just fine with GPU's that have less than 1GB vRAM. Most games load all the textures at once, that's part of the reason there's level load screens.

But good drivers help, and occasionally offer minor fps improvements.

Just a good OC and is what is needed.

 

A bit of proof on the magical solution would be welcomed, don't you think so?

 

I've never seen that big of a jump...close, but not quite. I had a GT540m and did some Resident Evil 5 Benchmarks and by OC'ing I was able to squeeze about 10 FPS, and at the extreme end 12 FPS. I've got an XPS 17 with the 3GB GT555m coming, and can't wait to see the results when I OC that one.

 

what he is trying to say is that -- what makes you think your laptop is running at 50% capacity? Your GPU can run on 101% and will still fail to run bad company on high. In fact i doubt that its smooth on medium even so i am assuming you are playing it on low?

But i ll repeat myself -- what makes you think your system isnt running at 100%?
Unless you are talking about CPU load which is rarely ever at 100% in games.

 

I would love to point out something regarding keeping the registry, system, processes clean kind of approach ... it may not give direct FPS boosts but in a lot of cases it may prevent micro stuttering which I EXTREMELY HATE !!! it is more annoying to have a stuttering game @ 60 fps Vs a game with 30 fps that has a normal flow

 

i always blame hdd in such cases

 

All the above things don't actually do anything. Registry cleaning does nothing. Anyone who knows how the registry hive works will know that cleaning it does nothing for performance. Gamebooster is also pretty useless when you know how to manage your processes and what starts up with Windows. Defragging will rarely help game performance. AVG also sucks and makes systems crawl. Use Avast if you need a free small footprint antivirus.

What do you mean 50%? What is "everything"? Most tune up utilities don't actually do anything. What you need is to keep background processes to a minimum and make sure the computer is on High Performance or Always On mode when you game. Make sure it is plugged in. Some GPUs will downclock when not on AC power.

Your graphics card is weak. All you can do is get the latest driver and try overclocking it.

 

lol not always it has various reasons ... one thing that got rid of my stuttering in many games once and for all is to choose Supersampling AA instead of Multisampling ... it was like magic I lost a couple of FPSes here and there but that is nothing compared to the fluid game play and the amazing image quality

I think it is something ATI driver related I don't know ... but still stuttering is the worse thing in gaming

 

I have a Tosh A500-01V
i3-330M @ 2.13 ghz
nVidia geforce 310M 512MB
4gb 1066 DDR3 ram

so i am in a similar boat to the OP, except my laptop is worse lol.

What increased my FPS by at least 5 was to make sure that:
a) physx is on; if your game supports it
b) like everyone else says, make sure all unnecessary stuff is off:
- if you have MSE, turn off windows defender
- rainmeter is definitely off
- divx update, google update, etc; by default, all my google services are off.
etc.
c) again, like someone else says, detect optimal settings in game.
HOWEVER, that does not always work, or something is missing.
in the case of audio, for instance, i often have to manually tick something similar to 'use the hardware' to utilize the GPU.


everyone has said it all though, the only thing i disagree with is downloading programs to optimize your computer. almost all optimizations can be done manually.
EDIT: i think programs can make things easier, but i find they end up making a mess out of my computer's organization and directories. in previous computers, i did that a lot, only to find that having all these random programs things chaotic, like searching for programs. question: does that not mess slow down search and indexing?
if you can't find CPU parking and throttling, google how to make it show in the advanced power settings with regedit.


good luck with overclocking you GPU. overclocking my GC is useless; i can bring it up about 2-4 FPS in FurMark. Even though it's stable there, the drivers still crash frequently in real life.

ps, there is no way you can bring up 15-20 FPS average; maybe the aformentioned poster meant it can go up that much if you're like idle in game and not moving
EDIT pps: In playing america's army 3, at medium settings, i initially had 25-30 FPS. currently, it runs at 28-35FPS.
idle/observing: 28-45ish FPS.

 

PhysX should always be turned off when you're using an nVidia GPU... it'll take resources to render extra effects that probably won't be noticed anyways. And in the case where the CPU is used to calculate PhysX, it'll affect it even more.
Also, hardware audio does not go through the GPU. it goes through your sound card. If you don't have a sound card (most laptops don't), then it doesn't make a difference. When not using hardware, the audio is done by the CPU. Detecting optimal settings doesn't work all the time, you'll probably have to use manual configurations to find the best combinations of settings for you.

 

+1
so the increase in frame rate is just placebo for the physx? i thought it also helped to offload the CPU...
if the sound card is integrated onto MB, it should still help, no?
in addition, the configuration sort of confuses me; i have realtek HD drivers for the integrated realtek sound card, in addition to nvidia HD audio drivers.
yeah, i usually say detect optimal, then do some manual configuring.

 

Turning PhysX ON will be an additional load for CPU or GPU. It's just dependent on which you set it to use (nVidia GPU only though). If you can turn PhysX off it should improve things a bit, or at worse not have any negative effects.

Choosing hardware or software sound in-game can depend on the game and the audio driver. Some games actually benefit from changing that value, others do not. All depends on how its implemented.

the nVidia HD audio drivers will only be in effect if you use HDMI. Otherwise Realtek will provide the onboard speaker audio or any external port audio.