I finally got my old laptop fixed and I'm putting some games on it. I beat Thief: The Dark Project so I installed Thief: The Metal Age and was happy that it ran perfectly. Hitman: Silent Assassin ran fairly well but couldn't run at max. Deus Ex GOTY ran perfectly. I was very happy with how well my old laptop ran.
Suddenly, I installed Blood. Now I'm not so happy. It's very choppy and unplayable. I figured since Blood was released in the 90's it would run fine, but I guess not. I tried Postal 2, which also did not run smoothly either. Hotline Miami has streaks across the screen(a thread said it was caused my vsync) and Kingpin doesn't run smoothly either. All of these games should be able to run on my laptop.
I really want a FPS for my laptop, and my computer is denying every one I throw at it. I got into computer gaming two years ago, so I'm not the most knowledgeable person yet, but from my understanding these games should run fine.

If anyone can suggest a FPS that will run on my laptop, and also tell me why my laptop won't run the games mentioned, it would me much appreciated. I've been messing with this all night and I feel like I'm no closer to getting an answer on my own.



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System Information
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Time of this report: 10/25/2012, 04:03:49
Machine name: KIRK
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.120821-1629)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: TOSHIBA
System Model: Satellite A45
BIOS: v1.50
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 1006MB RAM
Page File: 1266MB used, 1160MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

According to your DxDiag I can't see a specific GPU so it's hard to tell if some games are suppose to run well (like Hitman 2 Silent Assassin). I imagine a high resolution, AA and demanding settings such as Shadows or SSAO won't be possible.

How well does Hitman 2 run if you keep a medium sized resolution with low shadows and no AA?

I can run Hitman 2 at 1024x768 with no shadows or AA and it runs smooth. If there are too many people around and they are shooting it lags though.

I looked up the specs of your laptop. It turns out to be old indeed, and it hasn't got a dedicated graphics card; it's got so-called integrated graphics instead, designed for low power consumption and compact size in mind rather than outright firepower. Not only that, but graphics-related issues seem to be more common with integrated graphics than with dedicated GPU's. Of course your problems could be related to drivers or whatever, but I'm guessing it's the weak graphics processing capacity.

I meant to say it had integrated graphics. It's just never been an issue with most of the games I play, which are older, and usually RPGs. The laptop was a very good laptop when it was bought, and I've been happy with it's performance, but I know it's not a gaming laptop.
Is there any good FPS or Third person shooter that would run well? I was looking at MDK and it looks interesting, but I've already spent about twenty USDs on games that turned out not to work on this computer.

I do have a gaming desktop so I didn't waste the money. Kingpin won't run on that one either.

Blood is a DOS game, you're running it through the DOSBox emulator. So while a much weaker computer than yours could run it natively through DOS, your computer is having trouble.

Ask on the Blood forum for advice regarding optimization.

For for now, you can try the following

1. First find the .conf file used by blood and change the following properties to:

output=openglnb
fullresolution=0x0

2. After you start the game, go into options and choose a lower resolution. It probably starts at something like 640x480 - my own laptop does much better with 400x300.


As far as other FPS games - find the XIII demo online and see how it performs at a lower resolution like 800x600 or 640x480.

May I suggest Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament GOTY then? Deus Ex uses their engine. This has nothing to do with the game's age... well, okay, maybe a little bit. Since it's a DOS game it can run only in DOSBox, which may require a lot of CPU resources to properly emulate some of these late DOS games, and Blood is one of them. That old Celeron just isn't fast enough for it, despite of what Blood's gamecard may say.

My Acer laptop has no problem running Blood and it has a AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58 1.90 GHz. It does have more RAM though (1790 MB).

Hm. I didn't even notice how low his RAM was. That is a rather small amount. Not sure how much RAM affects DOSBox performance though. I would expect that to be rather minimal, but who knows?

Could I upgrade the RAM or anything else to improve my laptop? I don't really have high expectations for it, but it would be nice for it to run a little bit smoother.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll try modifying the config file for Blood and see how that works. I'm thinking about Unreal. I kind of hate you're just killing monsters though. Killing people is kind of better.

If RAM is an issue try this before you buy anything to see if it helps: Game Booster

It shuts off specific processes, services and applications that can you choose yourself with a click of a button. Then when you're finished playing click return to normal mode and they restart again. (I think they initially recommend a few as default). Other than that and choosing a maximum power, no power saving mode I think you'll have to upgrade or try less demanding games.

It says I signed up for a beta and they will get back to me if I'm chosen. Is there a link on the site I'm not seeing?

I was able to download it through cnet.

I'm not sure, I found out of the application when 3.x was released and I acquired the 3.5.0 beta some time ago. I'm not sure I'm allowed to but I could upload it if it's legal.

Anyway, I don't think you will miss that much. Just try the 3.4 and see if the extra RAM helps during gaming. If not then it won't matter.

Should I take a chance on Unreal Gold? I have shooters for my desktop, so I really want one for my laptop.

Game Booster helped Hitman 2 more than I could have really imagined. The FPS don't drop low enough for me to be able to tell when I'm in a fire fight. I'm about to try some other games and see how it works.

Blood still isn't working well though. Even with editing the config file.