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    My Vostro 1500's bottleneck?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by ORLY, Jun 15, 2008.

  1. ORLY

    ORLY Notebook Consultant

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    Specs in sig. I was wondering what is holding this puppy back, mostly with gaming. I can run CoD4 medium/high pretty smooth, but still get a bit laggy during multiplayer. Running 175.12 drivers. I was wondering what the next component to upgrade would be if I wanted smoother performance, and also maybe see a slight boost when not gaming.
    Thanks in advance.
     
    ORLY, Jun 15, 2008
    #1
  2. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    GPU is your gaming bottleneck, add RAM it should help a little with everything.
     
    powerpack, Jun 15, 2008
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  3. The_Observer

    The_Observer 9262 is the best:)

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    +1 to GPU.
     
    The_Observer, Jun 15, 2008
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  4. Nirvana

    Nirvana Notebook Prophet

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    pretty clear you need to upgrade your internet speed lol. maybe 20MB/s?
     
    Nirvana, Jun 15, 2008
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  5. pukemon

    pukemon are you unplugged?

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    maybe downgrading to xp?
     
    pukemon, Jun 15, 2008
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  6. ORLY

    ORLY Notebook Consultant

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    Don't play online, just LAN. So would upgrading CPU not make a very noticable difference?
     
    ORLY, Jun 16, 2008
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  7. Jstn7477

    Jstn7477 Sam I Am

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    Upgrading the CPU would only speed up regular Windows activities, not gaming because the GPU does all of the rendering work. If you want some better Windows performance though, you can upgrade your CPU. The T9300 is a great option for that, because it is 500MHz faster than your current one and has 3X the cache. It will speed up general Vista performance but again, it won't help your game run any faster, except maybe the level loading times.

    -J.B.

    -J.B.
     
    Jstn7477, Jun 16, 2008
    #7
  8. CeeNote

    CeeNote Notebook Virtuoso

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    I suggest to upgrade to 3 gigs of ram and if you feel like it, overclock the gpu.
     
    CeeNote, Jun 16, 2008
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  9. ORLY

    ORLY Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks for the CPU info. Would it be better to get 4GB of RAM for the dual channel, or would 3 be sufficient? I also read somewhere that one of the RAM slots in the 1500 is under the keyboard, which would make 3GB more appealing.
    I considered overclocking, but didn't think that I would want to risk melting some part of my lappie for a small FPS gain unless someone can assure me that the risk is very small and there is a noticable gain in FPS. (any takers?)
     
    ORLY, Jun 16, 2008
    #9
  10. Meetloaf13

    Meetloaf13 fear the MONKEY!!!

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    An OC on the GPU will help your performance...the 8600 is pretty OC friendly and there are countless threads on it.

    Good luck!
     
    Meetloaf13, Jun 16, 2008
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  11. CeeNote

    CeeNote Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yeah there are lots of people on this board who have successfully oc'ed their 8600m gt in the vostro 1500/ inspiron 1520. I think there's even a guide telling you how to do it floating around here somewhere.

    EDIT: There's really no point in getting >3gigs of ram since the os can only use 3.
     
    CeeNote, Jun 16, 2008
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  12. Tusin

    Tusin Notebook Evangelist

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    First try OC'ing the GPU (really easy to do, but a good FPS increase). Also I really do think the T7250 is not a "good" CPU. I have one, not happy with it. If you are looking to Upgrade the CPU, the T8300 or T9300 are both good choices. Also you will see lower temps due to them being Penryns.
     
    Tusin, Jun 16, 2008
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  13. Just Lou

    Just Lou Notebook Evangelist

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    Your CPU is good enough. As other's have mentioned, your GPU is very overclockable. Adding another 1GB of RAM won't hurt either.
     
    Just Lou, Jun 16, 2008
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