I got a new computer kinda recently (Intel Pentium D CPU 3.20GHz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA 7900 GS) with the hopes of being able to play some of these new fangeled games I had been missing out on since my old PC decided it'd take about 5 hours to load between areas of HL2.
Out of all the new games I've tried to get running (its only been 3 games) both that have intros saying "NVIDIA - The way its meant to be played" crash, and crash hard. Weird graphical errors, random freezing, some blue screen action, its a random grab bag of junk whenever I try to play them. I've tried updating drivers, but appearently since its a Dell I can only use the ones from the Dell website? (thats what it said when I tried randomly finding ones with google atleast) Yesterday I deleted the driver and restarted so windows redownloaded the official drivers for the card, still not working.
The games that didn't run were F.E.A.R and S.T.A.L.K.E.R does my video card just not like ".'s"? Is it even my graphic card thats not working? This was my first assumption cause FEAR says it works with graphic cards that are worse, but not equal to mine. Any advice/ideas to get me up and running?
Edit: Both games were patched to the max. Havn't tried FEAR in a while, there mihgt be newer stuff I havn't tried yet. Also I get lots of sound errors, lots of static in the background and the beginning video of S.T.A.L.K.E.R has the sound off by a few seconds. The game that did work was Oblivion.
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Always go to the manufacturer. Microsoft's Windows Update drivers are often missing the OpenGL ICD entirely and are ALWAYS inadequate by their nature.
Didn't build the PC myself, nor do I really know much about the hardware side of computers, how do I check the power supply. Also if its overheating, would changing my fan fix this or is there more too it?
Oh, and you must have clicked "International" when nabbing the drivers. Here's the primary download for the English drivers:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/license/location_0605.asp?url=http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/93.71/93.71_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe
Edit: After uninstalling East Asain Language Support and restarting my computer, it still shows the NVIDIA control panel entirely in Japanese (or some other Asain Language), I'm about to be pissed off and just transfer all the files I wanna keep to my old PC and reformat this one.
Anyways, I have a 7900GT. The 7900GS is simply a refresh and is not inferior. I played STALKER at 1680x1050 with most eye candy on and it was more than playable.
"Dude, you got a Dell?"
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On my laptop though, which has a GeForce Go 7600 (256MB), 2GB RAM, and an AMD Turion 64 X2 (2.00Ghz), and EVERYTHING runs smooth. WoW on highest settings? No sweat. CS:Source? Sure! Civ 4? Golden. Vanguard? Balanced setting never drops below 45fps, even in high lag areas. Caesar 4 does choke a bit with HDR/Bloom however.