Is My Graphic card fast enough

[swissroll_boy]

Hi guys,

I am new to pc gaming i am trying to play black ops on a laptop online. I am having some freezing issues however i might play 10 rounds strait then all of a sudden game freezes up then i have to open up task manager to close it then i will open it again and might play 3 or 6 or mabey 1 more rounds before it freezes again. Is my laptop just not good enough for gaming or what? here are my specs

Is there anything i can do to boost the performance of my computer?

Windows 7
1TB HD
4GB Ram
AMD Phenom II Trip core N850 @ 2.2GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470

I also have my comp set at high performance but i know nothing about computers anyone have an opinion?

Thanks

 

[COLGeek]

Try lowering your game's video settings to a lower degree of graphics detail. Also, you should also go to ati.com and download and install the latest video drivers to see if that helps.

Catalyst 10.12 is now available. Good luck!

 

[jerreece]

Nice laptop. Glad they're finally putting newer generation AMD chips into laptops these days. LOL

The ATI 5470 isn't super impressive, but then again laptops tend to have low resolution screens on them. So you should be able to play the game, however as COLGeek pointed out you'll need/want to lower the graphic detail settings. I'd suggest doing this until things play smoothly for you. Reducing "shadows" in most games helps a TON.

Also, since you're using a laptop, keep in mind that WIRELESS INTERNET can be HORRIBLE for online gaming due to potential for poor latency. If you want to play Multiplayer Black Ops or anything else, I'd strongly suggest plugging the laptop directly into the wired network.

According to this ATI 5470 benchmark you could play pretty well at "Low" settings on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Which is somewhat similar. Scroll down quite a ways to see where they list individual games.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5470.23698.0.html

 

[swissroll_boy]

Thanks for replying...

I know nothing about computers but it is funny to me that i might play 10 times strait just fine then next round bamm froze. I had graphics all the way up then whey COLGEEK advised to lower graphic setting i did well i have been playing and it is acting the same play a few rounds then freeze. So i guess i will just have to deal with it

on another subject
Thanks I like my laptop I picked it up at Staples on Black Friday. Staples Handed out vouchers in the parking lot before the doors opened. Well they handed out one to many vouchers so when i went to pick up my laptop they did not have one for me so I pitched a fit. They offered me several comps for the same price but i had my eye on this one the only thing i had going for me was this one had the same size screen and the others they were offerinc did not. this one was priced on sale I think @ $850.00 and had an existing 100 dollar rebate. So i got this Laptop for the 299.00 Black Friday price and when they rung it up it still and adjusted the price down it still printed the rebate reciept so i got it for 199.00 +tax isnt that crazy??? but since i got such a good deal i let them talk me into a 49.99 service plan for 2 years which i figured the blueray drive alone would cost that if it went out lol.

I have one more question I have never had a "Fast Computer" What can i do Hardware wise to make this one faster ? Can i update the processor/Ram/Graphics card??? Since i only got a couple hundred in it i thought i might try something like that????

 

[COLGeek]

The isn't much you can do to a laptop to improve its hardware. Short of adding memory or swapping the HDD for a faster HDD or SSD, you options are about nil.

BTW, great story on the buy. Congrats!

Last, were you able to install the most current video drivers as well?

 

[swissroll_boy]

Oh and one more thing i forgot to mention is that the game plays Picture Perfect when playing on either High of Low Graphic settings. I Also have installed all of the current Patches so in case you hear of something please let me know

Again Thanks

 

[swissroll_boy]

The isn't much you can do to a laptop to improve its hardware. Short of adding memory or swapping the HDD for a faster HDD or SSD, you options are about nil.

BTW, great story on the buy. Congrats!

Last, were you able to install the most current video drivers as well?

what is and HDD OR SSD and would that make a difference?
Do I need More Memory? I have 4 GB

 

[mrclownface]

i also play alot of call of duty black ops on pc,since its release this game has had freezing problems,also on high end gaming pc's.the problem is with the game,i beleive there is a patch for pc coming on the 21st of december,lets hope this helps...mrclownface

 

[COLGeek]

HDD = Hard disk drive
SSD = Solid state drive
4GB memory should be fine.

Do you have 32-bit or 64-bit Win 7? You can go to Control Panel then System and it will be right there in the system summary.

 

[swissroll_boy]

HDD = Hard disk drive
SSD = Solid state drive
4GB memory should be fine.

Do you have 32-bit or 64-bit Win 7? You can go to Control Panel then System and it will be right there in the system summary.

64 Bit

I have also checked for video card updates could not find any...

So about The HDD Do they come in larger speeds cause i already have a 1TB I Thought that was Big?

 

[COLGeek]

There is big and there is fast. You are probably fine as is.

Go here to download Cataylst 10.12: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx#1

 

[jerreece]

I guess I missed the freezing part in the original post. Black Ops I've heard is pretty buggy. If the game performs well, and then suddenly freezes, that's likely nothing to do with your video card in particular. It's probably a code bug in the game, memory leak, something like that.

That's what happens when you take a good game Franchise like Call of Duty, and try to pump out a new version every year just so you can sell 100 Million more copies of the same game with different pictures. They rush it out and it sucks. Not to mention, Call of Duty is no longer a PC based game, its now a Console port.

 

[swissroll_boy]

Yeah i downloaded that yesterday I thought that was just an update to the cat control center program. I didnot know it was a driver I am not sure if it is installed correctly though how can i tell?

 

[COLGeek]

You should be as fine as you can be then.

