Intel i7 Q720 Quad Core CPU & Nvidia GTX240 (Gaming Question)

[cavemanzipper]

Hi, so i'm running the specs listed in the title and am wondering if it's sufficient for running a game like Heroes of Newerth?

I checked the site "Can You Run It?" and got all passes even in the "Recommended" section, but for CPU Speed instead of "Pass", it gives me a "For your information" sign and it says "You Have: 1.6 GHz Performance Rated at: 3.60 GHz".

Now here's my question:

I understand that i7 will overclock automatically to reach the application's requirements, and certain games like mine do not utilize all the cores necessarily.
My brother's computer is running on i5 Dual Core at a fixed 2.66Ghz and his graphics card is an older model than mine, but he runs the game fine whereas mine tends to slow down in framerates during large team clashes.

I'm just wondering what could be the possible causes for this and is there anything I can do to get mine to run just as smoothly?
Perhaps try an older driver or set Processor Affinity/Priority?

I appear to meet all the specs, yet strangely, it's acting as if i'm playing on a computer that does not.

Thoughts?

 

[Pyree]

??

Laptop right?

i7-720QM
There is no GTX 240, but a desktop GT 240 and a laptop GT 240m

Older GPU doesn't mean slower. If he has a 8800m GTX or something there about, it is going to outperform the GT 240m.

But I think the biggest problem is the game. It is relying on 1 core to to all the work. Because the i7-720m is slow on 1 core (Turbo boost to 2.8GHz) and it is down to the efficiency of the Nehalem to keep the CPU from falling under the performance of the Netburst P4 2.8GHz).

 

[cavemanzipper]

??

Laptop right?

i7-720QM
There is no GTX 240, but a desktop GT 240 and a laptop GT 240m

Older GPU doesn't mean slower. If he has a 8800m GTX or something there about, it is going to outperform the GT 240m.

But I think the biggest problem is the game. It is relying on 1 core to to all the work. Because the i7-720m is slow on 1 core (Turbo boost to 2.8GHz) and it is down to the efficiency of the Clarksfield to keep the CPU from falling under the performance of the P4 2.8GHz).

Yeah laptop.
Oh sorry, my mistake, yeah it's a GT 240M.

If that's the case, is there any way for me to optimize this said one core or to distribute the work over the rest of the cores somehow?
And his laptop's GPU is slower based on what I remember.
I ran some gaming test on his and mine recently (I forget if it was canyourunit, I followed a site link), and my card apparently out-performed his.

I think it's highly likely to be the game running on only one core as you suggested, but is there anything I can do to speed things up or improve performance?

I really don't even mind playing on lower graphic settings for that particular game so long as I know nothings fundamentally wrong, and it works better on other games that do have multi-core support.

 

[Pyree]

I can't think of anything else apart from changing the CPU (laptop don't let you overclock).

 

[cavemanzipper]

Would lowering my graphics settings help?
Say..from Highs to Mediums or even to Lows?

Turning off anti-aliasing?

 

[amuffin]

More info.

 

[Pyree]

If you lower shadow, draw distance and effects, that will help the CPU the most.

 

[Pyree]

so long as I know nothings fundamentally wrong, and it works better on other games that do have multi-core support.

Get passmark and run some benchmark to see if it match up to other similar laptop. Pay special attention on CPU.

 

[amuffin]

Get passmark and run some benchmark to see if it match up to other similar laptop. Pay special attention on CPU.

Passmark=bad.

 

[cavemanzipper]

Ok i'll check right now

 

[cavemanzipper]

Alright which field am I looking at?

CPU Mark says: "1870" in the result. With composite average being 2000.

 

[Pyree]

That CPU result looks low. Do you have your laptop on low power profile? Any core/HT deactivated?

 

[cavemanzipper]

That CPU result looks low. Do you have your laptop on low power profile? Any core/HT deactivated?

Yeah i'm just doing some Microsoft Word stuff now and I have it set to "Super Energy Saver".
I'll re-do the test after changing it to High Performance and post the results.

How do I tell if any "core/HT" is deactivated, though?

 

[Pyree]

In Window task manager>performance. You should see 8 little cpu usage chart.

 

[cavemanzipper]

Oh, yeahp, that's there.

Well I ran it in High Performance, it's now 3420.
There's a gear above that called "Gaming Mode", which I haven't ventured into yet but it seems it stops certain background processes specifically for me to game.
It, along with this, were hidden by default.

I've been running all my games in Balanced/Power Saver all along.

 

[cavemanzipper]

Okay it looks silly now but could that be the case?
Something so simple as absent-mindedly having it set on Power Saver? 😛

 

[Pyree]

3420 is about right.

After you change to high performance/gaming mode, is the game still slow?

That profile should be more aggressive in keeping the CPU turbo boost.

 

[cavemanzipper]

3420 is about right.

After you change to high performance/gaming mode, is the game still slow?

That profile should be more aggressive in keeping the CPU turbo boost.

I'm not too sure, I only just discovered this power mode, haha.
I'll play the game in a few hours and post back here.

But that sounds like a huge jump, 3420 is nearly double my inital score.
Could that be what was causing my computer's slow performance? That I set it to Power Saver mode?

 

[cavemanzipper]

3420 is about right.

After you change to high performance/gaming mode, is the game still slow?

That profile should be more aggressive in keeping the CPU turbo boost.

I'm not too sure, I only just discovered this power mode, haha.
All the while i've been playing the game on Power Saver or Balanced, which both scored significantly lower on the performance test.

I'll play the game in a few hours on High Performance and post back here.

But that sounds like a huge jump, 3420 is nearly double my inital score.
Could that be what was causing my computer's slow performance? That I set it to Power Saver mode?


Also, when I ran that test, I was also busy streaming and transferring a whole bunch of files for work (approx. 25gigs of video footage and some word docs).
Their site cautions that I should close all programs and stop any activity for the duration of the test for most accurate results, so maybe my score could be higher, i'll run another test soon as per their guidelines.

 

[Pyree]

Most likely. Combined with the fact that the i7-720QM is a slow clock CPU and the game you play is only using 1 core.

 

[cavemanzipper]

Most likely. Combined with the fact that the i7-720QM is a slow clock CPU and the game you play is only using 1 core.

Hi Pyree,

So, tested it again last night and it still had some frame rate issues.
Noticeably less frequent with the power plan change, but still some. Please note though, I was still playing with maxed out graphic settings (Reflections on, Unit Shadows high, etc.)
I just dug out my old laptop fan cooler, gonna hook it up and then lower graphic settings a notch, then play again and see how things go.