Maybe it's time to ask someone that actually...

[Eneru]

... knows how a computer really works

I wanted a laptop for my university stuff and some gaming. I knew a nice gaming laptop was off the budget so I bought this HP dv6000 1 and a half years ago:

* AMD Turion 64, dual core processor 1,6 GHz

* 2 GB DDR2 memory

* 15.4″ WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)

* NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 6150

* 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

* LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support

* 1.3 Megapixel Webcam with mic built into screen

* Altec Lansing speakers built in

* 3 USB ports, ExpressCard/54 Slot, Video Out, Integrated Consumer IR, 1 RJ-11, 1 RJ-45

* Windows Vista Home Premium

With this setup I started having problems while playing, low FPS, overheat, black screens of doom etc... i wanted to play some shooters online and I realised all I could do was play WoW at 10-20 FPS. After one year causing wipes due to my low FPS (yeah its true :) ) I decided to toy with what I thought was my bottle neck: GeForce Go 6150

Thing I did on my own before asking some external help:

1 Changed the BIOS dedicated memory from 64 to 128MB -> No visible change, sill low FPS

2 Installed what I thought were the best drivers for my setup (158.45) ->Again, no changes

3 Downloaded Nvidia System Monitor (Ntune) and stopped there.

Some friends (and this forum :) ) have warned me about the danger of tweaking your system speeds without acutally knowing what you are doing.

Should I increase my clock speed and memory to get a nicer perfomance? or am I stuck with a medicore/awful gaming laptop till the end of time?

Thx for ur time

-Eneru

Edited August 17, 2008 by Eneru

[ByronGman]

Greetings!

Unfortunately I am not an expert, however, I do have a general hunch about your situation.

I'm sorry but I rather think you are at the end of your rope here. First off your system really doesn't have anything going for it. By that I mean you CPU, GPU, and RAM are all pretty weak. 1.6 Ghz is very slow, the 6150 is also pretty weak I beleive, and 2 GB RAM is pretty much a min spec for anything these days. Sometimes you can of compensate for one thing by having excellent components in another field (for example awesome CPU and high RAM might let you wiggle some performance out of a lower end GPU), but this just look like it is going to happen.

If you are already having problems with heat and temps I'd advise you NOT to overclock, it raises temps and can cause all sorts of problems (especially if you are already having issues).

If you are still dead set on performance gains I'd try some other drivers, you never know what might work for you. However, don't expect any miracles because you are not likely to get any. 10-20 FPS in WoW means you are almost certainly going to be choking on anything like CoD4 or Crysis or Bioshock.

Want to FPS on the cheap? Get an XboX 360. Most games have 360 counterparts and I'm sure you could dig around and get a good deal. Otherwise save up for your next machine... $1500 will probably buy you are really mid to upper end laptop that will handle games well. If you want the very most for your money by a desktop. For the same amount of money you'll lose the mobility but get better parts.

Like I say tho, I'm not a complete expert. Maybe someone else knows how this guy could juice his machine?

I'd admire anyone that could... but it would be a very long stretch.

[Michael Marley]

I agree with ByronGman that you shouldn't attempt to overclock the integrated chipset. However, I strongly disagree about buying an Xbox 360, or any console for that matter. The processors in consoles, contrary to common rumor, are not the best thing for gaming. For modern games, any dual-core Intel or AMD can easily beat the Xenon processor of the 360. This is because most games still use 1 or 2 threads, and therefore are unable to take advantage of most of the 6-thread Xenon. Also, the 360 has only 512MB of system RAM and 10MB(?!?) of dedicated graphics RAM. A third major disadvantage of console gaming is that in order to have decent quality, you must buy an HDTV. After you factor in the price of a decent HDTV and the increased price of the 360 games over the PC games, the PC begins to look much better from a financial standpoint. If I were you, I would save my money and buy a new laptop with a dual-core Intel processor and mid-high range Nvidia graphics. I got mine (listed in the sidebar) on sale for only $900 USD.

[Eneru]

I didn't even think about getting a 360, but I'd rather spend my money on a solid desktop PC

I've been further toying with drivers and I got up to 831 "available graphics memory" (that's what vista says at least... :) ) I also tuned the card to "Abosulte Performance" on the Nvidia control panel.

And the same thing happens, 10-20 fps and it goes down when the temperature raises.

I still have a question, How come my FPS stay low no matter what the game settings are? Playing WoW at 800x600 not even seeing my character at 30 fps doing nothing...

:)

Edited August 22, 2008 by Eneru

[Chaos]

so longs post....

i am sorry but this laptop suck, buy one that costs 700 dollars or euros whatever. i t will be so much better then that laptop.

i would recommend th 8600M GT GDDR3 best price/performence g.card. i think.

[Andrew55]

First off:The 158.45 drivers are the best for your system and as was mentioned ocing a 6150 with temp probs is suicide and won't give better performance. You really can't expect any games post 2005 to run well if at all. So buying a desktop is the wisest choice. You can get a reAlly good system for slightly over $800. So if mobile gaming is not of foremost importance then go for it.

[Guest Eneru]

I've been playing with several versions included 158.45 and all I got was weird colors or windows not even starting. I'd like to be able play old/light games in this laptop, which drivers will work best?

Thanks :)

-Eneru

[Guest Eneru]

edit: I just want to play som World of Warcraft at class : (

[Guest MonkeyMhz]

Hmm, see, well. First of all the Geforce 6150 is very very weak by todays standards. Remember when buying any graphic card of the Nvidia line the nameing for all the 6X - 9X go by

1st Number is the Technology Grade.

2nd Number is the Speed.

So like a Geforce 7150 is Newer technology than a 6800. However a 6800 is much faster.

So the 6150 is pretty dam old. As regards to your performance issue, if your temperatures are low, you can do some small safe overclocking to get a bit more performance but dont expect anything amazing. Im not sure how fast ur CPU is or how fast a 6150 is but I do know friends who have P4's with 2.8-3.0ghz w/Geforce 6200' range cards, who run COD4 pretty decently.

I didn't want to have come to this but honestly. If you want to do some gaming buy a desktop PC. You can get decent gaming rigs from 600$+. Or, you can get a new laptop, they run at about 1000+ for a decent one. I know you just bought that one a year and a half ago which is like = (. But still. Next time remember, do go for any low-end gfx cards. Get midrange or higher. I got my laptop last christmas and its still running 90% of the games that come out in highest settings or at least high settings.

Btw i have.

Geforce 8600GTM ' Its OC'ed GDDR3

Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 Ghz

4GB RAM <- Im gonna replace my ram soon with some better quality ram.

200GB Hard Drive.

Oh yea and today im gonna undervolt it a bit, its CPU temps reach 71-73 under Maximum load, which isnt bad, but if u can reduce heat why not?. More overclocking room for my gfx card then.

Btw in my experiance. Overclocking wont kill your computer at all, not even decrease its life. THAT IS, IF! You make sure the temperatures are good, and that you dont do anything stupid (duh -> Cranks Gfx Card to max over clock and puts hand over the fan ventiliation).

And yes teh 8600GT is a good card (make sure its GDDR3), its not as good as a 9600GT which i would reccomend is the cheapest best card from nvidia currently. But . If you do some tweaking/overclocking on a 8600GT you can get it to match a 8700GT or a s***ty build of a 9600GT/8800GS.