Help Please

raindog.promo

Hi. I'm not too sure if this is the right section for this, but it does concern my laptop.

I'm playing some of the new(ish) Half Life 2 games and he game play is very jittery and choppy, audio comes out in stutter. Very annoying.

I've just bought a new laptop thinking it would be sh*t hot and this is really annoying me.

The specs of the laptop are:
3gb Ram, intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3200 @ 2.00ghz.

I also got this laptop to run music programmes such as Reason and Adobe audition because my old computer (of about 6 years) couldn't handle it once the files started getting big or using amp simulators although the same problems are occuring with the laptop.

I'm running Windows Vista, but I'm thinking of changing to XP.

I assumed the laptop would be alot more powerful then the old computer (1gb ram, pentium 4, 2.8ghz).

Anyone know why the game is so jittery or would oi better off going to XP for performance improvement?

Cheers.

gamer

set res to 800x600,google half life 2 minimum requirements, it may need t/l grahics card ,or x amount of video ram.load game ,go to graphics,advanced options,knock off shadows,aa,water, reflections,set detail graphics to meduimsettings.unless you have a geoforce 200meg video ram or similar card you cant expect games made after 2006 to run at 1200x100 res,UNlESS you go to the shop and buy a gaming laptop.4 VISTA you need at least 2gig ram to run effeciently.for games you need 1.5ghzcpu speed, but THE GRAHICS card and main memory is much more important for gaming.as ong as the cpu is 1.5ghz minimimum.
vista with aero,takes up neary 800meg ram.you can get 3gigram installed,but you still need a FAST graphics card.some games require shader model 2,google speed up half life 2 settings.
go to contro panel system,hardware,see exacty what card have you got,
on a p4 pc 4 years old ,the graphics card is prbaby faster than the card in 90percent of laptops.
ok,i notice u have 3gig ram, so the ony weakness i can see is the graphics card.
thats why gaming laptops were invented.try SWITCHING off vista,aero interface.
the music programs you have may need loads of hardrive space,in my experience winxp is twice as fast as vista.
its possible to download free legal windows 7 beta, from microsoft.com.win7 os is faster than vista .4 games or msic,it even runs on netbooks.
have a look at planethalife website ,hl2 grahics settings,optimise.
its possible you have a pc fast cpu with a slow/average graphics card. or Hl2 DOESNT run fast on vista.USE DRIVERMAX PROGram to save a drivers to my drivers folder. be4 you setup any new os.
I notice min specs Hl2 are 64meg video ram directx 7 video card.Try it at 1024x768 resolution.
I Think vista has a windows xp compatibiity mode,try that.

gamer

you can go to Control panel,system,advanced, performance,adjust for best performance,also switch off AERO interface.THIS switches off sliding windows,window animation.
That speeds up the os,faster response,this may not effect HL2 .
LIKE MOST GAMES ,switching off shadows,water,antiaiasing,certain effects speeds up the game.if your card has 80meg plus video ram it should run ok.
you could aso increase the windows page file ,virtual memory.set to 12meg minimum.

raindog.promo

Much appreciated, I'll certainly give it a shot. I must say, I am not a fan of Vista at all.

Voodu Child

You don't say what graphics card you've got. That's about the most important thing when it comes to games. HL2 doesnt take a monster of a card to run, but it'll still need to be half decent, if it's only an integrated jobbie then that's probably your problem.

gamer

FROM reviews windows 7 is significanty faster than vista,save all drivers be4 you even consider setting up winxp,or windows 7.
CERTAIN games dont run fast on vista.
GAMES in general run faster in xp,but every game is different.Many run fine in vista.
see HL2 FORUM ,optimise hl2 graphics for more detailed advice.
i played it on an agp 9700 radeon card on my pc,1gigram windows xp.1.5ghz dual core.IT S an amazing game.SWITCH off any effects you think are not needed eg water effects.SEE grahics options,medium /advanced.settings.
Obviously the music progs woud run faster on windows 7 64bit,os,which can use 8gig or more ram, if you are able to install it in your pc.IF you can afford more ram.
i d say use 1024x768 res ,for faster fps,frames per second. I think that card had 128meg video ram.

Dartz

OP, I'll try answer in legible English.

The most important thing with games is the Graphics Card in your laptop, not the processor. What sort of graphics card do you have?

If it's an Intel card, then it's not likely to be capable of supporting all but the most rudimentary of 3D games. Intel cards are integrated cards, which use the main system RAM. For graphics, this is pretty slow, and will lead to choppiness and lag. It's a mess usually.

You need what's called a discreet graphics card for optimal performance. This is a graphics card that had it's own dedicated RAM. This means it can run much faster. If you want to play any game, the bare minimum you'd need is a discreet card.

The problem with laptops is, you're usually stuck with the same graphics card. they can't be upgraded.

From a processor/RAM standpoint, your laptop is many times more powerful than your old P4 desktop, but if you're laptop was bought in the last 6 months or so, then with those processor/RAM specs, it's probably a budget model, (Penitum is Intels budget CPU now) and if it's a budget model, then it probably has an integrated GPU.

Which is definitely not ideal for gaming. I'd say therefore, that it's a case of your laptop physically not being able to handle the game at all. Like a midget trying to reach the top shelf magazines... it just won't happen and it'll just get frustrating trying.

Also... how the hell did you figure out what gamer was saying?

x in the city

think gamer has never used a space bar/tab bar in his life.

:cool: