Graphics cards

[nick_pan]

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!

[Qarinx]

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..

[Qarinx]

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...

[TygerTyger]

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.

[Qarinx]

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....

[ZyRaIN]

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 ?

[TygerTyger]

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

[nick_pan]

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

[ZyRaIN]

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

[kee-lo_]

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

[TygerTyger]

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.