From the very beginning i immediately had problems with this game and for every potential problem i would overcome i would face the next one, then the next one, then the next one....
For the last 3/4 days i have gone from start up crashes all the way to artifacts with black squares, constant freezing, cpu's at 100% and the list goes on. I have checked every day doing all the driver updates, config files, creating the cache folder even enabling and disabling catalyst A.I(yes i have an ATI card). I know there were issues in particular with ATI/AMD cards but with the most recent 11.10 preview 2 drivers is it wishful thinking to expect decent stability with this game?
I guess the statement wishful thinking will make more sense if i say that i am using a laptop that i hoped would run rage at a decent frame rate after passing min-spec(i know this rarely means isssh) but i mean i've played all sorts of games and been able to run them good enough to have fun. e.g. TW2, deus ex:hr, crysis 2, crysis, dead island, f.e.a.r 3 etc etc. My point is i should at least be able to scraqe the barrel in graphics(low settings) for this game and get a decent fps. My specs are: intel 2.2Ghz C2D, 4gb ram, ATI mobility radeon hd 4500 series, win7 pro 64 bit.
I'm a computing student but, to be honest, i'm quite noobish when it comes to overcoming hardware specific matters such as this and i really would like some help to at least get this to a SOLID frame rate and stable. Currently, after hard work all weekend(thank you for all the helpful topics thus far community!

note: i've put whatever lines i thought were needed from following other topics.
seta com_videoRam "512" //Memorysize of your CrafikCard (512, 1024, 2048 aso.)
seta g_showplayershadow "1" //Shadows
seta image_anisotropy "4" //Anisotropische Filter (2x or 4x, at bigger settings you could became problems)
seta image_usecompression "0" //no Texture Compression
seta image_lodbias "-1" //LoD Setting ?
seta image_useCache "1" //Makes Textures not Plopping
seta image_cacheMegs "1024" //Cache Size in MB
seta image_cacheMinK "256" //min Cache in KB
seta m_smooth "0" //better mouse speed
seta vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly2 "8192" //for better textures
seta vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly "8192" //for better textures
seta vt_pageimagesizeunique "8192" //for better textures
seta vt_maxPPF "8" //better streaming of textures (8 für dual/tripplecores CPU's, 16 if your CPU more than 3 cores like quadcore)
seta vt_lodBias "-1" //just helps
seta vt_minlod "-1" //just helps
seta vt_preload "1"
seta vt_useCache "1"
seta vt_cacheMegs "1024"
seta vt_cacheMinK "50"
seta vt_ignoreHighQuality "1"
seta vt_ignoreLowQuality "0"
seta vt_maxaniso "2" //maximum Anisotropische Filter Megatextur (2x or 4x)
& i have already made the id software\rage subfolders in appdata\local also.
my launch options after the "rage.exe" in the target field of my RAGE shortcut are: +cvaradd jobs_numThreads -1 +com_skipIntroVideo 1 +vt_maxPPF 8
note: I have found if i change numThreads value to 0 or 1 i get a slideshow in game. ALSO both my cores are at 100% when rage runs although my GPU does get used also.
So there you have it. Am i asking too much for this game to just work? I was highly anticipating it but considering most of you guys have killer rigs; is this just wishful thinking that i think RAGE should be playable for me when people with monster setups are having problems?
EDIT: just adding that my in game settings are AA = 2x, AF = high, TC = large, vsync = on. In catalyst triple buffering = off and vsync always on. everything else use app settings except fir mipmap detail lvl = high quality - hope this is enough info lol
Any help is much appreciated and thanks in advance.