Windows 7 driver issues with laptop graphics chips

General discussion about Celestia that doesn't fit into other forums.
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Chuft-Captain
Posts: 1779
Joined: 18.12.2005
With us: 18 years 11 months

Windows 7 driver issues with laptop graphics chips

Post #1by Chuft-Captain » 18.09.2009, 02:57

Hi guys,

Has anyone any experience of using the latest laptop graphics with Windows 7?

I'm currently considering a new laptop and it's a choice between 3 graphics options.

1. An ASUS laptop with Nvidia 260M graphics which will give by far the best performance, but is probably well outside my budget.

2. An HP machine with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 graphics chip (Correction: ..actually it's the HD 4650 I think), which I believe is approximately 1/2 the performance of the Nvidia chip, but a significantly cheaper machine.

3. An HP with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4530, which is by far the cheapest option, but in my mind is not the best long term investment, because that chip is a much lower performer than the other options.

(Ideally, I'd like to get a machine which is still usable in a few years time with the usual extra demands on graphics that you'd expect in that timeframe. :) )

Anyway, I have recently read some worrying comments in other forums about a current lack of driver support in Windows 7 for the Radeon HD 4670 chip. (I suspect it's probably just early days for Windows 7 drivers, but....
....here's the link: http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/15628-driver-issue-windows-7-ati-radeon-mobility-4670-a.html)
Generally I think Nvidia provides better and more timely driver support for their devices, but does anyone know if there's any current issues around Windows 7 drivers for the 260M above?

Any comments, opinions about those choices and/or Windows 7 driver issues would be greatly appreciated.

CC
"Is a planetary surface the right place for an expanding technological civilization?"
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DonAVP
Posts: 109
Joined: 01.12.2005
With us: 18 years 11 months
Location: SF BayArea

Re: Windows 7 driver issues with laptop graphics chips

Post #2by DonAVP » 16.12.2009, 03:29

From what I have read and heard NVidia is the one I would have over the ATI boards. ATI are gaming boards and work well for that purpose. Celestia is driven using Open GL 2.0. ATI does not play nice with Open GL were NVidia does. Most CAD and animation programs use Open GL. Were games are all over the place because many vendors write nonstandard code to show some special effect. I guess ATI is more open and lets folks hack it more and very few keep the libraries up-to-date in Open GL. I am sure Chris has more information he could share about this not sure if he would be willing to however.

Don
Don't know anything


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