First off, I want to thank you guys for helping me: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=118308&page=1#

I got a laptop. It was free. Specs are the first link in my sig. The 2nd laptop, well obviously I'm not running SCII on that (just the first game!)

Anyways, I got some drivers from intel (vista made me do it) and increased the virtual memory to 6127MB and increased the capacity to  12254 MB. I know that seems a bit useless, but I have the space (250GB HDD) for it. Anyways, I'm running SCII on all the lowest settings and played a few lagtastic matches against the AI (before the changes were made). What I'm wondering is, why would the performance of SCII increase after I made the previously mentioned modifications?

Laptop (got it free): Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.2 GHz; 4GB RAM; Mobile Intel 965 Express @ 358MB; Vista Home 64-bit

Wait is that the one with the intel 965 express graphics?

that's why. That's the one I have on my laptop computer (not normal gaming one), only a bit slower. And it's slow. And windows vista, I never used that... so I can't help optimize it with settings.

Wait... that's really similar to my laptop, I have a gateway T-6836 (I think, and it looks like that, and it can't run Kotor :P)

everything else should be fine.... as before I upgraded the processor. I had a 3.3 GHZ dual Core, with 4gb ram, Windows 7 Prof. With 8800 GT SLI... :P for my desktop

Meaning the dfiference between my gaming rig and your computer is basically the graphics card.

What games have you run on your computer?
I don't really play games on my laptop besides games that have compatibility problems with newer nvidia cards like planescape torment.

@2, yeah, sorry... I read the specs wrong on that laptop, before I edited.

Other than the obvious games:

StarCraft II (on lowest settings. for everything.)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on highest settings, anti-aliasing off.

Half-Life 2 on the settings it was defaulted to (high settings).

Portal on highest settings.

Halo: Combat Evolved on highest settings.

And finally Team Fortress 2 still hasn't finished updating lol.

oh wait lolz I just remembered... I have a 2.0 ghz on my laptop not 3.0 ghz dual core, that's why! Particularly with the Valve games as they are CPU intensive.

But, I'd still say it's your graphics card. Is the thing that's holding it back... someone else should confirm, or call me an idiot :P.

I'm impressed that you can run anything at all on the integrated graphics. I have a slightly faster Intel-graphics ultraportable that barely runs on all-low settings for SC2.

No idea why that setting would help.

Do you still plan to get a gaming desktop eventually, or at least a laptop with a discrete card? It's painful to think anyone would be playing new games on that.

Yes, I will be getting a gaming desktop. This gateway is just around until I get that desktop.

I also thought about attempting to swap out the integrated graphics for a Mobile Radeon HD 3800.

Unfortunately you can't. On a laptop, the graphics are soldered to the board directly and there's no real way to replace cards. Your laptop may not even have been designed to fit a discrete card.

You have to buy the laptop with the card you're going to use.

Hmm, what a shame. Thanks for the heads up Soleron. You've always have been helpful :)