=o

LOL.

think I’ve heard of that I’ll look it up. OK trade offs are a pain. I’ll see what comes of it. I don’t think I saw LOD in my graphical settings but I’ll have to check. Yeah I’d adjusted back to it mainly offsetting from the GPU and I was able to get GRID 2 to run at full HD haven’t seen if the evil within gives me good results on that yet. Yup I use Nvidia Geforce Experience to stay updated. I’ll test and see if V-Sync is the problem. I’ve no screen tearing just some drops and very slow motion. ah ok. thanks. I’ll test and see what comes of it.

You can use FRAPS which is free to download to see FPS and even use the recording feature (but bonus features/extended recording require paid version). Just start FRAPS and then start the game of choice (or reverse order and alt tab to start FRAPS).

It should have 2GB VRAM which is fairly decent, especially since you wont be gaming at like 4k resolutions with it. If you want to try to keep effects on as high as possible turn down the resolution to 1280×720 rather the 1080p (1920×1080). Also turn off or significantly lower anti-aliasing and preferably shadows. You may be able to keep most other things at fairly decent settings if you do this. LoD (level of detail) is another major hit but often impacts how far you can see into the distance so up to you whether you lower it or not.

If it is having issues as you claim reinstalling may be the only viable option. Then again, you said some games are running fine so, for gaming purposes, simply adjusting the settings may be enough. Some games on release are just plain bad in terms of performance and may take several drivers/patches before they become playable even on higher end specs. Always try to keep your driver up to date but avoid beta drivers (not worth the hassle).

Another MAJOR tip is if you aren’t hitting the refresh rate of your monitor (example: 120hz = if you are not hitting 120 fps, or 60 hz if not hitting 60 fps) then DISABLE V-Sync!!!! This being turned on prevents screen tearing if your PC is putting out frames much faster then your monitor supports but if it is getting LESS frames then it can actually cut FPS by almost exactly in half (due to timing related stuff).

Oh I knew that from looking up more about cartridges used for Nintendo’s early systems, that advantage I was aware of. I don’t have software to measure the frame rate my games run so I don’t know how well it’s optimized to run the game. I tried evil within and that was running below 30 I think but then again I’d accidentally offset all the workload to the CPU and not the Nvidia graphics card so I don’t really no what my current set up can handle. GRID 2 seemed to run fine after I’d fixed it except it wasn’t buttery smooth like 120 HZ 🙁 I don’t know where to make my CPU run at max. So much work to reinstall especially since I’ve already downloaded some games. I actually haven’t opened up the laptop yet so I don’t know. thanks for the links. My CPU can turbo to 3 GHz. But again I don’t have software to measure if performance is going at its peak and see if I’m getting everything out of it. My games were probably running at most mid settings, doubt I may reach high but I’ll see. b-b-but..I like the effects..man I really need a desktop. here are my computer specs: Intel Core i7 2.5 GHz, Turbo up to 3 GHz, Nvidia GT 840M, I think my computer has 1 or 2 GB Video RAM not sure, and then my RAM DDR3 I think. and FULL HD. Where do I go to see the full outline of the specs of my computer?

Yeah, SSD has no moving platter or mechanical parts so the heat reduction is fairly dramatic on a laptop.

Don’t bother getting more then 8GB of RAM. Considering you wont be gaming at extreme settings on that laptop you will not be able to utilize more then 8GB at settings you can manage to play on it and will not see ANY performance gains. 8GB is solid stick to it.

You don’t need to worry about running more then 60 FPS or a monitor wiht a refresh rate greater then 60Hz. Those are largely gimmicks except when using 3D because it cuts your refresh rate in half due to double rendering frames. Actually, if you can have your average frame rate (and preferably your lowest frames) at 30+ fps you are doing alright and can totally game at this, most console titles run at this rate too. Beyond 60 frames is greatly diminishing returns and under most circumstances you won’t notice a reasonable difference between 60 Hz and 120Hz despite what people swear by.

Another thing to do is, if your PC is not encountering heat issues, go into the power saving settings and set CPU to run at 100% all the time (I highly suggest getting a vent pad or whatever it is called to go under your laptop with ACTIVE fan cooling). You may also see drastic performance gains if you reformat and reinstall Windows as it will do away with malware, corrupt files and registery issues, etc. Just make sure to reinstall drivers. Your current rig may actually let you play a lot of current games at lower settings (as the PC doesn’t sound too bad, depending on just how old the GPU is) if you reformat. Reinstalling Windows can help dramatically in such cases if there are issues bogging it down which it does sound like may be part of the case. Just back up whatever you need to keep to an external or dropbox/etc.

When you can I do suggest swapping your primary drive to an SSD and using an external for extra crap or installing a secondary HDD if you got space in the PC (I assume you do due to lack of optical/disc drive).

Here are some sites to customize laptops and do look at others as well:

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

http://www.ibuypower.com/

http://www.alienware.com/Landings/laptops.aspx

http://www.sagernotebook.com/home.php

Note that the first two often show holiday sells, etc. on their main page such as free upgrades, % total cost off, etc.

