Laptop - game runs slow

Arsenal2019

Hi guys

i have recently bought a game on stream for my laptop - Tropico6.

however, it runs painfully slow and I can’t get past the start screen. I’ve tried everything from a factory reset to altering all of my settings from what I can think of and what tips I’ve read online.

has anyone else experienced anything like this and know of any fixes?

- I am running off windows 10 and laptop is 8 year old but in good condition.

it runs fine for everything else!!

Exemplar

If your PC does not meet/ exceed the below then you know what the issue is:

BTW I found this by going to Google and typing 'Tropico 6 minimum requirements'. It really is that hard...

Neil_Jones

That's one of those simulation/building types games, and these rarely run well on laptop hardware that isn't decent in the first place.  By the time of it being eight years old it'll probably struggle to cope if it works at all.

This Reddit post seems to suggest it won't work on what was at the time a six month old laptop:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tropico/comments/blz80j/i_dont_think_i_can_run_tropico_6/

Arsenal2019

Exemplar said:

If your PC does not meet/ exceed the below then you know what the issue is:

BTW I found this by going to Google and typing 'Tropico 6 minimum requirements'. It really is that hard...

Thanks for the obvious. Obviously I checked that prior to downloading: 

the only thing I may lack is the graphics card - mine is - Intel (R) hd graphics family. Now I’m not sure if that’s better than a Geforce GTX, I have no idea.

this could be why it doesn’t load . 

I have this screen freeze each time I try open the game after the opening credits..

Neil_Jones

Intel HD graphics = cheap and cheerful.  Always has been (always remember the very early incarnations of these Intel Graphics were so crap and horrible they even struggled with XP's pretty Luna theme, the green/blue one.  If they couldn't cope with that they couldn't cope with anything else!.

This is what's called integrated graphics - they take a chunk of the system memory for the graphics.  Dedicated cards have their own memory and are more powerful but obviously cost more money to buy/install and so pushes up the price of the laptop to buy.

Might be out of lucky unfortunately, because that's the sort of thing that happens when hardware is told to do something it doesn't support - either it just says yeah, not happening, or it does weird things like that.

MattMattMattUK

Arsenal2019 said:

Exemplar said:

If your PC does not meet/ exceed the below then you know what the issue is:

BTW I found this by going to Google and typing 'Tropico 6 minimum requirements'. It really is that hard...

Thanks for the obvious. Obviously I checked that prior to downloading: 

the only thing I may lack is the graphics card - mine is - Intel (R) hd graphics family. Now I’m not sure if that’s better than a Geforce GTX, I have no idea.

this could be why it doesn’t load . 

I have this screen freeze each time I try open the game after the opening credits..

What are the actual specs of your laptop?
Processor:
RAM:
HDD/SSD:
GPU:

Arsenal2019

Neil_Jones said:

Intel HD graphics = cheap and cheerful.  Always has been (always remember the very early incarnations of these Intel Graphics were so crap and horrible they even struggled with XP's pretty Luna theme, the green/blue one.  If they couldn't cope with that they couldn't cope with anything else!.

This is what's called integrated graphics - they take a chunk of the system memory for the graphics.  Dedicated cards have their own memory and are more powerful but obviously cost more money to buy/install and so pushes up the price of the laptop to buy.

Might be out of lucky unfortunately, because that's the sort of thing that happens when hardware is told to do something it doesn't support - either it just says yeah, not happening, or it does weird things like that.

Oh no, really?! Dammmm. I really wanted to play that game! Genuinely wouldn’t have thought a sim like game would require so much  in terms of graphics ! Wouldn’t thought mine would’ve been able to cope!!

Arsenal2019

MattMattMattUK said:

Arsenal2019 said:

Exemplar said:

If your PC does not meet/ exceed the below then you know what the issue is:

BTW I found this by going to Google and typing 'Tropico 6 minimum requirements'. It really is that hard...

Thanks for the obvious. Obviously I checked that prior to downloading: 

the only thing I may lack is the graphics card - mine is - Intel (R) hd graphics family. Now I’m not sure if that’s better than a Geforce GTX, I have no idea.

this could be why it doesn’t load . 

I have this screen freeze each time I try open the game after the opening credits..

What are the actual specs of your laptop?
Processor:
RAM:
HDD/SSD:
GPU:

Processor: Intel (R) core (TM) i3-4030U CPU @ 1.90Ghz

RAM: installed Ram 4.GB

HDD/SSD: Disk 0 (C:D) Hard drive

GPU: GRAPHIC CARD: Intel (R) hd graphics family

64GB storage 

MattMattMattUK

Arsenal2019 said:

Oh no, really?! Dammmm. I really wanted to play that game! Genuinely wouldn’t have thought a sim like game would require so much  in terms of graphics ! Wouldn’t thought mine would’ve been able to cope!!

