Gaming on laptop!

[reason 3]

Hello, i just bought a laptop recently. And i was wondering.. if anyone knows any good games that can be played with my hardware. I'm tired of all those flash/browser games.

Info about my hardware:

- Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU, M 370 @ 2.40GHz (4CPUs)
- 4 GB RAM
- 500GB HARD DISK

Untill now everything is good.. the problem is the graphic card. It has an Intel Integrated one.
(and no i'm not gonna buy a new)

I would also like to give you an example of my "gaming" with Warcraft 3.
I tried it on the best graphic options, it plays really good for 20-30 seconds then i get a 2-3 second lag-spike and fps=0. Then everything ok for another 20-30 seconds.. lag-spike again. And so on..

I found a way to fix that.. i just open Warcraft 3 with OpenGL, the graphics are shit.. but it can be played.

So.. i'm looking forward to any ideas for games, or ways to "improve" my configuration to play more games.

Thanks!

 

[Gilles]

I've used a Pentium 4 with Intel integrated graphics to play wc3 on at least decent settings. I would check your video drivers, make sure they're up to date. You should definitely be able to play wc3 on medium, I'm willing to bet you could even go on high.

I'd recommend getting steam and downloading old classics from Sega.

 

[reason 3]

My drivers are the latest.. I thought that i could run Warcraft 3, too. Imagine that it can run in my 11 years old pc!

Some games that i found are: Fate I/II/II, Torchlight, Terraria, Plants vs Zombies and Hacker Evolution Untold.
These can be played ok..

Anything more specific Gilles ?

 

[Dr Super Good]

I tried it on the best graphic options, it plays really good for 20-30 seconds then i get a 2-3 second lag-spike and fps=0. Then everything ok for another 20-30 seconds.. lag-spike again. And so on..

Unusual... check power management settings. Check thread piority.

 

[Kercyn]

Minecraft
Maybe Trine 2 too...

 

[reason 3]

Unusual... check power management settings. Check thread piority.

Power is set to normal. Not on Eco-Settings, or Power saving mode or something.

About thread priority, what do you mean?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Processes can have their piorities altered which means the threads they contain will be schedualed with higher piority (and allocated more time).

 

[The_wand_mirror]

Are there i3 quadcores?... Just checked that and no i3's are not quadcores...

 

[reason 3]

Are there i3 quadcores?... Just checked that and no i3's are not quadcores...

Here is a picture:

http://prntscr.com/588z3 (i drew a box around the info - the rest are Greek just in case)

If you had googled exactly what i typed you would have found this:

http://ark.intel.com/products/49020/Intel-Core-i3-370M-Processor-(3M-cache-2_40-GHz)

Processes can have their piorities altered which means the threads they contain will be schedualed with higher piority (and allocated more time).

How can i do that, and what would be the benefit? Some links would be quite useful.

My experience with processes is only on Linux, where we used to program small scripts at college ( with fork() ).

 

[Dr Super Good]

Windows Task Manager -> Processes
Select the process you want to raise priority for and right click
Set Priority -> Realtime

If this does not help, try Set Affinity... (below Set Priority) to only 1 processor (as sometimes multi core CPUs can cause older games to mess up).

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

AW or Dell or Asus = SC2, D3, War3 ? Any game you want. I dont have a PC, just a laptop connected with a monitor, 2 keyboards, 2 mice, TV tuner, internet.. I like I chose it over PC despite PC being able to perform a little better and cheaper. If I move what do I do? My AW's with me <3

Speaking of which I intend to upgrade my video card to crossfire ATI 2x512 as I didnt buy it back then but AW support is dead.

Anyway any decent laptop will do, today they come with 1024 MB video or so, some 2 GB or 2 x 1, Yeah emphasize on video, that lag when mass zerglings die or banelings splash sure doesnt come frm processor that made me lower to Medium, model deaths to low, and I wanna play High+

 

[Dr Super Good]

crossfire ATI 2x512

Good luck getting one of those... ATI has stopped existing for a couple of years.

