BIG PROBLEM - Morrowind lags

[Dirgean]

hey all, i have a problem with my morrowind gameplay.First of all i have an emachines e625 laptop with windows 7 64 BIT OS(in spanish) 3 gb ram amd athlon tf-20. THE PROBLEM i have is that morrowind lags all the time, i usually get 20 fps, sometimes i get like 50-60 fps but rarely. WHAT COULD THE PROBLEM BE?? I HOPE ANYBODY COULD HELP ME. THX:|

[Spiney]

20FPS? What are you complaining about?

[Dirgean]

and you think thats much? it could be better. any suggestions what could i do?

[MARS]

Hard to believe that the game actually lags.
Anyhow, what's your resolution? Playing at a slightly lower resolution can help.

[Dirgean]

my resolution is 800X600, but it doesnt lag all the time, i comes in waves and it can be pretty annoying

[MARS]

Hmmm...that's a pretty low resolution. You've got enough RAM but I googled your processor and it's pretty slow. I reckon that's your problem.

[Vivec's Tears]

Have you tried toning down the graphics a bit? My system is a pretty good one, and it still lags playing games sometimes if on high graphic levels.

[Dirgean]

OK, THX all of you for helping me out with this. Could tuneup utilities be a factor in this problem, should i uninstall it? GIve me some suggestions to try and fix the problem. Thx again

[Dirgean]

what should i do to tone down the graphics?

[Vivec's Tears]

Go into the options tab under the game menu. Lower the sliders under the video section, such as distance rendered, etc. They don't need to be -too- low, just lower than what you have currently.

[Spiney]

and you think thats much? it could be better. any suggestions what could i do?

I can live off 20. It's a pretty average frame-rate. Especially for Morrowind as it doesn't have any LoD.

[Dirgean]

i dont have this problem only with morrowind, i have it when i play other games too. What do you think about tuneup utilities regarding the lag?

[Andere]

In case your e625 refers to Acer laptop, you probably have an ATI RadeonTM XPress1200 video card, shared, which is very bad for games. Your CPU should make the game, but your video card doesn't - it was never meant to do it. Goes for other games too...

You could try Game Booster, http://game-booster.en.softonic.com/. It shuts down unnecessary programs, freeing capacity for the game. Quite a few members here have recommended it, saying it has given increased FPS.

But finally, you know, you need the right tool for everything: wanna game, get yourself the proper vehicle.

[Dirgean]

Thanks a lot, i have downloaded the Game Booster and i`ll try it and tell you if i get any improvements.

[OblivionDuruza]

A lot has already been covered, but running a defrag could improve overall performance. I would say Andere is on the money with his hypotheses though.

[Dagoth Ur]

Cry me a river.

I play morrowind on my trusty IBM R40. P4m 2ghz, 768mb RAM and mobility Radeon 7500 (32mb)... and that's with a resolution of 1400x1050.

But the following suggestions seems to work for most people.

1. Google and download the "FPS optimizer" mod.
2. Tweak the .INI file. There are several guides on how to do this, here's an example: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/316/t ... index.html

Good luck, and remember that there are those who are worse off!

[Dirgean]

Thanks a lot and i`ve downloaded the fps optimizer. things should be better now.

[Dirgean]

thank you everyone for your help, i can finally play morrowind at a good framerate (60), once again thanks a lot you`ve been a great help, all of you.

[Dirgean]

i have another problem now:when i check the multi-mark mod in fps optimizer and in game when i use the ¨Mark¨ spell i get an error and the game exits to desktop. What can i do?

[Milder Despues]

From what I've heard of the FPS optimizer, you should be getting version 1.96. Version 2.0,the one with multi mark, is extremely buggy. Maybe download optimizer version 1.96 and a separate mod for multi mark?

[Dirgean]

yeah thx the mod works but i still have the lagging problem. at the moment im running the game with the lowest resolution 640X something... what other suggestions do you have( i have the game booster and fps optimizer)

[Milder Despues]

@Scozzar: http://www.lapspecs.com/wiki/acer+emachines+e625

According to some benchmarks and people, resolution doesn't really matter when playing Morrowind. You could try upping it and see if it actually makes any real difference. In my experience shadows are the biggest hit, so turn those off completely if you haven't already. Also set AI distance to close and maybe turn off the music.

I think that game booster does this already, but shut down all the other programs when running the game. I also second this:

2. Tweak the .INI file. There are several guides on how to do this,

While it haven't exactly worked miracles for me personally, some people have reported substantial increases in fps. I put a small guide from the official forums in the spoiler tag:

Spoiler:

Modify the morrowind.ini file. This file is usually located in C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind

1. Backup your existing copy to another folder such as My Documents.
2. Double click the file to open in Notepad.
3. Change Max FPS=240 to your monitor refresh rate when running the game. 60 is a good setting if you are not sure. I have found the best way to find this is to load a game in Morrowind, then press whatever option buttons are available on the front of your monitor. There will usually be a number listed in kHz and Hz. The number in Hz is the one you want.
4. Change DontThreadLoad=0 to DontThreadLoad=1
5. Change Interior Cell Buffer and Exterior Cell Buffer. Experiment with values of 32 (such 8 and 16, 32 and 64, 64 and 128, etc.) keeping the lower number in the Interior Cell Buffer. Higher values use more RAM and allow more cells to load into memory. I find it best to base this number off your RAM, but not the FULL amount. Put half the amount of RAM into the Exterior cell, and another half of that into Interior cell. For instance, if you have 512 MB of RAM, put 256 in Exterior and 128 in Interior.

The last thing I can think of is changing the direct3d settings of your grapgics chipset as that is the only mode that Morrowind can be run in. However, I have no idea of how to do it in windows 7 or with your particular chipset (or whether it's possible at all?).

[Dirgean]

so what should i do?

[Dirgean]

by desktop you mean PC. and how do i do that stuff with the ram? explain please

[Samaelthedestroyer]

If you really want to maximize your fps then i suggest gamebooster, but i see nothing wrong with 20 fps