DDo on Atom netbook

[Bart_D]

Reading the system requirements for DDO, i thought it would run on my Atom-powered netbook (Lenovo S12), at least with minimal graphics. But it grinds to a halt after the introduction quest (which runs very poorly) maybe due to multiple pcs on screen.

Is there something I'm doing wrong or are there any hints how to make it work?

These are the DDO minimun requirements:

Processor: P4 1.6 GHz or AMD equivalent with SSE
Memory512 MB RAM
GraphicsCard 64 MB Hardware T&L -compatible video card
NetworkConnection 56.6 K modem
SoftwareWindows XP, DIrectX 9
DiscSpace 3GB, 5GB for high resolution

My computer is an Atom with 1.6 GHz, 2 GB ram, "Intel GMA 950 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0" graphics, and plenty of bandwidth and disc space.

Is Atom < P4 or should it work?

Help!!!!

[dasungeheuer]

Reading the system requirements for DDO, i thought it would run on my Atom-powered netbook (Lenovo S12), at least with minimal graphics. But it grinds to a halt after the introduction quest (which runs very poorly) maybe due to multiple pcs on screen.
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My computer is an Atom with 1.6 GHz, 2 GB ram, "Intel GMA 950 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0" graphics, and plenty of bandwidth and disc space.

That's kind of a race of the turtles. This from a forum: "I would estimate the Atom to be about one third the performance of the P4, in a general sense. They are vastly different architectures, so comparisons would be difficult as some tasks will be almost half the speed while others will be much, much slower (barely one tenth the speed). In many ways the Atom is a much older processor than the P4 (in-order processing, non-RISC), and in some ways it is newer (hyperthreading, EIST)."

The point of the Atom was to be "good enough" for web and email, and to be take very little power, generate very little heat, and be cheap.

Your GPU is not a "gaming" GPU, either, and that's the real crux here, I think. This is as would be expected for a netbook. The GMA 950 is part of Intel's "oh my God these GPUs suck" legacy. Wiki says: "The GMA 950 shares the same architectural weakness as the GMA 900: no hardware geometry processing. Neither basic (DX7) hardware transform and lighting, nor more advanced vertex shaders (DX8 and later) are handled in the GMA hardware."

That means that on Intel GPUs, the CPU has to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to doing T&L or vertex shaders - that's done through the driver. For many games, that just doesn't work at all. Other games are less demanding, and you still need a CPU that can handle it.

The point of netbooks is the same as the point of its components: Be good enough for web and email, maybe a little light word processing, and be small, light and cheap. The CPU matches that, and the GPU does.

You can try to turn all of DDO's graphics settings to "lowest" and see how it behaves. I'd still expect it to tank, because of that GPU. It's worth a try.

There are games available that are optimized specifically for netbooks. Torchlight has a netbook mode, for example. There are plenty of articles "out there" on the Web that deal specifically with the question of "which games may work on a netbook?" Overall, it seems the "Indie" catalog in Steam is well suited, older games are, and some newer games that were written with netbooks in mind.

[giveuptg]

The Atom processor isn't even REMOTELY comparable to a Pentium 4. You absolutely will not ever get decent gaming performance out of that.

Additionally, the Intel GMA video chipsets are absolutely horrendous. Even the full-fledged "HD" laptop line are super weak; too weak for much gaming. A netbook garden variety GMA is bound to be even worse.

Gaming on a netbook, especially a relatively new MMO, probably isn't going to happen. Even at absolutely lowest settings, you'll probably see framerates around 10 FPS, if that.

[LawstCawz]

Well, the ION platform runs CoD4. I think it's your integrated graphics that's the bottleneck. You should upgrade your RAM. RAM is cheap and is shared with your graphics on this system. I doubt this will allow you to play DDO, but you will notice a huge performance improvement in everday use.

[jillora]

I have an MSI Wind U100 with 2 GB of ram and it runs fine without overclock and a little better with overclock. I actually runs almost as good as my 3 year old Dell laptop with a dedicated 256 vram and 4 gb of ram runs. I've posted a video at youtube username: anabolina if you want to see it. I'd post the link, but I don't think I can yet and I only have like 4 videos posted.

[HockeyDude12]

I have a netbook which i use for DDO. I have every single setting at the lowest possible, but i do still experience lags in cities or in areas with many monsters. The amount of lag seems to be somewhat random, for sometimes it is less, and others my character is glitched and cannot move. (It has killed me a few times in-game). I only have 1 gb of ram on it, but I will likely upgrade to two. The biggest thing I found helpful was having a strong party of friends to help you survive the lags.

[Bart_D]

Since my original post, i have been able to make it work reasonably, it appears that being plugged in is essential for questing.

By reasonably, i mean minimal graphics and muted audio, and even then there is some stuttering especially in combat. That means new quests are very difficult to play, but it works fairly well in quests im familiar with. I'd say that i play at about 80% efficiency due to very limited draw distance and graphics lag compared to playing on a better system, but leveling a character to 8th has not been a problem so far. Also, the Atom works just fine for character maintenance (leveling, shopping, ...) except the layout gets somewhat jumbled up due to the low resolution.

[Vidfinnx]

i have a 1201n and until this last server update, the game was running really really good, now it slows down to a crawl when more than one monster or person comes on the screen, it upsets me cause i have no idea how to fix it