PC too slow for gaming?

[devildog93]

I was wondering if I am wasting my time trying to play games on my PC(laptop)

One game I tried recently was Callof Juarez. A friend brought it over to try and see if it would work after I told him I have trouble getting games to work. I can only find generic Aspire manuals online, nothing specific to my model.

I have an Acer Aspire 6930, 3gb ram, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T6400 @2.00GHz
32 bit OS

I have tried to see what kind of video card is installed but in my device manager, under sound, audio controllers it only describes the audio cards, no mention of video card. I therefore assume it is a generic card that probably is not capable of gaming, BUT Acer did give me a nice screen saver that shows a clip on gaming, (b-astard-o's)

Every game I have installed ends up locking up, and I have to re-boot. No error messages, nothing indicating an identifiable problem. Every game installs no problem, no warnings.

I have come to the conclusion after trying many games that this pc is just not equipped for gaming graphics, even though it handles HD video and audio very well using any one of my media players.

If more specifications on my deck are needed, I may need help locating what you need, so maybe leave a quick description on how to get it. I
Thank you ahead of time for any responses.

 

[stoneys-nutz]

Hello devildog93,
If you type this in run, "msinfo32" (without quotes), hit enter, this will give you all the information on your system.
Go to Components > Display, this should tell you what is running your graphics.
Laptops are notoriously bad for gaming, so don't get your hopes up.
If you can get the game running, lower all the graphics setting to their base settings, as low as they will go, also change the resolution to it's lowest, it may not look pretty, but you may be able to play.
Hope this helps, good luck and post your results.

 

[devildog93]

Hello devildog93,
If you type this in run, "msinfo32" (without quotes), hit enter, this will give you all the information on your system.
Go to Components > Display, this should tell you what is running your graphics.
Laptops are notoriously bad for gaming, so don't get your hopes up.
If you can get the game running, lower all the graphics setting to their base settings, as low as they will go, also change the resolution to it's lowest, it may not look pretty, but you may be able to play.
Hope this helps, good luck and post your results.

As far as I can tell it is an Intel 4 series Express chipset

I found that under the display category

After going into the empowering technology feature that comes with every acer, I found a rating of 64mb for that chipset, and to me that would seem way too low for driving graphics at decent quality.

I am glad, however, that you gave me that msinfo32 idea though. That is the
folder that I have been looking for for months now, never could find it again....lol!


I kind of expected this answer but thank you anyways. This is a great forum, (vistax64), I have had more questions answered in 2 days, than all other forums I am a member of in a month. awesome work.

 

[smarteyeball]

As far as I can tell it is an Intel 4 series Express chipset

I found that under the display category

After going into the empowering technology feature that comes with every acer, I found a rating of 64mb for that chipset, and to me that would seem way too low for driving graphics at decent quality.

Another two apps to check out your h/ware would be:

CPU-Z
CPUID

GPU-Z
techPowerUp! :: Downloads

But by the sounds of it, your lappy is unfortunately just not up to the job for gaming.

 

[devildog93]

As far as I can tell it is an Intel 4 series Express chipset

I found that under the display category

After going into the empowering technology feature that comes with every acer, I found a rating of 64mb for that chipset, and to me that would seem way too low for driving graphics at decent quality.

Another two apps to check out your h/ware would be:

CPU-Z
CPUID

GPU-Z
techPowerUp! :: Downloads

But by the sounds of it, your lappy is unfortunately just not up to the job for gaming.

Cool, thanks for tips.
This deck is great for surfing, runs my media sharing/streaming, and just general notebook stuff, she has some struggles with some transcoding but overall good.

She just don't have the horse power. Right on cheers and c'ya round

 

[AstaLaVista]

Keeping your video and sound drivers up to date might also help a little but. Heat is the devils best friend and unfortunately, the devil hates laptops!

 

[devildog93]

Keeping your video and sound drivers up to date might also help a little but. Heat is the devils best friend and unfortunately, the devil hates laptops!

I hear ya...lol. Like I said great laptop/notebook whatever you wanna call it, but she might as well be a boat anchor in a gaming graphics sense.

 

[smarteyeball]

I hear ya...lol. Like I said great laptop/notebook whatever you wanna call it, but she might as well be a boat anchor in a gaming graphics sense.

