How can I improve my laptop to better run games?

[Aenima]

A common problem I have with my laptop, despite it supposedly being great for gaming, is that it tends to suck at playing most games. TW games are slow, at best, when in-battle (Medieval 2 and its mods are outright lag-tastic) and FPS' have a habit of juttering at times too.

The thing is, I'm computer illiterate. I have no idea what's crap and needs improving, and don't know where to start. To get a good overview of what my laptop is like and what needs to be improved, what specs do I need to find? By that I mean, along with the standard control panel>system security>system stats, what else can I look at to figure out what would make gaming better (ie graphics card, that kind of thing)

Like I said, I'm computer illiterate, so I'll need a point in the right direction to be able to find certain things, but I really just want to be able to improve my laptop so gaming doesn't run the risk of being slow or laggy due to a fault on the system's part. Thanks.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

if its a laptop its 99% likely your stuck with it,

need to know your system specs before i can do anything but if the laptop is to weak then its to weak you can't really improve gaming on a laptop without better graphics card and Laptop GPU thats equivalent to a $100-150 desktop part is $400-800 to buy seperately for a laptop

regardless run DX Diag to get your system info. and I can go from there.

[Aenima]

if its a laptop its 99% likely your stuck with it,

need to know your system specs before i can do anything but if the laptop is to weak then its to weak you can't really improve gaming on a laptop without better graphics card and Laptop GPU thats equivalent to a $100-150 desktop part is $400-800 to buy seperately for a laptop

regardless run DX Diag to get your system info. and I can go from there.

That would most definitely suck if it's the case.

Used run, typed in "dxdiag" and then clicked yes on the window that came up. I'm assuming that this tab is the one that'd be relevant to figuring out what can be done?

[Crazyeyesreaper]

go to the Display tab as well,

the CPU is perfectly fine but need to see the GPU if its NVIDIA it could be the power saving technology causing you problems.

[Aenima]

I'm assuming that this doesn't show the GPU - where can I find that?

[Crazyeyesreaper]

it seems the game is being run on the HD 3000 series graphics which is why the games are so slow,

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/window...-windows-7.htm

follow that open device manager and look under display adaptors by clicking it it should list all devices this will tell me if the laptop is using the HD graphics and not a dedicated GPU thats included, if no other GPU is listed then no your laptop is not ment for gaming.

But from what im seeing your Laptop uses integrated graphics which in all honesty are pretty much complete garbage.

From the looks tho its an HP correct? do you have the HP model number? that would be helpful as well

[Aenima]

It's not an HP, I'm afraid. It's a Novatech laptop. I'll see if I can find it on their site, hopefully that'll be of some use, although last time I tried looking I couldn't find it.

Device manager, as requested. Thanks for the help, by the way, really appreciate it.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

alright yea your laptop is defaulting to the Intel integrated GPU, instead of using the NVIDIA GT 555m thats the problem. Aka optimus tech.

Sadly there is no way to force the NVIDIA gpu to be the defacto one your only option is to update the NVIDIA drivers and Intel drivers for the laptop so youll have to check HPs site or the site of whomever manufacturered your notebook, sadly this is an extremely common problem with Intel + NVIDIA notebooks these days.
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Sometimes a system restore will work as well, but its hit or miss their really isnt a for certain fix for the problem just a bunch of small things but most dont seem to work or only work for sometime.

[Aenima]

alright yea your laptop is defaulting to the Intel integrated GPU, instead of using the NVIDIA GT 555m thats the problem. Aka optimus tech.

Awesome - how can I change it? I just double clicked on the Nvidia card there, and it says that it's working properly.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

just because it says its working doesnt mean it is,

example one user had solitare running the in the background when he launched a game it said the NVIDIA gpu was working but was in fact using the Intel IGP instead. closing solitaire then relaunching game worked fine, the tech of switching between GPUs really is just garbage right now. and the power savings are worthless, dont know why companies insist on continuing this way but I digress all you can really do is try driver updates, potentially a system restore, and should that fail start the process of constant googling for an answer,

in your Laptops manual you might find a FN key combo that will switch or force the NVIDIA gpu as well but its highly unlikely.

[Aenima]

Thanks again, really appreciate it.

Would simply disabling the Intel Graphics card be enough?

EDIT: Actually, I think I've figured it out. I right clicked my desktop and selected the NVidia control panel. From there, I've gone onto 3D settings > manage 3D settings and am able to choose the graphics processor individual programs, and I'm selecting "high performance NVidia processor" for each of my games, which has, by default, got "use global setting: (auto select:Integrated)" selected.

Unless I'm mistaken, this should sort everything out. But then, being a noob, I'm not sure if I'm counting my chickens before my eggs have hatched, and it turns out that it's not as simple as this.

[Magicman2051]

Try it and report back.

[Bolkonsky]

Do you have anything on your system labeled "Optimus" ?

