Frame rate is choppy now. Why?

webmonkey8 · Nov 8, 2005, 03:07 PM

Hello, I play first person shooter games, such as Half Life 2, Doom 3, etc on my laptop. The performace when playing these games were pretty good. My system is a P4 2.3 ghz, 1GB ram, and Radeon 9600 video card. However, now that I've been playing these games and others on my laptop for about a year, the games, such as Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4, the performance is pretty bad. My in-game frame rate is really slow. Why is it that I had no problems with such games like these (Doom 3, Half Life 2) before and all of a sudden I'm having performance problems now? The system requirement for these games are all about the same.

I've updated my video card drivers to the latest (ATI and Omega). Could it be that I need to format my hard drive after a year's worth of usage? Would this make my game performance better? Help!

Vikingod · Nov 8, 2005, 03:28 PM

COD2 and Quake 4 require a pretty beefy system to run smooth. Requirements aside, those games are resource heavy (read the gaming forum and see how many were shocked they couldnt run the game perfect). The only thing you can do is reduce the level of detail and resolution to increase frame rates. With that system, you should run the games fine, but not on high, and not a 1600*1200 thats for sure. A format might help out a little bit, but nothing remarkable. Its not your system, its the games.

Welcome to DH!

Sandok · Nov 8, 2005, 05:57 PM

You have a weak CPU and ur card doesn't have a huge buffer. It's going to stutter (i got that on my 9800 pro at the time) so well, you cann do some cache meg tweaks (google) but apart from that... Sry...

kyrotech · Nov 10, 2005, 03:34 AM

I get that problem in Quake 4 if i use high settings

So I must use 800x600 medium settings low shadows to get playable performance ~30-40 fps in game. And yeah game is heavy, and my laptop is a T42 with mobility 9600 64 MB @ 375 mhz / 240 mhz CAT 5.10 installed, Pentium M 1.8 ghz and 1 GB DDR memory, WinXP Pro SP2 :P

If only it had 128 MB frame buffer :S

Nov 8, 2005, 03:07 PM	#1
webmonkey8 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Frame rate is choppy now. Why? Hello, I play first person shooter games, such as Half Life 2, Doom 3, etc on my laptop. The performace when playing these games were pretty good. My system is a P4 2.3 ghz, 1GB ram, and Radeon 9600 video card. However, now that I've been playing these games and others on my laptop for about a year, the games, such as Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4, the performance is pretty bad. My in-game frame rate is really slow. Why is it that I had no problems with such games like these (Doom 3, Half Life 2) before and all of a sudden I'm having performance problems now? The system requirement for these games are all about the same. I've updated my video card drivers to the latest (ATI and Omega). Could it be that I need to format my hard drive after a year's worth of usage? Would this make my game performance better? Help!

Nov 8, 2005, 03:28 PM	#2
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,197 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	COD2 and Quake 4 require a pretty beefy system to run smooth. Requirements aside, those games are resource heavy (read the gaming forum and see how many were shocked they couldnt run the game perfect). The only thing you can do is reduce the level of detail and resolution to increase frame rates. With that system, you should run the games fine, but not on high, and not a 1600*1200 thats for sure. A format might help out a little bit, but nothing remarkable. Its not your system, its the games. Welcome to DH!

Nov 8, 2005, 05:57 PM	#3
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	You have a weak CPU and ur card doesn't have a huge buffer. It's going to stutter (i got that on my 9800 pro at the time) so well, you cann do some cache meg tweaks (google) but apart from that... Sry...

Nov 10, 2005, 03:34 AM	#4
kyrotech DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 8 Rep Power: 0	I get that problem in Quake 4 if i use high settings So I must use 800x600 medium settings low shadows to get playable performance ~30-40 fps in game. And yeah game is heavy, and my laptop is a T42 with mobility 9600 64 MB @ 375 mhz / 240 mhz CAT 5.10 installed, Pentium M 1.8 ghz and 1 GB DDR memory, WinXP Pro SP2 :P If only it had 128 MB frame buffer :S