True, although long ago i had the impression multiple threads were at work, as you'd have one set managing and mixing audio, one drawing the graphics, and one dealing with user input. I could be wrong...

But yes, having more cores doesn't really help much... On the other hand it doesn't matter how the programs were compiled if you use a linux/unix system, since you can parallel work fairly well using piping and a few programs that simply run multiple copies of the program to use the various cores. (Naturally these are usually bulk processes on dozens or hundreds of files, which makes them separate automatically). I wonder if i can find the conversation i had with someone regarding the command-line and using find/xargs and how many processes to spawn based on cores...

One question - what speed is your ram since APUs depend on ram speed very much for graphics computing. As much as I understand your APU should be working in concert with dual channel 1866Mhz ram for optimum performance. Usually laptop sellers save on ram and deliver amd notebooks without proper ram configuration and then you get lesser graphic performance then you should.

Edit: Especially when you buy products with AMD apus that don't have discrete graphic cards installed you have to be carefull that the pc/notebook comes with the CPU presribed ram speed or you will loose a lot of fps and on notebooks each fps matters. If the apus are paired with discrete graphic cards then the ram speed doesn't matter much but that's not the case in your situation since you only have a cpu integrated gpu in the notebook.

25 frames per second is the same as television and movies (Depending on where you are) and would be considered the minimum that you should aim for and be nicely playable. I would usually be happy with that.

The issue is if your character is just standing around and your getting 25 frames per second, in action scenes and shootouts and scenes with a lot more happening your frame rate will drop considerably. So it's usually best to be idling over that. 40-50 frames per second. Up near 75 is smashing, you could probably increase the graphics.

I'll second Tom's Hardware guide. I'd want to check every component there first if your were buying a new computer. One letter on the end of your graphics card can mean a big difference. Your graphics card should be running the same game with around the same FPS as on there. Or it means some other part of your computer is slowing you down.

Also like someone mentioned you want as little programs running in the background when you start a game, right click on your startbar and select the Task Manager. In the processes tab I have zero percent cpu used and the largest programs in the background are using only 6,000k of memory. If it says something like 200,000k of memory used is eating up your game, you should try to stop that program running in the background. But be a bit careful killing programs in there, windows needs some of them to work. Only stop a program if you know what it is.

I should have been more specific. I get around 25-30 playing fairly newer games like Just Cause 2 or The Witcher EE. I can get ~50-60 playing indie games like rogue legacy. What's frustrating me is that, having played consoles for so long, I can't really tell if a game is running the way it is supposed to run. I'm so used to the standardization of consoles, even if it is low end.

For example, The Witcher EE has a definite choppiness when I rotate the camera. It's not unplayable, but still rather annoying. I have heard the game is not well optimized, so it's difficult for me, being a novice, to be able to tell if there is something I can do to improve this, or if it's just my specs. Unfortunately Radeon Pro does not work with The Witcher EE, so I can't use the show FPS, FPS locks, and Triple Buffering.

Triple Buffering only works with OpenGL, so it just doesn't work with the Witcher at all. So at least you don't have to think about that.

As for Radeon Pro, well it's not all that useful and there are other apps that can help you show the game FPS (such as MSI Afterburner)

It's not that the Witcher is a particularly badly optimized game, it's more that it uses Bioware's very limited game engine for things it was never supposed to do. It's basically a souped up NWN game engine, and when you compare NWN to the Witcher, you realize that it's really pushing the engine beyond what it was made to do.

Even on a desktop gaming tower, the Witcher doesn't run incredibly well. It was the first AAA effort on CDPRs part, so taking that into account probably explains a lot. When the Witcher was published originally I don't think any PC could run it super smoothly.

Finally on performance standardization on PC: think of it as a bar, you either are below that bar or you are above it, and if you know what you are looking for then it's incredibly easy to be above it. But resellers make their money lying to people and making them think that the think they're selling is amazing and fast and whatever. They will lie. They will cheat. They will never be honest.

Also: never trust "tech websites". They lie more than most.

Like this, sell you a good CPU, but slow motherboard bus. Sell you a decent GPU, but slow RAM. And so on and so forth. Then there are the spec-pornographers who only look at single points of a PC, like the CPU disregarding how or where the CPU will actually be used.

Point being, there's a lot of pitfalls and a lot of "experts". There are a few people who know their stuff, but far fewer than one might imagine.

Where did you first learn about all the specs and performance? All this is confusing and seems difficult to pick up. I want to get into PC gaming, but honestly the learning curve is steep.

As someone who has only ever gamed on low-end computers, often with integrated graphics, the settings I find most problematic are anti-aliasing (would disable), SSAO (screen space ambient occlusion, would disable), dynamic lighting/HDR (high dynamic range, would disable), shadows (lowest setting you can tolerate), and anisotropic filtering (lowest setting you can tolerate, disable if necessary).

The game will not look as pretty, but you should see a large performance boost. Anti-aliasing and shadows in particular have very noticeable impact on frame rates in my experience, second only to resolution.

Well, I used to work in the testing/assembly QC in a PC business, so I learned the hands on way, by using and testing hundreds of different models, hardware setups and learning from others in the business.

My advice to take one step at a time, don't let yourself get overwhelmed and stay away from websites such as Linustechtips and check some Youtube videos or ask around forums (such as this one) if you are wondering about specific things.

When it comes to gaming on PC, the most important thing is a good GPU. It's not the only thing, but certainly the most important thing. Tinkering with older games is not an accurate science, but you'll get a lot of help on these forums on that topic :)

Yea I'm impressed with the knowledge on these forums, especially since everyone is willing to help.

Mostly you have to take all this stuff into consideration and sort of guesstimate the power of your computer vs the graphics of the game.

If your running Just Cause 2 on high settings okay (released 2010), you can assume any other game released around the same time frame you should be able to run on high as well. Any games released after 2010 you should assume you need to turn down the graphics in relation to the newer it gets. Anything before 2010 you should be able to run on ultra high.

2d indie games made up of pixels you should be able to run no problem everytime.

Just Cause 2 is also an open world if I'm not mistaken with some pretty decent graphics effects, I'm assuming it would be one of the most demanding games around that time. Being able to play anything before 2010 and any indie games is pretty decent, that's like every game on Gog.

Some gamers love tinkering with settings as much as playing the games, there's a lot of help if you need it.

First thing I'd do when I load up a game is go to the graphics settings and optimize it to the power of your computer. Turn the resolution down to the lowest you can deal with, turn down depth of field, anti-aliasing, HDRI, water, particles, effects they arn't that important. Turn up textures and model detail. Often games will have super high settings available that are ment for when your computer is much newer than the game is.