Game performance

Ok i don't know if iam right or not but i think there's something wrong with my video card/drivers/??? or something. I just bought a new pc and installed Windows7.

When i play "Magicka", menu lags alot, in-game not so much but i can still "feel" that its laggy, same thing happens with Dirt3 and GTA4, i cant even run dirt3 on the lowest settings. + in some places i can see just a "red" color intead of a sun in dirt3

Some people play it on even worse pc's and they get no lag


My specs + "Magicka" system requirements
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/8521/68963889.jpg


DELL Desktop Vostro 460 MT Core i5-2400
ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR3

Btw i installed my graphics driver from Dell support website.
Any suggestions? Maybe i forgot to install something? Or is it supposed to be like that?

 

Since it happens in more than one game, go to ATI's website and get the latest graphics driver there. Install, reboot, try the game again.

Linky to driver

 

The thing is that i cant install drivers form ATI website, when i try get the message "cant find amd adapter" or something like that, only the ones from dell website work for me.

 

Sorry i couldnt edit my last post, but i just installed new catalyst controll center and i get the same thing, maybe my graphics card is just not good enough?

 

It should be good enough... I've had that problem with ATI's drivers lately as well. Try their older drivers here, the ones for 64-bit Vista also work in 7.

 

I have no idea which driver version to install, or should i just try them all?

 

Yikes, sorry about that. I had forgotten it gives you a whole list!

I'm running on the one from May right now, and it's working fine in my games.

 

I just installed it, but nothing changed ;/

By the way i have a yellow [!] in device manager for PCI Simple Communications Controller but i guess it has nothing to do with my video/graphics/pc performance..

 

It might. Grab that driver from Dell!

 

The thing is that i dont know what driver i need for that device.

Could you check if there is a driver for me? Here is the link http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=W764&catid=-1&dateid=-1&impid=-1&osl=EN&typeid=-1&formatid=-1&servicetag=5MDW15J&SystemID=VOS_D_460&hidos=W732&hidlang=en&TabIndex=&scanSupported=False&scanConsent=False

 

No expert here, but I have a Dell XPS Laptop and I've had video issues while gaming online.

First, for Dell, you should be able to go to their website and goto their support page:
http://support.dell.com/support/index.aspx?~ck=pn

Click on find Drivers, BiOS and other updates.
You'll be given three choices to search for drivers.
Service Tag (best way), model number, choose from list.

Put in your service tage number and it will list all drivers for your machine and the date it was released.

I would download all the drivers related to video and any that relate to PCI Controller. Can try e-mailing Dell support or calling them to ensure what driver you need to download for that.

I have an nVidia card.
Not sure if Ati has a utility like this, but I have an 3rd party nVidia utility that allows me to set my fan to 100% speed as well as overclocking features. I only use the fan setting.

I then run Gamebooster to shut off unecessary Windows 7 services.

Hope that helps.

 

Sorry for vanishing for a few days. Craziness outside internet happened... I don't normally abandon threads like that. Won't happen again (I hope!)

Anyways, driver.

In that list, there's chipset drivers, and that's what you want. Direct link There's also a relatively new driver for your video card, but I think you said you were using that one to begin with?

 

@pauliwood, yep thats what i always do. And should i really just download all the video drivers? Because there are 7 of them, and one of them actually says "Applies to : Radeon HD5450 1G DD3" (my video card, and the driver i used before).

@Mimsy, Thanks, there's no yellow [!] in my device manager now. But it still didn't help me, and yes i used a video driver from dell, then i changed to the drivers you suggested.

Btw, i googled a bit about my graphics card and everyone says that it's not that good :s

 

That's the only one you need. The other drivers are for other versions of the laptop, that had a different video card.

Your video card is not a beast by any means, but it's not a disaster either. It definitely meets the game's system requirements. How much RAM do you have in the laptop? Depressingly often, in-game lag is due to a lack of RAM.

 

It's a desktop computer, DELL Desktop Vostro 460 MT Core i5-2400, 4GB RAM
You can google it if you want to see full specifications.

By the way i took "Windows Experience Index test?" and i got really low score on Desktop performance for Windows Aero. Maybe that's the problem?

Screenshot : http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/1405/unledckn.jpg
It's really small ;d

 

:-o:-o:-o:-o I meant to type desktop. Honestly. That's one of the dumber things I've posted here in a long time. :-D

My laptop I'm typing on right now scores a 4.5 on graphics, lower than your computer, and I do games on this laptop just fine. I'm still thinking that it's a driver issue... or that you have some background processes eating up resources. Have you tried running GameBooster?

 

I've just tried it, and it didn't help ;s

 

How about DirectX,is that fully up to date? I'm on my phone, and posting links from here is a pain but you can find DX9 and 10 easily in google. If google fails, let me know and i'll get links for you when I get home from work tonight.

 

Well when i run dxdiag it says that i got directx11. I don't need any other versions right?

 

In theory, yes you're right. In practice, games made for Dx9 or 10 often need specific files from those older versions, that Dx11 simply does not have.

You can get DirectX 9 here.

 

Installed it, but nothing has changed

 

I've been following this thread but not posted because Mimsy has suggested everything I would have, but you seem to be getting nowhere fast.
Maybe start thinking about how much free space on HDD you have, if your HDD is running at full speed and efficiently.

Something else you could do would be try a stress test like 3D Mark and see what happens. Try and narrow it down to software or hardware issues.

Just my 2 cents and don't mean to interrupt but at this point I think you may want to start thinking about those things that don't normally cause problems.

 

I ran 3Dmark 11 and i get a message "It looks like your PC should score better"

3DMark Score
P443
Graphics Score
376
Physics Score
5969
Combined Score
424
GraphicsTest1
1 FPS
GraphicsTest2
1 FPS
GraphicsTest3
2 FPS
GraphicsTest4
1 FPS
PhysicsTest
18 FPS
CombinedTest
1 FPS

 

Anyone still want to help me? I just tried minecraft and it was a little laggy, i think it was even better on my old pc with radeon X800 gto 256mb video card..

I almost get no fps lag spikes or anything but it looks all slow and there is a little delay, like on most of other games.
Weird thing is that most of the time game menu's lag more than the actual game.

 

It's not a matter of not wanting to help... but I'm rapidly running out of things to and look at.

As Ned said, you are unfortunately going to need to look at everything we wouldn't normally suggest. Defrag your hard drive? Reinstall every single driver? Reinstall Windows? Dust out every component, including video card fan? Run a memory test?

If you can, a reinstall of Windows would effectively help you fully rule out software as a cause of whatever is going on. Alternatively, it would fix it.

 

Could someone answer this question real fast for me, i just installed a new copy of windows, and i noticed that this time windows installed Ati radeon hd5450 drivers for me already, so do i need to uninstall current drivers first before i install catalyst control center?

 

You shouldn't need to uninstall the current drivers. ATI's driver will install on top of the existing one without complaints. Only start messing with driver sweeper and other uninstall options if you run into problems.

 

Hi guys,

Just a thought, but you may be running allot of resorce heavy programs, you can stop programs like this from starting in the first place by downloading
Advanced System Care Free. Take a look in the toolbox, then optimise & then take out things that aren't evaluated as neccassary for start up

Other than that, just try playing around with the other tools & you should be able to sort out a load of common problems.

Good luck & I hope this helps )

:major2-Bit-Geek:major