Old games have lag spikes

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  1. Posts : 81
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
       #1

    Old games have lag spikes


    I have been searching for a solution to this problem for 2 weeks every day, on this forum and others, and no answers have helped me. Simple: lag spikes on older games. Offline. Games like counter strike 1.6, condition zero, source, and age of empires 2. Those are the older games I have installed so far since buying my laptop two weeks ago. Graphics work fine and everything, though every 15-20 seconds I get lag spikes for like 3 seconds, and it resumes flawlessly. Please, no one give me any bullshit answers like try compatibility mode or update ur drivers or get directx 9c. First thing I tried. No help. I tried setting affinity to one processor, as I have 2 cores and 2 hyperthreading. No luck. Note, on new games like civ 5, empire and napolean total war, and medal of honour airborne, no issues, no lag, nothing, just flawless gameplay on the highest settings possible. I wanted to download virtual pc, but they won't allow it for windows 7 premium. Upgrading IS NOT an option, as I already spent $1300, and for that money I expect to play older games that are max 10-11 years old. If people can play DOS games through an emulator and work fine, windows 7 should be able to play 10 year old games, like Age of Empires 2, which they made personally. All these games worked and still work fine on my old comp with XP SP2. My old comp has 900 mhz processing power and a poor graphics card with 512 mb ram. If that comp can play it on the highest settings, why can't my super gaming laptop? If anyone can give me any real answers, I will be really grateful. Here are my specs.
    STAPLES | BUREAU EN GROS
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 571
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #2

    Have you disabled or changed indexing settings?
    Have you changed your System Restore Settings?
    How about your Pagefile settings?
    How about Defrag schedules?
    How about Backup schedules?

    All of the above will eat away at your resources intermittently.

    No BS.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 81
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    I don't think I have changed anything, but if I did, wouldn't it affect all games, not just old ones? I think it's more of a compatibility issue. After all, newer games play like a dream on the highest settings. Old games look great too, but I get lag spikes quite often on them, as described above.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 6,879
    Win 7 Ultimate x64
       #4

    Barbarian Roman, welcome to the Seven Forums.

    You laptop has both Intel graphics (integrated into the CPU) as well as the AMD Mobility HD 5650, and I have a feeling what is happening is that those older games aren't providing enough of a load on the AMD card and as a result it is auto-switching between the two. Would also explain why the newer games play without the problems the older are having.

    One way to check if this is the case is to see NoN's post here,

    laptop onboard graphics switch

    and set it to use only the AMD card and then try those games again.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 81
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #5

    stormy13 said:
    Barbarian Roman, welcome to the Seven Forums.

    You laptop has both Intel graphics (integrated into the CPU) as well as the AMD Mobility HD 5650, and I have a feeling what is happening is that those older games aren't providing enough of a load on the AMD card and as a result it is auto-switching between the two. Would also explain why the newer games play without the problems the older are having.

    One way to check if this is the case is to see NoN's post here,

    laptop onboard graphics switch

    and set it to use only the AMD card and then try those games again.
    Maybe your right. It's lagging on old games. So the question is, how can I force it to use the ATi graphics? The post doesn't say much on how to switch them.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 6,879
    Win 7 Ultimate x64
       #6

    Pretty much. Despite what Intel would like everyone to believe their graphics capabilities still aren't there yet. Here is what the one you have is capable of,

    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD - Notebookcheck.net Tech

    Not too bad for a few of them provided you don't go above medium, with most needing low settings to be remotely playable.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 81
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #7

    stormy13 said:
    Pretty much. Despite what Intel would like everyone to believe their graphics capabilities still aren't there yet. Here is what the one you have is capable of,

    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD - Notebookcheck.net Tech

    Not too bad for a few of them provided you don't go above medium, with most needing low settings to be remotely playable.
    Yes, but would the integrated graphics suck so much that it wouldn't be able to play older games? Kinda hard to believe. Maybe it would lag on 5 year old games, but 10 year old games? But intel graphics does suck. It won't let me even open civ 5, let alone run it.
    Update: found a way to configure to different graphics card. The ATi certainly looks better, even when runnin age of empires 2. However, it still gets lag spikes. It runs great for the first 1-2 minutes, then starts getting lag spikes. Could it be that it is switching from ati to intel automatically? On power options, I click high performance for the ati card, on battery and plugged in. No difference. Either the ati is auto switching to intel and causing the lag spikes, or the graphics card is not the problem.
    Last edited by Barbarian Roman; 19 Jan 2011 at 20:25.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 2
    Windows 7 Professional x64
       #8

    Hello,

    Have you tried this?

    Open regedit
    Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile
    There will be an entry for network performance throttling, default value is 10; set it to FFFFFFFF hex (willl look like 0xFFFFFFFF to the right of the entry)
    Reboot

    This was posted by pinstripe.

    "lag" in online games with Windows 7
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 81
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Actually there was no network perfomance tab but thanks for the post anyway because it gave me an idea. In the Multimedia\SystemProfile tab, there is a games folder, and in it affinity and cpu performance set values for games. Would altering any of it maybe help? But remember its not an online problem because I get the same lag spikes offline too.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 2
    Windows 7 Professional x64
       #10

    There is no network performance tab, I do not believe, it is just HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile and then you should see network performance throttling on the right..you should try it anyway, it's a known issue with a lot of games, including CSS,DODS, etc.

    If the problem is occuring offline, it probably is not the issue, but you should still try it anyway.

    You may want to try to alter those values. I know you said you have tried updating your drivers, but it does sound like a driver issue. Maybe you have an old driver still installed. I am sorry that I could not be of more help.
      My Computer


 
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