NWN & Graphic Cards [Post & Review your Rigs]

[Legacy_Just-Me]

               IMO, the biggest elephant of all is the public addiction to constant, instant communication, for almost no reason other than a massive psychological lack of self confidence and resultant inability to pursue solitary thought processes.  Smart phones are the crutches of those emotional cripples, and preference for tablet form computing.  Public immaturity will eventually kill off X86 computing for the home. 

nVIDIA is already exiting the X86 market within the next 3-4 years.  Business will continue to support Windows (pre Win8) and X86 desktops, but there aren't enough game players choosing high end PC games to be profitable for a company that relies on the X86 market for profits; the most money is the bottom end, which both Intel and AMD have taken away by including basic graphics in almost all of their CPUs (and AMD also includes beginner game quality for older, lower demand, games). 
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Just-Me, 29 octobre 2012 - 12:29 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Tim.G]

               I got the Asus 3.4 ghz running a new copy of NWN from Gog with the EVGA 9800GT.  The FPS in the secret forge from Darkness Over Daggerford is about 80 versus the much slower processor HP at 45 fps.  I got the GTX280 in but it is much larger than I was expecting and takes more power supply than I have.  There's a bigger case with a high zoot power supply in the closet but no idea what other parts are there.  I'll play with it at some point.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               Thats an interesting point @Just-Me and i couldnt have said it better about these braindamaged and I-always-tell-anything-in-public people even they just smelled their own fart...

There is very little hope that this will change because the younger generations are born with this spirit of the time and the media and corporations do everything to manipulate them from the git-go...Some times i realy wish to take some idiot his stupid phone away and smash it on his head you know... you sit right next to a nobody and you have to hear his stories and things like "hey....i´m sitting in the train and you?"

All this makes me realize for the first time i´m getting old and lost the connection somehow and it feels good;)
               
               

               

                     Modifié par NWN_baba yaga, 30 octobre 2012 - 09:02 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Tim.G]

               I put the ASUS 3.4 w/ the 9800gt on our LG 47" flatscreen at home with an HDMI cable and got close 100 FPS with custom content (latest release of Eye of the Beholder by Dark).  I really liked the giant screen but oddly I think the monitor makes a better gaming experience.  The resolution was 1920x and  1440x I think.
My guess is that processor speed makes a big difference but can't make up for a poor graphics card.  None of the low profile cards that I have can compare with the full sized cards for performance
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tim.G]

               Crash!!!!!
Because I am stupid I took one of the Dell 3.4 Ghz that had an FX380 LP Quadro (generally 30-50 FPS on my favorite test screen) and put that GT430 in it's place because what harm could it do?  Well, it did a lot as the GT430 couldn't even match 30fps so I put the FX380lp back in and something went wrong.  Now the best I can get is 11fps.  I tried rolling back the drivers and deleting all the Nvidia stuff and re-installing but after a day and a half I still don't have any success to show.  I can't get the add/remove programs software to remove the Nvidia software and I think I have mutiple drivers in place but can't clear it out.  I wish I had left it alone
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tim.G]

               I came up with an unorthodox solution to my messed up Dell,  I bought a new Asus Win7 3.4 ghz system and added a refurb GTX280 with a Thermaltake 750w power supply.  Initial testing last night indicates that it is a monster.  I used the latest non beta Nvidia drivers 306something.  One thing I noticed though was that during the flash screens at the beginning you can't click through them too quickly or it fails.  It takes a minute to get through the screens.  Once it is in the game it really does well.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gorath Alpha]

               When new, The GTX 280 was a killer graphics card.  Given that nVIDIA is now concentrating on their still newer GTX 400, 500, and 600 GPUs, you will need to be wary (same as with a GT 9800) about automatically expecting every newest graphics driver to still work with the card, and with any games as old as this one now is.   
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tim.G]

               I bought a second GTX 280 (apparently the last one that they had at NewEgg) just to have a spare.  Lucky thing as my wife's Dell 8400 (very old) had an X1300 512mb card that couldn't keep up with 4 players in Dark's Eye of the Beholder.  I installed the spare with a 650watt Ultra power supply.  On the toughest screen (foggy area by Dwarven pit) the FPS went from 8-12 to 60-100.  This PC was bought in 2004 and is a single core 3.2ghz with XP Pro.  I am amazed at how good it is doing with the new parts
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gorath Alpha]

               

Tim.G wrote...

