Optimus III struggling with games

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tb350mdx

Member
Hi all,

So I know that a thread has already been posted similar to this, but the problems that my laptop is experiencing are pretty bad! I struggle to run even older games (Silent Hunter III from 2005, Star Wars Republic Commando again from 2005 and a few others) on the following spec:

Optimus Series: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M - 1.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
500GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 3 Gb/s, (7200rpm)

I'm getting consistently low frame rates, particularly on Silent Hunter III, where it is nearly unplayable. I was wondering if this was perhaps because it was a Steam download, but I didn't think that would be anything to do with it?

Considering I read around and this was supposed to be a decent, if not quite good gaming system, I'm a little upset. All my drivers are up to date and I'm pretty sure that it's running on the nVidia GPU, not the integrated Intel graphics. I was going to buy Crysis and Crysis 2, but I don't want to waste my money if it's not going to run them on all but the lowest settings (granted, I understand that I probably won't be able to run them on Ultra, but at least the High settings, surely??!!) The Windows Experience Index scores are pretty much all in the 7's bar the HDD, which is 5.9 but I understand that's because its not an SSD.

If anyone could shed some light on this I'd be really grateful. I would rather it was something that I was doing wrong; I don't want to find out that I've bought an 800 quid system that can't even play old games properly!!
 
A

AzY

Gold Level Poster
Ok, get hardwaremonitor, and play a game, then after you play quick go on it and check if the 650m is listed on it, if it is your playing using the 650m., if not your running on the integrated graphics, which i assume is not letting you play your games.
 
T

tb350mdx

Member
Thank AzY.

I've just installed hardware monitor and it doesn't even register the graphics cards, both Integrated or 650M! When I checked the GPU activity on the nVidia monitor, there is none!!!! I've played a few games, all with the same result. I have no idea what's going on with it :(

Any thoughts?

Cheers
 
A

Adli

Enthusiast
ok... the issues here is that the NVIDIA Optimus technology doesn't recognise that you need to use the dedicated GPU (GT650m) for these games. you need to tell it to.

1) to to the NVIDIA control panel
2) click 'Manage 3d Settings' on the side bar
3) then click 'Program Settings' on the page that opens
4) click the 'Add' button.
5) find the games program files folder (these are found in the steam---> steamapps-->common folder for Steam games)
6) select the .exe file and click 'open'.
7) select 'use high performance processor'.

voila, the game should now run on the dedicated GPU.
 
T

tb350mdx

Member
Adli....... you are an absolute genius!! It just ran Cities in Motion absolutely flawlessly. Still struggling with Silent Hunter III but I think that may just be a dodgy mod :p I've just got back from work some I'm yet to try any others but so far so good. I'll let you know how they turn out. Thank you!
 
T

tb350mdx

Member
So this is definitely solved. I just ran Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts maxed out and everything worked perfectly!! Thanks again the Adli for the help :)
 
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