Help Make My Laptop Play Better

[Hailey Knight]

Long story short: What was intended to be a temp laptop is now going to be my permanent laptop, as enough has broken in the gaming one that I would just need a new gaming laptop.

So, what can I do to make my HP-G60-44DX more game-able? It's actually numbers are not lower really than my Dell, aside from the graphics card, but it seems to run choppier for online FPS game. MMOs, or single player FPS games, no problem. It's on the same connection as the old one. I feel like it's not the video card, but I don't know what to do.

Here's some numbers:

Processor: AMD Turion Dual-Core 2.20 GHz

RAM: 3.00 GB

32-bit Vista operating system

NVidia 8200M G video card


My current ideas are to use my free upgrade to Windows 7 and to get a 2GB flash drive for using Readyboost. Are those good ideas? Is there anything more I could do?

 

[Adam]

Downgrade to XP or 2000.

Update video drivers as much as possible.

Get an extra Gb of RAM (which might require a 64 bit OS to take advantage of)

 

[TotalFusionOne]

Your laptop has a CPU that can run64-bit. Get the 64-bit version of Windows, and expand to about 6gb.

Does your laptop come with the new ExpressCard slot? You can get a PCI-E extender that runs out of an express card slot and slap a vidcard in that. It will run straight into the bus and act like the card is installed in your computer, though it'll actually be sitting in a box NEXT to your computer. A mid-range video card and the ExpressCard box will run you $350 - $500 combined.

If you're looking for cheap and easy ways to boost, try GameBooster. It is NOT a virus, or spyware. It's just a little program that shuts down processses and services while not in use. Also, try downgrading to XP and getting SP3 OR if you have a large enough hard drive, dual boot your computer for XP and Vista/Windows 7. If you're going to use your on-board graphics card try to adjust your properties so things like HDR, Shadows, etc are very low. Defrag often (Don't rely on Vista's defrag). DO NOT USE READYBOOST WITH VISTA. PERIOD.

 

[figmentPez]

DO NOT USE READYBOOST WITH VISTA. PERIOD.

Is there a reason you put this in bold? I haven't heard of anything going wrong with it. Sure, it won't help on a system with more than 1GB of RAM, and even then it's mostly helping program boot times, but none of the benchmarks I've seen said it made anything worse.


My advice: update your drivers and check to see if there are any BIOS updates to fix performance issues.

 

[strawman]

If you can, switch to 64 bit OS and slap more memory in that puppy.

Next, upgrade the hard drive with one that's faster. If you can afford it, get a good SSD. There are slow bad one's out there, so check your favorite computer benchmark place to find out what SSDs are considered 'fast' these days.

The hard drive will cost $200 - $300, but it will blow your mind away when you see how much faster it makes your system.

If you can't afford an SSD, get a faster hard drive for $120 or so, and it will make the difference for you.

Beyond that, you're stuck. You got what you got.

-Adam

 

[TotalFusionOne]

A quick view on the top through google shows why I put it in bold:

Well, that’s the theory. C’t used the BAPCo SYSmark to test the performance of ReadyBoost. BABCo SYSmark is a well-known performance metric based on real word applications such as MS Office, Adobe Photoshop CS2 or Windows Media Encoder. They tried 30 hardware configurations with different CPUs, hard disks, and RAM. There was only one configuration where ReadyBoost significantly improved performance by 26%. It was a machine with Core 2 Duo E6420 768MB RAM, and an old hard disk. This is not really a common configuration. If you add more RAM to this system the performance improvement won’t be noticeable.
If the computer has a slow processor or if you work with apps which need much CPU power, ReadyBoost might even decrease the overall system performance. The reason is that ReadyBoost encrypts the data it stores on the flash drive. Encryption and decryption cost CPU power. So if your CPU is already busy, ReadyBoost could slow down your computer.
The conclusion is that ReadyBoost is useless at the moment. However, that might change if flash memory becomes faster in the future. If your Vista machine is too slow, you usually just need more RAM. In some cases it might help if you follow my guide to improve the performance of your Windows Vista installation.

