Vista - Stutter with numerous games...

...specifically "Sid Meier's Pirates!" Stutter and HDD access occurs often throughout gameplay, but it most noticable during fencing. My machine is an HP HDX16 Notebook PC (vista x64), general specs are...

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz
Ram: 4.00 GB
Display Adapters: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

What makes this issue so infuriating is that it runs fine on another desktop (vista x86) with slower processor, less ram, and older video card (also Nvidia) with no problems. I have done all the Windows, HP, Graphics card updates, to no avail. Why is it this game from 2004 with the minimum system requirements of...

Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
Pentium III or AMD Athlon 1 GHz or higher
256 MB RAM
1.4 GB hard disk space
4X CD-ROM Drive (8X Recommended)
64 MB T&L-compatible SVGA video card

...has stutter issues at all? This is not the only game that has problems, but one that I enjoy playing often and therefore notice the most. Please help!

You could try running it in campatibility mode, right click on the .exe and go to properties and compatibility. That worked for me once, stutter issue and crashing went away (Sim City).

jeremy

Thank you for the reply, I tried compatibility mode and running as administrator with no luck. The only thing that seems to work is disabling the fancy vista visual effects in the performance options window accessed via Control Panel>System>Advanced System Options then clicking the Settings button under the Advanced tab and choosing the "Adjust for best performance" under the Visual Effects tab.

It just seems kind of stupid to me though that I don't have to disable the visual effects on the older desktop (x86), but I have to on the x64 notebook. I was pretty sure this was a memory issue because when the stutter occurs the HDD light blinks on, but all thats recommended to run vista x64 is 4GB ram. I guess what I really want to know is, is this actually a memory issue, or is there some magical vista process/service that could be causing this, or is it perhpaps because im trying to run a 32bit game on a 64bit OS (would that even make a differenece?), or whatever anyone else can think of.

Your help is greatly appreciated

Some games work your hardware to its limits. Games can require more ram, faster hard drives. It all depends.

My experiences with this is back in the 8-bit days; however, its been my experience that some games practically hammer the hardware. Other games use low hardware resources.