I bought a second GTX 280 (apparently the last one that they had at NewEgg) just to have a spare.  Lucky thing as my wife's Dell 8400 (very old) had an X1300 512mb card that couldn't keep up with 4 players in Dark's Eye of the Beholder.  I installed the spare with a 650watt Ultra power supply.  On the toughest screen (foggy area by Dwarven pit) the FPS went from 8-12 to 60-100.  This PC was bought in 2004 and is a single core 3.2ghz with XP Pro.  I am amazed at how good it is doing with the new parts

Video Graphics cards have ALWAYS been the most important part of gaming PCs, but Intel keeps trying to convince everyone that CPUs are more important.  

I have made the 512 MB part of your comment stand out because it is so totally meaningless for an X1300, or a G-210, etc to have more than 128 MBs of VRAM.  

They are both way too slow, and have far too narrow (64 bit) of a memory system transfer width.  On a normal basis, they use 64 MB size texture units, and extremely rarely can swap two blocks that size back and forth, putting 128 MBs to work.  Anything past that is totally wasted at gaming animation rates.   Manufactrurers know that large numbers mislead the average customers, so they get a lot of the cheapest, lowest quality VRAM, and pile it on thick.  

If you really want 512 MBs of VRAM to be properly used, you get a solution with a 256 bit memory system, and / or very fast memory matched to a very fast core speed.  
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jpnole]

               AMD X4 965
Crossfired Gigabyte 6850s (haven't tried disabling)
Win 7 64
8 GB ram
1920x1080 24" Acer monitor

I have NWNCQ, NWShader, latest CEP & Community patch all running. Game looks and plays great. My only issue so far is NPCs can't be heard past the intro dialogue yet their heads shake and lips still move. Can't tell if this is normal or if I have sound issues.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TimG]

               Since Dark's sequel to Eye of the Beholder is available for playtest I have been trying to squeeze in some gaming time and that's meant some computer repair.  I got a used GTX295 from ebay for my I7 2600 Systemax and it is the best NWN experience that I have had except for the PC at work which has a GTX670 with all kinds of extras.  I got another GTX295 used for Pam's Dell and have been working on getting it together but it's had a string of problems.  The new power supply she got for the GTX280 died (covered under warranty).  Then the CPU fan quit (got one on ebay) and now a RAM chip has failed (removed chip, got it going, ordered new from Newegg).  If the PC holds together I may try to upgrade the processor but I am starting to think that it won't last forever...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_T0r0]

               Thinking about upgrading my amd drivers on my video card. Wanted to know if there are any specific reasons not to.
Think the latest catalyst is 13.xx.
I currently have 10.xx.  And tho I normally wouldn't change something that isn't broke, I do have other programs that would benefit from newer drivers.

Win 7 64,  with 955x4 amd CPU
Hd 5870

Basically i'm just looking for confirmation of petiole with the latest drivers having no problems
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TimG]

               The old Dell isn't going to make it from the looks of things.  Tiger Direct has a CyberPower with a GTX770 that looks pretty good.  I hate to see the Dell go but I'm spending more time repairing than playing!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_werelynx]

               Radeon HD7850 on XP SP3

Awful, game lags, metallic parts are see-through and antyaliasing seems to be turned off. Unplayable '>

See also: http://social.biowar...396319#17396319

So far couldn't find solution, so I discourage you from buying this card, especially if you have XP like me '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gorath Alpha]

               The fact of the matter is that an AMD Radeon HD 7850 is an excellent GPU.  The drivers may leave something to be desired when playing in Open GL games such as KotOR and NWN1, but that has been true since about a year, maybe two years, from the game's release.  The Radeon X1nnn generation was the last series of cards for which almost all of the (then-ATI) drivers worked well for NWN1.  

Another Bioware game, Mass Effect, goes the other way.  It is very Radeon-specific, and a huge percentage of Geforce drivers have always failed to run ME-1.