Laptop performance tips anyone?

CrazyH0rse

CrazyH0rse
Hi folks,

For my desktop, I have a Core Duo e8400 running at stock frequency, 8GB of RAM and a GTX 460. Game runs like a dream (only exception being the odd stutter during the jump animation) on high settings.

My laptop is a maxed out Dell XPS 14 with i7, 8GB Ram, a 512Gb SSD and an nVidia 630M. This struggles even on low settings?! Does anyone have any suggestions to get better performance? I guess the nvidia 630M is the choke point? Given my desktop is a lot older it just feels like I should get better performance on the laptop.

Suggestions?
 

TriumphANT

TriumphANT
I've got a laptop with Intel HD 4400 which is about 75% of the performance of the nVidia 630M, and it's about 15-18FPS on low settings. I've had some fun with it, but my gaming PC with a GTX 560 Ti flies at high settings. Nothing you can really do about the laptop. Lower the resolution slightly if you want to put on some low AA (which really makes it look better!), but don't expect to ever get the grin that you get when you're close to a busy station and you see/hear lots of Low Energy FSD Wakes zipping around your head as people pull out of SC to dock. :(
 

TriumphANT

TriumphANT
Vandyl said:
Don't play games on a laptop….simple.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I just don't have a choice, and the OP is most likely the same. My gaming PC is on a 37" TV with full surround, and it plays like a dream. But I only have one TV, so I'm not going to over-ride Mrs Me if it comes to her wanting to watch something whilst I'm running a last trading run of the night. I can trade, fight, upgrade and enjoy the game on my £300 laptop. Or watch the news... My choice! :)
 

ScottGust

ScottGust
I7 what? Im running on an asus g46vw (2 core i5) 8g ram nvidia 660m with a 5400rpm piece o sh$# hdrive n am able to play on highest settings close to 60 fps xcept for stations drops a little...im using my laptop screen which is small so my native res is like 1333×768? Nyway totally doable...
 
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erbal

erbal
Decrease the resolution ... I'm running with onboard graphics, and it runs just fine on high settings so long as I don't try to push the resolution too far.
 

rciq

rciq
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

The 630 is not really a gaming card. I have a gtx 660 in a Lenovo Y series and it stays at 60fps (limited) 99% of the time, except for inside corilolis/orbis stations where it drops to around 40. I guess that a gt630 being around 2-3 times slower than gtx660 would in fact produce unacceptable framerate, like you see on your XPS. When considering a laptop for gaming always carefully check the benchmarks. Many laptops are being advertised as "gaming" or "multimedia", while in fact they're being equipped with a really crappy+cheap excuse for a GPU.
 
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Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
As some others have mentioned your only real weapon is resolution and switching it all to low. My wifes Lenovo G505 goes about 20fps with everything low @ 800 x 600; not pleasant! Being honest most laptops cannot do 3D games very well.
 

StuartGT

StuartGT
AXIS said:
I7 what? Im running on an asus g46vw (2 core i5) 8g ram nvidia 660m with a 5400rpm piece o sh$# hdrive n am able to play on highest settings close to 60 fps xcept for stations drops a little...im using my laptop screen which is small so my native res is like 1333×768? Nyway totally doable...
Click to expand...
Your 660m is around double the performance of the OP's 630m, but the "anyway totally doable" definitely stands ;)

rciq said:
The 630 is not really a gaming card. I have a gtx 660 in a Lenovo Y series and it stays at 60fps (limited) 99% of the time, except for inside corilolis/orbis stations where it drops to around 40. I guess that a gt630 being around 2-3 times slower than gtx660 would in fact produce unacceptable framerate, like you see on your XPS. When considering a laptop for gaming always carefully check the benchmarks. Many laptops are being advertised as "gaming" or "multimedia", while in fact they're being equipped with a really crappy+cheap excuse for a GPU.
Click to expand...
The GT 630 & 630M will happily play games, at the correct resolutions :)

erbal said:
Decrease the resolution ... I'm running with onboard graphics, and it runs just fine on high settings so long as I don't try to push the resolution too far.
Click to expand...
This is your answer. Play at 1366x768 or lower, at low/medium settings with AntiAliasing disabled and you'll get 30-40FPS in stations, 50FPS+ in space :)
 

Rugi

Rugi
I'm playing on a laptop equipped with a nVidia GT650m and found I got a noticeable improvement by changing the power management setting in the NVidia control panel to 'High Performance'. There are few fewer other settings that will also prioritise performance over quality which you can play with to get a few extra fps.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
x6tus said:
Does it have a Thunderbolt connector? If so build yourself an external GPU like this:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9090&page=23&p=1572608&viewfull=1#post1572608

There are examples of a tiny MacBook Air running BioShock at 100fps over at the Tech Inferno forums where I got all the information from.

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt is not a common PC connector, sadly. Plus, if you want portability this does not solve your problem.
 

deMangler

deMangler
I sometimes play on a laptop with a 540m. decreasing the resolution to 1280x720 and putting everything except draw distance to minimum made it playable. I had overheating issues though so I underclocked the GPU to about 50% surprisingly it is still playable 21fps in stations ans icesteroid fields, more otherwise, generally.
Make sure your laptop is cooled. I accidently ran ED Beta and put my laptop on the bed (usually I have a metal cooling plate) I had to replace the motherboard. It fried.
 

BishopC

BishopC
I had a very bad problem with VSync and borderless mode, if you play borderless, deactivate Vsync. Well, if your computer isn't up to it, it won't help of course.
 

CrazyH0rse

CrazyH0rse
Thanks for the constructive comments folks, which I summarise as:

- Lower resolution
- Disable VSync
- Select nvidia control panel -> Power settings -> maximise performance

With this and low graphics settings it's almost playable, but I do feel nervous going through the slit in my Type 7. One glitch and I'm toast! My laptop gets very hot and actually crashed on me.

My conclusion is that the 630M is just not up to it (as others have said) and the cooling system of the Dell XPS 14 (L421X) is just not adequate to cool the I7-3667U properly - its a badly designed system in my opinion. I'm probably getting CPU and/or GPU throttling it gets so hot.

Thanks again all.
 

Shads

Shads
Plays fine on my laptop. Nvidia have a new driver specific to ED and optomisable for the game. It almost eradicated the stuttering and crackling exiting stations.
 

Rivka

R
Honestly, the best answer is "get a gaming laptop". I know, it kinda sucks, but...

Me, I run a ASUS ROG G750JW. Settings set on ultra, in a window, and it works great. Downside: laptop weighs 15 pounds, and if dropped from a moderate height, can murder a toddler.
 

Pyrion

Pyrion
If you want a gaming notebook that does not get so hot, i advice the intel irispro 5200 video board. It's a big step above older and weaker intel solutions. I am playing in HD resolution with medium performance with no problems. My older gaming notebook was fast as well, but it got sooo hot, almost not possible to keep it on your lap anymore. That's no issue with the irispro 5200.
 
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