 

[swissroll_boy]

I just checked it didnot install properly but i found the downloaded file in a temp file within the app data so not it is installing i will play the game a little later and let you guys know Thanks for all of your help!

I am looking into the SSDs Are they as fast as they say they are? I take alot of pics with a nikon d700 so files are large and it takes forever to look thru them do you think if i got one for photo storage they would come up faster?

 

[swissroll_boy]

I guess I missed the freezing part in the original post. Black Ops I've heard is pretty buggy. If the game performs well, and then suddenly freezes, that's likely nothing to do with your video card in particular. It's probably a code bug in the game, memory leak, something like that.

That's what happens when you take a good game Franchise like Call of Duty, and try to pump out a new version every year just so you can sell 100 Million more copies of the same game with different pictures. They rush it out and it sucks. Not to mention, Call of Duty is no longer a PC based game, its now a Console port.

Wow that is interesting to know. Looks like they would care a little about quality??? I guess i dont know the difference cause i am new to the gaming world. I am 26 years old and never had nothing more advanced than a nintendo 64 lol. Thanks for your time pal!

 

[jerreece]

I just checked it didnot install properly but i found the downloaded file in a temp file within the app data so not it is installing i will play the game a little later and let you guys know Thanks for all of your help!

I am looking into the SSDs Are they as fast as they say they are? I take alot of pics with a nikon d700 so files are large and it takes forever to look thru them do you think if i got one for photo storage they would come up faster?

Don't bother with SSDs for photos. Quality photos are very large in file size. SSDs at their current size and price point aren't really meant as storage drives. Folks install just Windows, and a couple key games on the SSD so they load as fast as possible. Considering many SSDs are 80GB to 120GB on average (though you can find bigger) you'd fill them pretty darn fast with high res photos or video.

To be quite honest though, an SSD isn't what's going to help you with Black Ops. SSDs are about load time, not active gameplay. They help you load maps/levels faster. Once the game is playing almost all it needs is memory resident, so the hard drive doesn't get much use (unless you have too little RAM).

 

[swissroll_boy]

ok that makes alot of sence.

I just tried black ops again and since i have installed the ati driver mentioned earlier the game crashes every time lol blahhahahaha. Oh well Its a good thing i am not a hard core gamer i might be mad by now. I didnot even pay for the game so i guess im out nothing. It is fun though. I might try to pick up one of the older call of dutys and try that.

 

[jerreece]

ATI driver releases can be buggy at times anyhow. LOL But it sounds as so Black Ops has it's own problems. Do you have any other games on your computer that you can play? Just for the sake of ensuring your computer is running fine outside of Black Ops? At least then you can determine if the new driver is the problem or not.

 

[swissroll_boy]

uuuummmmmm,

I may have left out an important piece of info...

This only happens during online play. I forgot to say that sorry.

I dont have any other games

 

[COLGeek]

uuuummmmmm,

I may have left out an important piece of info...

This only happens during online play. I forgot to say that sorry.

I dont have any other games

So do you use a wireless or wired network connection?

 

[swissroll_boy]

well i was using wireless but whe someone said that wired was better i plugged it in and it was the same thing. I dont think it is a speed problem i checked my bandwidth the test said 3568 kbps i ran the test three times that was the lowest i got

 

[jerreece]

Wireless gaming is like playing a Nintendo NES and expecting 1080p gaming.

Here's what you need to do. You need to see what your "Ping" or "Latency" is WITHIN Black Ops. Your bandwidth test says nothing about online gaming. That just tells you your 'bandwidth' capability between point A and B.

The Ping or Latency tells you how long (in time) it takes the signal to get from Point A to Point B. In this case, you need to know your ping time from your PC to the Black Ops server you are playing on. If that ping is over 300ms your game play is going to be worthless. Ideally, a ping less than 100ms is where you want to be. For me, anything I play is usually 100-150ms. Once you get above 200ms things start getting slow due to delays. By 300ms it's about unplayable.

However, your ping/latency is not going to affect the game in such a way as to make it freeze up and not play again. If you can play several rounds, and then it freezes solid, this is not a ping/latency problem. Ping or Latency problems are what we call "lag". This causes severe delays between you pushing a button, and seeing the response on screen. Ping is a huge deal when playing First Person Shooter online.

 

[COLGeek]

Wireless gaming is like playing a Nintendo NES and expecting 1080p gaming.

Here's what you need to do. You need to see what your "Ping" or "Latency" is WITHIN Black Ops. Your bandwidth test says nothing about online gaming. That just tells you your 'bandwidth' capability between point A and B.

The Ping or Latency tells you how long (in time) it takes the signal to get from Point A to Point B. In this case, you need to know your ping time from your PC to the Black Ops server you are playing on. If that ping is over 300ms your game play is going to be worthless. Ideally, a ping less than 100ms is where you want to be. For me, anything I play is usually 100-150ms. Once you get above 200ms things start getting slow due to delays. By 300ms it's about unplayable.

However, your ping/latency is not going to affect the game in such a way as to make it freeze up and not play again. If you can play several rounds, and then it freezes solid, this is not a ping/latency problem. Ping or Latency problems are what we call "lag". This causes severe delays between you pushing a button, and seeing the response on screen. Ping is a huge deal when playing First Person Shooter online.

+1, nicely put. Not a matter of how big the pipe is, but how fast the pipe responds for gaming.

 

[COLGeek]

Also, did you install the latest patch for Black Ops (1.04 seems to be the most current)?