Posted on 01/10/2010 5:11:39 PM PST by GeronL
Hey, I am trying to play MS Flight Simulator X (Gold edition) and it automatically gave me low graphics settings. I have the 2Ghz processor and 2GB of RAM but I probably need a graphics/video card.
I have a Toshiba Satellite notebook, what would be a good low-price graphics/video card or whatever you think I could do to improve performance.
Oops, sorry.
I don’t remember if I got it off Woot.com or off that link above at ecost.com I bought a couple different computers. That link above is nearly identical to mine. I’m thinking that’s where I got it. I also have a 2.2 AMD 32 bit quad-core with a lesser HD, and less RAM and GPU. That one must have come from Woot.
I get smooth frame rates with the 2.5 ghz machine in FSX. Very flyable and enjoyable.
That costs several times more than the laptop, lol
SO far my player name should be Igot noKontrol
Toshiba Satellite
L305-S5950
I think the L stands for “Low-end”
I don’t know if it can go to 4, I am pretty sure it’ll go to 3 at least
It might, but as a general rule laptops are not good gaming rigs for exactly this reason.
FWIW, FSX runs beautifully on my HP TouchSmart 22” once you sort out the DirectX compatibilities.
You can actually land 747’s and the big Airbus’ with plenty of processing power left over.
But one cat, dog, fly, or anything else that could hit the touchscreen you just went down with a couple hundred others...
My son bought himself a Sager (NP8662) last August and he loves it. He plays games and also does video editing.
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 SB1090
Memory Card Reader Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader
2.0 Megapixel Camera
Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR
Integrated Fingerprint Reader
802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN
320GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
2X Blu-ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive
1,024MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce GTX 260M DDR3 DX10 (User Upgradeable)
4,096MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS)
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo T9900 “Montevina” 3.06GHz w/ 6MB L2 Cache - 1066MHz FSB
wow that’s a monster.
I think my son did well, he paid a little over 2K for his. His Dad thinks he should have gotten a macbook pro for the video editing but he thought what he got was better.
This is very disappointing. The lag makes it near impossible to control an aircraft in the game. What a waste.
I wish I knew this before plunking down $42 or so dollars for the game. The “standard” edition was half as much as the “Gold” edition.
*sigh*
Okay. Researched the issue. You can upgrade to 4GB memory and Kingston is the recommended manufacturer(Go to their site for pricing and configuration).
Thing is, if your Laptop is 32 bit OS and you upgrade to 4GB you will be able to use theoretical of 3.2GB, though more like 2.8-2.9. It will improve your paging by quite a bit.
“Quite a bit” is a technical term. LOL
If your system is 64bit you can upgrade to 4GB and you will have theoretical max use of 3.7-3.8GB.
Both upgrades will improve your pagination and should improve your performance to something acceptable.
The video card and your system is not made to support gaming with intense graphics.
Your system is a fine Business use tool but for video, next time look to to spend maybe $1500 and get a Sony VAIO. Not a gaming system but an affordable Business System with and delivers excellent performance for the average bear.
VAIO by the way is an acronym for Video Audio Input Output. Great system and a superb screen with X-Brite technology to deliver the crispest visuals.
Other than upgrading your memory you are stuck with what ya’ got.
Post on.
Maybe I oughtta buy a desktop. *sigh*
You’re Laptop has on board ATi Graphics (3100), so you won’t be able to upgrade that.
Three options to consider:
1. The memory available to your Graphics cars is dynamically allocated, sharing the RAM with your PC. Some Toshibas have an application that allows you to set the amount that is dedicated to Graphics as a static amount. Your allocation ranges between 256 and 1406 MB. If yours is one of those that has that Toshiba app, adjust it up all the way.
2. In the Control Panel you’ll find the System Icon or listed, if that how yours is set up. Open that up and then click on Advanced system settings in the upper left side of the page. (I’m hoping you have Win7 or (yuk) Vista) Make sure you’re on the Advanced tab, then, under the heading Performance, click on the button that says Settings. Now, click on the radio button that says Adjust for best performance.