Ignore those ads. A lot of people are complaining that ReadyBoost is doing nothing and adding something that takes up SOME processing time to do nothing is really bad. The one catch is SuperFetch. It does REASONABLY well with Superfetch but, to be honest, on a system like his he should just turn superfetch off. He's not going to see much of a performance boost in the short run with it on, and it just takes up resources. Plus it's taking up a SD card slot and I only have one on my Dell.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Will I need to buy a specific version of Windows to run 64 bit? As currently it only lets me go to 32.

Getting non-ReadyBoost ram will probably require installation knowledge. I'm not letting GeekSquad touch anything anymore.

So, get XP (my harddrive is pretty big; I can partition for XP... fuck, might as well just go XP total; I love XP.)

I will check out GameBooster.

Thanks for mentioning the video card as well. I didn't realize, but I had it set to Full Quality rather than the middle or to Performance all this time. Didn't seem to do anything when I changed it though. Maybe gotta restart first.

As for HDD vs SSD, I was under the impression that it could all be measured out in GHz, but I guess not. Might be some time before I can afford such a thing.

 

[TotalFusionOne]

If you bought Vista outright then you should have a copy of 64-bit. When you buy Vista it is supposed to come with both copies. If you just got it from a Big Box try going back and asking for the 64bit version that is supposed to come with it. Either way you're looking at $50 for upgrading to 64-bit win7.

ReadyBoost is NOT RAM. Don't make that mistake. It's a SSD that holds information to be fetched easier. It will do nothing but make things boot up faster. It's basically an overlarge cache.

Installing RAM is not difficult on a laptop. Turn it over, look for a small rectangle with a screw, and that should be where your ram goes. Most likely it's pop and play, so just pop out a stick and put a new one in.

GameBooster has saved my raiding lifestyle. Many times over.

HDD and SSD are measured oddly. Basically they measure HDD speeds in RPM (Rotation per minute). For a newer laptop you probably have a 7200rpm hard drive. Since SSD doesn't rotate (It's just a chunk of memory) you don't worry about RPM, just write speed. There will be a speed designation kinda like what you'd expect to see on bandwidth specs. But that's about it.

 

[figmentPez]

Will I need to buy a specific version of Windows to run 64 bit? As currently it only lets me go to 32.

If your 32-bit version of Vista came with the laptop you might still be able to request a 64-bit Vista disc from MS. Windows 7 comes with both versions on the same disc, if I'm not mistaken.

Getting non-ReadyBoost ram will probably require installation knowledge.

For most laptops installing RAM is a synch. Unscrew a panel, pop out the old, pop in the new. Make sure to check to see if you laptop can accept more RAM before buying, though. (Honestly, 3GB should be enough for most games. You probably won't see any improvement in frame rates unless you're playing a RAM hog.)

 

[TotalFusionOne]

(Honestly, 3GB should be enough for most games. You probably won't see any improvement in frame rates unless you're playing a RAM hog.)

Well, since his laptop is probably using an integrated vid card that's sharing ram, he probably will see some improvement.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Vista came with the computer. I'll have to rummage through the discs that came with it; it's possible I have 64-bit capability. But even then, like you said, 64-bit Windows 7 is around the corner and what I've read shows that it runs games better than Vista on most counts.


Okay, I get that RAM is not difficult to install, so I'll look into that (is size an issue physically?) Also fig, I don't know if you noticed during our Left 4 Dead 2 game, but I was doing shitty. When I played L4D on my Dell, I did not miss half the time, nor shoot the hell out of my teammates, or lag behind the group. And this was on Advanced, with my resolution taken down to 800x600, and all my graphics turned down. Yet it chugs along.

I'll try the original again--it had the same issue, but that was before turning down my graphics card tonight--and see if it's not just the demo, but it chugged for me earlier too.

EDIT: Yeah, it is integrated. So, up to 64-bit of something, and then try to bring my RAM from 3 to 6, should be my goal, yes?

 

[TotalFusionOne]

Win7 64-bit is out. If you recently bought your laptop you can get a copy for $50 through Microsoft. If you have a friend with a .edu mail account you can get a copy for $50. If you know how to use a razorblade you can get one for free.

Also there IS a size issue with ram. But they sell "Laptop Ram" everywhere.

