FG Running Slow and occasionally crashing

[tousicj]

I recently purchased FG, and am having serious problems with it running slowly and even crashing occasionally. I'm running the DnD 5e rules set, and whenever i have 3 or 4 windows open the program slows to a crawl. It isn't terrible when i'm running things locally, but when I join a game I can't be a functioning member of the party. Nobody else in my party seems to have these issues, which leads me to believe this is an issue with my machine.

I've looked at a few posts here, and tried to go through all of the solutions proposed but things are not getting any better.

Here are my computer specs

TOSHIBA Satellite E45-B
Windows 10, 64bit OS
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70 GHz 2.40GHz
6.00 GB of RAM
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4400

So far I've turned off anti-aliasing, made sure that the cross-platform setting was turned off, turned off Steam overlay, updated my drivers and updated DirectX.

I realize that it is a possibility that my machine isn't quality enough to run this software, as I didn't buy it with the intent to play any games. But the Technical Requirements suggest 4GB of RAM, and I have that so in theory I shouldn't be having these issues.

Any suggestions? Also I'm not the most tech savvy person, so any help you can provide will be appreciated.

[damned]

your computer is fast enough to run FG without issues... it is some setting or clash...
it does look like you have been researching the possible causes which is great.

have you installed to default locations?
have you tried temporarily disabling your AV?
if you are on wifi can you try moving closer to the accesspoint/router or try using a LAN cable to compare?

if it only happens when on games - what speed is your internet?
how is your internet delivered? cable? dsl? fibre? satellite? wireless? 3g/4g?

is there other heavy users on your lan - eg someone watching netflix while you are playing?

[tousicj]

I don't understand what you mean by default locations. I installed the folders in the places that the program recommended, "C:/ProgramData/Fantasy Grounds", and "C:/Program Files(x86)/Fantasy Grounds"

Not sure how/what temporarily disabling my AV is...

I'm hard-wired to my router, and get 30mbps down and 8mbps up. My internet is delivered through fiber optics, and nobody else is online while I'm running the program.

It isn't entirely an online issue, just gets worse whenever I get online. The biggest thing is when I have multiple windows open. If i have the two maps, the character sheets then the game slows to a crawl. Even if I just have the character sheet open the dice animations don't work and it takes a solid 20-30seconds for the windows to respond if I move them or switch tabs.

[Trenloe]

Are you running on the laptop screen or do you have an external monitor attached? Either way, what resolution are you running?

Did the laptop Coke with Windows 10 pre-installed as the original operating system or have you upgraded to Windows 10 from a previous version?

I assume you're running off mains power and not the battery?

I'm thinking this is more than likely a problem with the graphics process (GPU) running at the base speed (200MHz) and not utilizing the increased turbo frequencies possible with the 4400 GPU. This could be due to the graphics card setup or the power management options.

I'd suggest downloading any graphics setup and power management applications of be laptop from Toshiba and seeing if there are setting to enable high level performance/turbo for the graphics for your power settings and she running FG (if there are any application specific settings).

[tousicj]

I typically have an external monitor attached, but have removed it to try to get this to run better. I am running at 1920x1080 resolution.

The laptop did not have Windows10 pre-installed, it was upgraded afterwards.

That is correct, I'm running off main power.

I've gone into the power settings and changed all of the Graphics settings to run at "High Performance". It helped a little, but there is still a fair amount of lag. I didn't find an option for Turbo, but I can definitely see a difference when switching to "High performance".

[bawsr]

the first time I ran the game for a game after upgrading. I had incredible slowness as did all my players. We have been playing a while and I can assure you that my 32 Gig of Ram Desktop doesn't lack for resources. It was just very slow and hard to select PC's or roll dice.

[Moon Wizard]

FG renders the dice and graphics in a 3D environment, and has a fairly high refresh rate requirement with the current engine. This means that running GPUs that have weak or no native 3D support, will incur lags when running FG.

Also, if you are running FG on a laptop and using a second monitor to extend your desktop, this will incur decreased performance, as you have one laptop graphics card trying to power 2 monitors.

Another source we have heard recently is when using dual video cards, if FG is split across monitors running on different video cards, this can incur lag as well. This could happen if you had a GPU in your laptop docking station, and running multiple monitors.

Regards,
JPG

[tousicj]

So it sounds like 2/3 of these cases apply to me, as even when I disconnect my second monitor I still have the same issues.

And based on your response, it sounds like the only fix is to upgrade my GPU.

Can anyone else provide any potential fixes that may alleviate this problem? Or am I just hosed...

[Trenloe]

I'm afraid that this might well be something with your laptop - a few people have mentioned issues after upgrading to Windows 10. A possible option (extreme, but it has fixed some users performance issues) is to do a completely new installation of Windows 10.

Other options are to play around with your graphics settings: colour depth, resolution, use only DirectX v9 compatibility, reducing 3D quality (speed over quality), etc.. This will have to be experimentation on your side to see if there are any settings that make a difference.