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RGray02 · Nov 7, 2003, 09:19 PM

I dropped the extra cash so that I could play this game on the powerbook, now its not playing nice.

I have a stock 1ghz aluminum powerbook, meaning I have 256mb ram, and I am getting jerky, real jerky, performance out of my powerbook. The mouse jumps all over the place, and I have to turn the effects and resolution way down to get any semblance of smoothness from the machine.

I ordered a stick of 512mb ram, but I am wondering if that is really the problem. Will boosting the memory from 256 to 768 help increase my framerates?

I ran warcraft frozen throne with no other apps open, cold boot resolution was the 867xsomethng, all effects turned to minimum (which is not acceptable).

CrackedButter · Nov 8, 2003, 09:00 AM

I have this game on a 1.25Ghz PowerBook and its runs like a dream. But i have 512megs of RAM.

I think you just need more RAM, i even ran the game with the processor reduced and with max details and it ran fine.

anaphora68 · Nov 8, 2003, 10:17 AM

Hmmm, that's odd. I have a stock 15 inch Albook and Warcraft III runs perfectly. Make sure you've turned up the system performance in your energy saver settings.

More RAM is key though, I'm ordering a 512 stick as soon as all of these Panther/memory issues are worked out.

RGray02 · Nov 8, 2003, 01:30 PM

You have a stock 1Ghz Albook?

I attached a Kensington mouse too, which is really screwing things up more. The mouse isnt sensitive at all, no matter how I fiddle with the settings in the preferences. I even installed their driver which is useless.

Another thing I should note is that my XBench scores dropped from 93 to 79 with Panther installed. I dont think it has any relevance (the computer feels faster overall), but perhaps a driver or something didnt install properly or some setting is off. My powerbook shipped with 10.2.7, which I software updated to 10.2.8, and I installed Panther.

What are your settings? Im not surprised the 1.25 is doing alright (you have more ram and processor!), I just didnt think with a radeon and 1ghz Id be doing that bad. I played this game before on a 1Ghz pentium 3 with 380megs of ram and a Radeon 8500 just fine (not minimal effects either).

Ive ordered a 512 stick from crucial, Ill update if it improves (or doesnt improve) my performance. Im just worried that it wont help.

Im wondering if I can trade in for a 1.25 now, I bought this one on the 11th of october....

stotan · Nov 8, 2003, 02:52 PM

Originally posted by RGray02:
You have a stock 1Ghz Albook?
I attached a Kensington mouse too, which is really screwing things up more. The mouse isnt sensitive at all, no matter how I fiddle with the settings in the preferences. I even installed their driver which is useless.

I have the same problem with my external mouse, its not sensitive enough... I have the same problem with the mouse in all applications and just on the desktop too

Ive ordered a 512 stick from crucial, Ill update if it improves (or doesnt improve) my performance. Im just worried that it wont help.

I think 512 meg of ram will do the trick
I have the 1ghz 12inch powerbook with 768 mb ram and it runs perfectly with the highest settings (but with 1024x768 res)

anaphora68 · Nov 8, 2003, 04:07 PM

I'm getting XBench scores consistently around 100 with my 15 inch 1GHz and 256 MB.

The system is fully stock at this point, I'm going to upgrade the RAM when my financial situation gets a bit better.

brapper · Nov 8, 2003, 05:00 PM

Originally posted by RGray02:
You have a stock 1Ghz Albook?

I attached a Kensington mouse too, which is really screwing things up more. The mouse isnt sensitive at all, no matter how I fiddle with the settings in the preferences. I even installed their driver which is useless.

Another thing I should note is that my XBench scores dropped from 93 to 79 with Panther installed. I dont think it has any relevance (the computer feels faster overall), but perhaps a driver or something didnt install properly or some setting is off. My powerbook shipped with 10.2.7, which I software updated to 10.2.8, and I installed Panther.

What are your settings? Im not surprised the 1.25 is doing alright (you have more ram and processor!), I just didnt think with a radeon and 1ghz Id be doing that bad. I played this game before on a 1Ghz pentium 3 with 380megs of ram and a Radeon 8500 just fine (not minimal effects either).

