cybershark5886
Baseband Member
- Messages
- 24
I need a little help.
Unfortunately, although I know Windows 98 pretty well, I'm still trying to learn XP and I'm wondering how it handles memory and the processor. When I hit ctrl + alt + del to bring up the task manager it displays a percentage rate for each program taking up x amount of my processor's time/power. But does a program displayed in the task manager running at around 99% mean that my processor is maxing out, or is it just showing that 99% of the instructions running through the processor comes from that program, not necessarily implying any stress or effort on the processors part?
Mainly I want to know this to help demystify my new mobile Athlon 64 Notebook's functions, of which I am equally unaccustomed to Win XP (been using it for a total of 5 months now), because it lags under duress of certain graphically intensive games.
An interesting feature that makes it harder to figure out whether my processor is being taxed or not (as opposed to memory or video card) is Athlon 64's cool'n'quiet technology that cuts processor speed in half when no demanding applications are loaded, even when it's plugged in. I'm trying to figure out why my system seems a little slow when running games. I'm guessing that the culprit is my video card.
My laptop is a Compaq R4000 if you want to look up detailed specs. The basics consist of an Athlon 64 3200+ (I doubt that such a powerful procesor is slowing it down), 512 MB RAM (MemTurbo memory manager tells me that I usually have 100-200 MB free even when running big games - although on occasion I have seen it drop to 60), ATI Radeon Xpress 200M (looks fast but seems to be the culprit - why?), and a ATA/100, 5400 RPM 60 Gig HDD (No notebook that I'm aware of can support a 7200 RPM HDD, so I don't think that there is anything that I can do about that.)
I'd appreciate any help.
Unfortunately, although I know Windows 98 pretty well, I'm still trying to learn XP and I'm wondering how it handles memory and the processor. When I hit ctrl + alt + del to bring up the task manager it displays a percentage rate for each program taking up x amount of my processor's time/power. But does a program displayed in the task manager running at around 99% mean that my processor is maxing out, or is it just showing that 99% of the instructions running through the processor comes from that program, not necessarily implying any stress or effort on the processors part?
Mainly I want to know this to help demystify my new mobile Athlon 64 Notebook's functions, of which I am equally unaccustomed to Win XP (been using it for a total of 5 months now), because it lags under duress of certain graphically intensive games.
An interesting feature that makes it harder to figure out whether my processor is being taxed or not (as opposed to memory or video card) is Athlon 64's cool'n'quiet technology that cuts processor speed in half when no demanding applications are loaded, even when it's plugged in. I'm trying to figure out why my system seems a little slow when running games. I'm guessing that the culprit is my video card.
My laptop is a Compaq R4000 if you want to look up detailed specs. The basics consist of an Athlon 64 3200+ (I doubt that such a powerful procesor is slowing it down), 512 MB RAM (MemTurbo memory manager tells me that I usually have 100-200 MB free even when running big games - although on occasion I have seen it drop to 60), ATI Radeon Xpress 200M (looks fast but seems to be the culprit - why?), and a ATA/100, 5400 RPM 60 Gig HDD (No notebook that I'm aware of can support a 7200 RPM HDD, so I don't think that there is anything that I can do about that.)
I'd appreciate any help.
