Does getting a new graphics chip make sense if I buy two sticks of RAM and go faster than before?
Does getting a new graphics chip make sense if I buy two sticks of RAM and go faster than before?
I own an HP laptop with just one stick of 8GB RAM running at about 2200MHz according to the label. The exact model number is HP 15 dw1200na. This should give me all the standard specs I need. I'm trying to play Mario Kart Wii, and the emulator runs pretty fast there—around 55 frames per second or video frames—which feels good enough for now. But it's not working well because Wiimmfi only lets me run emulators at 60fps or higher. So I want to upgrade my RAM to dual-channel at 3200MHz just in case, but will that make a big difference? Honestly, 5 frames per second is too small an improvement to feel good. If the new memory doesn't keep the game running above 60fps consistently, it's not worth spending money on it. Also, does my old laptop even support such high speeds like 3200MHz? Thanks for reading this.
I suggest just buying a new piece of memory won't fix your problem. Your game is probably limited by your computer's processor (CPU) or graphics card (GPU), so you can check this easily by playing Mario while other tasks run, then looking at what percentage each uses on the screen. In either case, I'm afraid the only solution is to buy a much better laptop or PC since neither the CPU nor the GPU can be upgraded later.
You can check if there are better parts you should add to your computer: Memory & SSD Upgrades | Crucial.com If you buy memory and SSD upgrades, everything will work perfectly with your stuff for FREE US delivery at www.crucial.com Moving to dual channel ram makes your RAM feel faster and helps your graphics card too. It won't cause any problems. But, your Celeron N4020 processor is very slow and might be the main problem stopping you from going fast.
Hey, so sorry for the late reply. I didn't get any notifications. My CPU can pretend to be PowerPC for the Dolphin emulator, but the graphics cards are too slow to handle them well. RAM is important for those GPUs, especially if you have an iGPU. I don't own a Celeron. I have an i5 8125u. That's not your fault at all! I just typed the model number backwards by mistake. Oops... it's actually a dw0012na. Not a dw1200na. I'm going to fix that in the original post. Anyway, it looks like my processor only works with 2400MHz memory speed. That's really bad for me... How much would having two sets of memory make a difference? It probably comes down to something like that.
You need a laptop plugged in to play games because unplugging them cuts down on battery life. The graphics card uses your system RAM, so making sure it runs in dual channel mode helps. Laptop RAM isn't always expensive, but you can check for settings to let more memory be used by the GPU if they exist.
Actually, to check if my guesses are right, I did some testing back when @BurningSoul suggested it. Here is the game. It's mostly okay (55 fps and 55 vps) but it gets stuck and that breaks Wiimmfi rules. Now here are some numbers: Don't trust what Cinnamon says about taking more GPU power than Dolphin; it spikes just when I take a picture. With Dolphin off, the Render/3d Engine uses only 4%. So Dolphin is using almost all of the GPU. The CPU isn't boosting to its normal speed (3.9 GHz) like it should. It mostly hovers around 2.8GHz to 3.0GHz while using about 30% power. Is this slowing down? No, I don't think so since the temps are maxing out at 80C. The limit is actually 100C. So I ran a really hard video stream that uses my CPU and wrote it to /dev/null. Now unlike with Dolphin, the CPU usage hit full speed (100%) but the CPU still doesn't go up to 3.9 GHz: Temps are: Which is way below the critical point where things break down. Why is it slowing down? I think my laptop's power settings are messing with me... So does this cause the problem? No, because with Dolphin, the CPU isn't hitting full speed, so it isn't stressing as hard on the processor as that video stream was. I just hate how laptop makers focus on looks instead of making things cool enough for real use. My laptop is thin but it can't even cool itself properly!
I see that your listings show a high core temperature at 100 degrees C. This is what Intel calls the throttle point, which means it's hitting its limit and trying to slow things down on purpose to avoid damage. The computer is likely lowering its speed and power usage because of this heat problem until the situation gets better. At lower speeds, your CPU might actually be using 100% of its capacity even though it looks like it is working slower. You can't really fix that without checking if the air flow for cooling is clear and making sure the fan is spinning properly. Try using a Windows balanced power plan instead of the performance one. Set the minimum CPU usage to something low, like 20%. It sounds weird at first, but try turning off advanced settings in the Windows power plan so that it stays set to 90% or lower instead of going all the way up to 100%. You might not even notice any difference in how fast your computer runs.
I'm not using Windows, I am on Linux. Sorry... I should have told you all along. The 100C numbers you are seeing aren't like the Max temps in HWMonitor for example. They just show what the absolute highest temp is possible. It is always 100C because it isn't a number that counts, but actual information. I've seen my CPU hit 95C before the fans kick in, which took a while. Once they start spinning properly, it stays around 80-90C, and that's safe. My processor's scaling is controlled by a Linux driver called intel_pstate. This has power profiles similar to Windows, known as governors. I checked the governor and it was set to powersave mode. I tried setting it to performance just to see if it could boost my CPU to 3.9GHz but nothing happened. I've had bad luck with intel_pstate too. In one of my old i3 laptops, it slowed down my 1.4Ghz processor all the way down to 600Mhz. That was crazy and once I replaced it with acpi-cpufreq, it worked much better (and yes, I could make it go above safe temps, but don't tell anyone). I'll turn off intel_pstep and configure acpi-cpufreq to see if I can get it to boost higher.
After messing around for hours installing a driver and turning off power limits on my Intel chips, I finally figured out why my computer won't go fast. The real problem is that my motherboard's chip stops me from going faster during heavy tasks because of its own internal limiters. It only goes to 3.9GHz when nothing else is using it, but drops down to just 2.4GHz when stress tests start and power usage gets high. That's a shame because I paid for a super fast processor. There isn't really any way around this since the hardware already limits me. I tried removing all software settings that block my changes, even though Intel says their CPU allows you to set the power limit yourself on paper. They are clearly screwing me over with the design here. Sad thing about HP making this mistake. It would be better if my RAM doubled, which it hasn't yet. One thing I know for sure: this is the last time I buy an Intel chip.