Contant Framerate Drops

[FlapJack]

Hey,



I have an ATI X300 Mobility Radeon. When I'm playing a number of games such as Half-Life 2, Far Cry, City of Heroes, etc...the game always starts out with a great frame rate. Like HL2 I start out with framerates anywhere from 40-100. As I play the framerate either gets progressively worse, or immediately worse. I can't figure this out as it doesn't do it wit all games. Like F.E.A.R. runs pretty well all the time.

I can't download new drivers because I have to get my drivers from Dell...I have an Inspiron 6000, and the latest driver release from Dell was in 2005....and the ATI site won't let me download the drivers...it tells me to get them from Dell. So, I've been using the Omega drivers...neither those are the Dell drivers have made a difference with my problem. Any tips would be appreciated.




Thanks,
- Tommy

 

[gurusan]

how much ram do you have?

Is windows set to automatically manage the page file space?

 

[FlapJack]

I have 1GB of Ram. And Virtual Memory...I have that set to a custom size if that's what you mean...3072mb. How do you set it to automatically manage it??

-EDIT-

Freaking flash games have frame rate drops for no apparent reason too! It's so annoying. I even have Windows Classic skin on and everything adjusted for best performance. And I have my virtual memory settings for running programs better. The thing I don't get is...how come the framerate (in some games) randomly gets better for anywhere between a few seconds to a minute, then it drops again? I noticed it happens for seemingly no apparent reason...I mean, there's nothing that changes in whatever I'm doing that would make the framerate better.

 

[Adzh]

heat?

 

[FlapJack]

It doesn't get that hot...I have a laptop cooling pad I use that the laptop sits on. Also, the frame rate never drops once I start feeling heat...it's not something that you can repro whenever you want. It just happens randomly...whether the game has been open for a longtime or for just a few moments. I guess something else I would like to know is if anyone else has this problem...on their laptop or desktop.

 

[Alexinator]

There's only two explanations for this, and I'm betting on #2.

#1: Heat, plain and simple. Heat will screw you over because it can warm the microscopic circuits in your system causing problems. Heat also has other affects. And in Laptops, heat is an issue whether it feels like it's hot or not. Get some temp readings for us.

#2: Your lappy is old enough to have had a lot of extra software on it. Antivirus.. java updating.. many many many things could cuase it. Try the following for me:

In the start menu, click Run... Typ in msconfig. When the box shows up just click selective startup and check the SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI boxes, then go to the services tab and click enable all, then click the Hide Microsoft Services check box, click disable all, click the startup tab and click disable all.

That will make it so nothing but vital services, and sound/video drivers and stuff starts up in the beginning. Then run though a game for about an hour and give me the results.

 

[gurusan]

yeah I'd check for unneeded processes and do a spyware scan.

 

[Jorsoft]

Do a defrag, too. That can definitely help your speed issues.

 

[FlapJack]

Thanks for all the tips guys...I'll let you all know what kind of results I get tomorrow. Also, how do I get temp readings on my GPU? I know how to get them on my CPU, but I've never been able to figure out how to get them from my GPU.

 

[FlapJack]

Aight peeps,



I did get better frame rates after running Ad-Aware, SpyBot, and defragging my computer. I also did selective startup and it does seem to run better in general...although still not perfect, but I guess there's only so much you can do with a Radeon X300. Thanks for all the tips guys!