Yep

 

[lil domii]

Keeping your video and sound drivers up to date might also help a little but. Heat is the devils best friend and unfortunately, the devil hates laptops!

I hear ya...lol. Like I said great laptop/notebook whatever you wanna call it, but she might as well be a boat anchor in a gaming graphics sense.

haha i was like you - i had been having terrible graphics since i reinstalled vista (fixed now) and i thought i could go about and put a whopping great graphics card in! then i learned the truth...:sa: lol...

 

[devildog93]

Keeping your video and sound drivers up to date might also help a little but. Heat is the devils best friend and unfortunately, the devil hates laptops!

I hear ya...lol. Like I said great laptop/notebook whatever you wanna call it, but she might as well be a boat anchor in a gaming graphics sense.

haha i was like you - i had been having terrible graphics since i reinstalled vista (fixed now) and i thought i could go about and put a whopping great graphics card in! then i learned the truth...:sa: lol...

I am also a member of the Tversity media server forum ( can I say that?)

Anyways, I am having issues trying to stream to an X-box360 with hi-def. MKV files and having transcoding issues.........having to pause and load every minute or so.....yada yada

I think NOW that those problems are related to my kindergarten graphics card, and not codecs like all these other people keep insisting. (i've managed to get almost every other type of file to stream without having to transcode to WMV, even AVI files with 6ch AC3, just by manipulating ffdshow and AC3 filter settings)


I.M.O. Having a great graphics setup is a must have.
Time to upgrade to monster desktop me thinks.

 

[lil domii]

I hear ya...lol. Like I said great laptop/notebook whatever you wanna call it, but she might as well be a boat anchor in a gaming graphics sense.

haha i was like you - i had been having terrible graphics since i reinstalled vista (fixed now) and i thought i could go about and put a whopping great graphics card in! then i learned the truth...:sa: lol...

I am also a member of the Tversity media server forum ( can I say that?)

Anyways, I am having issues trying to stream to an X-box360 with hi-def. MKV files and having transcoding issues.........having to pause and load every minute or so.....yada yada

I think NOW that those problems are related to my kindergarten graphics card, and not codecs like all these other people keep insisting. (i've managed to get almost every other type of file to stream without having to transcode to WMV, even AVI files with 6ch AC3, just by manipulating ffdshow and AC3 filter settings)


I.M.O. Having a great graphics setup is a must have.
Time to upgrade to monster desktop me thinks.

yes, build your own, you can build one for 1/3 of the price of the same spec ready built computer, and you will be able to keep upgrading the custom built one.

You can ask us for help if you want to build your own

 

[devildog93]

haha i was like you - i had been having terrible graphics since i reinstalled vista (fixed now) and i thought i could go about and put a whopping great graphics card in! then i learned the truth...:sa: lol...

I am also a member of the Tversity media server forum ( can I say that?)

Anyways, I am having issues trying to stream to an X-box360 with hi-def. MKV files and having transcoding issues.........having to pause and load every minute or so.....yada yada

I think NOW that those problems are related to my kindergarten graphics card, and not codecs like all these other people keep insisting. (i've managed to get almost every other type of file to stream without having to transcode to WMV, even AVI files with 6ch AC3, just by manipulating ffdshow and AC3 filter settings)


I.M.O. Having a great graphics setup is a must have.
Time to upgrade to monster desktop me thinks.

yes, build your own, you can build one for 1/3 of the price of the same spec ready built computer, and you will be able to keep upgrading the custom built one.

You can ask us for help if you want to build your own

That is a very offer. I appreciate that, and I will definitely take you up on that when the time arises.:D

 

[lil domii]

I am also a member of the Tversity media server forum ( can I say that?)

Anyways, I am having issues trying to stream to an X-box360 with hi-def. MKV files and having transcoding issues.........having to pause and load every minute or so.....yada yada

I think NOW that those problems are related to my kindergarten graphics card, and not codecs like all these other people keep insisting. (i've managed to get almost every other type of file to stream without having to transcode to WMV, even AVI files with 6ch AC3, just by manipulating ffdshow and AC3 filter settings)


I.M.O. Having a great graphics setup is a must have.
Time to upgrade to monster desktop me thinks.

yes, build your own, you can build one for 1/3 of the price of the same spec ready built computer, and you will be able to keep upgrading the custom built one.