 

[reason 3]

Windows Task Manager -> Processes
Select the process you want to raise priority for and right click
Set Priority -> Realtime

Well, i just did that. I was unable to set it to Realtime(error message), but it was set to High.

I think it kinda improved.. but still after around 30 seconds of gameplay i get that lag-spike(and 0 fps) for 2-3 seconds..
By the way.. i even get that even when i am in the menu, i mean before choosing bnet, local or something.

If this does not help, try Set Affinity... (below Set Priority) to only 1 processor (as sometimes multi core CPUs can cause older games to mess up).

Did that too, nothing changed.


Anything else you can think of?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Try turning ingame music off, could be related to buffering the music (why it is perodic and both in menues and ingame).

Next to that it can only be a display driver problem.

 

[Belgarath]

the processors have a weird way of counting each thread as a separate core, i have no idea what the actual difference is there but my i7 is a dual core with 4 threads too and is counted as a quad core too.
I have a laptop with switchable graphics between integrated intel HD3000 and a powerful gpu, radeon something something. I just ran WC3 at full settings with the integrated intel graphics with music and 5 tabs of chrome running and had no problems at all, full FPS and all, which is a bit strange considering the problems you've been having

 

[reason 3]

Try turning ingame music off, could be related to buffering the music (why it is perodic and both in menues and ingame).

Back and posting resutls.. switching off the music ALMOST worked. This time i played the same map as before for 4-5 minutes before i get the lag-spike.(with full graphics)

This problem is getting wierd.. What can be wrong?

Next to that it can only be a display driver problem.

Can we do something about that?

the processors have a weird way of counting each thread as a separate core, i have no idea what the actual difference is there but my i7 is a dual core with 4 threads too and is counted as a quad core too.
I have a laptop with switchable graphics between integrated intel HD3000 and a powerful gpu, radeon something something. I just ran WC3 at full settings with the integrated intel graphics with music and 5 tabs of chrome running and had no problems at all, full FPS and all, which is a bit strange considering the problems you've been having

Yeah, you tell me. My friend has a 2 duo-core, at 2.4Ghz with half of my RAM and with integrated graphic card and he can run it perfectly!

I can't find out what's wrong with that laptop of mine..

 

[Dr Super Good]

Back and posting resutls.. switching off the music ALMOST worked. This time i played the same map as before for 4-5 minutes before i get the lag-spike.(with full graphics)

Try playing with no sound (both music and sound turned off in options) and see if it makes a difference.

Anyway here are some possible causes based on what you said
- Disc set to shut off too quickly in power management.
- Disc is being used heavilly by other processes.
- A lack of free available memory is causing page faults perodicly.
- A sound driver bug causing the process to hold perodicly.
- Defective hard disk resulting in horrible seek and read times.

 

[reason 3]

Try playing with no sound (both music and sound turned off in options) and see if it makes a difference.

Well, i did that before. I turned sound and music off when i posted results above.

Anyway here are some possible causes based on what you said
- Disc set to shut off too quickly in power management.
- Disc is being used heavilly by other processes.
- A lack of free available memory is causing page faults perodicly.
- A sound driver bug causing the process to hold perodicly.
- Defective hard disk resulting in horrible seek and read times.

When i run Warcraft3 and usually i have other programs open too, my RAM doesn't go over 50%.. so i don't this this is a problem.
My hard disk is also half-full.

About the rest, is there a way to check disk - i mean without buying a new one..

 

[Dr Super Good]

You can use performance monitor to check the rates that drives are working at but next to that it is not really possible.

Have you defragmented your hard disk at all? It might be due to excessive fragmentation. Also turn off background processes that are not important, it is possible that 1 of them is thrashing your hard disk perodicly which causes WC3 problems while playing.

