My laptop hates Defcon..But I love it

[Zorotama]

I did a post about my problem with my laptop about 2 years ago..But then I accepted the idea to not use it for defcon. But now my laptop is the only way to play defcon so I need your help to try to solve the problem.

My laptop pretty ever crashes running defcon! It's hard to explain the problem and to do a good report because apparently there are not errors.

I have an Asus with an Intel Core2Duo T9300 @2.5 GHz and 4 GB of RAM..on Vista 32bit..with an ATI Radeon HD Mobility 3650. All the drivers are updated..and I can run many 3D games without problems.

Only while I'm running Defcon the laptop reboots or it freeze (and I have to force the reboot).

I can't find specific error messages in the Vista event registry..just the generic ones about the bad shutdown etc etc

The only one thing that I can say is that surely Defcon makes my cpu very hot...and sometimes I thought that the freeze or reboot have that cause. But I repeat that games more hard to run than Defcon (for example Far Cry) don't give me any kind of problem.

Someone can show me the way to individuate the problem cause otherwise I can't play the unique game that I want play.

[TGR]

Defcon can be quite processor heavy, and your processor looks like a pretty old one. I have a core i5 @ 3.2ghz in my lappy and defcon can take up to 50% cpu.


I can't really give any useful help sadly. Perhaps get rid of vista and stick Windows 7 or XP on your laptop to free up some resources though.

[trickser]

Enabling V-Sync might lower the cpu usage a little, if its a heat problem, it could help. It's an option found somewhere in the video card driver menu. If you start a Defcon game, hit F1 and FPS goes beyond 60, v-sync is not enabled.

[Zorotama]

I was awake for some days. First, thanks for your suggestions..

but

I enabled V-synch like you said to me..but fps become to 200 if I zoom in on the map and I dn't see fps changes. And, obiously, defcon crashes ever.
I need a trick..for life

[Zorotama]

Sen, help me again please.. I just tryed to run defcon with my desktop (fps is about 60 in every situations..zoom in or zoom out...it never changes) while with my laptop there is a big fluctuation: about 32 fps with all zoomed out and more than 200 fps with all zoomed in. In your opinion what I have to intel from that?

P.S.: In my laptop nothing changes with v-synch enabled or not, the result (fps and crashes) is the same.

DAMN!!! I WANT TO UNDERSTAND!!!

[bert_the_turtle]

Some cards have separate vsync settings for DirectX and OpenGL. The one for OpenGL would be relevant for Defcon.

[Zorotama]

Some cards have separate vsync settings for DirectX and OpenGL. The one for OpenGL would be relevant for Defcon.

When I will back home I will try to watch again the "advanded" settings of my shitty card..But honestly I searched everywhere and I found just one and unique vertical synch setting..and I enabled it.

Is there a way to force defcon to run with a costant fps? A config file or an option? a 1 instead of a 0? A magic number to win the nuclear war against my idiot laptop?

[tllotpfkamvpe]

.

[Zorotama]

I tryed all..but nothing. I tryed to make the fps stable with a tweaker for Ati video card..but nothing. The fps starts stable at 60 but after some minutes it starts to goes down, and down and down. And anyway when the laptop crashes the fps could be also to 60. I know that could be a video card problem or a cpu problem or a memory problem..but I can't realize how only while I play defcon I have this problem. How is possible????

[bert_the_turtle]

Defcon is CPU intensive and uses parts of it not often used in other software: It operates on double precision floating point numbers.

If you want to rule out GPU problems, have you tried running stress tests there for a longer period of time? Furmark is what is usually used.

[Zorotama]

I don't know if I used it correctly but I tryed to doa test with my resolution (1440x900) and this is the final summary..



I smell something strange..

[bert_the_turtle]

It's meant to be that low FPS, I think. What you're supposed to do is let it run for a while to see if your GPU heats up too much.

[Zorotama]

It's meant to be that low FPS, I think. What you're supposed to do is let it run for a while to see if your GPU heats up too much.

I did it many tests with different settings..I had different results..the highest is over 300..but the last hard test ended with a crash (and the software never gaves me the gpu temperature).

Honestly I don't know what to do. I can obviously accept that my laptop can't run defcon, but I'd like to know why. My laptop is not a powerfull one but damn, I can run many games....why not defcon??

Oh, I forgot to tell you that I have a dual boot system (Vista and debian) and I can't play neither on linux...rarely I can save the system quitting the x server but often I have to force the reboot.

[bert_the_turtle]

That all sounds like it's the GPU giving you trouble, especially the X crash. GPU malfunctions do that, while CPU problems usually take the whole system down.

It's only DEFCON because it's special. As already mentioned, the CPU is stressed with double precision calculations, and the GPU has to deal with it using 'immediate mode' calls for most of the work, which is rarely used nowadays; it gets send lots of small tasks to do, whereas typical games send few big tasks to keep overhead low.

[Zorotama]

That all sounds like it's the GPU giving you trouble, especially the X crash. GPU malfunctions do that, while CPU problems usually take the whole system down.

It's only DEFCON because it's special. As already mentioned, the CPU is stressed with double precision calculations, and the GPU has to deal with it using 'immediate mode' calls for most of the work, which is rarely used nowadays; it gets send lots of small tasks to do, whereas typical games send few big tasks to keep overhead low.

Thanks Bert...I think you right. I lost my hopes