29 réponses à ce sujet

[Makkaveli101]

Could someone with a bit of technical prowess please help me.  After discussing this with experienced members in the "Space bar won't open doors" thread.  I was advised to post a new topic, because my system seems to be falling down in comparison to other players with similar specs.

I've followed all the advice given in that thread.  I've turned off all effects, changed to lowest resolution, even windowed the game. 

I'm getting a low framerate (using FRAPS) of 6/7 fps.  Ive also updated drivers, closed down running programs etc.  Even used "Games Booster" to optimize my settings for gaming.  People on similar specs are able to play the game, it's unplayable for me.  I can't open doors, talk to people etc.  The framerate of 6/7 is not viable.  Though I understand people with similar specs are able to play the game.  Where am I going wrong?  The notebook is only 6 months old.

It is a STEAM digital download version of the game.

My system specs are:

HP Pavillion
Processor: Intel Core i5 duo core CPU, M 460, 2.53Ghz
Physical Memory: 4GB Ram
Display Adaptor/Video Processor: ATI Mobility Radeon 5470 VRAM: 512MB
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit Service Pack 1
Clock Speed: 2524 mhz
Direct X 10
Sound Adaptor: Speakers and Headphones (IDT High Defintion Codec)

From what I understand these are the minimum system requirements:

Minimum System Requirements

Processor: 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU

Memory: 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Video Card: 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support).

Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater.

Hard Drive: 15 GB

OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7

DVD ROM: 1x Speed

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible

DirectX: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)

Input: Keyboard / Mouse



Recommended System Requirements

Processor: 2.6+ GHz Core 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU

Memory: 2 GB RAM

Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended

Sound Card: 100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers

DirectX: DirectX August 2008

OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7

Even though the 2008 Mass Effect was very playable, even it looked quite shabby graphics wise.  I've just driven up a technical "dead end", so to speak - and have no where else to turn. 

Hoping someone will be able to shed some light on this for me please.  I'm desperate to play this fantastic 2nd part of Trilogy!!!

Modifié par Makkaveli101, 12 octobre 2011 - 05:33 .

[Moondoggie]

You're playing on a laptop which is well below the minimum requirements for this game. If you want to play games like this you'll want to get yourself something more built for playing games. Your machine is a buisiness model not a gaming one.

[Makkaveli101]

But my specs beat all the minimum requirements, and it's my understanding other gamers are playing on similar spec systems to mine (albeit low end performance, but still playable)?

[Gorath Alpha]

Makkaveli101 wrote...

But my specs beat all the minimum requirements, and it's my understanding other gamers are playing on similar spec systems to mine (albeit low end performance, but still playable)?

I will visit Notebook Check momentarily, but I'll also post a link to show that your card is only a business grade part, not ever intended for gaming (and not as powerful as the original Desktop Card was. 

www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php

The results aren't really as unfavorable as they might be; the two cards' differing architectures don't compare particularly well, but the desktop HD 5450 basically is a bare minimum, below the official minimum.  The official minimum should be able to run either a Medium Resolution display screen, with Low Image Quality settings, or Medium Image Quality with Low Screen Resolution.  You are stuck with "Low" for both settings and screen resolution, and your laptop might not have an adequate quality display screen to work nicely at the coarser screen setting. 

Video Card Shader Performance Rankings* (ME-2):

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/106/index/1713086

Simply put, any Radeon with "400-anything" in its name, whether 3400, 5400, or 6400, was designed for business, the "500" ones are supposed to be budget game cards that at least reach minimum requirements, such as the 5570 and 6570 cards.  Mainline game cards from AMD will have '600" something in the name, like an HD 4670, HD 5670, and HD 6670 cards all do.  Up at the borderline between gaming cards, and High End "Enthusiast" cards are the Radeon HD "700" quality cards, such as the HD 4770, HD 5750, HD 5770, and HD 6770.  Each higher level includes a matching raise in expense, with the ones in the middle of Mainline typically offering the very best value in cost based on a dollars per frame rate speed basis.  

If you can get the screen resolution reduced far enough, you should be able to raise the frame rate to some extent.

Gorath

[Makkaveli101]

Ok thanks Gorath. Could you recommend me some good performance but good value cards in the main line range that you know of? Basically a compromise between good performance and good price....just throw out a few names....and I'll do the hunting for them!!! It's all alien to me. I think a new Graphics cards look like a must.

Do you recommend AMD or NVidia?