Ive ordered a 512 stick from crucial, Ill update if it improves (or doesnt improve) my performance. Im just worried that it wont help.

Im wondering if I can trade in for a 1.25 now, I bought this one on the 11th of october....

I'm running it well on a tibook 667 w/ 768mb...

Luca Rescigno · Nov 8, 2003, 06:36 PM

In response to the mouse sensitivity problems, I'd suggest checking both your system preferences and the settings within the game. When I had a Kensington mouse, I noticed that whenever the computer went to sleep or whenever the mouse was unplugged, the tracking speed got seriously messed up. It took a lot of fiddling with the preferences to get it working right every time I woke the computer.

As far as performance issues, I'd say first add more RAM, and then... I don't really know. Performance isn't so hot on my GHz eMac with 640 MB of RAM, and I have a hard time believing that it runs "like a dream" on the only slightly faster 1.25 GHz PowerBook.

Zemrec · Nov 8, 2003, 06:44 PM

Hmm. I just got a brand new PBG4 1.25 GHz/512 MB DDR. Warcraft III works great. The only issues I found are:

1) In order to play on my 19" flat panel, I have to enable video mirroring (no big deal, Quake III needs it too, so I guess games don't like spanning.)

2) I ran it at 1152x864 since the game tries too high a refresh rate at 1280x1024 for the external monitor. It works at this res, but I can't scroll down with the mouse! Only left/right and up. Strange.

HsuJA · Nov 8, 2003, 08:42 PM

hi I got the same pb15 but with 512mb ram (256 from crucial). I run everything at max and it runs perfectly. just wait for your ram.

Big Mac · Nov 9, 2003, 03:43 AM

(For future reference, issues dealing with specific software go in the software forum(s).) The amount of RAM you have in your system makes a huge difference. My memory went bad a couple of weeks ago, and while I was waiting for a replacement 256MB module, things were far slower.

RGray02 · Nov 13, 2003, 08:55 PM

whoops, sorry about that. I figured this was a powerbook question.

In any case, I got my ram. Still a bit jerky. I have a feeling that its my harddrive that slowing it down this time around, since disk access is when it pauses.

Ive only played some campaign so far, but I didnt get the performance improvement that I thought I was.

I got a Crucial 512 MB stick, I dont know what the settings are (i.e. CL2 etc.).

However, the rest of the system seems to have speeded up a bit.

LfGrdMike · Nov 13, 2003, 10:17 PM

Ya you need more ram it runs great on my 12

Crusoe · Nov 14, 2003, 09:02 AM

I was playing EQ on mine with 256 and it was quite jerky, after bumping to 768 (which was the plan from the gitgo) smooth as cutting butter with a hot knife with everything maxed.

LfGrdMike · Nov 14, 2003, 01:42 PM

256 RAM is just not enough buy as much as you can afford. I would suggest at least 512 but more is better. Also if you get as much now you wont need to upgrade for a longer period of time.

RGray02 · Nov 14, 2003, 02:12 PM

I did get the ram, a 512 MB crucial stick, I installed it too. It didnt have the perceived effect I thought it would.

I have to admit its a lot better than before, but I still drop frames, I guess I was expecting a completely smooth experience.

Im running with near minimal effects. Maybe its my computer?

LfGrdMike · Nov 14, 2003, 10:48 PM

I don't know what to tell you that should help a lot. Make sure you dont play games while on battery. Furthermore make sure your not on reduced processor performance.

RGray02 · Nov 17, 2003, 01:48 PM

well, I managed to get it working pretty good. Though I have everything except textures and model detail set to low. Running at 867. Seems to be running well, as I havent had slowdown in a while.

Im wondering what res are you guys running at? Can I jack this to native res at 1200 or so? I only have the 1ghz, so Im not sure.

jpyrett · Nov 17, 2003, 02:54 PM

Did you install all the OSX patches on www.blizzard.net?