T400 Gaming Problem

[jinp6301]

Hello,

I have a problem with my t400. I've been using it with windows 7 pro x64 (MSDN) with all of the drivers installed (system update).

These are the specs

with a 5400rpm hd.

The main problem I've been having is when playing COD2 (with the ATI graphics, of course), I've been getting about 5 fps during fights at full resolution and low settings. On Half Life 2, I've been getting 20-30 fps normally and 10-20 fps during fights (full resolution, low settings). I'm pretty sure that I should be getting much better performance out of these games but I'm not sure whats going on. I've tried using 3DMark06 and I've gotten similar results as the reviews on notebook review.

One theory is that it seems that it seems to be running both the integrated and the discrete at the same time when I'm putting it in "high performance" mode for switchable graphics (I dont know why or if this is normal). When running it in "battery saving" mode, it is only using the integrated and the discrete does not show up on device manager.

Also, maybe this will give you more information, when I'm using the integrated card, at the cut scenes, the fps goes up to 100 as it should since there is nothing taxing the graphics card, but with the ATI, it only goes up to 40-60 at the same parts. I have no idea why

I have also tried just using the discrete card from the bios with the same results

Does anyone know what I need to change to get better performance?

PS. I've been getting between 6-7 hours from the 9 cell battery with wifi on, light internet browsing, using integrated graphics and with the screen at half brightness. Is this normal or should I be getting more battery life?

[hYdrociTy]

HAY GUISE LOL

The cutscenes are not prerendered, they are realtime. The reason it's fast with the integrated is because the AA/AF and all the extra features that discrete cards are disabled, so you are left with very basic texture and effects. I doubt there is much pixel/vertex shading going either with the integrated; but HL2 is shader intensive with cards that support it.

The performance may also rise because there is no AI to process during the scenes, and the archetecture of integrated graphics is heavily dependent on the host cpu, so that's another thing to consider.

There problem here is most likely a suboptimal setting somewhere with the discrete mode...