Problems with what SHOULD be a decent Graphics card

[Kodauer]

Right now, I have a "Radeon HD 6490M" Graphics card in my laptop. It's a laptop, and probably not the best card on the market, but it does have a gig of video memory which is decent. 

 

However when I play Minecraft (Don't get me started on those epic graphics) I can only play on the "Tiny" Rendering. It really sucks. I can play most Steam games like NTW or TF2 with decent fps on medium graphics, both of which have 10x better graphics than MC. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Something I can do to fix the fps issues I have? If I go even to short rendering my fps drops to about 20, normal to 10. 

 

I have an Intel i7 Processor, along with 8 gigs of Ram. I play MC with the lowest setting available. I try to avoid optifine because it conflicts with World Edit, My favorite mod ever for building stuff. 

 

Help? D:

 

 

[Mathijs1996]

Don't forget that minecraft is a high demanding game.

I know it runs best on nvidia and intel but I don't think your gpu would really slaughter the fps that much.

I'll do some search tomorrow, going to sleep now (Someone will help me before I'll be awake but meh)

[_WhiteThunder_]

Don't forget that minecraft is a high demanding game.

I know it runs best on nvidia and intel but I don't think your gpu would really slaughter the fps that much.

I'll do some search tomorrow, going to sleep now (Someone will help me before I'll be awake but meh)

Minecraft actually doesn't use the graphics card near as much as the CPU Kodauer. Under the surface it still has to render all those blocks, and the CPU does all the calculations for falling blocks, TNT, rendering the world, and much more which doesn't come to mind atm.

Also, an i7 doesn't mean it's better than an i5. The laptop processors are pretty slow in general, so with CPU intensive games like minecraft, arma 2, gmod (one would think) it doesn't do too well. The reason your laptop is better in more graphically intense games like TF2 is because it takes advantage of the gpu. For reference, I went from a 120$ Gtx 550 graphics card to a 400$ Gtx 670, and I didn't notice much fps increase at all IN MINECAFT. It was 5 maybe. In other games such as BF3, there is quite a big change for me. My main income for getting parts is drug dealing, so you might not make as much as me, but if you want better performance you should build a pc. You can get decent frame rates for a 500$ machine.

Also make sure you allow minecraft more ram.

**EDIT** I replied to the wrong person, ;(

Edited February 2, 2013 by _WhiteThunder_

[Kodauer]

So the CPU is the problem? I have 2.4ghz on the thing. Is that good enough to run mine craft? I just spent $800 on this machine so I'm not looking to build my own PC although I would love to.

I guess I'm going to be forced to install optifine :/...

PS... when I run minecraft the CPU says it's only using 20% of it. So maybe its not the problem?

[ZeldaK]

you need this graphics card: MSI GTX660 TI 2GB HDMI POWER EDITION the most using this includes me.

[_WhiteThunder_]

you need this graphics card: MSI GTX660 TI 2GB HDMI POWER EDITION the most using this includes me.

Ignore this guy he has no idea what he is saying.

So the CPU is the problem? I have 2.4ghz on the thing. Is that good enough to run mine craft? I just spent $800 on this machine so I'm not looking to build my own PC although I would love to. I guess I'm going to be forced to install optifine :/... PS... when I run minecraft the CPU says it's only using 20% of it. So maybe its not the problem?

Yes I think it is what's holding you back, 2.4 will run it but not very well, and the speed doesn't always dictate how good it is. Mine is 4.6 and I can run far and fancy (with low fps), make sure you set advanced OpenGL to off in the minecraft settings. Edited February 2, 2013 by _WhiteThunder_

[awesomeo_5000]

I have a macbook air and its specs are shitty, but I manage to run MC fine with a HD texture pack on normal render. Have you tried allocating more RAM? I used to use something called Magic Launcher, which easily allows you to add mods and allocate RAM. It lets you know of any mod conflicts too - I had optifine and WE working fine.

 

If Magic Launcher is still being developed I'd recommend it, I found it on the official forums.

[Clavus]

An i7 laptop processor should be fine for Minecraft. Something else must be bogging you down.

[Kodauer]

I'll look for the Magic Launcher, thanks. Would Skype running be a factor in decreasing my MC performance...? Chrome? I usually only have those two programs running when I play. Oh- Norton and some other random programs as well.

[Mathijs1996]

Well, programs are all processor space, try launching mc with no additional programs.

Currently I run loads of programs at once but my cpu still only uses like 5-10 %.

(Programs can run upto: Chrome, Trillian, 2-4 minecraft launchers, Skype, Steam and TF2.)

[bbgun18]

I'm fine with a 2.9 ghz intel core i7, and my friend runs mc lag free on a 1.9 ghz intel core i5. I'm not sure if the fact that we're on macs makes any difference, but I don't know if your processor speed is the problem. P.S I'm also running side applications

[Quad_Tube]

An i7 laptop processor should be fine for Minecraft. Something else must be bogging you down.