 

[Rubicon]

Ive got both ReadyBoost and Superfetch on my laptop atm, though with a dual core intel cpu (2.0ghz), i dont run into many things that really bog down the CPU. only times the system crawls is in the GPU related stuff, like playing graphically intensive games.

I'm also using Vista, with current SP & updates, so if disabling ReadyBoost and Superfetch will get me more frames per second in games, I disable them. If this were XP or at least, a desktop, I would know what to turn off and on, but laptops are a different beast, I never know if theres a process that controls some critical laptop-only function I need.

 

[TotalFusionOne]

Maybe I'm the one doing something wrong here. I'm getting high 20s while playing WoW, but I bog down to 10 or less in the cities. Dell Inspiron 1545 here.

 

[figmentPez]

Okay, I get that RAM is not difficult to install, so I'll look into that (is size an issue physically?)

Yes, and no. There are two things you need to consider when buying RAM. First is the type of RAM, so that it will physically fit in the slot. Second is the memory sizes your laptop supports. Look in your laptops manual, or use a memory selector on Crucial or Mushkin or similar memory maker's site. Depending on how picky your laptop is, you may already have the maximum amount of RAM supported, or you may have to be careful in getting the right RAM speed or something.

 

[Rubicon]

Maybe I'm the one doing something wrong here. I'm getting high 20s while playing WoW, but I bog down to 10 or less in the cities. Dell Inspiron 1545 here.

Same exact laptop here, 1545.

Intel Dual Core 2.0ghz
4 GB Ram
crappy Intel intergrated video (i should have pitched in the extra $100 for the ATI dedicated card)
Vista Home Basic 32bit

Depending on where I am at in WoW.. IF with people is around 25FPS, out roaming around in zones, 40-50, instances 40-50. Dalaran at prime time, 10-15. This is windowed, 1024x768, with all graphical settings on low.

 

[TotalFusionOne]

OKAY. Wait a second. Somethings wrong here.

I'm running fullscreen, and getting less. I should be getting MORE in fullscreen than you. Also, what good is 4gb of ram with Vista32? And did you add an extra gb of RAM? Mine came with three. I'm getting a 3.1 windows experience rating.

Also, are you running any mods? I have Auctioneer, Bartender, Carbonite. And I'm getting REALLY SHITTY stuff compared to you.

 

[GeneralOrder24]

Vista came with the computer. I'll have to rummage through the discs that came with it; it's possible I have 64-bit capability. But even then, like you said, 64-bit Windows 7 is around the corner and what I've read shows that it runs games better than Vista on most counts.


Okay, I get that RAM is not difficult to install, so I'll look into that (is size an issue physically?) Also fig, I don't know if you noticed during our Left 4 Dead 2 game, but I was doing shitty. When I played L4D on my Dell, I did not miss half the time, nor shoot the hell out of my teammates, or lag behind the group. And this was on Advanced, with my resolution taken down to 800x600, and all my graphics turned down. Yet it chugs along.

I'll try the original again--it had the same issue, but that was before turning down my graphics card tonight--and see if it's not just the demo, but it chugged for me earlier too.

EDIT: Yeah, it is integrated. So, up to 64-bit of something, and then try to bring my RAM from 3 to 6, should be my goal, yes?

Yep. I'm 99% sure that like win 7, you could use any vista key to install a 32 or 64 bit version. You just need to get a disc to do so.

 

[Rubicon]

OKAY. Wait a second. Somethings wrong here.

I'm running fullscreen, and getting less. I should be getting MORE in fullscreen than you. Also, what good is 4gb of ram with Vista32? And did you add an extra gb of RAM? Mine came with three. I'm getting a 3.1 windows experience rating.

Also, are you running any mods? I have Auctioneer, Bartender, Carbonite. And I'm getting REALLY SHITTY stuff compared to you.

Well even without mods, it's about the same. i actually found a mod called leatrix gfx from wowinterface.com it can give you a 5-10 fps boost, it gives you options to disable stuff the default game wont let you.

for addons ive got fubar with about 5 subaddons, auctonieer, carbonite, dominos, questhelper, and a few graphical UI tweaks

and for shits and giggles i ran the windows test 3.8, 4.9 for cpu/ram but only 3.8 for 3D graphical capability.

