BF2 Hangs on my M170

[Benjamonous]

So, I just installed BF2 on my shiny new XPS M170 with the 6800 Ultra and have the settings as follows:

1600x1200 resolution
All graphic settings are on MEDIUM
NO Anti-Aliasing
Sound settings are on Software, set to Medium quality.

I'm using the latest 83.90 drivers from Xtreme-G MobileForce. I've got 1GB of RAM, and I have hardly any processes running in the background, and no Anti-Virus programs running either.

While playing online, the performance is pretty choppy. Every few seconds it will hang, especially when I turn to look in a different direction. When it lets up in between the choppiness I get some beautiful framerates, between 50-60fps for several seconds. Then it will go back to being choppy for no apparent reason.

I've played this on my past i9300 with the same settings, even a little higher, and I had no trouble at all. It was super smooth. And keep in mind that the 9300 was using the weaker 6800 plain vanilla card.

I don't think it's lag because I never see the "There is a problem with your connection" notice. I'm on a university T1 LAN connection in my dorm. Connection speed shouldn't be a problem.

I've read elsewhere that people have tinkered with their sound settings, between "Hardware" and "Software", but that doesn't seem to help.

I'm stumped as to why I'm getting choppiness with such a high-end graphics card. Any ideas?

Thanks

[Ghilleman]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

THere might be something wrong with the card, but thats my best guess.

[unununium]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

I would recommend getting a soundcard. Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS is good if you don't want to spend TOO much, but you could go for the SoundBlaster XtremeMusic if you wanted. Running on hardware sound with this card would help your FPS.

[unununium]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

Also, the kind of choppiness you describe sounds like what you get when it keeps loading from the HDD. I've heard Dell computers come with a LOT of extra software that runs in the background and slows things down. Try setting your textures to low and tell us if the choppiness gets any better.

[LoKi.]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

Try a lower resolution probably something closer to 1280 x 1024, Nvidia cards are not particularly strong at 1600x1200. Especially the 6000 series. If you insist on playing on higher resolution 1600x1200 upwards ATI has always had the better performance at these resolutions

[The Chez_5]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

Please check the Soundcard drivers and update to the newest version if it is creative....And please...c'mon m8 you don't really think u need that thing running at 1600x1200 do you??? Just try something lower....take care...

[O2zi3]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

I suggest lowering the resolution as previously suggested. BF2 needs more than 1gb i ram to be optimal (i'm not saying this is causing the prob but more ram would be better). Also roll back the drivers to 81.98 which are the current official 1s. 83.90 is beta version which may cause probs i dunno. There was a thread recently about the 83.90 drivers which has died, i think it said there was no real evidence that they were better than the 81.98 anyway. Software/integrated sound is always going to give u a performance hit as the CPU needs to do the work a soundblaster card will give u upto 20% improvement (their stats not mine), again may not be the cause of the prob but will help

[TriggerHappy2005]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

My rig totally pwns BF2. Try un-installing the vid drivers and install the dell stock drivers, they are more reliable. Did you do a format and fresh install when you got your M170? You should think about upping your ram to 2 gigs, it makes a world of difference with this game.

[imported_razor]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

HEY i will let you know this weekend, PM me. Im getting a DELL 9300 lappy 2.25 Ghz 1 GB ram and a go 6800. WE can compare. :)

[redearedslider]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

Please check the Soundcard drivers and update to the newest version if it is creative....And please...c'mon m8 you don't really think u need that thing running at 1600x1200 do you??? Just try something lower....take care...

lol you took the words out of my mouth

[jdrou]

Re: BF2 Hangs on my M170

..And please...c'mon m8 you don't really think u need that thing running at 1600x1200 do you??? Just try something lower....take care...

Problem is that you lose image quality by not running at the native res of the LCD panel.

Going to 2GB RAM is worth doing; even if it doesn't solve this particular problem it will certainly help overall performance. As unununium suggested, the intermittent nature of the problem sounds like HD activity. Could be a background process or swapping because of low RAM. A PCMCIA sound card might be worthwhile but I doubt that is your problem. Finally, have you done any significant time playing SP to make sure it isn't a network issue?