12 replies to this topic

[LordCrispin]

I have a quick question. I've been through alot of posts but none answer my question completely. I'm running this game with all setting low and on a 1280X720 resolution. Even with that I can sometimes start a game with perhaps 20ish fps, but often in the middle of the match (in combat or completely alone) MWO would drop down to less than 10 fps. There might be a match where I start and complete it with 20 fps but that's extremely rare.


My question is this normal for my laptop config (and I should try playing on another PC) or should I be getting higher FPS but obviously have a problem somewhere else?

Windows 7
CPU i7 2630QM @ 2.00Ghz
GPU GTX560M with the latest drivers
RAM 8GB
DirectX 11.0

Thx in advance for the reply.

[Redshift2k5]

That's pretty typical behavior for this game with low-average hardware specs. The Mobile video card is probably the culprit for holding you back.

[SVK Puskin]

I have low fps mainly in River City night and my laptop is less powerful than yours.

[LordCrispin]

That's what I pretty much thought. I know that my lap config isn't brilliant but it still should run this game bettern than it does...only question that now remains is there something I can do or should I just wait for another patch and hope for the best?

[Tarl Cabot]

1. Disable Turbo Boost (finally found what I was looking for to explain this a tad better). Set the max at 98% or 97% instead of the posted 99%.
Disabling Intel Turbo Boost - Tautvidas Sipavičius


When Turbo Boost kicks in, it puts the power to 2 or 1 core only, basically choking the game (best way I can put it). For your mobility CPU it looks like the following. You can check the bios to see if the option is there but majority of time laptop bios rarely offer adjustment settings.

Turbo frequency
2900 MHz (1 core) turning purple
2800 MHz (2 cores) bad, game not optimized
2600 MHz (3 or 4 cores) best spot, turbo is disabled.

2. Can of Compressed Air and blow out the heatsinks on a monthly basis (helps drop the temp as it is cooling more effectively).

3. If the FPS drops temporarily during the game, another program may be hogging the CPU. An example would Windows Media Sharing program.

4. There is a bug where min settings, especially for shadows, causing a decrease in FPS. Up the settings to medium and test.

5. Are you playing the game in windowed mode or Full screen mode? Change to windowed mode. A smaller resolution that the native/larger screen resolution in full mode can force a drop in FPS.

6. In the Nvidia control panel, Turn off Ambient Occlusion in the 3D part.

*******
Doing the above may not see an increase in FPS but may see it stabilize and be more consistent.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 27 December 2012 - 05:07 PM.

[Biglead]

Don't forget, if you haven't in awhile try uninstalling and reinstalling.

P.S. not sure if this effects Mobile cards, but the 500 series family from Nvidia is known for not pulling enough power from the power supply. Try heading into your Nvidia control panel and switching your power settings from "Adaptive" to "Performance".

[LordCrispin]

@ Tarl Cabot

Ok, I don't know which of those tactics worked no1 or no4 (or maybe both), but I'm actually playing on all medium settings right now with a FPS increase of 10+ from my previous FPS. Thx alot, you saved my nerves!

[Tarl Cabot]

VorBan, on 27 December 2012 - 06:10 PM, said:

@ Tarl Cabot

Ok, I don't know which of those tactics worked no1 or no4 (or maybe both), but I'm actually playing on all medium settings right now with a FPS increase of 10+ from my previous FPS. Thx alot, you saved my nerves!

hai, good to hear.

Since the shadow test is the simplest to test, keep whatever resolution you are using and set back to min and test, close down then restart program. Note the difference, if any, in FPS.

Other than that, the turbo boost to where only 2 cores are being used would put your FPS you mentioned in the ballpark of many dual core w/o Hyperthreading users.

If you have the time to simply test the shadows part and report back, it would and could help others with possible options/resolutions to their issues, particularly the newer laptop users.

Domo arigato (bows)

[LordCrispin]

Upon further testing I think I may have had two problems. The stuttering of fps has ceased because of turbo boost, while I have had an fps increase due to shadows being set on medium. If I turn of the shadows I get lower fps, escpecially in combat. I've been lowering all my settings again to get a good fps, and it all went fine (fps increased) until I touched shadows.

Hope this helps.

[Tarl Cabot]

Arigato for the updates!!

[Alex Reed]

Props for such a good, positive thread, gentlemen! Though my FPS only nosedives every tenth or fifteenth game, you have now given me some other things to consider and tweak. Thank you, Mr. Cabot, et. al. for such an informative thread. :-)

Edited by Alex Reed, 28 December 2012 - 09:29 AM.

[Trauglodyte]

You'll experience heavy FPS loss in River City (night), Frozen City, and Forrest Colony (snow) due to the added effects. River City (night) has a lot of additional smoke effects plus the missiles flying across the sky - I still don't get those. Frozen City and Forrest Colony (snow) get all screwed up when it snows. Your graphics card has to render everything that is on the screen plus close to 100 snow flakes on your screen, all of which is moving.

[LordCrispin]

Trauglodyte, on 28 December 2012 - 09:49 AM, said:

You'll experience heavy FPS loss in River City (night), Frozen City, and Forrest Colony (snow) due to the added effects. River City (night) has a lot of additional smoke effects plus the missiles flying across the sky - I still don't get those. Frozen City and Forrest Colony (snow) get all screwed up when it snows. Your graphics card has to render everything that is on the screen plus close to 100 snow flakes on your screen, all of which is moving.

Actually that's not true. As it is now I have constant fps an all maps, Maybe there is a slight FPS drop, but this time I really can't tell. So far so good.