Performance Lagging, How To Speed It Up?

[Maronan]

I'm having some severe frame rate issues. HL2 itself isn't bad (only a few areas are unplayable and only from certain vantage points), but the Lost Coast "stress test" reported an average rate of 16 fps.

I'm using the same computer I've always used and nothing's changed, but the performance has dropped significantly. Aside from the frame rate issues, I've noticed that NPCs have started stuttering again, a problem that had vanished back when I updated the video drivers.

So, how do I restore my orange box performance to its previous status? Or potentially improve it? Unfortunately, upgrading the video card is not possible; I have a Macbook so there's no way to change the video card short of getting a new computer. Apparently, the new Macbooks have a decent NVIDIA graphics card instead of the generic Intel garbage, but I can't afford the expense of buying equipment specifically for games and the old one is still fine for work.

 

[Warped]

get rid of some programs you've downloaded, check for background programs that shouldn't be running for example ituneshelper. there are plenty of websites that will tell you what is running that can be turned off. Defrag, and clean up all lingering files you aren't using. then last but not least check and make sure the latest video card drivers aren't slowing you down. its possible that the old drivers work better in your situation

 

[Maronan]

Hm, I haven't downloaded any programs and the latest video card driver I downloaded was the one that fixed the stuttering bug and sped everything up. The game files themselves don't seem to have any fragmentation and I doubt I have any files I'm not using that can be deleted.

I'm still at a loss, considering that I haven't connected this computer to the internet in quite some time. I guess I'll try to find what background processes I can turn off?

 

[Warped]

you can also try overclocking or setting affinity or whatever its called but thats risky and should be your last move if any

 

[No Limit]

Make sure you don't have any viruses. Malware bytes is a pretty good program for detecting things but it wont detect everything.

If viruses are not the issue heat probably is. The more time that passes the more dust buids up in your video card and cpu heatsinks. Eventually it gets to the point where it blocks all air flow. As the temperature goes up the performance gets worse. There are numerous programs out there for finding the temperature of your CPU and video card.

 

[Tyguy]

^ this would be my guess

i had the same problem a while back and as soon as I dusted my rig out i got a 20 fps increase. ever since then I've been treating my pc like it's my child, occasionally beating it and engaging in verbal abuse.

 

[No Limit]

A simple dusting won't always do much for you. You actually have to take off whatever is covering the heatsink and pull the clumps of dust out of there. A can of air won't do anything to it. The type of cover your heatsink has and how to remove it will depend on your cpu type and your video card type.

 

[Maronan]

I highly doubt I have any malware; again, this computer has not been connected to the internet while running Windows for quite some time. Dust is the far more likely explanation. This computer has taken quite a beating over the two years I've had it and I haven't always been able to secure the cleanest accommodations for it. I'll see if its performance increases after a decent cleaning. If necessary, I'll ask someone more competent than me to open it up and handle the cleaning.