Questions related to gaming experience with regard to metrics like frames-per-second, video quality, audio-quality, network-latency, overheating etc. Could also be related to overclocking CPU/GPU and other hardware tweaks that affect these metrics.
27
votes
4answers
2k views
CPU or framerate limiting on older games
There are some older games that seem to eat up as much CPU as you can produce even if only to render frames that they will drop - or perhaps perform some work that I don't consider necessary (since ...
22
votes
10answers
60k views
How can I improve the performance of Minecraft?
I'm a happy Minecraft player. I place my blocks, mine my coal, and generally nobody gets hurt. Lately though, those mean creepers have been sneaking up on me from behind, and killing me. Why? Because ...
15
votes
8answers
38k views
How do I improve Civilization V's performance?
I have pretty decent hardware and I run many games on it. But Civ 5 is unacceptably slow when it reaches an advanced stage where it shows the whole map and there are many units.
I tried to monitor ...
14
votes
6answers
14k views
Skyrim PS3 vs 360 Load Times
I would like to pick up a copy of Skyrim today but am undecided if I should get it on PS3 or 360. IGN says that the 360 load times are lengthy and frequent and unfortunately their PS3 review is not up ...
13
votes
11answers
13k views
How can I reduce latency while playing World of Warcraft?
I can often have a latency of over 600ms when raiding and I have heard people in-game say that latency can be reduced by using a custom proxy or DNS server (I don't remember which).
Are there any ...
12
votes
3answers
15k views
How to force Maximized Fullscreen mode in any game?
I have seen several games that have a video display mode that is windowed with no borders, at the same resolution as the desktop. It's sometimes called "Borderless Windowed" mode, or "Maximized ...
12
votes
3answers
7k views
What settings I can change to improve performance and reduce stuttering of Magicka?
Magicka is running somewhat sluggish on my computer. The FPS are at a constant 30, but it stutters quite frequently which is quite annoying.
My computer should easily be powerful enough for that game ...
11
votes
1answer
708 views
Can you run games with non-trivial graphics requirements in a virtual machine?
Any real experience running heavy games like AOE3, NFS Underground 2/MW, SimCity 4, City Life, etc. I don't expect run Crysis on a virtual machine but some old games. Is it possible run these kind of ...
10
votes
2answers
298 views
What speedup can I expect in modern PC games from switching to 3 or more CPU cores?
Last I checked, almost all PC games were not noticeably faster with more than 1 or 2 cpu cores (the engines weren't very multi-threaded, apparently).
Are most games and game engines coming out now ...
8
votes
6answers
535 views
What speedup can I expect in modern PC games from switching to a 64bit OS?
Forgetting, for the moment, the advantages afforded by more RAM being addressable, what performance gains are typical with say, vista 64 over vista 32?
Do all games perform better, or does it vary ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
Which is better for a Gaming PC Graphics Card - more RAM, or faster GPU?
If I have budget for one of two graphics cards as an upgrade, where one has more RAM but the other a faster clock speed on the GPU, which would have the biggest impact on gaming performance? The one ...
8
votes
1answer
347 views
Is hard disk also responsible for game performance?
Me and my friend have same laptop. Both have the same specifications, but a game's performance on his laptop is lag free. Well, the only difference is in our hard drives. He has a hard drive which is ...
8
votes
7answers
1k views
Is there a difference between running games in Windowed or Fullscreen mode?
Does playing game when it's windowed increase performance? Decrease it?
Does the same also hold true to fullscreen mode? I've always thought that playing on Fullscreen meant a higher fps boost, but I ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
Will a first gen Xbox 360 handle game releases from 2011+?
I have had my white Xbox 360 since 2007. I have not played it for a long time and have found that you can pick them up for around £50 ($80 USD).
I plan on playing Gears of War 3, but I seem to ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
Why is windowed mode always slower in games?
When I run games in Windows or Linux in Windowed mode, my frame-rates always seem to start chunking.
Is this a general problem, the machines I'm using not being awesome enough, or or is it just the ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
would a faster HDD in my PS3 speed up load times?
Ok, so several of my co-workers have been upgrading their work machines to use SSD hard drives instead of old spinning disks. They all rave about the huge speed boost on IO intensive actions like ...