 

[TotalFusionOne]

I'm going to have to pick that mod up.

And how do we have the SAME DAMN LAPTOP but your experience rating is higher? I don't get it.

 

[Seraphyn]

I'm going to have to pick that mod up.

And how do we have the SAME DAMN LAPTOP but your experience rating is higher? I don't get it.

Newer, better drivers? That usually boosted my ratings a bit.

 

[Shannow]

more ram, and windows 7 64 bit. problem solved. jesus.

if you cant get more ram yet, at least put 7 on there. smoother, better than vista, and streamlined for laptops

 

[Rubicon]

I'm going to have to pick that mod up.

And how do we have the SAME DAMN LAPTOP but your experience rating is higher? I don't get it.

Well,

I updated Vista to current SP and updates.

Uninstalled the bloatware I didn't need.

Using BlackViper's process listing, I disabled every process I don't need. With GameBooster, I've got about 40-42 open at any given time (that includes Firefox, mIRC, Xfire, WoW if I'm playing it).

Updated drivers to most current.

Went into the Nvidia settings panel and turned off stuff I didn't need, like vsync, anti aliasing, etc

I could narrow it down even futher for processes but some of them I do use occasionally, so rather than play hop scotch with turning them on/off as needed, I leave a couple on.

I'm also not using Aero or any fancey theme inside Vista, I'm using my preferred Windows Classic theme, with all the bells and whistles turned off (fading menus, drop shadow on menus, etc all thats off).

It plays WoW fairly well, and L4D is playable, although in a very small resolution with every thing cranked to the lowest.

I am definitely building me a new desktop around the time ST:O comes out.

The 1545 is a nice little laptop, before shipping and tax I got mine for around $439. In hindsight I really really wish I had chipped in the extra $100 for the ATI GPU, since its damn near impossible to upgrade the gpu.

 

[Jay]

Before all else, let Vista do a "check" on your system to see where your bottlenecks are.

Take notes.
Do backups of all files you need.
Then downgrade Windows to XP IMO.
Get SP3.
Get updates.
Update video card driver.
Make sure all hardware is installed.
Try L4D2... any improvement?

If issues persist we can continue discussion on Steam.

 

[Rubicon]

Well yea, downgrading to XP is going to give you a definite boost.

If its possible. You have to remember that laptops are different, if he does a fresh install of XP, will its default drivers pick up all the laptop components he needs to at least POST and boot into the OS? i.e. the touchpad and such? I ask cause theres actual drivers for it and software that controls it, right now I can go disable that process if I want but that also disables the mousepad from functioning at all (which is no problem since I have my Logitech Trackball connected to a USB slot). But you see where I'm going. If it doesn't pose an issue, I'd consider getting a copy of XP and downgrading myself.

 

[TotalFusionOne]

Woah woah woah. Wait.

NVIDIA settings? I don't even have a NVIDIA settings. I have the GM45 adapter... How the hell did you get NVIDIA settings? Were there three versions of this computer instead of just two? That being said I just re-updated my drivers. Now my experience rating is a 3.0

 

[Rubicon]

er..my bad not Nvidia, Intel GMA settings (my desktop has a Nvidia onboard card).

Right click the desktop, go to Graphic Properties, here you can edit the core settings of the GPU. Turn off all the eye candy you dont need, that should bump you up.

Visit, http://www.blackviper.com follow the Vista listing, turn off every process that is Safe to turn off. Reboot.

Start - Run - msconfig - Startup Tab, disable anything not absolutely necessary

 

[figmentPez]

more ram, and windows 7 64 bit. problem solved. jesus.

Not if RAM isn't the issue, or if there's another problem.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I'm wary about throwing down the cash for XP just at the moment if Windows 7 could do me just fine. I think I'll try that first, since I'd use that for everything whereas an XP partition would be solely for gaming.

