Hardware & Technical Will E:D run on my budget Laptop?

剣 真

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My main PC is dead and I don't plan to replace him anytime soon, so I have to rely on my Laptop for now.
Before I download Elite on this system I want to ask if it's even feasable to play this game on at least 20-30 FPS or if I should stick to Oolite (which runs kinda well - surpise ;))

Specs:
Windows 7
Core i5-3317U @ 1.70 Ghz (0.30 Ghz under minimal recommendations)
4 GB DDR3
Intel Graphics Card and
Geforce 740M using 2 GB of shared system memory
(probably not good as it is slow and eats into the main system RAM which drops 2 GB under the minimal recommendations this way)
1440x900 60hz Monitor

For comparison: The Laptop runs CS:GO at a good framerate (always above 60 FPS) but fails to run BF4 even at the lowest settings (good FPS when looking straight, but down to single digits turning viewpoint)
 

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Surfinjo said:
Should be OK.
Click to expand...

It's really close though.
I tried and and barely got to a somewhat playable framerate:

Setting everything to LOW/OFF wasn't cutting it. Training Mission 1 crawling at sub 20 FPS.
Then I tried to force everything else to low quality/off with the nvidia control panel and set the FOV as low as possible - still not enough.

What I finally had to do was setting Supersamling to 0.75 on my native resolution. I could have achieved the same with setting a lower resolution, but my monitor has horrible scaling. Looks a bit like a console game now - but you can still read everything. It's hard to go for pixelhunting illuminated planets though - so my exploration will be not as thoroughly as usual for now (without a high-tech scanner).
 
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planetrobbo

planetrobbo
Have you checked in task manager, performance tab to see where the bottle neck is? If it's the CPU then you are probably out of luck but if the RAM is maxed and there's a lot of paging adding some more RAM might help.
 

Hell Razor5543

H
That depends on both the laptop and the warranty. Some warranties state something like "any modifications from factory build will invalidate the warranty", other will say something such as "any unauthorised persons fitting any non approved equipment will invalidate the warranty" (thereby tying you into them for parts, upgrades and their engineers), but some will want you to get the parts from them and then follow their instructions on fitting the parts. However, before buying any bits connect to the manufacturers website, enter the laptop details, and see if it can be upgraded. I have seen some equipment come out from the makers maxed to the gills.
 

adoredtv

adoredtv
You can probably drop the VRAM in the BIOS to 512MB or 1GB, if so I would do that as the card is nowhere near powerful enough to require 2GB of VRAM and is therefore just wasting much-needed memory. Bugs the hell out of me when I see OEM's doing this with their stuff, all because people see 2GB of VRAM and think it makes their graphics much better.

On the other hand, if you have 1x4GB stick of RAM then you will be missing out on dual-channel mode, which while nearly useless for people with discrete cards is really needed for graphics cards using system RAM. You'll see a decent increase for that alone.
 
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Surfinjo

Surfinjo
If you really want to squeeze every available drop, you might try turning off every service and program that is not needed for Elite.

There are quite a few in W7 which can go off. One of the best places to check for which is Black Viper. Go for a barebones set up. http://www.blackviper.com/service-c...dows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/

Remove as much W7 Eye candy as possible. Start by Right click My Computer. Select Advanced system settings. In the performance box, click settings. In the box that opens, remove every tick.

While the box is open, think about turning off System Protection. Make sure Remote is unticked.

Depending upon which graphics driver you use, you may be able to improve the use of the GDDR. On mine I can set for performance.

Turn off all up daters. Most M$ updates are unnecessary anyway. Other things you can do manually. (Though not Elite for obvious reasons).

You can also think about turning off your virus checker. I know it goes against the grain, but if you avoid any surfing while it's off you should be OK. You can still do a virus check once a week.
 

AndyJ

AndyJ
With all respect, the last thing that you should be doing is turning things off. Especially Windows Update, System Protection and Virus protection.
Turning off 'eye candy' will only effect windows mode, so pointless when running a full-screen DirectX application.
Any 'gain' in performance is likely to be so tiny you wouldn't notice, whilst you've just compromised the security of your web-connected laptop and any data that's important to you. Just don't.
Sorry but I've seen this advice posted elsewhere, and it's pointless and dangerous.
 

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It's a good general advice though of course to look at your RAM and turn off things which are not needed but eat heavily into it.
Like some bloated "gaming mouse software" eating 100MB ram. Just use the default windows interface instead. But I wouldn't turn of my security programs either - they already leave a very small footprint.

BTW I was misinformed - the Geforce 740M actually has 2 GB of dedicated DDR3 RAM (I thought 7XX series had all DDR5 - that's what got me thinking of shared memory). That plus 4 GB system RAM should be enough. I guess the main bottleneck is the CPU.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
AndyJ said:
With all respect, the last thing that you should be doing is turning things off. Especially Windows Update, System Protection and Virus protection.
Turning off 'eye candy' will only effect windows mode, so pointless when running a full-screen DirectX application.
Any 'gain' in performance is likely to be so tiny you wouldn't notice, whilst you've just compromised the security of your web-connected laptop and any data that's important to you. Just don't.
Sorry but I've seen this advice posted elsewhere, and it's pointless and dangerous.
Click to expand...

Nope.

Windows updates are mostly unnecessary and those that are important can be downloaded later. (The same claim was made about XP).

System Restore (protection) has limited application. It uses enormous resources. It only restores a few variables.

Virus Protection is a bit more chancy, but since he is only accessing one site, having turned off all updaters, the chances of Frontier permitting malware to be smuggles with their software is too remote to quantify.

Turning off eye candy is important as it allows necessary background services to continue more easily.
 
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