Try running WC3 from a USB flash memory stick if you got a 1+ GB one lieing around. The USB flash memory stick should not be getting I/O trashed so performance from it should remain constant.

Also what is your virtual memory usage? Perhapse your system is running out of hard disk backed virtual memory.

 

[reason 3]

You can use performance monitor to check the rates that drives are working at but next to that it is not really possible.

Have you defragmented your hard disk at all? It might be due to excessive fragmentation. Also turn off background processes that are not important, it is possible that 1 of them is thrashing your hard disk perodicly which causes WC3 problems while playing.

Try running WC3 from a USB flash memory stick if you got a 1+ GB one lieing around. The USB flash memory stick should not be getting I/O trashed so performance from it should remain constant.

Also what is your virtual memory usage? Perhapse your system is running out of hard disk backed virtual memory.

I use Glary Utilities PRO version to check my system, so yeah its ok. Unecessary processes aren't running - hard disk status is ok - i got my regedit cleaned and so on..

I will try running it from a USB like you said and i will post back results.

About the memory here is a pic -> http://www.prntscr.com/58xle

 

[Dr Super Good]

You only have 335 "Free" MB of memory apparently lol. But that should not make much difference seeing as it will free up space by deleteing the file cache (what is listed as available).

I am concerned about your handle count. That is a stupidly large number (over 3 times the number I have) for a computer sitting idle.

 

[Trojan_PwNeR]

DO not set the process to realtime as this might cause blue screen if the PC doesn't respond quick enough, set it right before Realtime, it won't be a difference, also are you sure it's not 2cores 4 threads? Is the harddrive full? Not updated drivers? :s, Does your RAM hit max when the 0fps occurs?

 

[reason 3]

You only have 335 "Free" MB of memory apparently lol. But that should not make much difference seeing as it will free up space by deleteing the file cache (what is listed as available).

I am concerned about your handle count. That is a stupidly large number (over 3 times the number I have) for a computer sitting idle.

Do you have any suggestions on what can be done? (besides formatting my hard disk)

Do you want more pics of what is currently running or more info.. or something?

I have done everything i knew of.. but nothing helped me.

DO not set the process to realtime as this might cause blue screen if the PC doesn't respond quick enough, set it right before Realtime, it won't be a difference, also are you sure it's not 2cores 4 threads? Is the harddrive full? Not updated drivers? :s, Does your RAM hit max when the 0fps occurs?

I was unable to, so it was set on high. It is 2 core and 4 thread, but in it it is described as 4. Whatever..

Hard disk is half-full.

No RAM doesn't hit 100%.

And about drivers.. i'm not really sure. Is there a way to check it?

 

[BlargHonk]

THE COMIC SANS, IT BURNS!

Regardless, the issue MIGHT be caused by Glary, which is notoriously aggressive with registry errors. It mighta deleted part of your GPU drivers.

 

[reason 3]

THE COMIC SANS, IT BURNS!

Regardless, the issue MIGHT be caused by Glary, which is notoriously aggressive with registry errors. It mighta deleted part of your GPU drivers.

You think so?

Maybe i could try re-installing my drivers.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Good luck getting one of those... ATI has stopped existing for a couple of years.

Wth are you talking about?
http://www.amd.com/us/products/Pages/graphics.aspx

1GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6870M
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M
2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6990M
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M

yes they seem to replace with NVidia. Anyway my ATI model HD 3870 is from the recommended on Blizzard's tech specs for SC2/

 

[Dr Super Good]

Wth are you talking about?

ATI stopped existing a few years ago. All cards are now AMD as you so kindly posted. It is impossible to find a new ATI card as everything is now AMD.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Yes I noticed they are no longer called 'ATI' and wondered why called AMD, I guess some company merge or whatever.

well what can I say - damn AW - when they were offering M17 laptop which is mine, for which I payed THOUSANDS due However, their support died, don't answer anymore, and even though they don't offer them anymore, they should be to also VAT + delivery coming from the UK, shortly after they released M17x, and now since maybe late 2009 or 2010 until now M17x is on the loose.