Will my intel processor 2.53mhz be powerful enough? Thanks buddy!!!!

Modifié par Makkaveli101, 12 octobre 2011 - 08:43 .

[Moondoggie]

Which intel processor is it? are you talking about the same notebook? You won't be able to upgrade the graphics card in your notebook without buying a whole new machine. If you're going to buy a new graphics card you'll need to get hold of a desktop machine.

[Makkaveli101]

Its an Intel i5 with two cores.

Damn.....really... I thought I'd just be able to upgrade the graphics card?  Remove and fit a new one so to speak......

Modifié par Makkaveli101, 12 octobre 2011 - 08:51 .

[Moondoggie]

It doesn't work that way with notebooks i'm afraid. I think it's possible with certain laptops but certainly not the one you are using. And even if you could upgrade it notebook parts in general are very expensive so you are better off just buying a decent gaming desktop for much cheaper which will be better for gaming than a notebook could ever be. Save your notebook for doing college work while watching TV or something.

Modifié par Moondoggie, 12 octobre 2011 - 09:03 .

[busy monster]

Upgrading notebooks is a pain in the ass and I refuse to buy one for anything gaming because of it. They are more GPU instead of actual-factual cards, and so they have alot less resources in terms of cooling, and, well, anything. It's a sad fact of life that notebooks and smaller case computers tend to suffer in terms of upgradeability and future proofing-- it's why, when I sell computers at my work (and since I know computers, I'm a decent salesman-- I don't want a person to get the top of the line i7 sandybridge when they'd be more than happy with a AMD Quad. So they buy from me again) I get alotta love.

The horrible sad thing about this is... if you want to PC game... you need a tower. And a full sized mo'fo. You can upgrade, update, and just FIDDLE more with a full size case (protip- don't get a sentey arvina. good case, solid construction, lotsa... ****ty fans. Like, two pin pieces of **** that you'll NEVER be able to upgrade) than you can with a laptop. It really does suck. But it's why I refuse to buy one.

Rule one of the busy monster guide to gaming: don't do it on a laptop. It just ain't cost effective, since you pay more for lesser quality. When you shrink it down, you pay more. When you have to cool a small area, you suffer performance.

Good luck. That's just my tip, and maybe you'll get it to run.

Try checking a local computer store. Maybe they'll know how to upgrade the GPU for you, because I personally'd be afraid to open it up and fiddle DIY. Even though my tower is a complete DIY case (I7 950 with a Hyper212+ heatsink, Asus Sabertooth x58 mobo, 12 gb of ram, 750 corsair silver PSU, MSI (gods of graphics cards makers) GTX 560 TI (which I'm saying **** them with the new ATIs-- Nvidia driver-crashes aLOT with their new drivers on my rig. MSI also makes ATI chipset cards, without the utter failure of the Nvidia chipset) with a Sentey Arvina case).

Sorry. I can... uh... nerd out really, really hard on the drop of the hat. It's my first real computer in like... four years.

[Tyrium]

Yeah, I have built multiple desktop systems, but I wouldn't DIY on a laptop. Take that one to a professional, but really, for gaming, you're going to want a PC.

[Makkaveli101]

Thank you everybody, for your assistance.

[Baramon]

Makkaveli101 wrote...

Do you recommend AMD or NVidia?

I'm starting to think ATI may be the way to go.  I've had nothing but disappointments (high GPU temps, poor driver support, etc) with my PNY GTX 470.  I might be leaning the ATI way next purchase...

___________________________________________

busy monster wrote...

Upgrading notebooks is a pain in the ass...

No arguments here...

...if you want to PC game... you need a tower. And a full sized mo'fo.

I'll +1 that.

Rule one of the busy monster guide to gaming: don't do it on a laptop.

Try explaining that one to my kids. I won't ever do it (I hope).

...MSI (gods of graphics cards makers) GTX 560 TI

I hope they've fixed their act, because I had two motherboards die painful deaths and their tech support is beyond lousy.

It's my first real computer in like... four years.

Makes ya feel tingly all over, doesn't it?

Modifié par Baramon, 14 octobre 2011 - 12:13 .

[Fredvdp]

Baramon wrote...

Makkaveli101 wrote...

Do you recommend AMD or NVidia?

I'm starting to think ATI may be the way to go.  I've had nothing but disappointments (high GPU temps, poor driver support, etc) with my PNY GTX 470.  I might be leaning the ATI way next purchase...

I agree. I also bought an AMD card because of Nvidia's poor drivers.