You can ask us for help if you want to build your own

That is a very offer. I appreciate that, and I will definitely take you up on that when the time arises.:D

take a look around at overclockers and decide on your brands/companies etc. when you get the money, as you said, we will be here to help you.

Dom

 

[devildog93]

yes, build your own, you can build one for 1/3 of the price of the same spec ready built computer, and you will be able to keep upgrading the custom built one.

You can ask us for help if you want to build your own

That is a very offer. I appreciate that, and I will definitely take you up on that when the time arises.:D

take a look around at overclockers and decide on your brands/companies etc. when you get the money, as you said, we will be here to help you.

Dom

I checked out OVERCLOCKERS.....very cool stuff. I, unfortunately, live in Canada. I looked up some of the gear they have, ie. water cooling, and am having hard time locating here. Not that I necessarily am looking at water cooling scpecifically, but I think OVERCLOCKERS has some stuff we don't have the privelage of choosing from over here.

I checked out NCIX, which is pretty big over here, and can't find it. I didn't see any Canadian divisions of OVERCLOCKERS while on their site. But yeah, anyways, that site opened up my eyes to what is out there, and WOW, neat stuff.

 

[lil domii]

That is a very offer. I appreciate that, and I will definitely take you up on that when the time arises.:D

take a look around at overclockers and decide on your brands/companies etc. when you get the money, as you said, we will be here to help you.

Dom

I checked out OVERCLOCKERS.....very cool stuff. I, unfortunately, live in Canada. I looked up some of the gear they have, ie. water cooling, and am having hard time locating here. Not that I necessarily am looking at water cooling scpecifically, but I think OVERCLOCKERS has some stuff we don't have the privelage of choosing from over here.

I checked out NCIX, which is pretty big over here, and can't find it. I didn't see any Canadian divisions of OVERCLOCKERS while on their site. But yeah, anyways, that site opened up my eyes to what is out there, and WOW, neat stuff.

i was 13 when i found out what was out there - i was in
there are american shipping websites out there such as newegg and tigerdirect. but does american shipping go to canada i wonder?

 

[Blackhawk7188]

You can just get a new lappy that doesnt have the Intel Chipset. Not dissing the people who love it or cause arguments but from doing 3D CAD...the Intel chipset lacked while the ATI/nVidia chipsets kicked it up a notch. My DV7 with the ATI Chipset runs games nicely even thought people dont believe me...cant get enough of BattleField 2142 on max settings. Having 64 MB of video memory is almost useless unless you step back 4 years or so on games and expect lots of run (Sims 2,Command and Conquer Games, Mechwarrior Games). Research laptops and get them with either a nVidia chipset or ATI chipset and you wont be disappointed. Most have 256MB of dedicated memory IE: ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card, or go back 3 years and you have the legacy Radeon Xpress 200m (128MB).(never used nVidia so im not familiar with their names). Some new laptops even have cards that reach 1GB of video but your price goes up there.

The better choice is to go up to a desktop but I prefer the mobility over a fixed position. I as willing to sacrifice high end gameplay for an all around notebook that I can carry with me and play whenever I want.

Hope this helps you understand and decide.

 

[AstaLaVista]

I have always used [H]ard|Forum - Powered by vBulletin because they post HOT DEALS on a Daily Basis, as well as BUY/SELL used or pre-own stuff... very cool indeed.

Their forum is very techie, which could be intimidating at times but they will also help if you have questions. My thing there is that they have already posted on Reviews of hardware that I want to use and you can take your time reading from the horses mouth and not from sellers trying to bamboozle you into buying their stuff.

 

[JimJoe]

Most companies have somewhere on their web site, or you can contact them via their 'contact us' page, to find out where they ship to.

 

[devildog93]

Lil Domii said:

i was 13 when i found out what was out there - i was in
there are american shipping websites out there such as newegg and tigerdirect. but does american shipping go to canada i wonder?




I found tigerdirect's Canadian division. Thanks for tip. Checking it out now.

 

[lil domii]

Lil Domii said:

i was 13 when i found out what was out there - i was in
there are american shipping websites out there such as newegg and tigerdirect. but does american shipping go to canada i wonder?




I found tigerdirect's Canadian division. Thanks for tip. Checking it out now.

glad you found it