Rome: Total Laptop Misery at Xmas

[Jonny Dangerously]

Dear Everyone,

I am in the process of moving house and my PC is packed away until January. As a result I am RTW-less, and I'm SERIOUSLY climbing the walls. A mate where I am staying has an Advent 7011, on which I am trying like a crazyman to run RTW. Everything works fine apart from massive frame rate slow down during the campaign map and random slowing down on the battle map.

I am desperate, frustrated, annoyed and just a little depressed. I think I've done everything, I've installed the patch, downloaded the latest graphics drivers, re-installed Directx 9c, and installed win media player 10. It still runs like Defender on a ZX-81.

Does anyone have a solution or should I just start crying now?

PS At a push, does anyone know of any gaming cyber cafes in West London?

[Rock Chalk Warrior]

Have you gone to the options menu in the game and lowered the video settings. I can't remember how, but I believe the game has an option in the video settings that auto detects what the best settings for your PC. If you have not done this try that.

[KRALLODHRIB]

I run RTW on a cicero laptop as well:
p4 2.5
512 ram
30 GIG HD
I autodetect and it is reasonable good, though it is certainly slower than my mate's desktop
dell p4 1.7?
512
60gb
with a midrange graphics card.

The problem, as I the completely tech-uninformed pc gamer, is the integrated video chip which is largely inadequate for rtw. Too bad there arent external "plug in/external" video card/processors that can take laptops to another level. (if any one has heard of these please let me know-I'll buy it tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As I understand it, it is rather difficult to get laptops with integrated chips up to snuff for rtw.

I mean, it runs, but not too well. No complaints really other than framerate, which is so NOT fluid that it drives me occasionally and mildly insane .

[Jonny Dangerously]

it drives me occasionally and mildly insane

I hear you buddy.

Thanks to both of you. I've auto detected settings, I've done all the patches, updates, downloads etc etc. I am still stumped. The weird thing is that the battle screen actually runs slightly better than the campaign map which drags so badly that I become infuriated to the point of delerium.

I think I need to find some PC in a cyber cafe somewhere and get a ten hour stint before I get RTW withdrawal.

[HicRic]

Yeah, my camp. map runs worse than the battle map on my desktop. My advice would be to NOT autodetect settings, but manually lower all settings in the game's menu to the lowest settings possible (lowest quality graphics and so on). The game still looks great and it provides extra FPS.

Alternately, or perhaps also, try disabling the sound in the game (I think there's an option in the sound menu or something?). It might yield performance bonuses, especially if you have an integrated graphics card. Of course, then you can't hear the music.

But yeah, give that a go. Lowest graphics quality and/or sound off.

[CrusaderMan]

All laptop computers have low-end accelerators and even equivalent models in desktop computers are clocked faster. In addition to what everyone said, you may try some overcklocking utility, if it exists for your graphics card.

[Pomerium]

Just butch up and go cold turkey until you unpack. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

[DragonIce84]

The game runs ok on my laptop... only reason is maybe the omega drivers that i'm using. :S

2.0 GHz p4
Radeon M6P (sorta like 7000/7200 - ish)
512MB Ram (upgraded that)
40GB HDD
All the onboard stuff...

Runs very playable on 2v2 battles, normal troop size. It's maybe a tad slow with the fps in the early stages of a battle, but it picks up speed as people are slain. Not tried much else yet (not had access to it for a while)

But then again... i may just be used to low fps.

[Jonny Dangerously]

Just butch up and go cold turkey until you unpack. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

....that was a helpful comment. Thanks mate, and a Happy Christmas to you too.


So where was I..... yeah, for everyone else, thanks for the info and tips. I think I'll try a combination of everything and see what takes effect. I think
Hicric might be onto something about the sound, I seem to remember something about the sound/graphics resources competing. Thanks everyone.

[Clips]

Sometimes installing more up to date Graphics drivers from the graphics card manufacturers websites help these types of problems big time, turns out alot of problems and down to inconpatibilities between a game and specific system, no answer why alot of the time, but alot of these updates sort it, on the driver download areas on nvidia and ati sites for example there is usually step by step guides, but get any problems and ill be here if you wanna try it.

[Jonny Dangerously]

Thanks for that Clips. I think I'll give the drivers one last blast and if that fails it looks like it's going to be Monopoly for me this Christmas.

[Clips]

G force 4 pretty good value for money, i know not best card or anywhere close you can get but good enough graphics for all games and good value for money speically now ive just seen an old MSI 8x g force 4 for £30, bargain lol

But yeh there were few problems on ati card with me asus mother board for vi which a driver update sorted, i went to ati.com but could of gone to hercules site.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[Jonny Dangerously]

Unfortunately I can't replace the graphics card because it's someone elses laptop..... I think I need ot study the SiS 650 graphic driver situation.... thanks though

[Clips]

go to the chipsets manufacturers instead of the card manufacturer, this would be either NVIDIA or ATI .com sites they have slightly more up to date drivers, ofcourse first you must specify your card but then you should be away.

[KRALLODHRIB]

I too have an SIS, or Silicon Integrated Systems Corporation, 650/ m650 chipset in my laptop. And while SIS does have updated drivers for their integrated chipsets, it did little in the way of improving the graphics performance of the campaign map. I fear that this is simply due to the nature of laptops and their limitations, especially mine.

Anywhooooo, apprently you can't install graphics cards into laptops with integrated chipsets. But, then again, I was sort of surprised that the game played at all on my laptop considering its sophistication. So, rtw at slower speeds, as frustrating as it can be, is better than no rtw for the holidays. Hmmm. . .although, Monopoly does sound good. . .

[Clips]

No sorry you cant install graphics cards into laptops, forgot we were talking about laptops for a minute there, but there are still drivers available online for the special graphics chipsets which tend to be very similar to the graphics cards them selves yet intergrated into the motherboard, i know on some laptop motherboards the actual graphics card chipset has been identically cloned onto the mother board. But yes you can still find driver updates :)