[Gorath Alpha]

I keep thinking that nVIDIA will reassert itself in the software area, but it doesn't seem able to do so, and pricewise, save for selected price points, it appears unable to compete. 

They have had no opportunity to buy an X86 CPU producer, and the future of most graphics on PC is headed toward the APUs, with only the High End Enthusiast level standing apart as discrete cards.  That's not where the profit is, the lower performance area is (was) where the money has been for ATI and nVIDIA, but both were also making Chipsets, which nVIDIA doesn't get to do at a profitable level outside of the SmartPhone area. 

The reason that a GTX 480 or 580 is so fast and so expensive is because it is extremely complicated and huge.  That also makes it very hot-running and high-power consuming.  There is another market, that of the Scientific massively parallel CPU, they are hoping to compete in with their High End product.  But as complex and complicated as the large design is now, they have great difficulty redesigning it to make Low End and Medium discrete cards' GPUs from it.  Particularly the size that results is comparatively expensive. 

At the opposite end, integrated with SmartPhone Chipsets, they are doing well in that new market (and my own Samsung cell phone has their chipset in it).  For that market, they have licensed the ARM design CPU, which is not an X86 design, and will be producing an APU of their own that way.  Apparently they have their best software engineers assigned to the phones and the Scientific CPU ends of the production range, not the consumer graphics area they had ended up dominating before the HD 4n00 generation of AMD Radeons. 

[SSV Enterprise]

Regarding the thread starter's current system: I actually have a laptop with the same graphics chip (Radeon HD 5470) and a somewhat weaker processor (Intel Core i3-350m) that I used to play Mass Effect 2 on before I got a decent desktop PC rig. I was able to play ME2 (Steam version as well) with most of the settings bumped up (except anisotropic filtering) at 720p at a tolerable (for me) ~20 fps. So there should be a solution that allows Makkaveli101 to play at at least that level.

What that might be...I'm not sure. You could try uninstalling all your graphics drivers and reinstalling the latest; this is called a "clean install". Go into "Programs and Features" in the Windows Control Panel, find "AMD Catalyst Install Manager", select "Change", and when it asks what you want to do select "Express uninstall ALL AMD (or ATI) software". After the uninstallation, install the latest drivers.

[Gorath Alpha]

The most serious of all complaints levelled against the laptop manufacturers is about standards - - they don't follow any, especially regarding graphics card performance.  AMD and nVIDIA manufacture perfectly usable reference samples and write up detailed technical spec manuals for each GPU chip, but the manufacturers almost always ignore the specs & go their own way. 

The reference hardware typically is down-clocked just about 10% below a desktop version if the two actually are related -- the names used are frequently very misleading in that regard, however. 

Our OP in this case, may have a mobile HD 5470 from the polar opposite, very low range compared to your own experience, which would seem to reflect that in your case, the manufacturer stayed much closer to AMD's reference. 

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 18 octobre 2011 - 01:34 .

[SSV Enterprise]

Well, if the clock speeds are different the chip is supposed to be named differently. There exists Mobility Radeon HD 5450 and 5430 chips with lower clock speeds than the 5470, you can look them up on notebookcheck.net. 5470 should mean core speed of 750 MHz and memory speed of 850 MHz. It's not like a Mobility 5650 which ranges from 600 to 400 MHz.

[Makkaveli101]

Ok, here goes.

The great news is, I followed SSVEnterprise's advice and uninstalled all the AMD software and drivers.

While I waited for the large AMD driver installtion package to download/ install, I thought "what the hell?" and loaded up Mass Effect 2 without all the AMD software thus relying on the built in Intel HD Graphics stuff.

To my amazement I was able to resume my game and it was VERY playable.  The space bar problem had gone, I could talk to characters and open doors - the framerate has doubled, and some more - I even turned on all the effects and was able to play the game on a low resolution!!!  So thank you for this SSVEnterprise!!!

After downloading and updating all the AMD drivers and software, I restarted my system and once again I was back to square one.  No spacebar, no interaction button with characters, terrible framerate and so on; completely unplayable.

I opened up the ATI catalst control center and was able to switch between "High Performance GPU" on my AMD card, or "Low Performance GPU"  on Intel.  I switched back to Intel (low performance GPU), and once again I was able to play the game!!!!!

So I can now play the game, which I'm hugely grateful to all you for. 

But it begs the question, why can't I play it on a high performance GPU?  Is ATi downloading the wrong drivers?  Is my card faulty?  Why does the game play at good performance on a "Low Performance GPU" not even using a graphics card???  It's baffles the mind!!!!