Examples of two decent PCs at ~$1k USD that you can customize to raise/drop price for whatever you want: https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/RAVEN_X6-100_Gaming_Laptop and https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/FANGBOOK_III_HX6-100_Gaming_Laptop

Note: they have 2.5GHz CPUs that can turbo to 3.5GHz (if it isn’t running to hot it can auto up-clock to as high as 3.5GHz, your laptop may do something similar). Newer CPUs also have superior instruction sets and architectures that allow them to significantly outperform previous generations even if clock rate is identical or possibly a bit lower (Ivy Bridge vs Haswell, etc.). At default settings both of those laptops already have great specs for running any game out there, though you wont be running at max settings since it is only an 860m (mobile worse then desktop counter part) but will definitely be running at reasonable FPS at likely med settings (most games look pretty great even at med settings now days). You can also turn off things like anti-aliasing, depth of field, shadows, global illumination and other very heavy hitting settings while keeping other settings pretty high.

SSD will have to wait especially since they’re more expensive. Didn’t know they consumed less heat. My computer has been loading for slow lately, been trying to disable background programs but just ended leaving my computer unable to surf internet so restarted it and ended up just going individually to the programs to disable. Such a pain. My laptop doesn’t have an optical drive will have to get external. I currently have 8 GB I hope 16 gives me much better performance but given my monitor is only 60 HZ I don’t think I’ll see much difference I dunno. True that. I have a Core i-7 quad core. I’ll look for that, didn’t know custom laptops were also done thought that was only for desktops. Will do. I only have a GT not GTX so I’m not getting the most out of any games I have. Yeah I think my CPU is 2.6 GHz. Gonna have to look next holiday yeah, see what I can do then. This laptop was sort of a quick buy; didn’t think to look online and customize my own proprietary rig.

You can swap your HDD to an SSD and, honestly, that will have general drastic performance increases since most laptop HDD are 5400rpm which is incredibly slow even compared to 7200rpm HDD (what is usually found in a desktop PC). An SSD is much faster then both of these options. It will NOT boost FPS in a game but will cause your computer to boot/update/shut down much faster and your OS/applications to launch and function much more smoothly. It will also heavily cut loading times of levels in a video game and speed up saving/etc. This also has a major advantage for laptop since heat is one of the major limiting factors. An SSD generates significantly less heat then a HDD so it is worth considering this option for that aspect alone.

Your laptop may be able to swap its optical drive for an SSD. Most things, now days, are available via Steam, etc. and CDs are largely very irrelevant for PC. This would let you get a reasonably cheap SSD (less capacity) and put your OS and major applications on it while putting most of your games, movies, etc. on the HDD already installed (maybe putting 1-2 often played games on the SSD, too).

You can upgrade your RAM as you already know and this is important for more current games.

One of the issues that limits the rest of the upgrades is parts are often either soldered together (CPU/GPU/etc.) on a laptop or space limitations due to design.

You can check if you are able to even remove the GPU, but odds are you can’t and you may run into thermal/power constraints even if you did upgrade and could fit it. Your CPU will likely be simply too ancient to compete with your GPU, too for more modern titles.

You could simply upgrade to a more current gen laptop or purchase a refurbished/used laptop from Amazon, Ebay, etc. There are several sites that let you custom configure laptops to fit price/performance needs and you could also look for manufactuer sales such as HP sales, Dell, etc. or on Tiger Direct and other sites. This can, in particular, produce some nice options for a major price cut but it is hard to find one with an adequate GPU, often, so it would definitely take some looking. The deals do exist, though. Generally, you want to go no less then an x60M version of a Nvidia GPU if you want to realistically use it for gaming and it would be best to even aim for the x70 version (such as 770M, 970M, etc.). For CPUs you want to aim for faster speeds (GHz) per core rather then more cores (don’t go for that 6 core 2.4GHz CPU, grab the duo/quad with 3.2GHz, etc.). Holidays are a great time to look for computer/tech deals.

Oh ok guess I’ll see more about 900M series. I have been moving around a lot every year so I don’t want a desktop until I know I’ll be in one place for more than a year or two since my family has had to keep going places. Which is the laptop works for me because even then I still may go places during the day especially tutoring. That will have to wait. For now I’ll do what I can for my laptop.

I think mine was purely by manufacturer I don’t remember any mods made to it at all. Got a virus on mine so had to toss it. Went without my own computer for like 4 years. Had a laptop even then but it was total junk. My family was always behind the times growing up we had a CRT TV until a month ago. 14 years it lasted, last thing I played on it was Final Fantasy IX. I have a laptop though so what parts besides RAM can i upgrade? I’d tried Dolphin a few months ago but laptop I had was old so it barely managed to run anything especially Project 64. Have never played older PC games, had pirated Dagger fall and Arena. Interested in FEAR. Lately I’ve been retro gaming through Wii U Virtual Console or PSN or playing remakes of older games mostly. Guess the nostalgia never dies no matter how old you get. Yeah more PC ports are being made and vice versa. Yup can’t wait to see how different it feels from 8.1. I can never go back to a non touch screen computer ever since I’ve been using 8.1. Yes but given the current set up for my laptop I most likely won’t be able to take advantage of what it has to offer as much as your rig will. Eventually I’ll get a desktop but for now laptop is most convenient. Dying to play Half Life and many more legendary PC games.