freddark Posted September 4, 2015 Posted September 4, 2015 I run Skyrim on low setting on an i5 quad core laptop with 4GB ram and the Intel HD4000 graphics card. I have ICBINE2 and HiAlgo Boost installed and have been getting 14-15 FPS in Whiterun in daytime. Out of the blue I checked to see if there was an update to the video card driver, which I haven't updated since I got the computer 3 years ago. Sure enough, the latest update is from June 2015 and after I installed it I notice a 4-5 FPS increase, loading and saving times are shorter and the cooling fan doesn't turn on so often. This is as close to a free lunch as you can get! Veteran gamers are probably very diligent in keeping their hardware up-to-date but in case you are like me, you have been reminded.
NickNozownik Posted September 4, 2015 Posted September 4, 2015 Same here. HP laptop with 4GB of ram, i5 2430M, Radeon HD6400M and Windows 7. Updating video drivers didn't make a noticable difference, but it's always a good idea to update them. Heavily modded Skyrim on the highest settings was OK as long as I didn't use any 2k textures or other graphical improvements. Disabling most of the useless services running in the background did make a big difference and a massive FPS gain. According to the Task Manager I have 34-35 processes running in the background (this includes the Task Manager itself) compared to previous 50 or 60+. It's still too crappy for a decent ENB, but it runs way more smoothly with 2k textures on pretty much everything, around 180-200 mods and OBIS with 3x more bandit spawns. AA is disabled and that's it. The downside is that you will need to check on the internet what every service does if you are not sure whether you should disable it or not, and of course backup your registry before doing any changes. Yeah, you'll need to mess with it if you want to permanently disable Windows Update or Cryptographic(?) Services. It can be time consuming, but the difference is definitely noticable.
gregathit Posted September 4, 2015 Posted September 4, 2015 I ONLY update my video drivers when I MUST. If you are not having issues, then it is NOT recommended to fuck with things. I've seen NUMEROUS driver updates that fried video cards, were not optimized worth a shit (as opposed to the previous one) and loads of other issues. Nvidia and AMD are equally retarded about this. What IS a good idea is to research and make a backup BEFORE blindly doing anything to your computer. Know what make and manufacturer your hardware is from and ALWAYS try to get the drivers DIRECTLY from them (some offer them and some don't - EVGA does for example). Going to Nvidia.com and grabbing the latest driver set for your card can be HUGE mistake. Been there, fried my card and had to get a replacement (manufacturer replaced it for free - but my computer was down a month while I waited for them to mail me the new card). All because they fucked up the driver set. The old rule of thumb still applies, if it isn't broke, don't fix it.
Ghoulz Posted September 4, 2015 Posted September 4, 2015 I ONLY update my video drivers when I MUST. If you are not having issues, then it is NOT recommended to fuck with things. I've seen NUMEROUS driver updates that fried video cards, were not optimized worth a shit (as opposed to the previous one) and loads of other issues. Nvidia and AMD are equally retarded about this. What IS a good idea is to research and make a backup BEFORE blindly doing anything to your computer. Know what make and manufacturer your hardware is from and ALWAYS try to get the drivers DIRECTLY from them (some offer them and some don't - EVGA does for example). Going to Nvidia.com and grabbing the latest driver set for your card can be HUGE mistake. Been there, fried my card and had to get a replacement (manufacturer replaced it for free - but my computer was down a month while I waited for them to mail me the new card). All because they fucked up the driver set. The old rule of thumb still applies, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Heh, still have same driver from 3 years ago. All the games I play have been running/look normal so I never saw the need to ever update it. Though I can't use newer ENB binaries for skyrim, but satisfied with the old fossil ones.
gvman3670 Posted September 4, 2015 Posted September 4, 2015 There are some other tweaks for laptops as well. Like setting Win7 for performance mode, running a texture optimizer, using ReadyBoost and so on.
bjornk Posted September 4, 2015 Posted September 4, 2015 Veteran gamers are probably very diligent in keeping their hardware up-to-date Not really, but... Veteran gamers don't attempt to fix something if it isn't broken. They know that "newer" doesn't always mean "better". Veteran gamers would rather spend what little time they have playing games, instead of trying out new drivers or software and deal with the problems they might cause.
Rokabur Posted September 4, 2015 Posted September 4, 2015 I ONLY update my video drivers when I MUST. If you are not having issues, then it is NOT recommended to fuck with things. I've seen NUMEROUS driver updates that fried video cards, were not optimized worth a shit (as opposed to the previous one) and loads of other issues. Nvidia and AMD are equally retarded about this. What IS a good idea is to research and make a backup BEFORE blindly doing anything to your computer. Know what make and manufacturer your hardware is from and ALWAYS try to get the drivers DIRECTLY from them (some offer them and some don't - EVGA does for example). Going to Nvidia.com and grabbing the latest driver set for your card can be HUGE mistake. Been there, fried my card and had to get a replacement (manufacturer replaced it for free - but my computer was down a month while I waited for them to mail me the new card). All because they fucked up the driver set. The old rule of thumb still applies, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Latest NVIDIA driver for GTX 750 fucked with my installer driver. Was using version 355.60, update was 355.82, the update failed to install and corrupted version 355.60, in order to get any drivers installed, I had to go to msconfig, set NVIDIA services to not start on startup, uninstall everything NVIDIA, then my desktop installed version 352.62 from middle of June 2015. If I try to install any drivers, including the one I was using, it automatically fails on installing graphics driver and have to go through everything again to get 352.62. This is also least the second time, even possib;y the third time, this has happened in 13 months.
Loquisha Posted September 4, 2015 Posted September 4, 2015 Veteran gamers are probably very diligent in keeping their hardware up-to-date Not really, but... Veteran gamers don't attempt to fix something if it isn't broken. They know that "newer" doesn't always mean "better". Veteran gamers would rather spend what little time they have playing games, instead of trying out new drivers or software and deal with the problems they might cause. Amen! That u wrote there is totaly true.
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