So I have a decent laptop that can play most games (Starcraft 2, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2) pretty smoothly. With Tribes, though, I get choppy framerates on the lowest settings. I know the game is not optimized well, but will that be fixed in a future patch or something, or is the game just going to be poorly optimized and I just need to deal with it?

@Pobearo: I was having the same problem until this morning. Performance was still poor even at lowest settings. For some reason Tribes was using my integrated graphics card

on my laptop instead of my Nvidia GTM555. Simply right clicked on the launcher and selected launch with Nvidia........ Not sure if this will work for you but it sounds like the same problem.

I have a 6950 and I didn't play for a few weeks only to come back and enjoy very inconsistent frame rate at any setting. I really hope they are working on optimizing it, because I've kinda quit playing because it runs like crap for me right now.

@emem: I' have had a steady 40fps on high since I figured out the problem was Tribes was using the wrong graphics cards for some reason. Laptops use the integrated graphics for non demanding things like browsing etc to preserve power. Once I changed the default it worked fine. Seems to be the problem for OP aswell because his/her card should easily run the game at mid/high settings.

When I right click there is no "Launch with NVIDIA" option, although I do have an Nvidia graphics card. Is there any other way to change it?

Update: I changed my INI settings a lot, aiming for maximum frames per second, and It works great for like the first four minutes of my first match, at which point it just gets choppier and choppier until I bottom out at about 4 frames per second. Any idea what that's about?

@Pobearo: This was already mentioned, but my roomate was getting choppy gameplay on the lowest settings on his laptop. Turns out the game was using his integrated card rather than discrete. Wouldn't be surprised if this was an issue for you as well. Different laptop manufacturers have different methods for switching graphics, so I would suggest checking into power options or going into the Nvidia/AMD control panel.

@ADAMWD: I've been using the maximum performance settings, so power settings aren't the issue. If it is indeed using the incorrect graphics card how do I change it to use my preferred card? I don't have the option of right clicking and selecting "run with nvidia" so I really don't know what else to do.

@Pobearo: What type of laptop do you have?

@ADAMWD: http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&partNumber=VPCCW21FX/L

@Pobearo: I'm pretty sure that laptop doesn't have switchable graphics, so that probably isn't the issue. I'm not too sure what to suggest other than messing with settings to try and get the game running smoothly, consistently.

Games can often start losing frames if your GPU is overheating. How old is the laptop? Have you cleaned out the dust with a can of compressed air since you bought it?

Other than that, probably just a bad driver. Can't think of anything else that would cause this.

@Vitor: My computer actually does have dust-related heating issues, so that sounds like my best bet. I'll get on it, thanks!

@Pobearo: If your FPS suddenly drops in other games also for no apparent reason, then that's your best bet. I wouldn't play anything until you get that sorted - the dropped frames are from your GPU downclocking itself because the temperature is getting dangerously high. Prolonged usage can permanently damage your card.

I had the same problem. One can of compressed air later, my temps had dropped dramatically.

Run something like CPUID Hardware Monitor and measure your temps before/after gaming. If they get to above 85 Celsius when gaming, you likely have an issue. It'll also show the voltage of the card - if that drops for any reason, it's your BIOS kicking in and throttling your GPU to save it from burning out.

Update: Went to my campus computer repair center and they blasted a literal shit-ton of dust out, and that seems to have done the trick. Thanks for the words of wisdom!

@Pobearo said:

Update: Went to my campus computer repair center and they blasted a literal shit-ton of dust out, and that seems to have done the trick. Thanks for the words of wisdom!

Yeah, surprising how much stuff can get stuck in there. Glad you solved the issue!

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but I've heard that using a compressed air can actually can blow dust back into the laptop? Any clarification on this? Thanks