Help! Windows XP video tweaks to run video game.

[FlashHarry]

Ok, so I bought GTA Vice City last week. I'm running it on my laptop (not the best platform, I know) and viewing it on my TV. I've set the video memory to 32MB (max), the color to 16MB and the screen resolution to 800x600 (full-screen on TV)––per manufacturer suggestions. I've also gone back to the 'Windows Classic' GUI and turned off the clear type fonts.

I've got a newer HP laptop with 256MB of RAM and a 1.2 GHz Celeron processor. (I know a P4 would have been better, but this baby was cheap!)

The game works great for about half an hour or so--sometimes longer, then the background starts to smear and stutter. Sometimes simply minimizing it and bringing it up again will restore the video performance, but I'd like to do better.

Are there any other tweaks I can do to free up resources and increase performance? Would buying extra RAM help, or is it more of a case of processor type/speed and video card?

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Kellanved]

1. Don't know about Vice City

But it sounds like a memory leak. If so more memory would let you play fluently for a longer time.

Playing a converted PS2 game on a PC with a TV as monitor sounds interesting to me.

[FlashHarry]

2. Is there a way to 'scrub' memory and recover it?

I used to have a thing called MemTurbo that did that, but it won't load on XP.

BTW, what is a 'memory leak?'

[GAspnes]

6. a memory leak is

a problem (bug) in a program. When a program loads into RAM, it may request and release additional chunks of RAM (f'rinstance, to read/sort/display a list of files in a SaveFile dialog box).

The program asks Windows to "allocate me 3 kilobytes of memory".

Windows looks through a list it keeps of RAM not in use, finds a free 3K block, marks it "in use" and returns the address of the RAM to the program.

The bug occurs when the program function completes, but the program fails to signal Windows that the requested memory can be released back into the pool of available blocks. Windows doesn't know *who* requested the memory, so when the program fails to release it, that memory 'leaks' away, remaining marked 'in use' until Windows is restarted.


Your problem *could* be a memory leak, but it's more likely a CPU limitation or a Windows bug.

First thing to try is updating your DirectX drivers (there's a critical security fix up anyway, so this kills two birds with one stone). If that doesn't fix the problem, you can try reducing the number of colors.

Stuttering background sounds like a polygon BLiT list problem (objects accumulating in the list of things to consider displaying). When you close the window and re-open it, the program cleans up the object list. Anything that simplifies the processing requirements should help. Turn off any other background programs (stuff in the system tray -- anti-virus software, calendar alert programs, email program(s)) to free up additional CPU.

Let us know what happens.

[FlashHarry]

9. Wow. Thanks.

I'll give it a whirl when I get home from work tonight...

[Randomthought]

3. TSR's?

Shut down all TSRs those processes that run in the background all the time. Hit control alt delete and bring up the task manager box click on processes tab. Shut down all the unnecessary ones.
Also go to control panel/display/settings/ advanced/ troubleshoot and try different hardware acceleration settings.

[FlashHarry]

4. How do I know which TSRs are necessary?

On Win98, you could shut down all running tasks except for Explorer, rundll32 and Systray.

[Randomthought]

7. mem usage

As someone else said shut down your anti-virus also shutdown the things you know you don't need.
Do one at a time on the ones you don't know; the worst thing that can happen is you have to reboot.
Also XP tells you how much memory each task is using if it's using a tiny amount and you don't know what it is leave it. Look for big memory users that may be starting up as soon as you turn on your computer.

[denverbill]

5. That's my choice too.

I'd especially shut down the anti-virus if that's running.

On my last computer (a 1 gig Athlon) I had McAfee running. I'd play a game (Civ III, Deus Ex, System Shock) and do just fine for a while. But after a while, it would start to slow down, the music would start skipping/repeating, etc, and it would just get worse and worse til it was unplayable and I'd have to reboot. When I shut down McAfee, it ran just fine.

[FlashHarry]

8. Me too

Except, it happens even after I exit McAfee. :-(

(It sounds like I'm trying to play Beethoven's Violin Concerto on a plastic toy fiddle here...)

[leftyandproud]

10. ok

buy more RAM...It's very cheap. I believe you can get a 128MB upgrade for around $50.00 now. Check crucial.com
RAM should definately help--32 MB is probably the minimum required. Also, make sure to run a scandisk and defragment tonight.
Defrag seems to always give me a few extra frames per second on games.

[FlashHarry]

11. Cool.

Actually, I'd have to buy a 256MB upgrade; both my slots have 128s in them already.

[leftyandproud]

12. ALSO

you may want to try "Tweak XP" I believe it has all sorts of nifty features, allowing you to accelerate your CPU, optimize RAM, and optimize the performance of your particular video card. You can probably find the latest shareware version at download.com

hope this helps