It is a combination of both, most simulation type games are very CPU intensive and laptop CPUs are generally a lot less powerful than a desktop version. As an example a mid-range desktop CPU might have a maximum TDP (power draw) of around 100w, a laptop CPU unless in a high end (£3k+) gaming laptop will likely cap out at 15w so for the equivalent chip generation they are often significantly less powerful (although normally adequate for most things, for their time period). GPU is less important, but it still needs to be able to handle the engine, even if at lower resolutions and texture quality. Where the graphics are integrated that also fits within the TDP headroom of the CPU, where as a dedicated graphics card, even in a laptop might be able to draw 45-120w.

Arsenal2019 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Arsenal2019 said:

Exemplar said:

If your PC does not meet/ exceed the below then you know what the issue is:

BTW I found this by going to Google and typing 'Tropico 6 minimum requirements'. It really is that hard...

Thanks for the obvious. Obviously I checked that prior to downloading: 

the only thing I may lack is the graphics card - mine is - Intel (R) hd graphics family. Now I’m not sure if that’s better than a Geforce GTX, I have no idea.

this could be why it doesn’t load . 

I have this screen freeze each time I try open the game after the opening credits..

What are the actual specs of your laptop?
Processor:
RAM:
HDD/SSD:
GPU:

Processor: Intel (R) core (TM) i3-4030U CPU @ 1.90Ghz

RAM: installed Ram 4.GB

HDD/SSD: Disk 0 (C:D) Hard drive

GPU: GRAPHIC CARD: Intel (R) hd graphics family

64GB storage 

This is where some of the issue is, your CPU, despite being a newer generation than the minimum is less powerful than the desktop processor they specify, not by much CPU mark has the minimum at 1974 vs yours at 1876, but the bigger factor will be Single Thread Performance, where the minimum spec performs 50% higher than your CPU (1554 vs 1029).

The next issue is that Tropico 6 has a minimum 8GB RAM requirement and recommends 16GB, with the system using a chunk of RAM that probably means there is only 2GB available for the game, vs it's probably minimum usage of probably 6GB and ideally using a lot more.

The final and probably biggest issue is that the engine Tropico uses does not support the Intel HD graphics of your CPU generation (it can run on some of the much more modern ones, but still not that well), some people might have managed to get it working, but not well. 

If you wanted to play a simulation game you would probably get Civilization V (or older versions, which are still great games) running, but fairly poorly. other options without buying a new laptop will be limited. 

neilmcl

So doesn't meet the minimum requirements then, as was posted by @Exemplar

Arsenal2019

MattMattMattUK said:

Arsenal2019 said:

Oh no, really?! Dammmm. I really wanted to play that game! Genuinely wouldn’t have thought a sim like game would require so much  in terms of graphics ! Wouldn’t thought mine would’ve been able to cope!!

It is a combination of both, most simulation type games are very CPU intensive and laptop CPUs are generally a lot less powerful than a desktop version. As an example a mid-range desktop CPU might have a maximum TDP (power draw) of around 100w, a laptop CPU unless in a high end (£3k+) gaming laptop will likely cap out at 15w so for the equivalent chip generation they are often significantly less powerful (although normally adequate for most things, for their time period). GPU is less important, but it still needs to be able to handle the engine, even if at lower resolutions and texture quality. Where the graphics are integrated that also fits within the TDP headroom of the CPU, where as a dedicated graphics card, even in a laptop might be able to draw 45-120w.

Arsenal2019 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Arsenal2019 said:

Exemplar said:

If your PC does not meet/ exceed the below then you know what the issue is:

BTW I found this by going to Google and typing 'Tropico 6 minimum requirements'. It really is that hard...

Thanks for the obvious. Obviously I checked that prior to downloading: 

the only thing I may lack is the graphics card - mine is - Intel (R) hd graphics family. Now I’m not sure if that’s better than a Geforce GTX, I have no idea.

this could be why it doesn’t load . 

I have this screen freeze each time I try open the game after the opening credits..

What are the actual specs of your laptop?
Processor:
RAM:
HDD/SSD:
GPU:

Processor: Intel (R) core (TM) i3-4030U CPU @ 1.90Ghz

RAM: installed Ram 4.GB

HDD/SSD: Disk 0 (C:D) Hard drive

GPU: GRAPHIC CARD: Intel (R) hd graphics family

64GB storage 

This is where some of the issue is, your CPU, despite being a newer generation than the minimum is less powerful than the desktop processor they specify, not by much CPU mark has the minimum at 1974 vs yours at 1876, but the bigger factor will be Single Thread Performance, where the minimum spec performs 50% higher than your CPU (1554 vs 1029).

The next issue is that Tropico 6 has a minimum 8GB RAM requirement and recommends 16GB, with the system using a chunk of RAM that probably means there is only 2GB available for the game, vs it's probably minimum usage of probably 6GB and ideally using a lot more.

The final and probably biggest issue is that the engine Tropico uses does not support the Intel HD graphics of your CPU generation (it can run on some of the much more modern ones, but still not that well), some people might have managed to get it working, but not well. 

If you wanted to play a simulation game you would probably get Civilization V (or older versions, which are still great games) running, but fairly poorly. other options without buying a new laptop will be limited. 

Okay I understand a little more now. Thanks for take the time and for clearing that up for me. I know absolutely nothing about computers As you can tell.