7
votes
7answers
24k views
Does having more than 4 gigs of RAM increase gaming performance at all?
Have we reached a point where game makers are taking advantage of 64bit OSes and allocating more memory to their processes beyond the standard available on a 32bit OS or are games not yet taking ...
7
votes
3answers
645 views
Oddly predictable stutter, only in Crysis
So here's my rig:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.
AMD Phenom II x4 810 (2.6gHz)
4gb DDR2-800
AMD Radeon 5850 1gb, connected via HDMI to a Samsung 47" 1080p LCD TV.
I can play other games fine, though the ...
6
votes
2answers
3k views
Can I run a Minecraft multiplayer server and client on the same machine?
Is it possible to host a Minecraft multiplayer server on my computer and connect to it from the game client on the same machine? If it is possible how would it affect other players connecting on my ...
6
votes
4answers
67k views
How can I increase my FPS in Minecraft? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can I improve the performance of Minecraft?
I'm running a Toshiba A665 with Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit) and just installed the latest version of Java.
Every setting ...
6
votes
4answers
4k views
How do I improve the performance of StarCraft II?
StarCraft 2 recommends the "Ultra" graphics setting, but even on "Low" the FPS drops extremely low when there are a lot of units on the screen.
I've already downloaded and installed the latest ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
Will a dedicated sound-card decrease CPU load?
Assume the CPU is the bottleneck in my PC's performance (I've a great GPU and tons of RAM), and lets say I'm playing a game that permanently maxes out the CPU load.
My PC has no dedicated ...
5
votes
5answers
6k views
Graphics Card, Processor or RAM?
Which is better for good gaming?
Graphics card
Processor
RAM
Will only buying a very good expensive GPU (Graphics Card) ensure a good gaming experience?
Friends say that you dont need to buy ...
5
votes
2answers
497 views
Alpha Centauri (GOG version) is using up nearly 100% cpu
SMAC is overheating my Win7 64-bit, Core Duo 2.0Ghz, 4GB RAM machine and when I check the Task Manager after playing a few minutes (nothing major happens in the game, I just build my base and move the ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
How can I improve CPU usage in Skyrim?
My system specs are as follows:
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 - 2.4GHz
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti (ASUS, Fermi)
RAM: 8GB DDR2
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit
The issue I'm experiencing is that whenever I ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views
How can I improve the performance of java games?
Minecraft and Terraria both run incredibly slow on my machine. I've never seen anything like it, javaw.exe hammers my cpu - it's constantly at 100%. These aren't even graphically intensive games, ...
5
votes
1answer
627 views
Tutorials play very slowly, what can I do?
My machine can handle Deus Ex Human Revolution fine with the resolution turned down a bit from my screen's native resolution. However tutorial clips play extremely slowly - the audio is very choppy ...
5
votes
2answers
922 views
Are there performance and stability differences between vanilla and Bukkit servers?
I am deciding whether to switch my vanilla server over to a Bukkit server. I did upgrade to the development build of Java 7 which did give me a slight performance boost. Just wondering if anyone has ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Why does Starcraft 2 keep telling me to lower the graphics settings or close other applications?
I'm running a (new) 2010 Macbook Pro with:
A Core i7 2.66 Ghz Processor
8GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M Graphics Card
Is it really possible that it can't handle the "high" graphics settings on ...
4
votes
6answers
4k views
What are some suggestions for improving TF2 CPU performance?
A TF2 performance question:
Do you guys have any ideas for how to improve TF2 performance?
I'm running on a native 1900x1200 monitor and find that the game is really CPU limited. I'm running on a ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
How to cap frame rate (or GPU usage) in Just Cause 2 PC?
I play Just Cause 2 PC on my Radeon 4850 (single slot) and no matter how I tweak the graphic settings (from lowest to highest), Afterburner utility keeps telling me that JC2 is using ~99% GPU ...
4
votes
2answers
3k views
RAMDisk for performance boost in gaming?
I recently started experimenting with a RAMDisk for web browsing and since it worked pretty well, I began wondering if any particular games would benefit from using a RAMDisk?
I realize games are ...
4
votes
2answers
882 views
How much does the resolution affect performance?
If you take a generic game and change resolution to 640 x 480, 1280 x 1024 and 1920 x 1080 respectively, how heavily would this affect performance?
