I was hoping to find a concise checklist on steps to ENSURE that a laptop (or PC) is correctly and optimally configured to play FTB Ultimate with no lag and high FPS, but I did not come across what I was looking for. Hoping to reach out to you pros out there and would sincerely appreciate advice. 
In the end, I am also hoping that this post serves as that very checklist that will help others as well.
After you read below, you may recommend that I upgrade to a new laptop to play FTB Ultimate. I will if I absolutely have to, but that is my worst case scenario. My current laptop jumps between 0 and 15 FPS, which is annoying and completely unacceptable. Plays minecraft vanilla better but not fantastic.
Maybe my current laptop is fine. I am not super-tecchy, so what I need help on is really: 1) knowing and understanding what component(s) of a PC or laptop makes a difference in increasing my FPS/ decreasing lag and making playing FTB Ultimate 'smooth', and 2) making SURE my laptop or PC is configured correctly: optifine installed and correct version used, confirming that 64 bit version of java is being used if on a 64 bit machine, that my vid card is being used and not the integrated card, correct buggy modpacks uninstalled (if necessary), etc, etc, etc. I HAVE tried all of these to the best of my ability, but to no avail. It is starting to get over my head and frustrating.
My current Laptop Specs:
Acer Aspire 4750G
64-bit OS (Windows 7)
Intel® Core™ i3-2310M processor (3 MB L3 cache, 2.10 GHz, DDR3 1333 MHz, 35 W)
2Gb NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M with NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology (2048/1024 MB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM)
8g ram Dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM
750GB HDD
So, let's set a benchmark. I read somewhere that 25 FPS is the minimum acceptable level. If this is the case...
1. Is my Nvidia video card good enough?
2a. If so, how do I ensure that it is being used, and not my integrated card, or that they conflict?
2b. What is a minimum level video card have to be (nvidia, and other common namebrands...)
3. What version of Optifine should I be using? I know that it has to correspond with the version of FTB Ultimate I am using...
4. How do I ensure that Optifine is being used (aside from it simply being in my mods.jar list)? What folder does the Optifine file need to be located in?
5. Within the FTB game, what specific settings should I drop down to increase performance/ smooth gameplay?
6. What should the allocated memory be set to in the FTB launcher?
7. How much RAM should I have/ what kind of RAM?
8. How powerful of a processor should I have?
9. How much of a difference does 2 cores vs 4 cores make?
10. How would having a SSD help, if at all?
12. Does being on wifi vs plugged in have any influence?
13. Other processes that should not be running in the background on your machine (obviously nothing resource intensive..)?
A laptop I am looking at below. Will this, and by how much, alleviate my issues?
Asus Laptop
Windows 8
Intel Core i7-3630QM, 2.4 GHz
8GB DDR3 RAM 1600Mhz
2GB Nvidia GT610 vid card
If there are other questions that I should be asking, please let me know and feel free to offer up the advice.
Thanks in advance for the help! Hopefully this will bring together all of the right things to do, and not to do, for FTB users to ensure that their gameplay experience is great.
In the end, I am also hoping that this post serves as that very checklist that will help others as well.After you read below, you may recommend that I upgrade to a new laptop to play FTB Ultimate. I will if I absolutely have to, but that is my worst case scenario. My current laptop jumps between 0 and 15 FPS, which is annoying and completely unacceptable. Plays minecraft vanilla better but not fantastic.
Maybe my current laptop is fine. I am not super-tecchy, so what I need help on is really: 1) knowing and understanding what component(s) of a PC or laptop makes a difference in increasing my FPS/ decreasing lag and making playing FTB Ultimate 'smooth', and 2) making SURE my laptop or PC is configured correctly: optifine installed and correct version used, confirming that 64 bit version of java is being used if on a 64 bit machine, that my vid card is being used and not the integrated card, correct buggy modpacks uninstalled (if necessary), etc, etc, etc. I HAVE tried all of these to the best of my ability, but to no avail. It is starting to get over my head and frustrating.
My current Laptop Specs:
Acer Aspire 4750G
64-bit OS (Windows 7)
Intel® Core™ i3-2310M processor (3 MB L3 cache, 2.10 GHz, DDR3 1333 MHz, 35 W)
2Gb NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M with NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology (2048/1024 MB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM)
8g ram Dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM
750GB HDD
So, let's set a benchmark. I read somewhere that 25 FPS is the minimum acceptable level. If this is the case...
1. Is my Nvidia video card good enough?
2a. If so, how do I ensure that it is being used, and not my integrated card, or that they conflict?
2b. What is a minimum level video card have to be (nvidia, and other common namebrands...)
3. What version of Optifine should I be using? I know that it has to correspond with the version of FTB Ultimate I am using...
4. How do I ensure that Optifine is being used (aside from it simply being in my mods.jar list)? What folder does the Optifine file need to be located in?
5. Within the FTB game, what specific settings should I drop down to increase performance/ smooth gameplay?
6. What should the allocated memory be set to in the FTB launcher?
7. How much RAM should I have/ what kind of RAM?
8. How powerful of a processor should I have?
9. How much of a difference does 2 cores vs 4 cores make?
10. How would having a SSD help, if at all?
12. Does being on wifi vs plugged in have any influence?
13. Other processes that should not be running in the background on your machine (obviously nothing resource intensive..)?
A laptop I am looking at below. Will this, and by how much, alleviate my issues?
Asus Laptop
Windows 8
Intel Core i7-3630QM, 2.4 GHz
8GB DDR3 RAM 1600Mhz
2GB Nvidia GT610 vid card
If there are other questions that I should be asking, please let me know and feel free to offer up the advice.
Thanks in advance for the help! Hopefully this will bring together all of the right things to do, and not to do, for FTB users to ensure that their gameplay experience is great.