game performance help

[noah03ark]

hello, its been a while, but i figured if i have an issue, i'd come back to the people i know can solve it....


my issue is both strange and very, very annoying. out of nowhere, my gaming performance on my computer has PLUMMETED.

i have a macbook pro 3,1 (santa rosa)
2.4 ghz dual core
nvidia 8600m gt 256mb
3 GB RAM
320 gb wd Scorpio black 7200rpm hd
Windows 7 Ultimate

i havent played mw2 or l4d2 in a while, so i start l4d and its surprisingly laggy... i try mw2 and its much worse...when i could once play both games flawlessly at my settings at 720p, i can not for some reason. there is simply too much lag out of nowhere.

the only changes i have ruled out is this: the change from 4 to 3 GB of ram (i put 4 back in and performance was still horrendous)

the only other possible thing i could think of was updating to bootcamp 3.1 (but after guessing this, i went back to 3.0 with the same results)

i have also tried:
virus scan (clean)
defrag
clean up (freed ~30 GB)
update drivers (none worked, went back to what those games did work on, 195.55)
reinstalling the games (still no improvement)

what is going on?

help would be greatly appreciated, as i have invested a lot of money and personal interest in these games, and wish to continue playing them

sincerely,

n03a

[aquatsr]

Could be your graphics board. The 8600M is notorious for having problems. If it's been less than 3 years since you bought it, and it turns out the 8600M is the problem, you can get it fixed (more likely: a new MBP) for free.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

[SN!P3R]

yeah, i played Lego batman (of all games) on a MBP, and i t was lagging

[noah03ark]

Could be your graphics board. The 8600M is notorious for having problems. If it's been less than 3 years since you bought it, and it turns out the 8600M is the problem, you can get it fixed (more likely: a new MBP) for free.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

i was afraid that this was plausable... the only issue is that my problem isn't exactly verbatim of what the issue is, and knowing apple and their go-:censored:-yourself-policies that i have both read about and experianced, i'll have to wait till those happen or my card dies...damn

any other possibilities?

[aZiZ1]

did u try reinstalling 7? im throwing ideas out dont bash me. I hope its not ur mac, i know their policie's blow

[aquatsr]

I don't play either of the games you mentioned. If you're playing online it could just be that your ISP was having issues.

If nothing else is lagging (like no other applications) then I can rule out hard disk, memory, and processor issues.

Did you recently upgrade to Windows 7?

[jrfhoutx]

Did you recently upgrade to Windows 7?

On a MacBook Pro? blasphemous... I would offer more advice, but I have no clue as I don't use apple computers, only the iPods and iPhone...

[aquatsr]

On a MacBook Pro? blasphemous... I would offer more advice, but I have no clue as I don't use apple computers, only the iPods and iPhone...

The first post says W7 Ultimate. And although the internal design is unique Apple hardware is no different from other (non-Apple) hardware.

[jrfhoutx]

The first post says W7 Ultimate. And although the internal design is unique Apple hardware is no different from other (non-Apple) hardware.

I can read and I did read that, but again, like I said... I DON'T USE APPLE COMPUTERS SO I KNOW VERY LITTLE ABOUT THEM, but I know enough to know that much of the hardware is the same now.

jesus :censored:ing christ, when did everyone on this board become so :censored:ing sensitive and lose their ability to recognize sarcasm and lose their sense of humor...

[aquatsr]

jesus :censored:ing christ, when did everyone on this board become so :censored:ing sensitive and lose their ability to recognize sarcasm and lose their sense of humor...

Didn't mean to offer any disrespect...

[knightmare89]

I may be out of the park but have you tried going to some of the games websites and running there performance checks. I know some of them test alot of systems performance and tell you if something needs upgraded. I'm sorry if i'm thinking along the wrong path im learing about computers still been a car nut for most of my life.

[noah03ark]

unfortunately i might try a reinstall, as blasphemous as that is for me... i havent had to do it in over 2 years

another piece of info.. in the windows experiance index, my graphics used to be 6.0 and 5.8.... now they're both 5.2.. which confused the crap out of me... i really wanna play mass effect 2 but i dont know if i can now


no other applications are lagging, everything is just as fast as it was before, including aero
I'm not playing these games online.. though i do play them through steam which has to connect.. i suppose i could try steam in offline.. or turn off network acess and see what's happening
the hard drive isn't the issue, mac and windows run fine, and its only 5 months old
i don't know if memory can be an issue...

but think about this :
backstory: i just got an eeepc for mobile use, and the eee uses the same ram speed and size as my macbook, so i took a 2gb dimm out of the mac, and put it in the eeepc... and now my mac has one 2gb dimm and one 1 gb dimm.. could "mismatching" (in terms of brand) dimms cause this? i don't have memory issues, everything runs just as fast except for graphics...

also, both my fans run fine, and the temp readings while playing are normal for this computer...so i don't think its overheating


also, thanks a lot for the help guys, its good to get some reliable support

EDIT: my gaming graphics in windows experiance index just went down to 3.7! D:< WTF!!?!?!E:!@

EDIT2: back up to 5.3... still crappy especially compared to my previous 6.0

[alentris]

Buy a PC... 'Nuff said.

