26 réponses à ce sujet

[Drhankey]

Hey everyone, I'm having some problems in playing Mass Effect 2 on my laptop.

At first I used some older videocard drivers, and even though it was laggy (10-20fps), I continued playing since frankly it's a great game. Mass Effect 1 played alot better, but also had some lag and generally both games were played at 800x600 with Low settings.

Then I discovered that my videocard (Nvidia 9500M) had new drivers, and I installed the latest drivers (195.62). My previous drivers were (I believe), still the stock Dell drivers (my laptop is a Studio XPS13), so I probably should have upgraded those a long time ago. Anyways, upon testing .. blam, I immediately noticed my FPS increased alot. I were suddenly gaining 30-40fps, whereas gaining 50+ in some better areas and lowest being 28fps.

I had done alot of tweaking with Mass Effect 2 settings, so to finally see some result was pretty cool. However here's for my problem.. seems whenever I enter a certain area (EG: in Normandy, when I walk to the armory and then go left to the way to the debriefing room.. my screen flashes for a short second .. like as if you changed the resolution) my FPS suddenly drops back to 10-20.  And it's not only those areas, but whenever I press ESC for the menu, or open any items or upgrade menu's .. my FPS drops back to low. Sometimes it goes back to full when I alt+tab, but it's usually quickly on low fps again since you can't steer away from menu's.

I have no idea what might be causing this, I already upgraded (and downgraded) my videocard drivers, and these latest seem to be the best.

At first when I had low fps I just thought my system wasn't able to handle Mass Effect 2 very well, but now that I realise that I actually CAN play it smoothly I really don't want to go back to 10-20fps "yay lag".

Any solutions or ideas?

System specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2,40Ghz
4GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce 9500M

(also like to point out thatt this is played in NON HYBRID SLI. So basically it's using my 9400MG card. Reason for this is, since if I actually use my "High Performance", and thus activate the 9500M .. I get even less FPS (5 to 10))

[Gorath Alpha]

Neither of those video modes is really adequate for good performance. The 9400 M is at the minimum level for the game. A desktop version of a 9500 GT would be somewhat above the minimum, but still not where you could run high resolution screens or high image quality settings.

I don't know why the two seem switched around, but I didn't see mention of the screen resolution settings you used, or naybe I just missed / scanned past them.

I hope you are aware that there is no official support fot laptop PCs.

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 23 février 2010 - 05:05 .

[Drhankey]

I'm using 800x600. And yes, minimum settings.. but atleast it is (or should) be playable. Running ME2 at 30-40fps and then the moment I get into a menu and it goes to 10-20fps doesn't seem like a hardware issue to me, rather a software issue.

[Gorath Alpha]

The only similar odd symptoms I have heard about involved software from Sony called SecureROM, which seemed to go crazy in menus for one gamer here (he started MS' Process Explorer, a replacement for Task Manager, and found the SecureROM weirdness).

Sorry about misnaming the applet.  It's "Process Explorer", and I edited that in up above, in place of "Process Viewer".

What's oddest of all that was that his copy was a digital download! What media did your came come on / in?

(I am pretty sure the thread in question was about Steam.)

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 23 février 2010 - 07:03 .

[Drhankey]

Got mine from Steam, so digital download aswell. Though I don't have any Sony or other kind of "SecureROM" programs running on the background or anything. I do think that this is a driver problem though, and atm I'm checking out some other drivers. Perhaps I'll have more luck on some older drivers..

[Gorath Alpha]

My recollection is that the strange SecureROM activity was happening in a Steam version, such as what you have. I don't recall the full name of his message, but a search for the word "interesting" should pull it up.

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/106/index/1257781

(Note: I edited the name of the Process Explorer.)

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 23 février 2010 - 08:50 .

[Drhankey]

Hey, thanks for the reply. I downloaded Process Explorer, but while running ME2 I didn't see any strange or high CPU usage programs running (and no SecuRom either). After installing and testing some older drivers, they were still worse then the latest so I reinstalled that one again. After that I figured I might want to check the settings in NVidia control panel again, and I put Vsync on "Force Off" and changed some other settings. This apparantly fixed it (though sometimes I do get high lag, but only after a long time of playing which seems to me like a memory leak - since when I restart ME2 it runs fine again).



Some areas are still laggy, but it runs mostly great now (and I didn't suspect it would look this great on lowest settings too, graphics are awesome). So I'm happy.



Thanks again!

