Playing LOTRO on a netbook

[Arimen]

Has anyone played LOTRO on a netbook?

Is it possible if the settings are turned down to the lowest settings? I was thinking I might be able to craft or play the ah. I don't expect it would work for much combat, and definitely not fellowships.

I'm tempted to try it, but I don't know if its worth the huge download if it won't run properly.

Thoughts?

[NeoPromethious]

Has anyone played LOTRO on a netbook?

Is it possible if the settings are turned down to the lowest settings? I was thinking I might be able to craft or play the ah. I don't expect it would work for much combat, and definitely not fellowships.

I'm tempted to try it, but I don't know if its worth the huge download if it won't run properly.

Thoughts?

I install lotro on a netbook and can run it. The netbook is an older netbook and not one of the new ones which probably are better at running the game but there are a few things you should take note of if you want it to play at all.

1.) Make sure you install the low resolution client, it makes a difference believe me even if you won't ever use the high resolution graphics.
2.) Use lotro flash boost to help with loading screen times.
3.) Make sure if you use amd you run fusion utlity for desktops.
4.) Make sure you run and install iobit's gamebooster software, which dramatically helps
5.) You'll have to run it on 800 x 600 resolution with settings turned to lowest except for object draw distance
6.) Make sure you have a power setting set to high performance or amd's fusions power control settings
7.) Try to run the game on a solid state drive, if you can't make sure you've defragged the game using turbines tool.
8.) If you don't have a solid state drive, make sure you set your paging file to at least 2 - 4 gigs.
9.) Running the game on windows xp or 7 is a must, I would never run it on vista ever.

I'm not sure what type of netbook you have, but if you are buying one for another use than gaming, try some tips I post here to help.

My netbook runs it at about 12 - 25 fps on the lowest settings, depends where I am, some places like raid areas or the moors run very bad, down to 5 - 9 fps. For the everyday tasks like auction halls, housing, out in the open wilderness it'll run best. I have an gateway 11 in netbook, it works but it's not pretty. I would highly recommended alienware's m11 netbook, but that'll run you about 1000 bucks, however will probably run the game at atleast very high settings. Hope this helps. If you want better frames try to find anything with something more an integrated graphics, try for mobile graphics , these usually have a m behind the model number. Like an nvidia 9600m or 8400ms as an example - make sure it's the graphics card model number and not the netbook number. Netbooks vary a lot, and 90% of the time come with integrated graphics, which is bad. You'll want something more than integrated, some provide docking stations that have video cards built in, like the gigabyte net/notebooks I think.

Also lastly expect patching to take longer because the decoding of the downloaded material is processor heavy, and netbooks usually have slower processors.

[Arimen]

Wow! That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. After reading your advice, I'm going to give it a try.

Thanks so much!

[Sapience]

There has actually been a great deal of discussion on the subject. Anyone interested in trying out LOTRO on a netbook should definitely read this thread. I run the game on a Lenovo S-10 myself.

[Arimen]

Great read Sapience. Thanks for the link!

[eanamdar]

G.A.N.
(Gamers Aginst Netbooks)

"Friends dont let friends game on netbooks"

[Adhordal]

Yeah... it usually runs on netbooks (even with gma 950 ) Though try not to go to crowded places. do not expect to get a good gameplay but still it's not that bad. I have an intel atom N270, 945 chipset and it runs okay.

[hallasan]

Works fine on graphics setting auto-detect 'custom' with dx11 on an Asus 1215b. HDMI out, looks great and so far no issue.

[Boffadoc]

A netbook and a laptop are two slightly different things.

I'm playing LOTRO on a decent lap-top right now, and it's almost the same as playing on a desktop. Especially since I've plugged my desktop keyboard and mouse into the laptop. My PC, sadly, won't be needing either any more.

Before I acquired a laptop, I was playing on my netbook. It was OK for normal questing... a bit laggy. It was a new model, running on Win 7. I only ever attempted to instance/skirmish once -it was terrible, I was 3 seconds behind everyone else.

Having said that, I didn't do much to tweek my performance, other than running on the lowest settings. If you follow advice from NeoPromethious and Sapience, your netbook may give you more performance. However, I still think you'll find the very tiny screen to be problematic.