Increasing Flash Game Performance (CPU or GPU?)

Report · Oct 10, 2013

I noticed that some flash games don't run that smooth on my notebook, for example:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/AntKarlov/zombotron-2-time-machine

http://www.kongregate.com/games/turboNuke/cyclomaniacs-2

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Wild_Shadow/realm-of-the-mad-god?acomplete=realm

http://www.kongregate.com/games/JuiceTin/strike-force-heroes

From what I have read in the internet, the performance of flash games mainly depend on the CPU. Since my notebook has a decent CPU, i think that Intels integrated GPU is slowing down the flash game performance. Would a good descrete GPU increase the overall flash game performance, or is it rather the CPU that would need an upgrade?

My notebook system:

CPU: i5-3230M

GPU: Intel HD graphics 4000

RAM: 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz (single channel)

Thanks for your answers!

Report · Oct 10, 2013

These are 2D games that are mostly CPU bound. What version of Flash Player are you using (Flash Player Version)? Have you tried using an alternative browser (like Chrome) to see if the performance changes?

Report · Oct 11, 2013

I experimented a bit and noticed that disabling the Windows 7 aero design causes a big performance boost in flash games: the games are not lagging anymore, and the overall frames per second rate is better (not maximum but high)!

What is the reason for the worse flash game performance while the aero design is enabled? I guess it's because this feature is quite gpu intensive, and Intels integrated gpu is rather weak? So would a better gpu maximize the possible FPS in such performance intensive flash games?

I also tested the flash game performance in other browsers. The flash player of all browsers is updated to the latest version (11.9.900.117).

average performance (lower fps rate): Firefox and Internet Explorer

good performance: Chrome (pepper flash disabled) and Maxthon Cloud Browser

best performance (pretty smooth): Flash Player 11.9 Projector