My PC specs:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz
- 3 GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1 GB
- GeForce driver version 258.96
- 1680×1050 Native Resolution LCD Monitor
- Windows 7 Ultimate
According to this website, my PC specs are more than capable of handling more that what are the recommended specs to play NFS: Hot Pursuit. In practice, that's not the case. I'm forced to use the following graphics settings to maintain the minimum frame rate at which I'm comfortable to play:
- 1440×900 resolution
- Shadow: None
- High Resolution Texture: Off
I'm missing a great deal of graphics for this game. I've played Mafia II and StarCraft II at the highest visual settings with no frame rate lagging problems. Actually, this is the first game I've encountered that has frame rate lagging problems with the GeForce GTS 250.
Any idea why this could happen? What can I do to increase frame rate with the highest graphics settings?
Note: In the background I use Avira AntiVirus and the Windows built-in firewall. I don't think this causes the frame rate to lag, however, as they were turned on while I played Mafia II / StarCraft II and all the other games.
Best Answer
Deactivating my WLAN Card solved the problem.
I'm running the game fine on my Alienware M11x with an Intel U7300 at 2x 1.73Ghz with 4Gb RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M at maximum resolution and full details, so I don't think it's your processor/RAM/motherboard.
But when I first installed the game, I had bad problems with FPS drops. It was like the game nearly stopped (2FPS or less) every 60 seconds, and after a few seconds more, everything was fine again.
So I started to diagnose the system (quite like proposed by blesh) and found a Windows service that detects performance, and from there worked out the solution. It sounds strange, but works on a M15x as well! It seems the scan for available access points is what causes the game to lag, especially when you're not connected.
Maybe this bugfix will solve your problems too!