Bad performance with good PC/connection

I just bought this laptop 2 weeks ago, brand new, Googled the specs and I should be able to play stuff like Counterstrike and other brand new games with no trouble. My connection speed is great, last test was at 25 MBPS download, ping of 35 ms. But STILL, I get horrible SL performance. I'm never above 20 MBPS, i might hover around 15 when I'm alone, but generally I'm under 10. Also, the bandwidth in the statistics bar is stuck at the far left, usually under 10 KBPS. What exactly is going wrong with this computer?

Windows 7 64bit, 4 GB RAM, Processor is AMD Athlon II X2 M300 2.00 GHz, Graphics card is AMD m880G with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200

I'm no expert, but check your video drivers are up to date and also that your bandwidth setting in preferences is not set way down low.

What brand is the laptop? Can you provide a model number for the laptop?

What do you have Preferences / Network / Maximum Bandwidth set to?

What viewer are you using?

When you say "I'm never above 20 MBPS, i might hover around 15 when I'm alone, but generally I'm under 10" did you mean to say FPS instead of MBPS?

What do you have your graphics settings at?

What is your draw distance?

If you are talking about the bandwidth I'm not sure why you think 20 mbps is bad!! I think you might mean 2.0 mbps (or 2000 kbps). I've never heard of anyone getting that much bandwidth (that's 20,000 kbps)........I don't think LL's servers are capable of that). LL has an implied cap of 1.5 mbps (1500 kbps) My bandwidth seldom touches 1.3 mbps (1300 kbps) and usually hovers in the 100 kbps range once everything is loaded from the servers. It's the FPS that counts for smoothness of the video (anything over 25 FPS does that)..........not bandwidth. When you turn your avi around, walk, fly, or tp somewhere the servers will send you the data to construct the world around you.........that's about the only time bandwidth comes into play other than streaming music and video media.

I'm just not sure what you are having a problem with.

I meant FPS.

And I played around with the options a bit, unchecked the vertex buffer objects box and it's running better now

That's your problem right there. The Radeon HD 4200 is not a real graphics card. It's an integrated graphics processor. IGP's are really, really, really bad at handling resource intensive programs like SL.

The single biggest problem with IGP's is that they lack their own dedicated memory. In order to function, they have to appropriate a portion of system RAM to serve as pseudo video memory. This is bad for two reasons. First, system RAM is INCREDIBLY slow at handling graphics information, compared with real video memory. So the graphics processing will always be sluggish with an IGP. Second, because the IGP has stolen some system memory for itself, less is now available to the rest of the computer. The whole machine slows down as a result, and the graphics end up even further slowed by that. It's a total lose-lose.

I feel like a broken record on this subject lately, as this same issue keeps coming up, and I keep repeating the same answers. I'm assuming it's because so many cheap laptops were aggressively marketed during the Christmas season. Now, a few weeks later, people are unfortunately learning the hard way that you get what you pay for.


Sorry, I know this probably not what you wanted to hear, but the truth is SL requires a real graphcis card. IGP's should be avoided at all costs. I would strongly recommend you return the laptop to wherever it was that you bought it, and replace it with one that has a real graphics card in it. Otherwise, be prepared to live with poor performance for the duration. There's really no other answer.