Modifié par Makkaveli101, 19 octobre 2011 - 03:27 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Obviously, the switching mechanism must be entirely backwards, or the manufacturer REALLY screwed you over badly.

[SSV Enterprise]

  Your laptop uses switchable graphics?  You could have mentioned this earlier.  That's a key difference between my laptop and your laptop; on my laptop the Intel GPU is permanently disabled with no way to access it, and good riddance.

The switchable graphics could be causing the issue.  In AMD's driver release notes they specifically say that laptops with switchable graphics are not supported in the standard driver releases.  Installing new drivers from the standard release could have been what messed things up.  You're supposed to get driver releases that are compatible with your combination of a GPU and integrated graphics processor directly from your PC manufacturer .

So, now I would recommend that you do just that:  look on your PC manufacturer's support website and find your specific laptop model.  They should have various drivers available for download.  Download the graphics drivers they have, uninstall your current drivers, and install the PC manufacturer's graphics drivers.

If you can manage to get the 5470 working properly, it should give you better performance than the Intel GPU.  But if you find Intel's GPU to be satisfactory, it's really up to you whether or not to keep trying.

Modifié par SSV Enterprise, 19 octobre 2011 - 06:01 .

[Makkaveli101]

I downloaded the manufacturer driver software (in this case HP Pavillion DV6) from the manufacturer web site, it still has this same effect.  It's strange.  Intel seems to do the job, but I'm a bit baffled at why the stronger graphics card isnt putting in the poorer performance.

Also, I didnt realise they were switchable until I downloaded the ATI catalyst program, in which there was this option.

The swtichable option tab would then not let me switch from ATI to Intel, so Ive gone back to uninstalling all the ATI drivers and software and Im now getting good performance again.  Seems a shame to have a stronger dormant ATI graphics card though, sitting in the notebook - with no clue why it's not performing.

[SSV Enterprise]

If the Intel graphics chip does work for you, then there has to be Intel graphics drivers installed as well (any graphics device needs drivers installed to run DirectX games). Maybe Intel's drivers are interfering with the proper operation of the ATI graphics chip. You could try going to Intel's website and downloading an update for your Intel chip there. A word of caution, though: last I checked Intel only keeps the last few driver versions posted on their website. Create a system restore point before updating that you can revert to in case the update makes Intel's graphics chip work like crap as well.

Modifié par SSV Enterprise, 19 octobre 2011 - 08:38 .

[Makkaveli101]

More strange events.

I downloaded the Intel graphics controller from the Intel website, it wouldn't download and said to go the manufacturer website.....did this.  The installation still didn't work, and said the installation needs to be from the manufacturers web site....which is was.

I downloaded an AMD driver from the manufacturers web site again, that too wouldn't install and said I needed to get one from the manufacturers web site...which is where it was from.  I get the dialogue box "etc etc didnt install properly...retry or "it did install properly"....I click cancel not clicking either of the options.

I restart my computer, a small box (which Ive never seen before) saying video card driver updating comes up on boot.  Downloading Radeon 5470 driver...it doesn't give me an option and downloads and installs automatically anyway.

Hallelujah!!!  Whatever it did, it has done it.  I'm now getting very high performance.  Have all effects turned on, and its running like a PS2/3 quality game!!  Which I never in a million years expected on this notebook.  Smooth, fast framerate, sharp HD graphics, looks fantastic.  The system must have somehow found the right AMD driver I guess, after two botched installations from the manufacturers web site!!!

I'm now able to enjoy the game!!!  Thanks again for the advice everyone!!!!

[SSV Enterprise]

Glad to hear it.  Hopefully what you'll take from this experience is that, if and when you buy a new PC for gaming, you should buy a desktop.  They're less expensive than laptops of the same performance level, upgradeable, and less liable to have manufacturer problems like this.

Enjoy the game!

Modifié par SSV Enterprise, 19 octobre 2011 - 08:39 .

[Makkaveli101]

Didnt want to open a new thread for this, and have searched the forums but havent found anything. I have a one button sensitive mouse on my notebook, each side of the pad is clickable but its just one a button pad. This obviously makes aiming and firing impossible (which I can live with) , but planet searching and launching a probe is also impossible. I'd really like to complete the Jacob mission.

Do any more experienced forum members here know a "work-around" for this? Is it something thats cropped up before? Tried searching, on here, online, and read the FAQ.