HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC - good or bad?

[sk84life933]

Hey fellas, this is for the computer surgeons
I got this lap top from my mom its a few years old, I used to play MXS on it a lot and it can handle the game smoothly off and online. I'm wondering if it's just out-dated or is there something i can do to it? I know there isn't much you can do to laptops, but would wiping it clean (factory reset) do the trick? I have downloaded the newest update for it, 1.10 and it still doesn't run like it used to.
Here's what it's got:
System type - x64 - based PC
Processor - Intel (R) Core (TM) i 30 CPU M 370 @ 2.40 GHz, 2399 Mhz, 2 core(s), 4 logical processors
RAM - 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory - 3.80 GB
Available Physical Memory - 1.99 GB
Total Virtual Memory - 11.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory - 9.36 GB
Page File Space - 8.00 GB

I used to be able to run these graphics in-game, both online and offline (shaders off for full gate, and 9 model texture detail)

15 ground geometric detail
7 ground texture detail
512x512 res
ground mipmaps - no
compress textures - yes
terrain rendering method - Hardware/copy
shaders - yes
Model geometric detail - 50
Model texture detail - 10
(offline ^^^)
These may not be the exact graphics settings I had before, but I know I could at least run that on here. Any tips or suggestions?
Thanks

[Racers52]

PUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[sk84life933]

I would prefer that he helped me But if you know your stuff, doesn't really matter

[sk84life933]

Also it won't handle ground shaders, my fps drops down to 5 - 10.

[Pumaxcs]

While I appreciate the trust you guys have if someone else wants to comment I won't stop you.

Running x512 is being way off, I run x128 when playing and only push it when doing screens, use x64 for a mobile. I also run everything at 90/9, once again unless doing screens. Try 50/9 for both, turning down the res will help alot so you can turn up those without taking much of a hit. I can't remember right now the deal with rendering methods but, if you load a track try the software/copy and see if your FPS is higher behind the gate. Either hard/software was the better option and I can't remember it. Also, have you tried just running the High FPS preset option? You could give it a refresh but for the most part that only helps Windows, not normally game related and if it did it would be your load times not performance. An i3 though can run this game, just don't expect anything great, might want to not use custom models either. For my laptop I only have my skins and everything else runs JLV's models where possible.

[Wahlamt]

Not sure but maybe turning mipmaps on would help a little?

[sk84life933]

Thanks Puma, that helped tons
I tried turning mipmaps on but nothing changed, except the ground turned all orange and my FPS is low. But what Puma suggested is working great, thanks for the help

[motokid499]

I skimmed through it and honestly, try cleaning out your personal folder and running a few virus scans. If that doesn't work, backup and factory restore. When people say ¨this PC is outdated so it can't run this game¨ They are referring more to next-gen games. MXS runs pretty much the same as it did 2-3 years ago as far as I know. If a computer ran the game fine 2-3 years ago, there is no reason it should run any worse now.

Now, being able to play GTA San Andreas on max graphics and not being able to play GTA V would be because your PC is outdated. What you're saying is, in 2-3 years time, the computer won't be able to run GTA San Andreas anymore because it's outdated. It doesn't work like that.

Many things could have happened since when the game ran fine and when it didn't, but from your laptop specs I have a hard time believing you could ever have ran those graphics settings in the first place. The first thing I would try doing is moving all your old skins in your personal folder into a different/new folder. Also, move any stock model replacement packs you have too. Maybe you were able to run these graphics settings before and not now because you are loading in higher detail models with a replacement pack as oppose to loading in JLV's stock models.

If you don't want to delete anything or factory restore (I don't blame you, it's time consuming) set your graphics lower. It's just a trade off and you have to determine what is more important to you. FPS or detail. Me personally, I couldnt give two shits how my track models and bike/rider models/textures look, so I turn that down to maintain 125fps. I don't know what the cause, but anything below 125fps on my laptop looks so skippy and laggy. Even at 125fps sometimes. It's weird. Until I find a fix, I just run lower graphics. FPS is way more important to me than looks. However, I cant stand having low track texture and ground geometrical detail. I ride really crap with low track detail. So I keep that up, and lower everything else, because It doesn't matter to me.

The best thing to do is just find a balance. What is important to you, FPS or looks. You have to decide now because you can't have both unless you have a kickass pc. Something a lot of people have to deal with lol. Anyways, good luck, but definitely try a virus scan first and delete stock model replacement packs. Ive also heard you can set programs priorities in Windows. I've tried it myself and I haven't really experienced any benefits. Ive done it before with Firestrike and Skydiver benchmarks and only saw CPU performance increase by about 20-50 points in physics tests. Not sure if that is relevant enough to make a difference, definitely didn't feel like it in MXS. Just try experimenting, doing different things and seeing what helps.

Last thing I promise - Make sure you make restore points regularly, because if you get creative trying to increase game performance and screw something up to the point where you don't know how to fix it, restore points always help to get you back to square one.

kk I lied one more thing.. Have you made sure your power plan is on¨High Performance¨? If it's not, then I just wasted a lot of time. Switch it and it will definitely help. Always make sure the power plan is on High Performance for laptops when gaming.