topic Re: Graphics cards in PCs & Accessories

Graphics cards

nick_pan — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:53:17 GMT

My final informative post for the time being.

Graphics cards in Sony Vaios..

The question, 'can i upgrade my gfx card?' from what I can see is one of the most popular question on this forum..
The short answer, as many of you know is NO. Graphics cards are integrated onto the motherboard and therefore cannot be changed until we start seeing PCI Express slots in laptops in a year or two..

'Are there newer drivers for my gfx card? because i can't see any listed on the sony website..'
Currently NO..as Sony seem to be quite sluggish releasing new drivers for their laptop components. As far as i know, there are a few alternatives which ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY SONY.
For example, Omega have released their ATI Catalyst drivers which support a majority of ATI's mobility range.
You can get them here; http://downloads.driverheaven.net/index4.htm

A few things to mention about these,
a) They have reportedly messed up some peoples laptops so use them at your own risk
b) dont think updated drivers = better gfx
c) this set of drivers has overclocking utilities which is extremely unwise in a laptop due to overheating issues..
If you burn out of gfx card because you've overclocked it, its highly unlikely that Sony will fix it.

The drivers that come with most sony laptops are sufficient enough, and you should stick with them until there is an official driver update for their gfx cards..

Furthermore, rather than updating the gfx cards drivers, make sure u look out official game patches, for the game u wish to play, as in my experience, these often improve game play due to glitches which the game devs have now fixed.

Also make sure that your laptop is in good order before you try play any demanding game. See this post http://www.club-vaio.sony-europe.com/clubvaio/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=11565 , which shows u how to ensure your vaio is running at peak performance..

Finally, a laptop is a laptop. In this day and age, they will never be as powerful as a desktop so dont expect superb graphics in any game that you play. Laptop graphics cards are cut down versions of desktop graphics cards. A radeon 9600 for example, is alot more powerful than the ATI Radeion Mobility edition seen in laptops..

For this reason, dont be too hopeful. I would like to add, that as long as your willing to play with your gfx options set to MEDIUM or LOW, a ATI Radeon Mobility 9200, should still allow you play some of todays most demanding games; Farcry for example..

Happy gaming!

Re: Graphics cards

nick_pan — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:54:57 GMT

Oh and USB2/Firewire external graphics cards are all myths..

They dont exist, and wont for a long time

Re: Graphics cards

nick_pan — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 17:28:31 GMT

A bit about integrated gfx cards...

Some sony Vaios come with an integrated gfx card. Its integrated on the mobo similar to other laptop gfx cards, yet it shares it memory with the systems RAM

Ie: a laptop with 256mb of ram and 64MB integrated gfx card leaves the laptop with 192mb of ram..

These integrated models are certainly not as powerful as they dont have dedicated video memory. Stock models have 64mb of memory allocated to them from the ram..
However if you up your ram, to say a 1gb, you can alter your video memory settings in the BIOS (try pressing all the Fx keys at startup) to allow the video card to occupy more of the ram. You can have up to 128mb of video memory at the cost of ram. Keep in mind that these cards are really designed for gaming and dont include a majority of the complex rendering tools of other more modern gfx cards..

Most popular integrated GFX card is the ATI Radeon 345m chip

Re: Graphics cards

TygerTyger — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 17:33:26 GMT

Great stuff Nick as per usual. I'm goin to add other subjects whenever Kee-Lo is ready after the weekend. I was planning on doing this myself I didn't actually mean to shove the whole lot on him, I was just going to give him the completed version it just seems to have happened. Anyway here's the alternative method for ATI Mobility cards:

Option 2: This is my preferred method. It worked fine when the Omegas did unpleasant things. Remember neither we, nor Sony, nor ATI will be responsible if anything happens. Don't use 3rd party drivers unless you are confident you can undo them if things go awry, and backup the registry and create a system restore point first.

First before anything else check http://www.vaio-link.com/downloads/select/select.asp?l=en and make sure there are no official driver update releases. If not....

Head over to http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html and from the list choose your operating system in the left panel, select "Graphics Driver" from the middle panel, and then choose Radeon Family from the right panel. Click 'Go' underneath and then choose whichever driver version you want from the list on the next page. It is very highly recommended you download every driver component. These are in fact desktop drivers known as Catalyst drivers, but they can be very easily adapted for laptops, hence getting the latest version.
Now download this program http://users.skynet.be/FCB/files/Dhmodtool2.0b.exe which modifies the Catalyst drivers.
The instructions for modifying are taken verbatim from http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/ (Just in case this FAQ last longer than the page does. Hah!) If you feel compelled to make a donation to the author, that page also contains information to do so.
"Extract the downloaded catalyst file to wherever you want, just remember where.
It will also try to install the driver for your card but it will prompt saying INF not found.
That's where the this tool comes in.
When you start the Mod tool, it will automatically look for a folder called C:\ATI.
If it does not find the folder, you can manually specify the path to the extracted files.
Then, and this is new in comparison with previous versions, you should select your card from the listbox.
Once that is done, the button to start the mod will appear, let the monkey push the button!
Follow the instructions on screen from here on.
Your card should now be able to install with the catalyst set.