And thankfully they made drivers for Win7, I run my x64 bit Win7 Home Premium just fine, as the new ones also come with this one by default.

having the cards biting the dust somewhere in the warehouse, as I didnt pay for Crossfire at that time,

my lap's running fine but SC2 could cause lag when too many zerglings/banelings splash or die on Medium, so I set death models to low, also Diablo 3 from what I tested could lag a little if too many creatures.

So, for my lap, getting a 2nd one is the only option for which I probably need to go to the UK.

To OP: PCs are known to be better but games can run perfectly on today's laptops.

 

[BlargHonk]

Yes I noticed they are no longer called 'ATI' and wondered why called AMD, I guess some company merge or whatever.

Why YES, there Was a merge

6 god damn years ago.

They just decided to put the name to rest finally during the HD5 series and consolidate under AMD, frankly the change is minimal as they kept the Radeon trademark and only 2 letters were changed.\


Edit: Wait.. what, I am a Jewel in the Rough? What the hell. Now I want a mod to change it to Dick in the Rough :|

 

[Trojan_PwNeR]

Yes I noticed they are no longer called 'ATI' and wondered why called AMD, I guess some company merge or whatever.

well what can I say - damn AW - when they were offering M17 laptop which is mine, for which I payed THOUSANDS due However, their support died, don't answer anymore, and even though they don't offer them anymore, they should be to also VAT + delivery coming from the UK, shortly after they released M17x, and now since maybe late 2009 or 2010 until now M17x is on the loose.

And thankfully they made drivers for Win7, I run my x64 bit Win7 Home Premium just fine, as the new ones also come with this one by default.

having the cards biting the dust somewhere in the warehouse, as I didnt pay for Crossfire at that time,

my lap's running fine but SC2 could cause lag when too many zerglings/banelings splash or die on Medium, so I set death models to low, also Diablo 3 from what I tested could lag a little if too many creatures.

So, for my lap, getting a 2nd one is the only option for which I probably need to go to the UK.

To OP: PCs are known to be better but games can run perfectly on today's laptops.

1. Disable AA if it lags a lot when you have 9999creeps
2. Don't buy any Alienware crap, why don't you wait for april and the new intel processors?
3. Laptop might be hard to build, but i would focus on Hybrid crossfire with the new AMD Trinity. if you can find such a PC (When it comes out), They are cheap unless you wanna go for Mobile cards which are overpriced imo.

Ati Was bought by AMD =/= They are now called Amd Radeon

To the OP.
If that isn't a issue, then there's most likely something with the system, is your windows corrupt and missing some .dll files? Try to also disable Hyperthreading since it doesn't help in games.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Try to also disable Hyperthreading since it doesn't help in games.

It does improve game performance as it allows many OS tasks to be run on the wasted cycles from the main threads of the game.

The principles behind hyperthreading is that if the main thread can not do anything (eg a cache miss) then run a second thread until the main thread can continue. The chances of a second thread being unable to continue is minimal for the few cycles that it gets allocated haphazardly based on main thread perfromance. Ofcourse it is easilly viable to make 3 way hyperthreading which will run a third thread if both the main and second thread are unable to continue but it has greatly dimished returns due to extra design complexity and the probability that it will actually be used. This form of multi tasking is very efficient as it only requires a second set of registers for the alternative thread and can reuse the ALU and control system of the core. Windows 7 also correctly identifies hyperthreaded cores and will automaticly not schedual demanding threads onto them (instead schedualing on the main cores). It will however schedual undemanding threads onto the hyperthreaded cores of cores running demanding threads to give maximum effictiveness of multitasking from the processor.

 

[Adiktuz]

weird... my laptop has first-gen i3, a lower ram and hdd space than urs but I can play wc3 without any problems or lag spikes even with a bit of HD textured models spammed...

