Low HL2 Framerate

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

So, I recently got a new laptop, an HP Pavilion DV7, and while it’s much better than the computer (a desktop) I’ve been playing on it run HL2 slower for some reason.

When I first started it up the settings defaulted to high, AA and everything. I ran the game and it was going like 5 FPS, so I turned off AA and still it only runs at around 25-30 FPS. I’ve yet to try the episodes, but I can run Portal perfectly and TF2 runs excellent as well.

Specs:

OS: Windows 7 64 bit
Processor: AMD Turion™ II Ultra Dual-Core Mobile M620, 2500 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.75 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.15 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.49 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.59 GB
Page File Space 3.75 GB

Video Card:

Name AMD M880G with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200
Adapter Type ATI display adapter (0x9712), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter RAM 320.00 MB (335,544,320 bytes)

Not sure how much info you need :stuck_out_tongue: .

#2

[edit] nevermind my post. I hadn’t read the whole OP.

#3

Is Half-Life 2 still on the old version of Source? If so, I’d download the mod that puts it on the Ep2 engine.

Logic:

Your Ep2 engine games work fine.

#4

No, it isn’t. All of the Half-Life 2 games are on the OB engine now.

#5

Reinstall it.

#6

Sledgehammer your laptop, its obviously broken. :terror:

#7

Set windows to High performance mode.

#8

What were your desktop specs?

EDIT: Nevermind, this should explain things.

[color=green]Short story: Your new laptop’s video card is on the lower end of the bottom tier. I’m amazed it doesn’t use shared memory, frankly.

Moral of the story: next time do a little research BEFORE you buy a computer.

#9

I did, though I guess not enough. I still don’t understand how Portal and TF2 run perfectly but HL2 doesn’t, though. Is there any way to upgrade my video card without replacing my entire motherboard? I was planning on upgrading my RAM to 8 gigs anyway.

#10

Yeah, that’s strange. On my laptop (Acer Aspire 5720Z) HL2 runs better than Portal.

#11

fix’d

#12

So, I set power saving setting to high performance and ended about 10 useless programs running in the background. Damn HP and their resource using shit. I also changed my video card more towards performance. I’ll try playing it later, but I’m going to play Psychonauts first.

#13

super new advanced control combination? let us know how it goes…

#14

Well, I turned off AA and turned multicore rendering on. It’s running pretty good but I need to turn show fps on. Although I minimized it to look up how to and it wouldn’t come back up, it would maximize when I clicked on it but still show the desktop with the game sounds and I had to close it.

Edit: Meh, it’s going around 35-40 fps normally. And it lags horribly if I turn on my flashlight. Guess that’s as good as I’ll get unless I want to turn down the quality.

#15

What made you think some 2-year-old HP notebook would be a good choice for a gaming computer? Or apparently buying a laptop with the intent to upgrade it?

Also, have you tried updating your video drivers? Or letting HL2 update? Do you have HL2 running all the same graphics settings as Portal or TF2?

What was your last computer?

#16

Think he has learnt his lesson.

#17

He’d BETTER!!!

Otherwise… well…

I can offer him a battle he has no chance of winning.
Rather an anticlimax after what HE’S just survived.

#18

I didn’t. It’s a laptop for college which I am also trying to play games on. I didn’t buy it with the intent to upgrade it, I’m just asking if I could.

Yes. Do you think I’m an idiot? I haven’t checked the other games but if they’re the same as the default settings for HL2 then they have AA on and run fine.

I’d appreciate it if you’d stop being such a prick.

Edit: And, you know, I thought meeting the minimum requirements for a game meant that you could play it fairly well, but apparently not. Just Cause 2 runs as a slideshow despite my laptop meeting its minimum requirements.

#19

format HDD, install XP

I am not kidding

#20

No thanks.

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