Also, check your power settings, it might be defaulting to the HD 3000 to save power. Change everything to high performance.

However, the "Optimus" thing is very important. It's Nvidia's switchable graphics technology, if you don't have the drivers/software for it installed, it might not work correctly.

[Aenima]

No Optimus program as far as I can tell - couldn't find it via the start search bar, nor the control panel search, and I checked control panel>uninstall to see if it was there, nothing.

That said, it seems that going into the NVidia control panel and making the NVidia graphics card the go-to card for all programs has done the trick, as I was just able to play Dead Island with absolutely no lag, which was the worst game beforehand. The Medieval battles I've played, whilst not coming close to 4K vs 1K yet, have been smoother too, so it looks like, for the most part, my problem has been solved. Huge thank to you everyone, especially Reaper, since I had no idea where to even begin.

[Bolkonsky]

No Optimus program as far as I can tell - couldn't find it via the start search bar, nor the control panel search, and I checked control panel>uninstall to see if it was there, nothing.

That said, it seems that going into the NVidia control panel and making the NVidia graphics card the go-to card for all programs has done the trick, as I was just able to play Dead Island with absolutely no lag, which was the worst game beforehand. The Medieval battles I've played, whilst not coming close to 4K vs 1K yet, have been smoother too, so it looks like, for the most part, my problem has been solved. Huge thank to you everyone, especially Reaper, since I had no idea where to even begin.

OK then that's how to do it. I've never owned Optimus but there had to be a way to control it.

Just a heads up - it will drain your battery a lot, so if you're on battery, I'd recommend sticking to the HD 3000.

[Aenima]

OK then that's how to do it. I've never owned Optimus but there had to be a way to control it.

Just a heads up - it will drain your battery a lot, so if you're on battery, I'd recommend sticking to the HD 3000.

Yeah, I'm planning to switch between the Intel graphics card and the NVidia one when loading up/closing down games, so that should help with that.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

i hate the switchable graphics tech, its honestly just garbage with todays GPUs low power states.

[karamazovmm]

i hate the switchable graphics tech, its honestly just garbage with todays GPUs low power states.

no it isnt. when usually the total consumption of the notebook is around 3-5w, anything that you can save can put your battery life north of 6h. Hell we have 30h+ of battery life now on notebooks.

For example my battery is 62wh and I can have 10h+ of battery life (I had 15h once), meaning around 6wh of consumption. The lenovo X230 has even lower consumption.

I do think this should use muxes like amd did, sony does on some models and aw still does on their m17x and m18x, meaning you can manually switch. Optimus is a hit or miss, enduro even more so.


And there is no optimus program its on the nvidia control panel, you can in there select the exe of the game that you want to play and force the gpu. I dont know what you are expecting in terms of performance, while the 555m varies a lot (there are 5 different models, and currently being rebranded 620m/630m/635m with or without die shrinks), its still a good bit slower than the 460m/560m which is the entry range of gaming. For example the 680m against the 555m is around 400% better.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

well i dont need battery life of 15 hours, i dont use a laptop long enough and if im using it for gaming its plugged into the wall thus dont care,

6hrs or more is useful as a student in the real world i dont see a need for it, if i wanted that kind of battery life id have a netbook not a bulky laptop that im trying to game on lol, different strokes different folks,

in general i still find it worthless with the current tech its more problematic than it is helpful most of the time from my experience. I prefer that just works its why i stick to a desktop 99% of the time. i digress it can save some power

i was thinking of the Lucid virtu crap from before which switches to the Intel IGP yet doesnt turn off the Dedicated GPU thus power consumtion tended to be higher rather than lower like was stated. as you said Optimius is hit or miss a physical switch or FN key combo would be more useful.

[karamazovmm]

for people like me that have to carry the notebook everyday, the weight saved by the charger is a great thing. Usually those are around 300-1000g sometimes more in the case of the 300w psus.

for me notebooks are for mobility, so the lighter they are, the more battery life they have, the more they are fulfilling their purpose. The problem with brazos or atom is their power, or the entire lack of it. The x230 can have 30h+ of battery life, in a 12.5'' screen which is IPS btw, along with a though chassis, excellent keyboard and terrible touchpad. For people that need the power of a standard voltage cpus this is the thing (aside the ones that need real state and take good care of their notebooks, which them the vaio z13 is the thing, 1080p in 13'', quad core cpu, 512gb of raid 0 ssd, 16gb of ram). The hp 2570p, while it doesnt have the same battery life, it can be modded to a quad core.

So yeah the problem here is that even downclocked the dgpu still consumes too much power for nothing, unfortunately amd dropped the ball with enduro and it causes even performance loss on higher end gpus, thus sometimes its worth to pay the liver selling price of the 680m instead of the 7970m, aside overclocking of course, which the 680m is the beast