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Posts Tagged ‘nVidia’

22
Nov

Looking for a new laptop

   Posted by: wtf_dragon    in Site News

Actually, it would be somewhat more correct to say that I’m looking for a new computer system in general. My current tower is a Pentium 4 (2.66 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 512 MB Radeon HD3850) and my current laptop is a Powerbook G4 (1 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM, 32 MB nVidia GeForce Go 5200). They’re both old systems (both date to around 2003 or 2004, in fact), and while the Pentium 4 still holds its own for most things, the Powerbook is definitely getting long in the teeth. It still serves well for most things, but I notice that it’s slowing down as the months and software versions roll on.

Actually, the Powerbook is moving at the same speed as always; it’s the applications that are slowing down; later (more modern) software versions tend to be just a wee bit more resource intensive than previous versions, and more developers are beginning to simply drop support for the G4 series of processors in favour of Intel-exclusive applications. The last G4s were released in 2005; it’s already been over three years since Apple switched from PowerPC chips to Intel chips.

The most recent and relevant example of software evolving beyond the capabilities and hardware of the Powerbook is, unfortunately, my favourite piece of software: Adobe Lightroom. Version 3 of Lightroom will run reasonably well on my Pentium 4, apparently…but the Mac version only supports Intel-based Macs.

I suppose I could just get by on the Pentium 4, rather than investing in new hardware. But then, I don’t usually have a lot of time to sit down at home and work on photos. More to the point, in my day-to-day routine and career, I tend to lead a fairly “mobile” life, one that rather lends itself to (and is suited by) the use of a portable computer. There’s also the matter of my plan to return to school in September, to become a teacher. I am reliably informed that having a laptop — and then one that can run Windows, unfortunately — is practically a requirement (in this province, at least).

At the same time, I’d like to find something that can run OS X, Apple’s operating system, as well. Granted, when we’re talking about non-Apple hardware, that requires the use of hackint0sh tools…but that’s a length I’d be willing to go to.

So I have been looking at…possibilities. Which is actually a lot more difficult than I would have expected. The main concerns I have in selecting a new laptop are battery life and LCD quality; I’d like to find something with decent battery life and a screen that offers a decent contrast ratio and good colour. It’s this latter point that’s often problematic, especially when one is looking for a laptop — most laptops tend to have…er…sub-par screens.
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15
May

Video card woes

   Posted by: wtf_dragon    in Site News

So I have a conundrum.

Suspecting that the source of my Windows computer’s instability might be the existing video card (a Radeon 9600 XT), I went and picked up a Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 — pretty much the most powerful AGP graphics card in existence today. (ATI has always been my preferred brand.)

Anyhow, I installed the card and its drivers, and proceeded to test out Neverwinter Nights. That’s where the trouble started: NWN crashed, every time. I did some digging, and found a few hints in various places that the issue may have something to do with ATI’s Catalyst software — certain versions of the control center application evidently conflict with NWN, for example.

Things got worse when I tried to switch Catalyst versions (Sapphire ships the card with what I believe is Catalyst 8.4). Reverting to Catalyst 7.11 (apparently a very stable version) was no help: the driver didn’t support the card. Installing the Omega Drivers — which use Catalyst 7.12 — didn’t work, and for the same reason.

Installing the Catalyst 9.4 update/hotfix from Sapphire didn’t improve things any. And to add insult to injury, the Cayalyst drivers that can be downloaded directly from ATI’s website actually don’t support the card in question (it’s a relatively new card from Sapphire: AGP support and 512 MB of DDR3 memory).

Nothing seems to make NWN work. Which is a pain, as I’d hoped to start work on a new idea that would have greatly benefitted from the enhanced performance the HD 3850 promises.

A bit more searching today furnished me with downloads, from Sapphire, of Catalyst 8.7 through 8.9, and I’m hoping one of these will do the trick. Failing that, I plan to try reinstalling NWN, to see if that could somehow be the issue. I’ve already tried the critical rebuild patch for NWN 1.69.

Failing THAT, I’m thinking of maybe trading the card in for an eVGA nVidia GeForce 6200 LE and another 1GB stick of DDR RAM (this doubling what the system is currently equipped with).

nVidia cards apparently play nicer with BioWare games in general, although the 6200 is not as powerful, by a fair bit, as the HD 3850.

In the end, though, raw power is less important to me than that NWN runs, preferably at a frame rate in excess of 30 at a resolution with at least 600 pixels vertically (720 preferred) on a 16:9 monitor.

Thoughts? Should I even waste time on the HD 3850, or should I just swap it for the 6600 and the RAM? Has anyone else had this issue before and resolved it successfully?

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