[noah03ark]

Buy a PC... 'Nuff said.

I, unlike some people, am not made out of money and that is NOT AN OPTION

[alentris]

I, unlike some people, am not made out of money and that is NOT AN OPTION

Although my family does have quite a sum of money, I can build a PC for probably 1/3 of what you paid for that.

[noah03ark]

Although my family does have quite a sum of money, I can build a PC for probably 1/3 of what you paid for that.

so can i, i have built PCs myself before, not for me, but for other people as a job, so don't talk down to me and start the mac vs. pc price war; i paid what i paid and i like what i got

[alentris]

so can i, i have built PCs myself before, not for me, but for other people as a job, so don't talk down to me and start the mac vs. pc price war; i paid what i paid and i like what i got

... now wait just a minute, you just told me that you aren't made of money, so therefore by logical deduction you would choose the cheaper of the two options for the same quality, therefore resulting in excess supply of currency. I only implied that building a PC would alleviate problems caused by a mac graphics card. Please settle, grettle.

[aZiZ1]

... now wait just a minute, you just told me that you aren't made of money, so therefore by logical deduction you would choose the cheaper of the two options for the same quality, therefore resulting in excess supply of currency. I only implied that building a PC would alleviate problems caused by a mac graphics card. Please settle, grettle.

Listen Alentris, i dont wanna take sides, but this has nothing to do with his problem, im dead broke but i still have a macbook pro, My dad got it for me. Theres a time and place foreverything, this is neither dude.

In regards to your problem, how easy to open are those pro's? Is the GPU replaceable or is it soldered on like in the other version?

[noah03ark]

Listen Alentris, i dont wanna take sides, but this has nothing to do with his problem, im dead broke but i still have a macbook pro, My dad got it for me. Theres a time and place foreverything, this is neither dude.

In regards to your problem, how easy to open are those pro's? Is the GPU replaceable or is it soldered on like in the other version?

they're all part of the "logic board" (which is apple's stupid name for the motherboard)

soldered solid on... but i'm still not entirely convinced that its dying or dead.. i've been doing some 3d stuff and it runs just as good... and less graphic intense games still run flawlessly (battlefront II).. its just the newer games that, out of nowhere, are slowing... i could play left4dead at 720p on high... now i can play it only at 720p if i turn the shaders down which ruin the best graphical nuances (metal shine, motion blur)... worked fine before

for driver info: i'm using 195.62 (i think, either that or 196.62.. pretty sure its 5)

[budgray19]

alentris logic would also like poimnt out that he dosnt have money now... but he coulda got it as a gift. or he saved up for it before he was broke. dosnt take a genius.
i want this topic to stay clean i want someone to report this to me if it gets outta hand.
mac and pc fights are fierce and bad

[aquatsr]

It could be the RAM. Do you have any extra sticks lying around that you could test with?

[noah03ark]

It could be the RAM. Do you have any extra sticks lying around that you could test with?

i tested the ram theory, put it so there was 4 GB total, matching dimms (brand, speed, size, etc.)

same results

IMPORTANT: i just found a rather interesting symptom...
i recently installed mass effect (i want to play 1 then 2) and its running pretty good for my system, much better than the others... when i compare that to another game that isn't working, such as fallout 3 i notice the following: clock speeds on the games are both the same apparently, however the temperatures and fan speeds for the non-working games are signifigantly lower than games that are running correctly:
Mass Effect runs, temperature goes up and fans (full blast) stabilize to about 80ish degrees, give or take
Fallout 3 runs, its slow and choppy on still low settings, but fans are not at full blast and the temps are running around 70 with little fan stabilization

could something be telling mass effect to fully use my gpu, but not some other games, suchs l4d2, fallout 3 and mw2?
what could be causing this?
note: the non-working games are all steam-bought (i have tried them without steam running or steam connnected)
while the working games are CD based... is this connected as well?

thoughts? how or why would my computer to suddenly stop using full gpu capability on certain applications? i've checked my driver settings, nothing in there about that...

[aquatsr]

Still sounds like a RAM-related issue to me. If for one game (Mass Effect) the GPU or CPU is being heavily utilized, that would cause the system to heat up and fans to speed up. For other games, if they rely more on memory usage, and if the SO-DIMM slots are faulty or if the RAM sticks are faulty then the CPU and GPU will not be utilized and the fans won't speed up.

However, I think the games you mentioned would still tax the CPU, since you don't have a dedicated graphics card (the 8600M is a graphics chip soldered to the MoBo). Have you taken it to a Genius Bar and asked for their input? It seems like that would be the next best thing.

[noah03ark]

 well the games that now run badly (fallout3, mw2) used to make the computer heat up and the fans run at full blast, but they no longer do, i've also checked the task manager, and there doesn't seem to be any difference in memory use between the working and non-working games...

UPDATE: after talking to friends earlier i decided to be a jerk and forgo ME1 and i bought ME2... installed, and played
CPU/GPU runs at full strength, full fan blast, and good performance.. so that works, just not some other games... still a conundrum for me :/