Here is what Crucial said:

# Maximum Memory Capacity: 4096MB
# Currently Installed Memory: 3GB
# Available Memory Slots: 0
# Total Memory Slots: 2
# Dual Channel Support: No
# CPU Manufacturer: AuthenticAMD
# CPU Family: AMD Turion Dual-Core RM-75 Model 3, Stepping 1
# CPU Speed: 550 MHz

It says maximum supported, which could just mean my OS, and then elsewhere it says 2 RAM slots, 2GB per slot... which probably means my computer. So at max it looks like my lappy can handle 4GB.

I'm wondering if I can take the 2GB RAM stick from my Dell and use that. But I understand it would do any good until I get a 64-bit OS, which I will work on doing tomorrow.

 

[figmentPez]

I'm wary about throwing down the cash for XP just at the moment if Windows 7 could do me just fine.

Most of the gaming sites I've read have said that the performance difference between XP and Win7 is minimal, within the margin of error in most cases. (not that the difference between XP and Vista is much more, since drivers for Vista matured)

 

[Hailey Knight]

A site did a 10-game comparison and only 1 of the games showed Vista and 7 as close in performance. The rest, 7 way outperformed.

Also, I edited some stuff with L4D2, such as realizing that maybe putting the aspect ration to Widescreen since I have a widescreen laptop display might help... and it did. Things still chug and delay a little and I think the 64-bit+RAM upgrade will help the rest of the way.

Thanks everyone!

 

[figmentPez]

A site did a 10-game comparison and only 1 of the games showed Vista and 7 as close in performance. The rest, 7 way outperformed.

Which site? Which games? Which version of Win7 (beta? RC? RTM?) What hardware? How much is "way outperformed?

FiringSquad tested XP vs Vista vs 7 (beta), their results for L4D show Windows 7 winning at 1680x1050, while XP wins at 1920x1080. On the mid-range system (Athlon X2 5000+/GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB), we're talking 41 vs 45 fps and 39 vs 36 fps. It's a trivial difference in both cases. On the high end, it's a bigger swing (128 XP vs 158 Win7 @ 1680, 119 vs 106 @ 1920) but it's still not an important difference.

In Far Cry 2 (DX9) Windows 7 beat XP in every single test. In Crysis XP won 3 out of 4 tests, but only by 6fps at the most, on the mid-range system at 1920x1080 (which wouldn't be very playable anyway).


Anandtech found that Windows 7 came out tops in Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. and World in Conflict. WinXP didn't win a single one of their gaming tests.

 

[TotalFusionOne]

It says maximum supported, which could just mean my OS, and then elsewhere it says 2 RAM slots, 2GB per slot... which probably means my computer. So at max it looks like my lappy can handle 4GB.

I'm wondering if I can take the 2GB RAM stick from my Dell and use that. But I understand it would do any good until I get a 64-bit OS, which I will work on doing tomorrow.

Basically what that means is right now you have two slots, both full. One with a 1gb stick and one with a 2gb stick. You're going to have to remove one of those (The 1gb I'd imagine) and replace it with something else. Your only issue right now is the fact that 32-bit programs can't see over 3.xgb of memory (I can't remember what the exact number is, I think it's 3.6 or something) so you have to be running a 64-bit program.

Now in my laptop the 1gb and 2gb sticks are easily identified. I'm not sure what yours is going to be like. IF you decide to go this route you have to understand you are NOT going to see a performance boost that makes your laptop anything like a desktop. You will get SOME boost, but that's about it.

 

[figmentPez]

Your only issue right now is the fact that 32-bit programs can't see over 3.xgb of memory (I can't remember what the exact number is, I think it's 3.6 or something) so you have to be running a 64-bit program.

32-bit programs actually can't see over 2GB of RAM (and another 2GB of page file, or something like that), and most games are 32-bit still. A 32-bit operating system can see 3.xGB of RAM, and that exact number varies depending on the hardware because a 32-bit OS (special server extensions aside) can only see 4GB of memory, and that includes graphics card memory, hard drive cache, optical drive cache and more. Install two 1GB graphics cards in SLI on a 32-bit system and the OS will only be able to use less than 2GB of RAM because 2GB will be taken up by the graphics cards' memory.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I'm picking up Windows 7 tomorrow, installing 64-bit version, and taking the 2GB RAM out of my Dell to replace the 1GB RAM in this HP.