Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

OK, I've taken the first step away consoles toward PC gaming. I just can't justify the wasteful spending on console games when Steam and GoG seem so much more appealing. Handhelds and Wii U I'll do, but Sony and MS consoles I feel I'm done with after this gen. I'll keep my 360 for the few games exclusive to console, but I'm not bothering with anything i could get for PC aside from Skyrim expansions (then when I build a better PC, I'll grab the GOTY version when it lands there).

I'm starting small and safe with some fairly old games. I traded in New Vegas: UE toward a Steam card (being this is still the summer sale there was a 30% trade-in bonus toward Steam wallet codes at Gamestop) and swept up Morrowind, Oblivion, Torchlight, Deus Ex and DX Invisible War off Steam for $19.95. One game for four. Not bad at all.

I have my doubts about being able to run Oblivion, so i kept my 360 copy as a fallback. I should be able to run the others, but some seem to be a touch laggy even with some of the settins scaled down and considering this laptop has a dual core processor, plenty of RAM and runs the latest DirectX and Windows 7 that seems a bit off. Is there anything I can do to fix that?

[DakAttack]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

Build a PC. Laptops are fitted with mobility graphics cards, which may be branded as recent tech, but they're about half as powerful as the non-mobility cards they're based on. This is the biggest hurdle in laptop gaming. There are some accessories that will let you plug a full PCI-E x16 graphics card into an adapter, which then plugs into your laptop through a USB port, but they can be costly and cumbersome. You may find it easier to build your own PC, or wait until Newegg is trying to clear out their inventory of pre-built PCs and puts them on sale.

[Raydeus]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

You need to check your 3D settings, usually the performance killers are AA and others like it. Depending on your video ram you may want to scale texture settings if you notice too many textures or objects lagging and popping at odd times.

But to give any more specific opinions we need to know the graphics chip on your laptop, the driver you are currently using and the exact amount of ram and processor.

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Build a PC. Laptops are fitted with mobility graphics cards, which may be branded as recent tech, but they're about half as powerful as the non-mobility cards they're based on. This is the biggest hurdle in laptop gaming. There are some accessories that will let you plug a full PCI-E x16 graphics card into an adapter, which then plugs into your laptop through a USB port, but they can be costly and cumbersome. You may find it easier to build your own PC, or wait until Newegg is trying to clear out their inventory of pre-built PCs and puts them on sale.

That's the next natural step, but let's work with what we have right now. <_<;

Heck, I'm just happy to see BBQ bother getting an Steam account.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

I've had a Steam account since about this time last year when I got Portal 2, when you got Portal 2 for free on Steam if I got the PS3 version. For some reason I lost that game, I guess something changed in the Steam user agreement or I just lost it in the last crash and it was a one-time freebie download.

Getting/building a new PC is the next step, just not something I can do right away at the moment.

Lesse here;

Card: Mobile Intel(R) 956 Express Chipset Family
Processor Intel Pentium Dual CPU T2390 @1.86GHz 1.87GHz
Installed RAM; 3 GB

[DakAttack]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

Well, if you find yourself saving up here and there, you should keep an eye on LogicBuy.com. They'll list the major sales from TigerDirect, NewEgg, Dell, and many other places. With enough time, you'll find a sale for nearly every part you need. If you take this route, save the motherboard for last, since those are the part most likely to be dead on arrival and often have short warranties.

[Malacite]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

You're only using a dual core?

That's your problem. You need at least a quad these days, or if you want good performance without getting too pricey an Intel i5 series will do.

[Raydeus]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

The latest driver version for that chipset seems to be 15.​12.​75.​4.​1930 so you can update if you have an older drive. But I'm having trouble finding the actual 3D settings for this chipset. Are there any settings you can adjust for it? <_<;

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PS > Also, how much ram do you have assigned for graphics on the BIOS? Because they usually take a portion of the installed ram for the graphics.

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You're only using a dual core?

That's your problem. You need at least a quad these days, or if you want good performance without getting too pricey an Intel i5 series will do.

What chu talkin about? Dual core works well with many older (before 2010) games. I have set some laptops for my family that run all their games at normal laptop resolutions without problems. They may not play Shogun 2 in all it's glory, but they can definitely run good games like a non-modded Oblivion.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

Latest driver was 8.15.10.1930 and it won't update further.

Can't seem to pull up BIOS for RAM. I just did a start-up with F2 and 12 to try to find it but no luck. Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place.

So far it seems Deus Ex and Torchlight run at full blast. Then again, DX is just that old and Torchlight was made by people that worked at Blizzard, so the game just acclimating to your system is to be expected.

[Raydeus]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

How are you updating the driver? Because if it's automated it will not download the latest drivers from Intel, but instead download the latest drivers from the manufacturer, and they tend to stop updating fairly soon.

Most of the times BIOS setup is F8, just spam it as soon as you turn the laptop on because most manufacturers hide the boot (POST) messages behind some lame logo screen. Also, if you are lucky you should be able to turn that off too unless the manufacturer messed too much with the BIOS.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

I was updating by internet, so I take It I need to go through the Intel site, then?

[Raydeus]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

Yep, gotta go to Intel, download it, then uninstall the old driver and reboot, then run the installer for the new driver and reboot again (even if it doesn't ask you to.)

Fortunately you are running Windows 7, so the process is way less risky than on XP.

[Malacite]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

What are you laptop's specs?

I still think it's likely the processor, but it could also be drivers, RAM type, your GPU or even the settings you're using for the game. And Dualcore's suck, I got my PC back in 2007/2008 and it's a Quad. Aren't Bethesda's games resource hogs?

[Icemage]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

Wii U + 3DS + PC will probably cover a majority of game releases in the next generation, though it's anyone's guess where the gaming industry as a whole goes from here.

Your first problem is "laptop". Laptops that aren't designed with gaming in mind are difficult (if not outright impossible) to upgrade up to an acceptable "gaming rig" spec, and even dedicated gaming laptops tend to become obsolete fairly quickly, with few to no viable and cost-effective options to keep them current. If you're serious about wanting your PC to displace your current home console for the next 5 years, you're going to have to ditch the laptop and build a proper PC with parts that you can upgrade later.

As for settings, what's likely is that you're running an on-board graphics chip which is sharing resources with your CPU. If that's the case, there's really not a lot you can do settings-wise to make it run non-optimized games without serious chugging. Turning off anti-aliasing and shadows and similar settings "helps", but you can't squeeze blood from a stone.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

Personally I've noticed Laptops just don't perform as well either. Long gaming sessions drains the battery quickly and causes your laptop to heat up a lot more as well.

I'm not saying you can't/shouldn't do it, just that you should be aware that for serious gaming a Desktop *is* the best choice. And yeah, even the best on-board GPU's are garbage.

[Armando]

Re: Help a PC gaming noob PC game better

Your first problem is "laptop". Laptops that aren't designed with gaming in mind are difficult (if not outright impossible) to upgrade up to an acceptable "gaming rig" spec, and even dedicated gaming laptops tend to become obsolete fairly quickly, with few to no viable and cost-effective options to keep them current. If you're serious about wanting your PC to displace your current home console for the next 5 years, you're going to have to ditch the laptop and build a proper PC with parts that you can upgrade later.

While it's certainly true that laptops can't be upgraded beyond RAM/storage drives/optical drives, Asus's g-series laptops have decent specs and are fairly priced. They're quite heavy and thick though, so it depends on you consider portable. I suspect the reason so many laptop GPUs underperform is that they're too thin, and have to throttle down the CPU and GPU to avoid overheating.