3. Your machine is equipped with an Express Card slot. They make a device called an PCI Express expansion chassis. Using this, you can, then, buy and install a high end Pci-e graphics card. If you do this, which I doubt-due the cost factor involved, get a graphics card with a LOT of memory and a fast GPU. ;) These aren’t cheap. You’re looking at around $200-$400 for the expansion chassis, and $100-$400 for a graphics cars, depending on the style and color you select (LOL).
BTW, your machine can take up to 4GB of RAM, and I recommend that you take full advantage of it. (another LOL) Buy a good, top of the line, brand name, matched, pair of modules.
Lastly, I need to ask, what OS are you running? If you’re using Win7, then there is a little performance boost you can gain by using ReadyBoost. This is also offered in Vista, but it’s junk, and just doesn’t work well. But, in Win7, it’s great, and works very well.
ReadyBoost uses USB drives, or any Flash media actually, to improve system performance. It does so, in conjunction with SuperFetch, by caching your most used apps., commands, etc., and temporarily storing data so the processor doesn’t need to access the hard drive as much, which takes a lot longer. When this is occurring,more RAM is freed up for other uses, making the entire computer faster by quickening up the process. The more you use it, the better it gets, to a point. That point, in Vista, wasn’t even noticeable, it was so low. In Win7, all of that’s changed, and you can combine up to 8 USB drives to have a total of up to 16GB of storage. In the machine I’m using right now, I went from a 2.9 Windows Performance score, to a 5.3 using 16 GB of USB drives and ReadyBoost, and it is very noticeable. So, if you have Win 7, that’s an additional option.
Good luck.
P.S. For a mere $800.00 you can buy a 64 Bit Win 7 Sager with an expandable PCi-E graphics card. (had to throw that in-haha)
Naw. You made a good decision based on the information you had. Like I said, it is a fine computer.
If you want to play games in the future, start looking at features like memory upgrade, caching, video capabilities, etc.
You can even customize with build-to spec systems.
It’s Vista Home Premium.
Whatever that means.
It didn’t cost all that much, I guess we get what we pay for.
FSX=good desktop.
If you want to fly on what you have, seriously look on Ebay for a copy of Flight simulator 2002. It will run on what you have, and you can typically find a copy for $20 or less. I got mine for $15 to run on a laptop. 2002 looks almost identical to 2004 which WAS the state of the art. It still has a dedicated community, and there are lots of quality freeware that will work in 2002.
Meanwhile, if you want to run that FSX, you’ll need a new system, not just memory upgrades. you’ll need something with a reasonably good graphics card, and at least a dual core CPU running 2.6 or better. The faster the CPU the better. Many FSX’ers are water-cooling overclockers getting 4.0 or more on quad-core Intels or I7 chips, etc. REally fast processing.
FSX is unique in that you can crush it to death by turning up too much stuff, regardless the monster computer you buy. Or, if you use a more rational approach, you can get very good performance by turning down the boats, airport traffic, cloud radius, etc. My experience is that I tried to see how much my computer could handle, then turned it down a little. This is the wrong way to go. Start out with minimal settings then creep them up until you reach a level of realism you’re comfortable with.
One thing I always turn up to maximum is aircraft details. I want my beast to look it’s absolute best. I also demand that the airport I land at have buildings if it has them in real life. Beyond that, I’m not quite as picky. I don’t buy hyper-realism aircraft, run them on hyper-realism scenery at ultra-highest resolution and then fly into hyper=realism airports cranked up to maximum resolution THEN complain because the frame rates are single digits. Why bother?
I’d rather be able to fly. I ran the FSX monster on the HP 2.2 quad machine before I bought the 2.5 quad machine, and it worked. It stuttered a little bit when panning views, but not so on the new machine. So Yes You Can fly FSX without spending a fortune. It’s just how much detail you want= how many dollars to part with.
Should you decide to part with your FSX gold edition, I’d be willing to buy it off you.
I would I undo the licensing/registration if I decide to sell it? or does it come with multiple PC licenses like MS Office does?
I think if you just uninstall it, it’s fine.
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