[mtkauloc]

Hii i am new at this but if some one remember playng Dead Space there was the same lag there the voices where eco and the solution wass that i had to open the taskmanager end i clik't the processes panel and changet se priority above normal and it workt so i did the same at the ME2 but i put the priority to High . So if some one thinks this is bad then dont do it but it work't to me (sory for the bad rwithing im stil a rokie :-)

[mtkauloc]

i allmost forgot i played and finished the game 2 times and nothing hapend , my problem with the lag started 2 days ago, i dont understand wat trigerred this lag stil its anoyng like i sed i finisht the game twice and it workt smoothly , stil i am glad that i remembered the lag from Dead space and it workted the same thing tho this game to , i hone some wone wil fiind our a way to resolve de problem permanently .

[mtkauloc]

now i am very disapointed the same lag is hapening to ME1 , i dont understand why this is very disapoiting :-((

[narcolypticnightmare]

maybe it's because you're on a laptop? I'm not sure at all because i got ME2 2 days ago and there are certain parts or certain cinematics that lagg. I just figured my laptop isn't powerful enough but seriously....i got this laptop last week so it should be one of the latest.

Modifié par narcolypticnightmare, 03 mars 2010 - 03:09 .

[shep82]

The problem with laptop cards is most games do not fully support the laptop version of a card and hence the problems.

[Fluragon]

shep82 wrote...

The problem with laptop cards is most games do not fully support the laptop version of a card and hence the problems.

The "it's a laptop..."  arguement doesn't really work when gaming any more, because laptops are so much more adequate these days for gaming on.

For example i just got a Dell Studio 17 with a Core i7, 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 1GB Radeon 4650, it runs ME2 at around 40-50fps at maximum resolution (1600x900) and game settings.  And this is only a mid range dell model

The Geforce 9500m should be just about enough ME2, medium low settings.  The sudden lag events may simply be because your card will only have about 256Mb or Video memory and the ME2 does not come with texture settings.  The only thing actually BioWare kinda missed out in the PC edition, since everything else is so well made in the PC edition ( BioWare for that).  Maybe?

[Morbidjoe1]

I had major lag problems too.  Here's how I Fixed it:

1. Start up Mass Effect 2
2. ALT-Tab out of it
3  Open Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-Del, select task manager)
4. Click on "Processes" tab
5. Right Click on Mass effect 2 (Should say "Masseffect2.exe")
6 Click on "Set Affinity"
7 Make sure only the first CPU is checked, uncheck all others.
8 Hit OK, close task manager and enjoy.

You'll have to do this every time you start up mass effect 2 until Bioware fixes it.

[Fluragon]

This sounds like a very odd fix o.O Since ME2 does not run well on Single Core processors...



I can't comment on this since i don't have your problem.

[Gorath Alpha]

Ahh, yes!  I've gotten tired of pointing it out.  There are different definitions for the word "LAG" depending on whether you are discussing the Real World or the electronic / computer based virtual world.  Out in the real world, it's much more all-inclusive, whereas it's rather specific, if you are interested in accurate descriptions, from the computer point of view. 

It rose from the earliest days of long distance communication, and is related to delays either in the actual transmission time, as well as any on-server delays where multiple instances are running concurrently, the way that MMOs operate.  Since we do not need to be connected to anything outside of our individual PCs, the technical fact is we don't have any "LAG" issues. 

Fluragon wrote...

shep82 wrote...

The problem with laptop cards is most games do not fully support the laptop version of a card and hence the problems.

The "it's a laptop..."  arguement doesn't really work when gaming any more, because laptops are so much more adequate these days for gaming on.

If anything, the situation is worse than it was before the netbook craze diluted the laptop market, forcing laptop makers to cut still more corners for their low end stuff, being almost matched up to by the higher end of Netbooks.  Seriously, laptop makers tend to ignore the ATI / nVIDIA mobile reference samples a great deal.  They pray at the altars of light weight and long battery life, so that good cooling, and full video power end up being sacrificed.

For example i just got a Dell Studio 17 with a Core i7, 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 1GB Radeon 4650, it runs ME2 at around 40-50fps at maximum resolution (1600x900) and game settings.  And this is only a mid range dell model

The Geforce 9500m should be just about enough ME2, medium low settings.  The sudden lag events may simply be because your card will only have about 256Mb or Video memory and the ME2 does not come with texture settings.  The only thing actually BioWare kinda missed out in the PC edition, since everything else is so well made in the PC edition ( BioWare for that).  Maybe?

That would only be if the particular 9500M matched to the reference sample specifications.  Remember what a 9500 is, after all is said and done, it is a three year old 8600, but on a thinner die wafer,  so that a desktop version is still more or less in the mainline medium quality zone. 

The real problem with laptops versus game developers is that same reluctance on their part to abide by what the Chip Designers had in mind, and each one (laptop maker) interprets it differently, so that would mean that the game developer has to consider two dozen or mare variations instead of a single standard (as the bottom, anyway).

