dteowner
Shoegazer
Like sand in my crotch, so are the days of our lives. In today's episode...
OK, the internet seems to be stable now. I even took the crazy chance and had them fix my level of service back to 3Mb instead of the 1Mb I got following the most recent "reboot". We seem to be on a proper footing there.
The video card they put in last week is crap. They replaced my 8600GTS (which turns out, statistically speaking, to be a hell of a great card for being 3+ years old) with an 8400GS. They wanted to keep the service call inexpensive and quick; that was the closest thing they had on the shelf. Upon questioning, the tech told me that increasing from 256Mb digital RAM to 512 would blunt the step backwards. He was wrong. Jo and I did a little run in Reavers a few days ago and it was a complete slideshow, particularly on that snowy map. Basically unplayable, even at very low settings. If you actually start comparing stats on the 8400GS vs my old 8600GTS, it's actually not a big surprise. Oh yippee.
But!!! The repair shop has agree to give me full credit on the 8400 and I conned them into ordering me a 450GTS (based on my research, looks like a fairly decent card for the budget-conscious) to put in its place. Should be good clean living there. The new card is a doublewide and a bit of a power hog, so I'm a little nervous, but if you've ever seen the case and power supply for a Dell 720XPS you probably don't share my concerns. AND, barring further disaster, the card will be available Friday and they'll do the install while I wait.
So, in summary, I just might be back in the saddle with a functional system. Finally.
OK, the internet seems to be stable now. I even took the crazy chance and had them fix my level of service back to 3Mb instead of the 1Mb I got following the most recent "reboot". We seem to be on a proper footing there.
The video card they put in last week is crap. They replaced my 8600GTS (which turns out, statistically speaking, to be a hell of a great card for being 3+ years old) with an 8400GS. They wanted to keep the service call inexpensive and quick; that was the closest thing they had on the shelf. Upon questioning, the tech told me that increasing from 256Mb digital RAM to 512 would blunt the step backwards. He was wrong. Jo and I did a little run in Reavers a few days ago and it was a complete slideshow, particularly on that snowy map. Basically unplayable, even at very low settings. If you actually start comparing stats on the 8400GS vs my old 8600GTS, it's actually not a big surprise. Oh yippee.
But!!! The repair shop has agree to give me full credit on the 8400 and I conned them into ordering me a 450GTS (based on my research, looks like a fairly decent card for the budget-conscious) to put in its place. Should be good clean living there. The new card is a doublewide and a bit of a power hog, so I'm a little nervous, but if you've ever seen the case and power supply for a Dell 720XPS you probably don't share my concerns. AND, barring further disaster, the card will be available Friday and they'll do the install while I wait.
So, in summary, I just might be back in the saddle with a functional system. Finally.