FPS and gaming

[murray1]

I don't play many games but I have been playing ut2004 lately and have had some weird stuff happen to me because of my computer or something. I will be running around and all of a second I will just freeze, well at first I thought lag but then when other people were like wtf how you floating in mid air I started wondering. I don't get very good fps either, if I can get 35 im having a good day, often when I am having trouble I will see my fps to drop to 15-20.

What would this most likely be due to? I have a t40 with a 1.7 processor, 40 gig 5400 rpm hard drive, 1 gig pc2700 and 256 pc2100 ram, ATI Radeon 7500. Is this fixable or should I look into a better computer if going to play games?

PS. It shouldn't be spyware, adware, virus related as I have just recently done a reformat and before then I had the same problem also.

[Troels]

Official system requirements stated by game developers are always conservative in order to maximize sales and profit.

Your culprit is the Radeon 7500. Be careful not to push it too much, since it might overheat, because the T40 is shipped with the short fan assembly. That means the GPU/Radeon 7500 isn't covered by the heatsink.

With a Radeon 9600 or FireGL-T2 (found in a T42 or T42p) you'd likely more than triple your performance with games. It also has the added benefits that it supports pixel shading. Today you will not find a new game not requireing a DX8 compatible video card. The Radeon 7500 is DX7, Radeon 9000, FireGL 9000 is DX8, and Radeon 9600, FireGL-T2 is DX9.b.

If you currently use 1024x768 as resolution for gaming, turn it down to 640x480, and disable post-effects like motion blur, anisotropic filtering etc.

[murray1]

I was thinking it would be my video card. I am pretty sure I read somewhere on here that this can only be changed by changing the motherboard also, is this true? I take it I should just forget about the gaming for now until I get a better computer?

[Troels]

Yes, you can exchange the motherboards between the T4x models. The GPUs are soldered onto the motherboard, there's no swap-in socket. Your current memory/RAM may or may not be compatible.

I don't think there is much you can do about it, right now, apart from upgrading. I'm sorry to say, but ATi doesn't even support the 7500 in their newer drivers any longer
A Dock II and the fastest PCI graphics card you can find could help - but i think it will be more expensive than just a motherboard.

Also, if there's something else you think is wrong with the T40, or something you miss having on it, now it's time to consider if a new motherboard + fan is worth the costs and time.

[Temetka]

I would pick up a T41p or T42. This way you can sell the T40 to help make up some of the costs.

That 32MB Radeon 7500 is a good GPU and will run anything I play, however todays world simply calls for more GPU power. If you have any intention of running Vista you will need a more powerful GPU to run Aero as well.

With a T40 I would use it for light gaming, work and programming. Linux should also run quite nicely on that machine.

Given the current prices of T41P and T42 machines (less than $500 in most cases) and the fact that you should be able to get atleast $250 for the T40 means it is a good time to step up to something more powerful.

If you intend to keep the T40 you currently have, then I would suggest you get the M10 long fan to help cool that Radeon 7500. You could then run your games a little better. However the only way you are going to get better FPS rates is to step up to a system with a more powerful video card.

If you do decide to sell the t40, you can get a little bit more cash for it by listing it in the marketplace as opposed to e-bay. The members here are willing to pay a little more than e-bay averages.

[murray1]

Just thought I would clear this up. I have not checked my fps but it probably doesn't drop like it used to.

Here is what happened. For Christmas my dad gave me an internal wireless card instead of the bulky external linksys one. The main reason he got it was because he had almost broke his off bumping it on stuff etc.

After the install everything worked, never have had the "lag" spikes/hardware malfunction what ever you want to call it. I must have had a bad card or something.

Just thought I would share as no one had replied to this being the problem.