You should take into account the narrow 128 bit memory bandwidth of all 8600 / 9500 cards before recommending more than 256 MBs of RAM for them, since with the narrow bandwidth, they aren't fast enough, and the VRAM isn't fast enough, to do anything worthwhile (in today's games, with today's game designs) with any more than 256 MBs.

If you are interested, run a search on the DA: O forum for "Big RAM" because of so many cheap and medium cards with a GB of VRAM, when 128 (for Low End) or 256, as mentioned, for mainline, is the practical maximum, and I wrote an advisory article about it. 

Gorath
-

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 04 mars 2010 - 06:59 .

[graavigala85]

i got same problem but the "laggin" goes awaya after 30secs or something like that.



the problems comes randomly everywhere. sometimes the game starts to lag when no is around, sometimes during conversation or middle of fight BUT it always goes away when I just hit ESC and wait 30secs.



how can this be fixed?

[hi932]

i also got a problem with the lag every time i get on and get out of the illusive mans station its starts to lag when i step and i got minimum graphics on

[Gorath Alpha]

hi932 wrote...

i also got a problem with the lag every time i get on and get out of the illusive mans station its starts to lag when i step and i got minimum graphics on

Unlike screen resolution settings, the differences between Low, Medium, and High Image Quality settings have comparatively small influence on performance.  If your video device is lower than Recommended, you may have difficullty with Medium Resolution settings, depending in the system's balance, which you chose to avoid telling us about. 

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/106/index/1537629

PC RECOMMENDED System Requirements
Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better, recommended
100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
DirectX August 2008
NOTES: For the best results, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video and audio cards. Laptop or mobile versions of the above supported video cards have not had extensive testing and may have driver or other performance issues. As such, they are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.  Intel  and S3 video devices are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 30 avril 2010 - 05:47 .

[Snake Killer]

Morbidjoe1 wrote...

I had major lag problems too.  Here's how I Fixed it:

1. Start up Mass Effect 2
2. ALT-Tab out of it
3  Open Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-Del, select task manager)
4. Click on "Processes" tab
5. Right Click on Mass effect 2 (Should say "Masseffect2.exe")
6 Click on "Set Affinity"
7 Make sure only the first CPU is checked, uncheck all others.
8 Hit OK, close task manager and enjoy.

You'll have to do this every time you start up mass effect 2 until Bioware fixes it.

Morbidjoe1  Hey that advice works great -- thanks -- brilliant !!

[vikdymone]

I bought this game to play on a system with 1.81 cpu on it the game lags big time and the graphics only show up! the box that the game came on said that it needed 1.8 cpu to play the game what am I missing just downloaded a graphics card but not much help game still lags and graphics not much better what can I do?

[Gorath Alpha]

The odds are against you by many miles, since you have no idea what a compter's functioning is all about.  The CPU, GPU, Hard Drive, Optical Drive, and RAM are all physical hardware.  They are actual mechanical parts that fit into their own sockets, slots, racks, and bays in the system tower.  Not one of them is software, none can be "downloaded", and when you want to CHANGE any of them, you must purchase the actual parts that you hold in your hands, to insert them where they belong. 

You cannot make a slow CPU faster with software.  Not only is the 1.8 GHz number a fixed amount, so is exactly WHICH brand and model of CPU.  A Pentium that only runs at 1.8 GHz is too slow.  So is a "Pentium Dual", so is an Athlon XP, Celeron, or Sempron.  

If you do not have any video graphics CARD , you must purchase the real thing and it must meet the requirements.  Just any video card won't work.  You cannot download a "Card" in any way, shape, or form. 

Very basic discussion* of video cards, video chips, PhysX, and even of laptops' limits: 

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/519461

Gaming forums aren't a particularly good place to handle remedial classes in computer literacy, but here is somehwt more detailed of a discussion of PC hardware:

PC Hardware* Basics for Gaming (and inventory of Components):

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/509580

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 27 décembre 2010 - 02:34 .

[vikdymone]

Thanks so basically the game is worthless to me right now. do you know of any games that are first shooter that I can purchase with good graphics as ME2

[Moondoggie]

vikdymone wrote...

Thanks so basically the game is worthless to me right now. do you know of any games that are first shooter that I can purchase with good graphics as ME2

If you can't run Mass Effect 2 then you have no hope of running anything else with the same quality graphics. Your hardware will not cut it. END OF.

Do yourself a favour and get yourself a nice shiny console. It's idiot proof.

Modifié par Moondoggie, 27 décembre 2010 - 02:36 .