 

[Trojan_PwNeR]

It does improve game performance as it allows many OS tasks to be run on the wasted cycles from the main threads of the game.

The principles behind hyperthreading is that if the main thread can not do anything (eg a cache miss) then run a second thread until the main thread can continue. The chances of a second thread being unable to continue is minimal for the few cycles that it gets allocated haphazardly based on main thread perfromance. Ofcourse it is easilly viable to make 3 way hyperthreading which will run a third thread if both the main and second thread are unable to continue but it has greatly dimished returns due to extra design complexity and the probability that it will actually be used. This form of multi tasking is very efficient as it only requires a second set of registers for the alternative thread and can reuse the ALU and control system of the core. Windows 7 also correctly identifies hyperthreaded cores and will automaticly not schedual demanding threads onto them (instead schedualing on the main cores). It will however schedual undemanding threads onto the hyperthreaded cores of cores running demanding threads to give maximum effictiveness of multitasking from the processor.

From my sources & my own Knowledge, i'm pretty sure a old game like Wc3 isn't gonna support HT, The only known game that effeciently supports HT is DX10 or some flight simulator game. The only performance you will gain is the other programs running Such as Windows running more smooth, the game will not however, the performance gain by having HT on is less then 1% and sometimes negative. Going into details is pointless so i'll just post this http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288 2600k With HT And 100Mhz Faster + 2Mb Cache ( shouldn't make a difference ) vs 2500k without HT, Look @ games.

 

[Dr Super Good]

i'm pretty sure a old game like Wc3 isn't gonna support HT

HT is a multitasking model and does not require software support beyond the OS. WC3 will gain an advantage from a processor that uses HT over one that does not but you are right in that the advantage might be as small as a fraction of a %. Thus turning off HT will always reduce performance rather than improve performance on modern opperating systems like W7 which correctly identify HT cores over main cores.

The fact that turning off music reduced the regularity of the freezes points towards some I/O problem with the backing storage. Music needs to be constantly streamed from disc while other data is loaded on demand.

 

[Trojan_PwNeR]

HT is a multitasking model and does not require software support beyond the OS. WC3 will gain an advantage from a processor that uses HT over one that does not but you are right in that the advantage might be as small as a fraction of a %. Thus turning off HT will always reduce performance rather than improve performance on modern opperating systems like W7 which correctly identify HT cores over main cores.

The fact that turning off music reduced the regularity of the freezes points towards some I/O problem with the backing storage. Music needs to be constantly streamed from disc while other data is loaded on demand.

Point being, many games don't support more then 4cores, i've also tested this and seen that Disabling HT on wc3 improves Load time since it only supports 2Cores (Possible 1) not sure. Also, since W7 identifies HT as ''Cores'' And some games have a limit on it, it makes it worser, i tested it myself. Even if it supports more then 4cores, the HT will be of no use cause the game isn't utilizing it. only a few mini things may be when gaming which makes it useless (less then 1%), Games has a limit on cores and since W7 identifies HT as cores it's same thing.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

2. Don't buy any Alienware crap, why don't you wait for april and the new intel processors?

Lol they are not..just a little bit over-priced. I've been using mine without any problems so far, just these money suckers would love you to pay another thousands every year. Nah just bad luck, but I couldn't wait further. Crossfire is fine, in the far future I might change. Just need that little upgrade now.

Plus customizing laptops is the way to go. Not buy ready..

 

[Gilles]

Lol they are not..just a little bit over-priced. I've been using mine without any problems so far, just these money suckers would love you to pay another thousands every year. Nah just bad luck, but I couldn't wait further. Crossfire is fine, in the far future I might change. Just need that little upgrade now.

Plus customizing laptops is the way to go. Not buy ready..