 

 

I agree with Clavus. If it's the Intel Core i7-2760QM then it is a great CPU, and it won't bottleneck this game. Your 20% CPU usage confirms this.

The lower-mid range AMD Radeon HD 6490M should also be able to handle MC at medium settings.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i7/Intel-Core%20i7%20Mobile%20i7-2760QM.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6490M.43843.0.htmlhttp://www.notebookc...0M.43843.0.html

Your system as a whole is way above the 'recommended' system requirements:

http://help.mojang.com/customer/portal/articles/325948-minecraft-system-requirements

I'm therefore leaning towards a configuration and/or compatibility issue.

 

Please state:

. Make and model of the laptop

. Operating System

. Graphics mode you play at (does it lag in both full-screen mode and Windowed?)

. Minecraft version

. Is your system up-to-date (including the GPU/Sound drivers, and Java)?

. Is the low FPS consistent, i.e. both single-player and across multiple servers?

As Mathijs1996 recommended, run MC with minimal background tasks - this will further isolate the potential cause of your FPS problem.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Quad_Tube

[_WhiteThunder_]

One other thing you could do is to have power saving settings off in your control panel.

[Clavus]

One other thing you could do is to have power saving settings off in your control panel.

This. You might want to check if your CPU and GPU actually leave their idle states when you launch Minecraft. If they are stuck at lower clock speeds it'd explain your performance. You can use MSI Afterburner to see a graph of your GPU clock over time. Something like CPU-Z should show you the current CPU clock, although I don't think it had a graph function.

[Kodauer]

An i7 laptop processor should be fine for Minecraft. Something else must be bogging you down.

I agree with Clavus. If it's the Intel Core i7-2760QM then it is a great CPU, and it won't bottleneck this game. Your 20% CPU usage confirms this.

The (lower-mid range) AMD Radeon HD 6490M should also be able to handle MC at medium settings.

 

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i7/Intel-Core%20i7%20Mobile%20i7-2760QM.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6490M.43843.0.html

Your system as a whole, is way above the 'Recommended' system requirements as outlined below.

 

http://help.mojang.com/customer/portal/articles/325948-minecraft-system-requirements

 

 

I'm therefore leaning towards a configuration and/or compatibility issue.

 

Please state:

. Make and model of the laptop

. Operating System

. Graphics mode you play at (does it lag in both full-screen mode and Windowed?)

. Minecraft version

. Is your system up-to-date (including the GPU/Sound drivers, and Java)?

. Is the low FPS consistent, i.e. both single-player and across multiple servers?

As Mathijs1996 said, run MC with minimal background tasks. This will further assist in isolating the potential cause of the FPS problem.

 

• HP Pavilion dv6t-6b00 CTO Quad Edition Entertainment Notebook PC 
• Windows 7 64 bit
• Normal Screen normally on tiny/short (Fluxuates day to day)
• 1.4.7 (latest)
• Yep
• FPS is consistent across both MP and SP. 

I run Chrome with Live-map, Skype and MC when I play... so I don't know if that affects it. 

One other thing you could do is to have power saving settings off in your control panel.

Done. Made a custom power plan where maximum energy was used. Previously on a "power saver" plan

 

One other thing you could do is to have power saving settings off in your control panel.

This. You might want to check if your CPU and GPU actually leave their idle states when you launch Minecraft. If they are stuck at lower clock speeds it'd explain your performance. You can use MSI Afterburner to see a graph of your GPU clock over time. Something like CPU-Z should show you the current CPU clock, although I don't think it had a graph function.

My GPU has a control panel where you set the programs it activates in. (it goes to the integrated when it's not in use). I have it set to activate when Java is launched, is that right program? MC is run by java...

 

I have no idea how to do that with my processor. D:

 

I downloaded the magic launcher and it works great awesomeo (world edit+optifine )! Opti-fine makes Noraml rendering bearable at 20-30 FPS but its really laggy, jumping from 9 all the way to 40 FPS sometimes (unstable).

[Quad_Tube]

I don't have time to study this in-depth at the moment (sorry), but I thought the following might be useful..

 

HP support: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4063&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=5171116 & http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/documentSubCategory?tmp_task=setupCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=4063&product=5171116&sw_lang=

 

Overview of Switchable Graphics or Dual GPUs: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02731962&tmp_task=setupCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=4063&product=5171116&sw_lang=

 

Switchable Graphics on Notebooks Configured with Intel and ATI GPUs: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03048374&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=5171116

Edited February 12, 2015 by Quad_Tube

[_WhiteThunder_]

He told me on skype he installed optifine, and was able to play on normal with playable framerates.

 

Also using tekkit lite I told him to select 8GB of ram in the options and that seemed to help.

Edited February 8, 2013 by _WhiteThunder_