You'll get much better answers by asking this over in the Technical Issues area of the forums. The folks over there are just teeming with optimization info...
In general though:
Your graphics settings are most likely causing the slow framerate and stuttering effect.
One way to check this is to start the game in "safe mode" - which will force everything down to the absolute bare minimums. If your issues go away, then it's your graphics. Finding the correct settings for your video card is something the folks over in Tech Issues can really help with. (You'll need to provide them with the correct info on what you've got though).
The crashing in busy areas may be graphics related or it may be available memory on your machine related.
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As far as I know, there's no such thing as an "external" video card and upgrading the graphics cards in a laptop is problematic at best. So if your machine can't handle the game anymore, then you may be stuck with "upgrade to a new machine" as the only viable answer. However, if you used to be able to run the game reasonably well, then you should still be able to get to the same performance levels with the correct in-game settings.
6000+ levels gained and 8 level 50's
Hello, my name is Soulwind and I have Alt-Itis.
Quote:
Sorta. The increased features in the game over the years have lead to a steady decrease in performance, even with the same graphic options. It's just how it goes. |
Originally Posted by Soulwind
However, if you used to be able to run the game reasonably well, then you should still be able to get to the same performance levels with the correct in-game settings.
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You can probably find settings that get close. I second the "switch it to safe mode" advice, and then start upping graphics settings from there to find the best mix of framerate and eyecandy.
If you had any more specs about your laptop (CPU, Amount of RAM, what video card it is. If you don't know that stuff, providing the model number of the laptop is usually enough for somebody to look it up and see what you're running) that might be helpful.
I need some help on game play issues. I play on a Gateway laptop with Vista and a video card at bare basics. My problems are choppy movement, almost a stop-action movement. I had it pretty well fixed but now with the new update I`m outa wack again. I have been messing with things and getting mixed results. Does anybody know what effects movement the most? Another problem I have is bad lag in certain zones or maps, the game will crash when I get near certain buildings in Atlas and Founders Fall. I know my video card is probably the main issue but I`m not too computer savy. I have been told that I cant upgrade my card but will a external one do any good? I`m not looking for stupid answers like, "get a real computer", " go to a different game" or "just deal with it". I really enjoy the game but as it is I`m missing out on parts of COH and pretty much all of COV, so any real solutions would be of great help.