If for some reason the installer does not install you're card try the following:
Go to the device manager, select the currently installed card and choose update driver.
Select the option to display a list of devices.
Select HAVE DISK, and specify the files under C:\ati\support\...\driver\xxx.INF
if you extracted it to the default location that is."
And you're done! Hope it worked well for you.

Re: Graphics cards

Twisted-Rizla — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 17:38:48 GMT

Great advice Nick.
Many thanks from someone who relies heavily on tips and advice like this.
Sony's aftersale service may be questionable but with dedicated member/volunteers such as yourself ( and the others, you know who you are) in the forum it helps us amateurs immensly.
Thanks again, your advice really is appreciated.

Re: Graphics cards

kee-lo_ — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 20:33:56 GMT

Oh god I have my work cut out don't I?

Great post again Nick, these FAQ posts are just what's needed.

Re: Graphics cards

nick_pan — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 21:36:39 GMT

cheers guys for your kind comments..

and thanks tyger for adding on some useful info

Thats the idea of these posts, to end up becoming a huge database of knowledge of a particular topic..

Anyway ill do another one soon so we'll end up with quite a collection..

Re: Graphics cards

Qarinx — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 21:48:45 GMT

I have a question about installing drivers, because it doesn't work on my notebook. I have a Sony Vaio PCG-FR315M with a Radeon IGC 345M and I just can't find the right driver. On de ATI site I downloaded the new drivers (Win XP > motherboard/IGC > IGC family), but when I try to install these it gives an error. I tried the "have a disk way", but my graphics card isn't listed.. so I don't know what to do. I assume that the IGC 345 isn't the same as the IGC 340, right?

I just bought the Sims2 and it doesn't run properly on my notebook. It crashes all the time! I already emailed EA games and they told me to update my driver...but how?

Re: Graphics cards

nick_pan — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:01:23 GMT

hi, sims2 is quite a demanding game for that graphics card id say..which is probably why your having problems of system instability.

this post does say that sony dont often release new drivers which is the bottom line. You can look back in this post and try the omega drivers at your own risk..or have a look at what tyger says

My advice is wait unitl an official sony release which may be in sometime unfortunately.

Are you sure you're playing the sims with all gfx settings on low?

Re: Graphics cards

William — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:08:39 GMT

I think you already have the answer in this thread, if you use an "unofficial" driver then you do so at your own risk,

Alternatively wait for a "Sony"update.

I understand your frustration concerning your gamebut thats life with the majority of laptops.

William

Re: Graphics cards

Qarinx — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:20:40 GMT

Hello again!

I'm quite disappointed actually that the Sims2 doesn't work on my notebook I never knew what the graphics card was for, but I guess that I know now..

I tried everything really.. EA games looked at my dxdiag and told me what I had to change in my settings.. but still, without the driver the game doesn't work. I don't want to install unofficial drivers and stuff, because I'm not a computer-expert and I don't know exactly what I'm doing..

Re: Graphics cards

Qarinx — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:27:52 GMT

Frustration is the right word, yes...I find it quite ironic that the only game I ever play on a computer just refuses to work!
If I knew this 7 months ago, I would not have bought this notebook...

Re: Graphics cards

TygerTyger — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:28:39 GMT

That's very sensible and I do feel sorry for you. The best thing you can do is email Sony and give them a little pressure to stop ignoring the necessity of new driver release. It may not even help but EA support can't do much until it's been tried. It really does ruin support games-wise because you have no newer drivers to try, Sony have a lot to answer for.

Re: Graphics cards

Qarinx — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:36:44 GMT

Thanx everyone for the advice..... First thing in the morning will be an email directed to Sony! Hopefully they'll just release an update, because the last one was already a year ago....

Re: Graphics cards

ZyRaIN — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:40:14 GMT

Just wondering what is the critical temperature, im playing far cry on my A117s and it gets about 50 - 52 degrees, is this very hot or how hot can i become before it gets to the point where you say it is to hot ?

Re: Graphics cards

TygerTyger — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:44:49 GMT

That's absolutely fine, no need to worry. It's got to get a lot hotter than that before it's critical.

Re: Graphics cards

nick_pan — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:52:35 GMT

Just wondering what is the critical temperature, im playing far cry on my A117s and it gets about 50 - 52 degrees, is this very hot or how hot can i become before it gets to the point where you say it is to hot ?

85 degrees is the motherboards shutdown point. ie your laptop will just turn off..

however if it gets close to that temp, WORRY

Re: Graphics cards

ZyRaIN — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:54:22 GMT

Thanks again for some great replies Im gonna continue my farcry game

Re: Graphics cards

kee-lo_ — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 16:29:28 GMT

Yes, give sony a call / e-mail.
They need to know they're hindering people, including EA.

Re: Graphics cards

TygerTyger — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 21:57:07 GMT

LOL. If they don't know that already I think we should send over an IT consultant with the spare change from your desktop model.