A video card issue, maybe?

[Formaldehyde83]

Spore runs fine for a moment, and then slows down for no apparent reason....

So, the game thinks I should have the settings on medium, I'm running a HP Pavilion dv2740se Notebook, with 2.4 ghz Duo Core processor, 4 gigs of RAM, and a NVIDIA Geforce Go MCP67M on a Vista PC. I have to crank all of the settings down to low, and I had to turn my resolution down to 1024x768 in order to get it running smoothly. It seems like my computer should be able to handle more than that (and yes, I have the latest drivers). But what's worse, is even after lowering every setting to nothing, the game runs smoothly for a few minutes, and for no apparent reason it slows down dramatically, making it a pain in the *** to keep playing. What's weird is the slowdown has nothing to do with there being a lot of activity on screen, it just suddenly decides it's going to go from 40-50 FPS, down to 10-20 FPS, and then I have to restart the game to get another 3-5 minutes of good framerates. I even tried using the task manager to end a buttload of processes to see if that helps, which was very little.

I considered that maybe it's possible to dedicate some of my RAM to Video memory? Other than that, I have no clue.

Any ideas anyone?

[XaviAce]

Originally Posted by Formaldehyde83

Spore runs fine for a moment, and then slows down for no apparent reason....

So, the game thinks I should have the settings on medium, I'm running a HP Pavilion dv2740se Notebook, with 2.4 ghz Duo Core processor, 4 gigs of RAM, and a NVIDIA Geforce Go MCP67M on a Vista PC. I have to crank all of the settings down to low, and I had to turn my resolution down to 1024x768 in order to get it running smoothly. It seems like my computer should be able to handle more than that (and yes, I have the latest drivers). But what's worse, is even after lowering every setting to nothing, the game runs smoothly for a few minutes, and for no apparent reason it slows down dramatically, making it a pain in the *** to keep playing. What's weird is the slowdown has nothing to do with there being a lot of activity on screen, it just suddenly decides it's going to go from 40-50 FPS, down to 10-20 FPS, and then I have to restart the game to get another 3-5 minutes of good framerates. I even tried using the task manager to end a buttload of processes to see if that helps, which was very little.

I considered that maybe it's possible to dedicate some of my RAM to Video memory? Other than that, I have no clue.

Any ideas anyone?

Dude with specs like these, you NEVER need to run on low detail. But maybe you should check your computer Commit charge as you play. Some network or performance-dependent programs (i.e internet browsers) tend to have unusual peaks in memory usage over long periods of time. If this is not the case, then maybe you should check to see how compatible your video card is with the game.

[ShashiJapan4]

From another forum about your video card:

Honestly, I couldnt even get WoW to play with anything above 20 FPS in the city, with everything on LOW and in a window. Its not bad for an integrated card but just cant handle games well at all. Also the 1Gb of Memory is useless as I believe the card has a 64 or even a 32 bit interface and there is no way the card can even utilize that much memory. Maybe 64mb at the most.

I assume it's on a laptop... So, uh... Yeah... Have fun with that.

[Triket]

Yeah, it deffinatly seems like a graphics card issue. I can run spore on full settings and a 1440x900 resolution with these specs:

3.2Ghz processor X 2 (dual core)
1GB ram
ATI X1650 graphics card.

I would update the gfx card if your on desktop.

[Cameron]

Spore is known too have a LOT of problems, check out the Spore forums at EA.com to find out if your problem is on the list of problems and how to fix it. My Spore has issues with me too.

[almostmullen05]

i suggest your running wireless huh thats probavbly the problem wireless is not near as fast as hardwired for one second is your laptop connected to a router or with an internet card like say from verizon plz tell me and i can help you out

[Triket]

Originally Posted by almostmullen05

i suggest your running wireless huh thats probavbly the problem wireless is not near as fast as hardwired for one second is your laptop connected to a router or with an internet card like say from verizon plz tell me and i can help you out

He has an issue with the game, not the internet connection >.>
Also just for note, wireless is faster.

[Soviet]

Originally Posted by Formaldehyde83

Spore runs fine for a moment, and then slows down for no apparent reason....

So, the game thinks I should have the settings on medium, I'm running a HP Pavilion dv2740se Notebook, with 2.4 ghz Duo Core processor, 4 gigs of RAM, and a NVIDIA Geforce Go MCP67M on a Vista PC. I have to crank all of the settings down to low, and I had to turn my resolution down to 1024x768 in order to get it running smoothly. It seems like my computer should be able to handle more than that (and yes, I have the latest drivers). But what's worse, is even after lowering every setting to nothing, the game runs smoothly for a few minutes, and for no apparent reason it slows down dramatically, making it a pain in the *** to keep playing. What's weird is the slowdown has nothing to do with there being a lot of activity on screen, it just suddenly decides it's going to go from 40-50 FPS, down to 10-20 FPS, and then I have to restart the game to get another 3-5 minutes of good framerates. I even tried using the task manager to end a buttload of processes to see if that helps, which was very little.

I considered that maybe it's possible to dedicate some of my RAM to Video memory? Other than that, I have no clue.

Any ideas anyone?

A NVIDIA Geforce Go MCP67M is essentially a GeForce 7150M, which is pretty much the lowest of the low nvidia cards you can get. Coupled with the fact that it has no integrated memory, it will run very slow and not be able to handle a lot of data / high resolutions. Your laptop is very clearly not meant to be for gaming, so keep this in mind.

Originally Posted by XaviAce

Dude with specs like these, you NEVER need to run on low detail. But maybe you should check your computer Commit charge as you play. Some network or performance-dependent programs (i.e internet browsers) tend to have unusual peaks in memory usage over long periods of time. If this is not the case, then maybe you should check to see how compatible your video card is with the game.

His specifications aren't all that great... a 2.6GHz Core Duo is over 3 generations old, and the laptop models have notorious heat issues. His videocard is rock bottom, and he won't even be able to take advantage of 4GB of RAM with a 32-bit OS.

Originally Posted by Jamie006

He has an issue with the game, not the internet connection >.>
Also just for note, wireless is faster.

Wired connections are always many times faster than wireless ones. This, coupled with the fact that wireless transmissions are prone to high packet loss, makes gaming over a wireless connection unideal.

[ShashiJapan4]

Soviet wins.

I had already(somewhat) explained that the video card wasn't ideal but no one listened. ._. ... Probably because it was a short, lazy reply. Either way, Soviet explained it all.

[AGU003]

check out gpuz to see more info
google that and dl the program