Hi, I'm new here and found some of the posts here quite helpful, and so joined because I'd like advice on something myself. I have a fairly old laptop here, here's the stats: It's a Sony Vaio VGN-FS115S. Intel Pentium M740 1.73 Ghz 512 MB RAM (Upgraded this to another 512, so now 1GB) NVIDIA Geforce Go 6200 with turbocache supporting 128 MB Now, I use this as an all-purpose laptop; browsing, applications, gaming, and it mostly has acted as a desktop for me for about 5 years. That last comment is what it is all about - it was top of the line 5 years ago, but is now practically redundant! I can play old games fine, but recently got World of warcraft on it, and while it can run it fine, i get low fps in various places and situations, as you can well imagine. I have all the settings on lowest, and then some via console commands, but it's still choppy. It seems to run fine, at like 30-40 fps but then will randomly drop down to like 5 fps for periods, and then recover and repeat. I'm just wondering if an external graphics card might help me out? Or is it a waste of money, and I should just save up for a new PC? I'm not even sure my laptop has the required MSI or whatjamacallit slot for this type of thing...
I don't think what you need exists, I don't know what the MSI slot is but even if you mean PCMCIA or ExpressCard, there isn't anything that would be better than your 6200. If you really want to be able to play WoW, you can spend $500 and put together a desktop PC which would do it just fine. Other than that, I guess just try and optimize WoW as much as you can. I just pulled this from a post from mmowned.com Code: /console gxcolorbits 16 /console gxdepthbits 16 /console skycloudlod 0 /console particledensity 0.3 /console lod 0 /console fullalpha 0 /console doodadanim 0 /console mapshadows 0 /console loddist 50 /console smallcull 2 /console maxlights 0 /console specular 0 /console pixelshader 0 /console detaildensity 1 /console unitdrawdist 20 /console waterlod 0 /console basemip 1 /console shadowlevel 1 /console alphalevel 1 /console anisotropic 16 /console textureloddist 80 /console light 0 /console fog 0 /console bitdepth 16 /console showwater 0 /console maxlod 0 /console watermaxlod 0 /console waterwaves 0 /console waterspecular 0 /console waterripples 0 /console waterparticulates 0 /console showshadow 0 /console skyclouddensity 0 /console skysunglare 0 /console skyshow 0 /console gxrestart Apparently macroing all of that and executing it turns pretty much every graphical effect off, give it a try? I don't know anything about WoW, this was just found on Google by searching 'wow optimization'. Try the search yourself and see what comes up? Good luck.
TBH you should build a machine for gaming. Laptops, even newer ones, still arent best suited for gaming. You can build a good machine for under $1000, so devote a couple of months to saving up for one.
Or you could buy an nVidia Quadro Plex 2200 D2.. Or this: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/05/11/netstor-external-pcie-caddy-for-notebooks/1 Or this: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2007/01/09/ASUS_unveils_external_notebook_GPU/1
If you have an expresscard slot, someone did find some parts that you can do this. But you will be restricted to a x1 interface. http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html I found that from a link you another forum: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1522180
That external GPU stuff is hardcore, + infinite rep if you do a DIY PCI-E enclousure. I didn't know people were that into notebook gaming.. If I knew about that stuff, I would've gone for an i3 laptop and eventually rigged my 4870 up with my already ghetto DIY dock on my desk instead of settling for a slower laptop with a G210M..
Thanks for the replies. Those are indeed the sort of console commands I mentioned I was already using docodine, but perhaps one or two there I don't have, so thanks. Here's one of the articles I came across, and you can see where I came up with the non-existant MSI thing...it was the name of the company http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Graphics-Upgrade-Solution-ATI-External,news-33562.html Is this similar to the expressCard PCMIA thing, and that link you gave? This is the sort of thing I had in mind anyways when I first saw it. So, now that we know what I was talking about, any further suggestions? Even if it's just suggestions on exactly how to run one of these things, where does it plug in etc; it says it needs its own PSU, but like any cooling or any other peripherals needed?
Expresscard is the replacement for cardbus and is a PCIe x1 link and a USB port. The adapter in the link is a 3/4 expresscard from factor adapter that makes the x1 link available though that cable. The cable need to go to that x16 adapter as the connector looks to be proprietary. It just changes the physical connection, it doesn't do anything to the signals. I don't remember off the top of my head the power limit of expresscard or a PCIe x1 slot, but is is a heck of a lot less than a x16, and certainly not enough to run a graphics card. That's the reason for the extra power supply. Based on the guide, it's a standard ATX power supply with enough wattage to run the card. If you were so inclined, you could probably get a 1U power supply of sufficient wattage to run the card if you wanted to come up with a small enclosure. If the card is running open air, it shouldn't need any additional cooling. But if you created an enclosure, you would need to make sure there are enough vent holes or even an additional fan to make sure the card gets enough air to keep cool. If you did this with a laptop running an i3 or i5 CPU, the PCIe link may be capable of running at 2.0 speeds. I'll try looking over the data sheet for the PCH when I am more awake.
wow lags due to 2 reasons the main reason is mods, every mod costs you a few fps on most graphics cards if your running 100 mods the game loads them all before you can even move and unless your on a top end pc it will crawl. Its why most raiders UIs are clean. Next is lack of cpu power, as wow can run on onboard graphics and quiet well i might add if you arnt using mods or any real settings above 1024 x 768 my friend runs it on a old nvidia 5200 fx card ( pile of crap at release ) with one of the early duel core amd cpus. any decent duel core 3ghz cpu will keep wow happy, along with 1gb of ram to keep things ticking along The issue your describing was happening on release of wrath of the lich king with out of date graphics drivers causing massive compatibility issues that were fixed. At the time i was getting 150 + fps down to 3-4 fps then back up again and that down to the drivers just not working properly. The easist fix was the removal of all addons. your cpu is the biggest issue to wows performance, as anyone who has raided will tell you turn of music and every setting to minimum and disable every back ground program and you may not get these issues. Good luck.
