Never Winter Nights Question

SatanSongi · Post by **SatanSongi** » Thu Jul 04, 2002 9:47 pm

Umh ok i bought this game the other day and it runs REALLY slow even though i have over double the minimum and recommended resources. I have a 1.6ghz Pentium 4, 32MB SiS video card, 256ddr RAM, and Windows XP. No matter what i do the game runs pretty sluggish I turned all the settings down to the lowest setting. Its playable but kind of annoying when it should be running perfectly

Does anyone have any idea why its so slow? Yes i know windows xp sucks but what can i do

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 12:46 am

Have you tried updating your drivers or visiting the NWN web page?

There is a patch that may help also.

Rob-hin · Post by **Rob-hin** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 3:53 am

I'd say your pc has some problems.
I have a p3 600 with a Geforce 3, and it runs good.
(800x600 meduim/high settings)

Perhaps you should update your own drivers first, and perhaps clean up your hd. Check up on the number of programs that are running too, they can take up a lot of memory.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 4:58 am

You might want to try getting a different video card, i am not sure that the SiS vid card is supported very well.

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 5:30 pm

I too believe that the problem is on your video card, btw is your video card on board??

SatanSongi · Post by **SatanSongi** » Sat Jul 06, 2002 12:50 am

Well i downloaded new drivers and the patch (i already had that downloaded) and its still the same. Im not sure if my video card is on board or not i havnt really looked inside this computer much. But i cant afford a new video card right now

no job and no money

so i guess i can play nwn slowly or not at all

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Sat Jul 06, 2002 6:22 am

Near as I can tell, SiS only produces chipsets for motherboards, so I'll bet your video is on-board, which is probably the source of your problems. If you have any extra money, it's probably worth your while to pick up a new video card. You won't need a top-of-the-line card; I'm told it runs fine with an old GeForce 2 MX. Go check out http://www.pricewatch.com where you can pick up lots of older cards (Rage Fury Pro, GeForce 2 series, etc.) in the $30-50 range.

K0r/\/f1@k€$ · Post by **K0r/\/f1@k€$** » Sat Jul 06, 2002 3:48 pm

HELP! NWN was running fine until I tried the toolset. Now, it crashes after a couple of minutes of running. The mouse moves and music comes out, but nothing responds. Two reinstalls later, new drivers coming out of my ears and several combinations of video card drivers and patched/not patched NWN, I am still in the same situation. I am going to reformat tomorrow, but hopefully someone could tell me a simpler, less drastic solution (if formatting will actually help at all

).

I would very much appreciate any help people have to offer.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 5:53 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave
Near as I can tell, SiS only produces chipsets for motherboards, so I'll bet your video is on-board, which is probably the source of your problems. If you have any extra money, it's probably worth your while to pick up a new video card. You won't need a top-of-the-line card; I'm told it runs fine with an old GeForce 2 MX. Go check out http://www.pricewatch.com where you can pick up lots of older cards (Rage Fury Pro, GeForce 2 series, etc.) in the $30-50 range.

The only problem being that if he has onboard video the motherboard is probably devoid of an AGP slot so he would have to get a PCI card of some kind.

@Kornflakes, it might just be easier and less drastic to do a little registry editing, i would assume the toolset has conflicted with something, you could make a back up of reg and then go through the registry deleting all the things that refer to NwN or the toolset. As per always be very careful but since you are planning to reformat anyway this is one of the better alternatives. Here is an article that might help

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:02 am

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
The only problem being that if he has onboard video the motherboard is probably devoid of an AGP slot so he would have to get a PCI card of some kind.

I was at Wal-Mart last night and I saw a Visiontek Xstasy GeForce4 440 MX 64 MB video card with the PCI bus. I was under the impression that card makers were only making AGP video cards, but apparently a few people are still making PCI cards. Of course, I would expect higher-end video cards will only come in the AGP form factor, but if our friend SatanSongi is running on-board video right now, I doubt he's a graphics-junkie, so a $100 PCI video card should do him just fine.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:09 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave
I was at Wal-Mart last night and I saw a Visiontek Xstasy GeForce4 440 MX 64 MB video card with the PCI bus... I doubt he's a graphics-junkie, so a $100 PCI video card should do him just fine.

That is quite a decent card for PCI, there should be no problem with something like that, i have seen a few Prophets still doing the rounds as PCI, but that was it. Perhaps vendors have realised that not every user has a super swanky motherboard

It might require a bit of a BIOS tweak but we should be able to direct SatanSongi through that

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:16 am

I was reading some press release by SiS and they claim that their chipset will automatically cut the onboard video off if a new video card is detected. Of course, everyone knows those press releases are absolutely 100% accurate and they test their boards with every possible hardware configuration before issuing a press statement like that, but if the board works like it's supposed to, SatanSongi should be able to install a new video card relatively pain-free (that is, once he gets past paying for the card itself).

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:31 am

Out of interest, is there no way SatanSongi could disable the onboard graphics? I was able to do this with onboard sound...

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:36 am

He would have to check his BIOS, but there is probably a way to disable them like there is to disable onboard sound. The problem with doing that is if you shut them down and your new video card doesn't work, you can't get any VGA output to change your BIOS back (except to pull out the mobo battery and reset all of your BIOS settings). The way I read the SiS press release I'm talking about is that the BIOS will automatically turn the onboard video off if another video card is detected, but I suspect that there is probably a way to shut the video down manually, too.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:44 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave
I was reading some press release by SiS and they claim that their chipset will automatically cut the onboard video off if a new video card is detected.

I am cynical

The problem with that system is if it does not auto switch off they might not have a manual switch off

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:48 am

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
The problem with that system is if it does not auto switch off they might not have a manual switch off

I have run into this before; a friend of mine wanted to put a Voodoo3 card into his K-6/2 machine, but we couldn't find a way to disable the onboard video, so he had to return it. Still, there's no harm in picking up a video card from Wal-Mart; they have one of the most liberal return policies around, so if it doesn't work, SatanSongi can just return it and get his money back.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 7:21 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave
they have one of the most liberal return policies around, so if it doesn't work, SatanSongi can just return it and get his money back.

Doesn't one have to pay in cash though? I am actually using an LCD monitor from ALDI, it works perfectly and was dirt cheap

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 7:39 am

It depends; if you pay with a charge card, they'll credit your account. If you pay with cash or a check, they'll refund you the money up to a certain dollar amount, otherwise they'll issue you store credit.

:: pauses for dramatic effect::

I have just had a panacea in my life; I know waaayyyy too much about Wal-Mart's return policy. Someone please get me a life.

Weasel · Post by **Weasel** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 7:47 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave

I have just had a panacea in my life; I know waaayyyy too much about Wal-Mart's return policy. Someone please get me a life.

Want to meet my sister..

She is a assistant manager at Walmart.

(They will except returns at all stores as well..buy it in Florida and you can return it in Alabama)

SatanSongi · Post by **SatanSongi** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 12:56 pm

Yeah i am not a graphics junkie ^_^ i actually like 2d games better than 3d games. The only reason i bought NwN is because im a big fan of baldurs gate 1 and 2 and icewind dale. When i manage to find enough money to buy a card ill ask for more help

theres no telling how long that will be though...