How to Disable DirectX 9 features on a directx 9 card?

KillerPotato

Member
Nov 24, 2004
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My friends running black and white 2 on his laptop, which uses a 3.0ghz p4 and a radeon 9600 mobile (has literally no battery life). However, even on the lowest settings it runs terrible at around maybe 3 fps at 640*480 res, while his brothers computer, with a 2.8ghz p4 and radeon 9200 is quite playable at the lowest settings, maybe 30fps (if barely) at 1024*768 res. The difference is that his brothers is a desktop, and im not sure how much RAM they have, but i think its the same (at least a gig for each). I havent been able to figure out why theres such a huge difference, since theyve both minimized the amount of junk running in the background.

I thought that it might be that the 9600 is being bogged down by trying to run directx 9 stuff, but i wouldnt think theres much of that going on at the lowest setting. Is there a way to completely disable directx 9 features thats not specific to the game? He has reinstalled the game multiple times with no changes, and I wouldnt think that it would run much worse than the desktop, if worse at all.

Thanks in advance
 

Powermoloch

Lifer
Jul 5, 2005
10,084
4
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check if your friends laptop has any background programs crap running. Disable if any that is really not needed, make sure your friend updates his/her drivers, defrag the comp, clean it (hard disk). Scan viruses, stuff whatever.
 

KillerPotato

Member
Nov 24, 2004
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We had already taken out any unneeded background programs, he had the latest drivers (tried ATI's and the Omega drivers), and he had just recently reformatted his hard drive.
 

KillerPotato

Member
Nov 24, 2004
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Haha possibly. Considering its running a desktop processor it does get really hot, and stupidly, the exhaust output the heat onto your hand if youre using a mouse. I cant stand to use it for more than a couple minutes at a time, and its usually being sat on a bed or a couch, which I bet doesnt help it much. Ill relay this info to him to see if it makes a difference.

Still though, is there a way to turn off the directx9 functions of the card, or should it not be making a difference?