# Mass Effect 2, can i increase performance?



## Nigel Lien (Feb 10, 2010)

i was thinking of getting mass effect 2, i looked at the system requirements and my computer passed them as far as i know, aside from my graphic card. having limited funds i looked at updating my driver to see if it would help, the current graphics card i have is a nividia geforce 7100, the update information said it had been made compatible with mass effect 2, so i decided to go ahead and get them game confident that i would be able to play it. 

the game works, no visual errors or crashes, but it runs at such a slow pace that it is unplayable. i have noticed that my character is unable to use containers such as lockers unless i open the menu, close the menu and quickly press the use key, otherwise the targeting outline on the object shows it as unselected.

i want to know if i can in any way speed up the frame rate!

it is such a bad port of the game that it seems they left out any graphic settings aside from filters, but none of the standard low-med-high.

Aspire X1800
windows 7 64-bit
memory:4096MB RAM
Page file: 2526MB used, 5149MB available
processor:intel core 2 quad cpu q8300 @2.50GHz (4 CPU's)
DirectX 11
nividia geforce 7100/ nividia nforce 630i


----------



## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Hi Nigel, welcome to TSF

You've got a good CPU, plenty of RAM and the latest operating system, but your computer's potential is being held back by the low quality graphics card. It's like having a sports car fitted with a lawnmower engine. Time for an upgrade if you want decent framerates in modern games like Mass Effect 2 with the eye candy turned on.

Even if you only upgrade from your series 7 nvidia card to a series 8, you'll be able to play 60fps at high resolution with all the settings on maximum.

If you don't want to upgrade, hit the Configure button in the Mass Effect 2 loader. This opens the Configuration Utility. Clcik 'Video' on the left, then turn off all the settings from High Quality Bloom down the list to the bottom, set Cinematic Lights to 1 and Anisotropic Filtering to Off, save settings and exit back to the loader. The game will look terrible, but the fps will increase.


----------



## Nigel Lien (Feb 10, 2010)

thank you very much for the reply. 

i do have one lasting question in relation to my computer, as it is an Acer Aspire x1800, it is about one third the size of a standard tower computer (for lack of a better term), will that effect what video cards i can use in it if i were to buy one? i was looking at a BFG GeForce 9800GT 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card. was the Acer built to fit any video card or do i need something along the lines of one made for a laptop due to it's size? 

as this isn't directly related to game installation i will post it in a another thread, any reply will still be appreciated if you do have an answer to this.

once again thank you for your quick response


----------



## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

The Aspire X1800 uses integrated GeForce 7100 graphics, which is a chip on the motherboard rather than a proper graphics card. This means the computer's power requirements are very low, so it can be powered by a 220W Power Supply Unit (I'm assuming you haven't upgraded it yet). Gaming computers with good quality graphics cards tend to have PSUs that are at least 450W.

Your motherboard has one PCIEx16 slot, which is suitable for a graphics card. However, if you want to install one, it will have to be a 'low profile' model to fit inside the small case. Also, you will have to upgrade to a new PSU that is small enough to fit in the slim case as well as being powerful enough for the new card.

PCIE graphics cards need a PSU that has a minimum of 28 amps on the +12V line. Check the label on the side of your PSU to see how many +12V amps yours provides.


----------

