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The Griffin
Village Dweller
Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Posts: 18
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| How should I optimize this laptop for best performance? |
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I have an Alienware laptop, with the following specs:
2.66 ghz Intell processor
1 gig ram
7200 rpm HD
ATI Radeon 9000 card w/128mb RAM
400 mhz front-side bus
running Windows XP Professional
This should be a fairly killer system except perhaps for the graphics card which is a bit dated at this point. I'm still getting stuttering when I go through the forests, though, unless I use the F1 key. But then I don't get to see all that beautiful scenery!
Any suggestions as to how I can smooth things out? It *seems* as if this machine should be able to chew through all that without any problems, as long as I'm nut running 1600x1200 or 1280x1024... but apparently not.
Would running Cacheman help? I've heard that program is useful for some apps and not useful for others.
I have already increased the cache settings in Gothic.ini, and it's helped a bit, but I'm not sure how *much* I should increase them. |
Tue Dec 30, 2003 5:05 pm |
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The Griffin
Village Dweller
Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Posts: 18
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OK, a few basic in-game observations have helped with the stuttering...
first of all, if you're travelling around with a spell at the ready (like fireball) that will hurt the framerate.
Obviously, reducing the quality of the textures and models will help with the framerate -- though I've noticed the model quality doesn't help *that* much (and it doesn't look much different, either. Odd that).
Playing in 16bit colors instead of 32bit colors helps the most, but the night sky looks really really bad (severe banding). But in 16 bit mode I can actually play at 1600x1200 without too much stuttering.
The problem with improving performance is that the landscapes in Gothic 2 look really good, and every method of improving performance makes them look worse. Such an unfair trade. 
Edited to add: lowering gamma correction seems to reduce stuttering too. Not sure why, and unfortunately when I do that I can't see anything at night. |
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Wed Dec 31, 2003 3:51 pm |
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The Griffin
Village Dweller
Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Posts: 18
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OK, I've made some progress here.
I pumped up my game resolution to 1600x1200 (not every laptop can do this, so don't try it at home unless you know for sure) and then reduced the texture and model quality by one or two notches. This would be noticeable at lower resolutions, but 1600x1200 on a 15" screen seems to compensate for that simply because everything is so much smaller.
Lo and behold, the performance improvement I got from that! Everything is smooth -- hardly any stuttering at all. There is some in forests if the view is out to 200%, but if I reduce it to 120% that pretty much goes away. |
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Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:00 am |
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