Games run slow on Dell 5150 / NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200

JorjorJorjor
edited December 2006 in Hardware
Dell Inspiron 5150 Notebook (3.06gb CPU, 512mb RAM, WinXP Pro SP2)
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 (64mb)

Pretty much all of the graphics intensive games that I play on the above machine run at about half-speed, with occassional and brief spans at normal speed. It is particularly annoying on MMORPG's like EverQuest. My toon moves in slow motion while everyone else is moving at normal speed. Other games include LOTR The Return of the King, Deus Ex, Undying, Alice.

I have the latest NVIDIA driver and DirectX 9. Doesn't seem to be a memory problem. I've tried various settings in-game and on the video card, but nothing seems to have any effect.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Well, the 5200 isn't exactly a powerhouse of a card. Do you raid? Standing around in the Bazaar or Plane of Knowledge? Or anywhere else? Do you lag on Kunark, Velious or Luclin?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Still, Alice is an old game and should run great on that card. I played it on a Radeon mobility 9000 and it was flawless.

    Jorjor: I have a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop, and under certain BIOS revisions, there was a bad problem with power management where the computer would crank down the video card speed at a certain temperature, and it was coded into the BIOS to be way too low. I forget the specifics of the problem,but it was all over the dell support forums.

    I had to go back to a very old bios (Current at the time was A11, I had to go back to A06), and they didn't fix it until A14.

    Check your BIOS for your laptop, it might be something like that. At the very least, go to dell support forums and see if other users are having similar problems.
  • JorjorJorjor
    edited December 2004
    Well, I play all of those games on my desktop too. It only has a 32mb NVIDIA card and suffers from occassional lag on EQ, especially in busy zones. But the other games (non-MMO) run fine. I rarely have EQ lag on the notebook. This is different. All action is smooth but at half speed. It's like everyone else has SOW except for my char, or someone has cast a slow motion spell on me. Even on the character selection screen the characters move in slow motion.

    I may have been mistaken about Alice. Been a while since I played it.

    I will check out the Dell support forums again. Haven't checked in some time. Oh, yeah, and look into the BIOS...

    Thanks
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Is your Charecter over loaded with stuff?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Well, he would be encumbered except his char select is sluggish too. That's very peculiar.

    Have you limited the framrate in EQ's options? Cap it to 45 FPS and see what happens.
  • JorjorJorjor
    edited December 2004
    No, it's not a problem with encumbrance.

    I'll try changing the framerate.

    Thanks
  • mew905mew905 Saskatchewan
    edited December 2006
    I am an owner of the Inspiron 5150 with the GeForce FX Go5200 64MB version. I think there is something about this system that you should know. Dell, or Intel, whoever is responsible, has created a horrible overall system. You can actually run the processor (mine is 2.8GHz) at 908MHz (thats less than half speed) and only lose 20 3DMarks in 3DMark05, meaning the performance hit is almost impossible to notice.

    Now the good part about this is you also double battery life and reduce heat, which if the thermal gel in your laptop is worn out (mine did in less than 6 months) is a good thing.

    Simply google SpeedswitchXP and download it. I use 1.4, and someone said the most recent version doesnt work very well. Install it and reboot if it asks you to (it probably wont) then switch it to "Battery Optimized" mode, the blue/green checkered flag will turn to a blue flag with a green square in the center.
    Next reboot your computer and go into the BIOS (F2 at the Dell boot screen) and press ALT+O until you see the speedstep/hyperthreading options. Turn Speedstep OFF. Thats all you gotta do, and you'll notice your computer no longer goes into slow motion spikes.

    Have fun, and IMO, the FX5200 isnt too bad of a video card, I can run NFS carbon at max available graphics at 1024x768 (my max screen resolution) so dont try to let people BS you into thinking you can't run a game. even Doom3 is playable with the right settings.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    Wow this is a thread from the past....

    But the #dmark test wopn't take much of a hit if you GPU is dropped as you are running a GeForce FX Go5200 64MB. That tells me the GPU was never CPU boundas the GPU is maxed out on its performance.
  • mew905mew905 Saskatchewan
    edited December 2006
    yes, its near impossible to get the FX Go5200 running CPU bound on any game, new or old (however with a slow enough CPU, its very possible).
    The point, however, was the fact that the Inspiron 5150 cant run full throttle for very long before it starts going into the matrix lag effect. At that point, a new BIOS, new laptop, or this solution are the only remedies. And the 3DMark tests I said lost 20 marks included the 3 CPU tests as well, but also keep in mind that its very hard to make a GPU CPU bound nowadays with a fast processor, aside from two 7950GX2's in SLI or even a single GF8800GTX or GTS. The 8800GTX doesnt go CPU bound even at a monstrous resolution of 2048x1536 & 8xAA 16xAF.
    Anyway, rambling is over :D
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