Serious game performance issues

[Silent_Octave]

Where do I start?

Lately when I've been playing games, the graphic performance has been nothing short of attrocious... It's to the point now where even the simplest of games (by that I mean Deus Ex standards) are struglling to play without looking like they're under a frame rate limiter.

I have tried lowering the graphics level to the absolute minimum with no success - even at 640x480 the gameplay is exactly the same. I would have thought that my memory, CPU power and graphics card combined should counter the graphic detail of newer games, but it seems not.

Can anyone help me?


System Specs:

HT Intel P4@3.4GHz (Laptop)
1024MB DDR400 RAM
256MB ATI Radeon 9700
Dual 60GB 7200RPM HDD running Raid-0

 

[TheMayorsCronie]

I have a Radeon and I have some serious problems on games as well. Drivers would be my first guess. Try Omega Drivers.

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Time to dump that card!!!! Nvidia 6600gt's are not outrageously expensive. I, within tthe last 6 months, bought a 6800GT, and it was worth every penny! It is nice being able to play any game at decent settings wihtout being FPS hogtied!

 

[SHAWN]

Time to dump that card!!!! Nvidia 6600gt's are not outrageously expensive. I, within tthe last 6 months, bought a 6800GT, and it was worth every penny! It is nice being able to play any game at decent settings wihtout being FPS hogtied!

Its a laptop. You can't.


I would start off with new drivers or alternative drivers like TheMayorsCronie said. Post back results.

 

[vaderpro]

Make sure you have no background programs running when playing. Check for viruses and spyware etc.

 

[StoneUSA7]

Silly question, but do you have 3D excelleration activated on your hardware and on Full? I know I had an install of Windows 2000 Server that initially installs without Hardware 3D exceleration activated. Can't remember exactly how to do it, but you can google it and find out.

 

[Silent_Octave]

Alright, downloaded the latest Omega drivers (which, incidentally, I never knew existed - good pickup there!) and installed them but it seems to have had no impact...

I checked my 3D acceleration and my windows settings from control panel has it on full. My advanced display settings for the card, however, I have set to 'balanced' (midway between 'high graphics' and 'high performance') so that it doesn't try to get too graphics intensive during gameplay. I've also tried setting this to low but to no avail.

I've also scanned for spyware and viruses with a variety of programs with no significant effect. Could it be a problem with something OTHER than my graphics card?