Hi everybody...

Well, I have HP dv9700t notebook with Intel core 2 duo T9300 (2.5 GHz), 3 gigas of RAM and Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS with 512 MB... when running Red Alert 2 on the medium resolution (800*600), the game slows down if the screen is loaded with units or if an explosion happens, then it goes back to normal.

I read some information about this on the internet, some say that the solution is to disable the DirectDraw Acceleration in DirectX, but under Vista with DirectX 10, it is impossible to disable it in the dxdiag.Other say that you need to right click on the Desktop, then choose Personalize, then Display Settings, then Advanced Settings, then Troubleshoot, the click on Change Settings to set the Hardware Acceleration to a lower value, but the Change Settings button is disabled for me, and it is written: Your current display driver does not allow changes to be made to Hardware Acceleration settings. I tried several drivers (174.32 which is supported by HP website, and 167.43 which is supported by laptopvideo2go) but none worked!

Anyone can help please?

Thanks in advance

8600M isn't the best card for games, but it should be able to play it at that resolution. what drivers are you using?

I have that game - I believe it is CPU bound, not GPU bound (no 3D - it's a 2D game).

Are you running this on battery mode or AC mode?

Thanks guys for your reply...
well, i am using the latest driver from hp website (174.32), i tried the older one from hp website, and some other drivers from laptopvideo2go website, older and newer ones, but all the same!!
And i am running all this on AC mode, i also tried the battery, still the same problem with lagging!

Probably a Vista issue. Much lower hardware could run that at much higher resolutions.

Solution here

http://forums.cncden.com/showthread.php?t=24820


read,,,,,

Yes, a modern laptop should have no problems running that game (If he did in fact mean Red Alert 2 and not Red Alert 3). It used to run okay on a P3 500mhz with a geforce 2.

I'd take a look at anthony_g4i's link.

Its definitely a vista issue, since i have a desktop with 2.6 GHz dual core, 2 GB of ram and 9500GT but for some reason starcraft lags on it.