Okay, I'm experiancing some lag issues (maybe) when playing some online games on my computer. Whenever I am playing a game, be it the browser game Runescape or the game Lord of the Rings Online, I will have intervals where I experiance lag. Then it will go back to normal, good paced, speed for a few minutes. Then back to lag.

I would understand if I was moving and the game would have to load the draw distance and such, but even when I stand still in these mmorpgs, I get these lag periods.
I use a wireless router (have tried a direct connection, but the lag still occured) and have DSL.

My brother, whom I play these games with, plays on a laptop right next to me and doesn't experiance any of the lag periods that I do. His laptop is a wee bit better,(1.2g of RAM and a Dell Inspiron) granted, so it probably has to do with my computer itself, and not the internet connection, because he uses the same connection as me.

Or it could be how my computer connects to the internet, I don't know. The internet works fine for me when browsing and when playing a few other games. For the LotRO game, it may be that I don't have a good enough computer...

It requires (minimum)
512 MB of RAM
Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz or equivalent
64MB NVIDIA GeForce 3 video(?)
ATI Radeon Xpress 8500

I have:
896MB of RAM
Technology TL-50 1.60GHz
AMD turion 64 X2 Mobile video(?)
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100

I'm not sure, is it because my 1.60GHz? Or is it because of the ATI Radeon Xpress difference? Maybe it isn't lag at all, just my computer not being able to handle the game (although I do have the game on some of the lowest graphical settings).

Any help would be appreciated.

"ATI Radeon Xpress 8500"

I think you mean ATI Radeon 8500, which was a killer video card back in it's day.

"ATI Radeon Xpress 1100"

In benchmark comparisons of 95 notebook graphics cards, the Xpress 1100 ranks 86th.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile...

Notebooks generally aren't good for gaming unless you specifically buy a "gaming notebook". Try scanning for viruses & spyware, & use MSCONFIG to prevent unnecessary programs from loading at startup. And if you don't have CCleaner, install it & run it regularly.

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/

http://www.filehippo.com/download_c...

I see, thanks for clearing that up for me Jam!

I wasn't sure wether to blame my internet or my laptop, and now I think I can say that is probably my laptop. My brother has a Mobility Radeon X300 in his laptop and that is a little higher on the list that you linked, which would explain why his is a bit better.

I installed CCleaner and ran it, it worked nicely (deleted 512.5MB of junk).

I can't say if it helped my gameplay as I haven't tried it out yet, but if it doesn't, then I will just have to play through the reoccuring lag (or whatever it is).

I do have one other question. Would I be able to buy a new video card and install it realativly easily to boost the games performance a little bit?

Which one would be a good upgrade, but not too awesome. Something for playing without experianceing too much lag.

Thanks again for your help and quick response.

You can't upgrade the video card on most notebooks because it's integrated into the motherboard. If you want better graphics, you're gonna have to buy a better notebook.

Alright, thank you again Jam.