Incredibly low CS:S Frame rate.

[You Failed]

Hi, I know I'm new to this forum but at the risk of sounding like an *******, please, please, do not reply without reading my full post, I posted this on a different forum and the amount of replies I got from people who had clearly only read the title was well, annoying to say the least.

Ok so basically I'm getting a really, really bad FPS from Counter Strike: Source when my laptop should be able to do a lot better.

Here is my System Specs and DXDiag info:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: MXC061
Processor: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2080 @ 1.73GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1014MB RAM
Page File: 701MB used, 1239MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Card name: Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family
Chip type: Intel(R) GMA 950
DAC type: Internal
Display Memory: 224.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: igxprd32.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.4926 (English)

Since CS: S runs on the Half Life 2 engine I did a system check using the System Requirements Lab to see if my laptop can run the game, I knew that it could as I've played HL:2 before with all the settings on medium, at 1280x800 res with a decent FPS (around 30) as I expected the results came out as positive, my system exceeded the minimum requirements and the reccommended requirements.

The first problem occured when I installed and launched CS: S normally through steam, the game launched and loaded however following the loading screen, everything went black and I got the following error:

"The instruction at "0x109d3e2c" referenced memory at "0x0e4ea1a0". The memory could not be "read".
Click on OK to terminate the program"

I googled the error and it something wrong with my RAM, however I don't get errors like this on anything else, eventually I found a work around and forced the game to launch in directX 7 using the command "-dxlevel 70" in the launch options.

Now I would have thought running the game in dx7, while drastically reducing the visual appeal, would boost the FPS by a lot, however when I ran the stress test with settings on high (as the game recommended for me) at 1280x800 resoulution I got an average FPS of only 15, and in game it was even worse.

The game recommended the following settings for my hardware:
Model Detail: High
Texture Detail: High
Shader Detail: High
Water Detail: Simple Reflections
Shadow Detail: High
Antialiasing Mode: None
Filtering Mode: Trilinear
Wait For Vertical Sync: Disabled
High Dynamic Range: None

Now when I seen the terrible FPS I decided to bump everything to minimum to see what would happen so I set the settings to the following:
Model Detail: Low
Texture Detail: Low
Shader Detail: Low
Water Detail: Simple Reflections
Shadow Detail: Low
Antialiasing Mode: None
Filtering Mode: Bilinear
Wait For Vertical Sync: Disabled
High Dynamic Range: None
Resolution: 600x800

So now i'm running everything on the minimum, resolution at the minumum and using only DX7 on a system that should be able to run everything on high (well, at least minimum as my gpu is integrated) and ran the stress test, the results came back as an amazing average of 20FPS! Right...and again it was even worse in game. Which is definitely unplayable.

Something here is not right....Can anyone help?
Edit/Delete Message

 

[Yami]

Other than 'install your latest graphics drivers' and 'install the latest patch for CS:S', I can't say much else since I don't have any experience with the game myself.

Though I can say Intel integrated graphics are some of the worst ever concieved.

 

[You Failed]

Other than 'install your latest graphics drivers' and 'install the latest patch for CS:S', I can't say much else since I don't have any experience with the game myself.

Though I can say Intel integrated graphics are some of the worst ever concieved.

Yeah I know the graphics card is bad, but I cannot for the life of me understand why I am suffering such a massive drop in performance in CS: S compared to HL:2 when they run on exactly the same engine and I have everything on much lower settings in CS: S

 

[Yami]

Yeah I know the graphics card is bad, but I cannot for the life of me understand why I am suffering such a massive drop in performance in CS: S compared to HL:2 when they run on exactly the same engine and I have everything on much lower settings in CS: S

Then perhaps there was an update to CS:S which makes your graphics chip incompatible. Perhaps updating your graphics drivers to the latest version would solve the problem.

 

[You Failed]

Then perhaps there was an update to CS:S which makes your graphics chip incompatible. Perhaps updating your graphics drivers to the latest version would solve the problem.

I checked the other week, they're up to date, I also updated my DX9 drivers as well.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

This sounds like exactly the same problem I was having with COD4 a while back.

Have you tried loading the game using dx7, changing all the settings to minimum, changing the res to whatever the monitor's native res is, and using openGL? Do that, then restart the game normally, see if it loads.

 

[HAVOC]

Have you tried loading the game using dx7, changing all the settings to minimum, changing the res to whatever the monitor's native res is, and using openGL? Do that, then restart the game normally, see if it loads.

He asked, "PLEASE PLEASE do not respond without reading my whole post".

If you had, you'd realize that he has in fact tried dx7.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

He asked, "PLEASE PLEASE do not respond without reading my whole post".

If you had, you'd realize that he has in fact tried dx7.

I did, and I noticed he actually got the game to start with dx7, hence why I asked him to use it to enter the game to change around a few settings.

PLEASE PLEASE do not quote my posts without reading them in context with the OP

 

[Slaymate]

Well your using a Laptop with an Intergrated Video Chipset that is sharing/alloted a certain amount of System Memory. And you only have 1 GB of System Memory. If you have an option in the Bios to increase the amount of Memory allocated to the Video Subsystem do so. And it would be nice if you could increase your System Memory to 2GB or more. Other than that and keeping it updated there's just not much you can do with a Laptop.

 

[jaydenakasha]

CEVO - Downloads

{Download the file called Client Configuration Files v3}

Try this fps config, it should (hopefully) boost your fps by around 10-15, without many noticeable drops in visual detail.

Hope it helps