In my opinion laptops aren't worth it for gaming. I got mine for $450 CAN, and it's great for everything I need it to do. My desktop is my gaming rig. Understandably people might want to be able to game on their laptop, but unless you have extra cash to throw around, I just don't think they're worth it.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

It is true, PCs are better but you know, if they do the job well, im fine with SC2 and D3, so as long as I play these on acceptable and not lowest settings it's fine. But if one moves to live elsewhere, and well for using them anywhere, outside etc..

I like AW's design and available specs for customizing, they are a little more pricy but often times they abandon their models and support for them, it's like they expect you to buy a new laptop of theirs every year or two, which I would tell them to gtfo about. In my case though M17x is already 3 years while they released M17 in the end of 2008 which is the one I have, less than a year passed and my lap became old.. M17x being the new.

 

[LordDz]

Get a laptop cooler, they help a lot when playing on a laptop.

Laptop Cooler

 

[Trojan_PwNeR]

It is true, PCs are better but you know, if they do the job well, im fine with SC2 and D3, so as long as I play these on acceptable and not lowest settings it's fine. But if one moves to live elsewhere, and well for using them anywhere, outside etc..

I like AW's design and available specs for customizing, they are a little more pricy but often times they abandon their models and support for them, it's like they expect you to buy a new laptop of theirs every year or two, which I would tell them to gtfo about. In my case though M17x is already 3 years while they released M17 in the end of 2008 which is the one I have, less than a year passed and my lap became old.. M17x being the new.

Well, are you ready to blow money out or are out for the Performance per $.
Also are you out for a PC or Laptop?

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

No, I can't spend all money on PCs, 1 is enough and it is good enough for SC2 and D3, and I chose laptop over PC with all its minsues in pluses as I may be mobile where I stay and live. I replaced Vista x32 with Win7 x64, AW have drivers for the latter, just gonna upgrade my video to Xfire and it will be good.

The guy is asking if he should have a laptop, the questions for the right choice is: Do you like cool design, do you like being seen outside or for whatever reason using it outside your house, do you move to live or use it for studies/work, if yes, then get a laptop, if not, then choose a PC - works better and cheaper, more options for replacing and upgrading. Nah AW's laptops also allow upgrading but their upgr isnt as much as you can do with a PC.

So I'm not sure I can recommend Alienware for the reason they quickly stop supporting anything that's not the newest. Get Dell, Asus, maybe Acer as good brands.

 

[BlargHonk]

So I'm not sure I can recommend Alienware for the reason they quickly stop supporting anything that's not the newest. Get Dell, Asus, maybe Acer as good brands.

Dell.... owns.... Alienware *facepalm*


Asus or MSI, those are the only sure ones :/

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

^ I know Alienware comes from Dell... But you can consider them as different since for AW support you get support from AW, for Dell you get support frm Dell and AW's support is dead, at least Dell is living. So you can still decide between Dell and Alienware sytems.. as two different. AW's performance is good but their lack of support for just few years ago products makes me not choose them in the future. I would probably go for DELL since I can expect they will support their products for very long.

 

[Gilles]

Asus or MSI, those are the only sure ones :/

While I've never used one, Gateway computers have always interested me. They certainly seem to use solid components. My limited experience with Toshiba has also been good (laptops).

 

[BlargHonk]

While I've never used one, Gateway computers have always interested me. They certainly seem to use solid components. My limited experience with Toshiba has also been good (laptops).

Gateway desktops... eh, reliable but not exactly... performance or expandable. Same with Toshy laptops, businesses Love those.

 

[phuc1570]

First, go check the graphics card and graphics/desktop resolution. Try this (click to download warcraft3resolution fix) first, run that software to make sure your warcraft work in correct resolution. Secondly, go to Options in Warcraft, in video settings, you should set almost everything to low, after you've done everything, do a quick game in warcraft to test with warcraft if you still have a problem. If you play warcraft online, you should check if your connection speed is good enough. Otherwise, lag may occur during your game.