Is resolution an important factor or rather ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Comparing TN vs. IPS LCD monitors for gaming
Having never owned an LCD desktop monitor, I'm wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are between owning a TN and an IPS monitor in regards to gaming performance. While I know there are ...
4
votes
1answer
387 views
Why do games perform better after restarts?
I like to play Team Fortress 2.
My computer can run it fine on the recommended settings, but I like the best performance possible. I use a custom configuration that makes the textures look like they ...
4
votes
1answer
366 views
Freeciv runs very slow
After some time freeciv runs very slow on my laptop, running onboard intel graphics. I'm using the gtk version on Ubuntu 10.10 and it seems like Xorg is consuming 100% CPU. I'm also running Compiz ...
3
votes
2answers
353 views
Games run way too fast. Setting affinity doesn't work at all. How in the world do I make the game run normal speed?
Games like Day Of Defeat and Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising run way too fast (x2) but even if I change the affinity in the task manager so the games use only one CPU, there is no noticeable change ...
3
votes
1answer
250 views
Performance loss from 15“ to 21” using the same resolution?
Why do I have a huge performance loss when I changed my monitor from 15" to 21"?
For example, Dirt 2 used to run with ultra settings, 4xMSAA, 1024x768 and 30 FPS. Now it only runs 25 FPS with very ...
3
votes
3answers
187 views
Call of Juarez: everytime stutter when loading something
I'm still at the start of the game but one thing is annoying as hell: whenever I'm maneuvering around in the map and the game needs to load something (e.g. a sound or such a thing), there's a stutter ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
How to improve Civilization 5 savegame load performance?
My PC running Windows XP sp3 has a Athlon 64 X2 3600+ processor, a 7200RPM 160GB HD, a ATI 3850 graphics card and 2GB of RAM. (Note that there's plenty of free space on the HD and it's defragmented ...
3
votes
1answer
334 views
Mech Commander 2 Performance video performance stutters
I recently decided to try installing an old game, Mech Commander 2, and play though it a little bit on my basically modern gaming machine.
To my surprise, it played VERY slowly... graphics stuttered ...
3
votes
3answers
6k views
Can I stop Skyrim slowing down after 5 minutes?
My laptop's about a year old, but I bought it at quite a high spec then so it's still fine. When I first ran Skyrim, it chose the 'high' graphics setting. At first, the game plays very smoothly, ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Looking for a Starcraft 2 Graphics Guide
Currently on my computer i can only run starcraft 2 at the lowest graphics settings.
I am getting a new computer with a better video card that will most likely support higher settings.
My question ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Low FPS and Performance Issues During Gameplay
Alright this is just baffling me. I have never had performance issues on my Desktop unless its just an easy Driver Update. The worst part is that my Laptop has no issues playing Far Cry 3.
My Desktop ...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
GTA IV on Core i3
Is Core i3 530/540 enough to run GTA IV smoothly? What is the range of fps that I can expect?
The graphics card is probably immaterial, since I already have MSI 5770 Hawk which will pretty easily ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
Does Deux Ex: Human Revolution run better under Windows than Mac OS X?
I've got a macbook air 13" with an HD 4000 graphics card. Deus Ex runs just ok on it.
Is the performance on Windows better for this game? If so, is it enough to matter?
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Why is Quake Live slower on the Mac than the PC?
I have a new iMac. I have been playing Quake Live. When I play I get either 85 fps, or a weird effect where the framerate starts at 125, then drops to 85fps and builds up again to 125 fps.
Changing ...
3
votes
1answer
4k views
Team Fortress 2 Bad Performance on Mac
I was wondering if anyone else has had bad problems with Team Fortress 2 running on a mac (not bootcamp or anything like that) for example here are some of the problems I've been having:
When doing ...
2
votes
2answers
471 views
Is a gaming laptop noticable louder than desktop computer?
It seems to me that normal PCs without water cooling and without specifically modded gfx-card-fans are the vacuum cleaners among the home electronics, especially when playing a gfx heavy game. (Which ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Limit FPS in Games to prevent overheating
When playing games on my laptop (MacBook Air 2011 with Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics), the temperature of the processor / GPU quickly reaches to 95°C causing it to throttle down every couple of ...
