optimising windows 7 gaming on a laptop+optimising router for online gaming.

[Wizlah]

Most of the time, any gaming I do right now is on a laptop. It manages ME3 multiplayer well enough, but I noticed recently when I tried out mumble and me3 at the sametime that things were getting a bit choppy. I wondered did anyone have any advice or a good guide to non-essential services you can shut down whilst gaming on Windows 7. I seem to recall a bit back that ATI did a handy little programme a couple of years back which allowed you to select which services you wanted shut off so that you could just activate that mode, then go game for a bit, and I was wondering whether there was something similar or better knocking about.

On a related note, since this is the first time in a very long while I've done any multiplayer gaming, I thought I'd ask if anyone could recommend a good basic guide to optimising your router for gaming. I've got dlink 635 which seems to be fairly flexible in terms of set-up, but it's not something I've ever considered before so I've got no idea where to start.

[soldant]

Can't help too much with the first part, since I can't be bothered crawling through services to find some to disable.

On a related note, since this is the first time in a very long while I've done any multiplayer gaming, I thought I'd ask if anyone could recommend a good basic guide to optimising your router for gaming. I've got dlink 635 which seems to be fairly flexible in terms of set-up, but it's not something I've ever considered before so I've got no idea where to start.

Apart from port forwarding, unless you've got an awful lot of local area network traffic that's about all you should need to do. Unless your router is particularly bad or there's something wrong with it (or you're on a WLAN, at which point get a cable) you should have ample resources for MP gaming and the deciding factor is your connection and just as importantly the path your connection takes to get to the MP server. I don't know what kind of internet connection you have but depending on what it is you might have some influence over performance. As for the path you take, that's out of your hands for the most part.

[icupnimpn2]

I seem to recall a bit back that ATI did a handy little programme a couple of years back which allowed you to select which services you wanted shut off so that you could just activate that mode, then go game for a bit, and I was wondering whether there was something similar or better knocking about.

There's Game Booster 3... I have it installed but don't end up using it because the transition between "game mode" and regular desktop mode is jarring and slow. It takes time to get everything down and up.