EFLC lag even though GTA IV runs fine!

[flameweilder]

I bought a new laptop for college, I'm on a budget so please excuse the fact that it's not exactly a gaming enthusiast setup.

 

Regardless, GTA IV (patched to 1.7 or whatever the latest patch is) runs at over 30 fps at all times, running on every settings to high (including textures) except for shadows. I set view distance to 1 so I can set vehicle density to 100, and my detail distance is at 25. The game runs just fine, even though most people preach quad core CPUs for this game.

 

However, EFLC (namely, TBoGT) runs like crap. The game ran beautifully for the first 20 minutes (basically the first mission and some free roam afterwards) on settings higher than that of GTA IV. I could even turn view distance to 100 along with vehicle density and everything else at high or max and still not go below 25 fps. However, after I went into the savehouse and saved the game, as soon as I stepped back outside the framerate never went above 30. I turned the settings to ones lower than those I run GTA IV at, and it still gives me 15-25 fps.

 

I'm running EFLC on the latest patch too, of course. So what gives? Why did it run so well at first and then suddenly ran like utter crap? Oh, and here are my laptop specs:

 

Intel i5-480m 2.66GHz

AMD Radeon HD 6550m 1 GB

4 GB DDR3 RAM

640 GB HDD

 

Please don't give me crap about how much better your rig is and how this laptop "couldn't run san andreas on lowest settings LOL". I never said it was great but it runs other CPU-heavy games just fine (BFBC2 for example).

[meson1]

I'd guess it's down to your temparatures. I used to have something similar on my desktop. It'd run fine for an hour or so, then it'd start having little hesitations and lags.

 

I eventually solved it with a combination of case mods and careful use of Rivatuner to manage the fan speeds.

 

This is where laptops can fall down. Thermal management is one of the fundamental differences between a regular laptop and a gaming lappy.

Edited July 4, 2011 by meson1

[flameweilder]

Well it's an Acer laptop so it's not exactly regular. It was the most expensive laptop in the store, second to a $1999.99 ugly laptop with a very weak i7 in it. This wasn't some crappy store either, these guys specialized in PC hardware and that only.

 

Why would I experience temperature problems in EFLC, and not in GTA IV, Bad Company 2, or any other game? Plus, I tried running EFLC again today and it still runs bad. I don't know what to do. My old desktop, which has worse specs than this laptop, ran EFLC better than GTA IV and better than I run EFLC now (on lower settings, though).

[YankeesPwnMets]

GTA IV/EFLC are picky games. They only run nicely on select system. Some people have these great system but they get stuck with random error messages or other issues (for ex. green rain) 4GB of RAM should be enough for gaming, but most gamers usually run into limitations some time or another with only 4gigs of RAM. When you run EFLC, keep an eye on the RAM amounts. I've heard before that EFLC needs slightly higher hardware to run.

 

Who exactly are "these guys"? If you mean the Best Buy Geek Squad, then those guys are really idiots. They don't know anything...

 

Try to install this update from AMD:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/wind...ob_win7-64.aspx

[flameweilder]

Thanks for the driver, but I've already installed it. It's weird that you say EFLC requires better hardware, I've heard it was actually better optimized. "These guys" were just a local pc hardware store, nothing famous. I'm just saying that they had a wall of every CPU, GPU, or other piece of hardware you could ever want, and they seemed like they knew everything about it. That's beside the point, though.

[unc13bud]

"It's weird that you say EFLC requires better hardware, I've heard it was actually better optimized."

 

it may run better on some machines, but on the three machines i have tried, it runs worse. i'm not even planning to reinstall EFLC again until i have beaten IV

cpus were, q6600, phenom 8600, and 64x2 6000+

and these are all desktop cpus, you are running a mobile laptop that's dual core, and an ati mobile chipset that has a "50" suffix

[OverTheBelow]

 

Thanks for the driver, but I've already installed it. It's weird that you say EFLC requires better hardware, I've heard it was actually better optimized. "These guys" were just a local pc hardware store, nothing famous. I'm just saying that they had a wall of every CPU, GPU, or other piece of hardware you could ever want, and they seemed like they knew everything about it. That's beside the point, though.

They may know all about hardware, but they will go all out to make you buy a more expensive piece of kit even if it is not up to par with what you expect.

 

Anyway, it sounds like your laptop may be overheating and throttling itself. Given that your laptop is .. a laptop, I assume you'll be moving it around onto different surfaces. If you were playing BFBC2 on a flat hard surface (ideal for the laptop stands to keep it elevated), it'd run cooler on that over a soft duvet surface or something.

 

Also, I'd turn the sliders down to 50 if I were you. It'll run much smoother and you probably won't notice a single difference in visual quality, plus your components may run slightly cooler.

 

 

I have this minutely faster laptop (in terms of gaming) but albeit extremely similar laptop for general schoolwork and occasional away-gaming, seems exactly like the one you have:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/264266

 

Not that expensive either, it'd be the equivelent to about $804.

Edited July 5, 2011 by OverTheBelow