Gaming Laptop upgrade

[mrsour]

I curently have a hp Dv7 computer with a 5400 rpm drive in it and when im playing gtaiv the game is SO slow that you can't play it.

I've checked my processor(three core 2.6) and ram (4gb) while the game is playing neither are maxed out or close to maxing out i have all the options on my computer
graphics card (mobility radeon hd 4250 and 5470) to preformance so i figered it was the hard drive so would upgradeing to a SSD solve my problems of lagging and studdering?

also would an SSD improve windows boot time?

 

[PooMan UK]

Your mobility graphics card is most properly causing your lagg issues

 

[mrsour]

i will look into that thank you

 

[mrsour]

would overclocking solve the graphics card problem?

 

[AstaLaVista]

would overclocking solve the graphics card problem?

Some games hate overclocks so I doubt it will help. Also, I doubt you would be able to OC your onboard chip but I could be wrong.

 

[Clinkz]

I know you can overclock some on board chips, specifically nvidia, but i wouldn't..ever.

 

[mrsour]

i tried the over clock and astalavista was right most of my game wouldn't load due to invalid configerations

i think i'll upgrade to the SSD so i can get the faster read write speed because after runing a benchmark program i saw that the harddrive was really slowing down the system.

does anyone know of a program that can backup multipul operating systems or i am going to have to back each one up sepretly

my laptop has two harddrive bays (one is empty so ill put the SSD in that one) is there a way to transfer all the operating systems on one over to the other?

 

[AstaLaVista]

You can use Acronis Home to make an image of your old drive and then just start with the new SSD.

Backup software for data backup and disaster recovery in Windows and Linux - Acronis

It may not be what you want or are expecting but you really don't have that many options when it comes to a Laptop and Gaming. Good Luck

 

[smarteyeball]

Not intending to rain on your parade, a SSD may smooth things out a little in GTA IV for you and will make your whole laptop feel snappier - but I wouldn't expect miracles.

Still a worthwhile upgrade for non-gaming performance however.

 

[mrsour]

thank you for all of your replys

side note: i only use this laptop for medium-light gameing when my desktop isnt avilable so the best preformance i can get out of it is what im going for, not exally expecting a speed deamon runing at 200 fps just a nice casual game computer.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

I can assure you that a 5400RPM HDD is most certainly not the issue here, unless it is not functioning properly. My system has one... runs games like a champ, no stutter/lag/other problems whatsoever and functions just as well as my old system's 7200RPM 80GB HDD did. I can play Crysis and Oblivion on Medium/High settings with the highest possible resolution and all without a single stutter for hours and hours. It's not the HDD. In fact, there's very little actual noticeable difference between the 5400 and 7200 RPM drives (besides on benchmarks).


That said:

Are you sure the game installed correctly? Might be worth attempting a clean install.

Have you checked your Graphics card's driver, is it the latest version? (This can DEFINITELY cause games to severely drop in performance, even result in BSODs - first hand experience there).

Have you tried ending processes in Task Manager that don't need to be running when you're gaming (look them up first, make sure they won't result in off behavior - leave Explorer.exe alone of course [and don't worry, this won't hurt anything, simply restart and they'll come back and stop the odd behavior])? By doing this, I can free up 30% of my CPU and 25% of my RAM usages instantly - makes a HUGE difference!

And, do you disable/stop running "real time" antivirus programs (can really slow things down/mess with games)?

If all of the above has failed to nail this down... have you run any real diagnostic testing on your CPU, RAM and HDD to determine whether or not they're all functioning properly/not the cause of this issue?

Lastly (and perhaps most important of all considering we are talking about a laptop here), have you checked the internal (CPU, HDD etc.) and ambient temps inside your system during gaming? This could also cause a system, a mobile PC especially, to struggle with intensive and resource-heavy processes. I've actually pushed mine into the T-Junction Max to the point where it's shut itself down on me when gaming (after it slowed down the games to the point of crawling). Not good.


Hope this gives you somewhere to start. I'd hold off on buying that expensive SSD until checking out all of the above. Just a few suggestions and I hope you get it resolved.

 

[mrsour]

I fixed the problem after trying what evilosmess i updated the grafics card driver and the new one has an option for gpu throttling the old had it preset after removeing these limitations GTA runs much faster.

thx