I have a Toshiba Satellite A215 laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit. Specs are as follows:

Memory: 2GB DDR2
CPU: AMD Turion 64 X2 1.9Ghz, Dual-Core (TK-57)
Video: I think it's an ATi Radeon x1200

What happens when I play any 3d game or program (including emulators for 3D consoles) is this: The game will run smoothly at 30 FPS or however fast it usually runs, for about 5 seconds. Then it'll slow down to 4-5 FPS for around 10 seconds. Then it'll go back to being smooth for about 5 seconds, and so on indefinitely. It has nothing to do with rendering complexity since the scene can stay exactly the same and it'll still switch back and forth between smooth and choppy. The timing is the same, even in different programs (~5 seconds smooth, ~10 seconds choppy).

I know the video card isn't all that great, but that's not my concern. Obviously it's capable of running these games fine since it runs perfectly fine for that 5 seconds. Anyone know what's causing this, and how to fix it?

Oh, and all of my settings in the ATi Catalyst control panel are at minimum.

Hello Tony! Welcome back to the forum!

I have marked your thread as open to gain a techs opinion on the matter

Someone will be with you shortly!

Regards,

Smokeycheech

Well I know as much about gpu's as I do the back end of the moon but from what I read on the net people seem to think that's one poor gpu.

The avid gamers will tell you if it's any good or not.

Have a read of this in the meantime.

Is ATI Radeon X1200 any good? - Yahoo! Answers

Okay, here's a little bit more info. It also happens with 2D Flash games, and during the "slow" cycle, input is extremely laggy, up to 3 or 4 seconds of lag between pressing a key and having the game respond. Then once it goes into a "fast" cycle, the game suddenly catches up with all of the lagged up input all at once.

And yeah, I know the specs aren't great, but I don't use my laptop for anything heavy really, and I don't plan to. I do all of my gaming on my desktop. It's just that when I DO play the occasional Flash game or something 3D, it'd be nice to work this kink out. I don't have any plans on upgrading the hardware in this laptop, so if an upgrade is the only option I guess I can live with the lag.

Hello Tony

Has the assistance provided at PC Help Forum assisted you in remedying your issue yet?

An update would be most appreciated.

Thank you.

Marked as Pending