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Forums > Home› Support› PC, Network, and Other Technical Issues› Windows and General: PC, Network, and Other Technical Issues

discrete graphics worse than intel?

wuubbwuubb Member Posts: 24 Arc User
edited January 2014 in Windows and General: PC, Network, and Other Technical Issues
so ever since i got STO ive been playing it on my toshiba laptop, which is nothing fancy, just your regular laptop with a core i5 and intel integrated graphics. to me, the graphics are fairly good for not having a discrete GPU.

a friend of mine recently got a new computer and let me buy his Dell Precision WorkStation T3500 from him. it has Xeon processor and an nVIDIA GPU. i decided to see if the STO graphics would be better on the desktop cause of the GPU vs intel. however, the game is very pixelated and grainy, not smooth like it is on the laptop which surprises me. is there some setting im missing or something?
Post edited by wuubb on

Comments

  • grouchyotakugrouchyotaku Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    He's probably missing the DX9/DX11 compatible drivers for his graphic systems... Xeon based systems are usually designed for Unix/Linux based O.S. for use in CAD/CAM work, and are not designed to be gaming machines...
  • norobladnoroblad Member Posts: 2,624 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    Specifics. What nvidia GPU? Did you update the driver? Did you try to adjust the graphics settings? Is the screen resolution correct (if you have the wrong resolution, everything looks awful, you need a multiple of the native screen res, and best is the actual screen res, also refresh rate needs to be correct). Nvidia tends to install junkware that can meddle with your graphics settings system wide, helping you to get the best settings, but you still may need to mash buttons inside each major game you play to get them to look right. I think STO has a button to attempt to automatically pick better settings, but I forget.

    It also matters if you run STO windowed or full screen. Both work fine, but you may find one or the other looks better with your current settings, and have to tinker to get it to look right on your preferred setting. Other apps can mess with STO, esp in windowed mode; when I open 3-4 games at once, sometimes the STO graphics get messed up and I have to either restart STO or sometimes minimize/maximize will clear it up.

    Anyway, the odds are very high that your issue can be fixed with some sort of software tinkering.
  • castsbugccastsbugc Member Posts: 830 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    yeah, keep in mind, there is a fair chance that his workstation is a quadro NVS, which is not really a graphics card at all. And I dont think they give that line a beefy PSU either, so if you want to get above a Nvidia 200 series, you are going to need to slap a new one of those in there.

    Fine for spreadsheets, not so much of STO
  • norobladnoroblad Member Posts: 2,624 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    grouchyotaku wrote: »
    He's probably missing the DX9/DX11 compatible drivers for his graphic systems... Xeon based systems are usually designed for Unix/Linux based O.S. for use in CAD/CAM work, and are not designed to be gaming machines...

    I would respectfully disagree. I find that cad type machines usually have excellent 3-d graphics hardware and are quite well set up for gaming. Now, if it is running a hobby OS, that could be the problem, agreed, I assumed it was running actual windows.... if the machine is on linux, that would be a very important detail!
  • hevachhevach Member Posts: 2,777 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    Half resolution is finicky and sometimes turns itself on when it shouldn't. Sometimes the option for it also won't respond, in which case you have to enter the /renderscale 1 command in the chat line.
  • castsbugccastsbugc Member Posts: 830 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    Im just guessing here, based on what Dell recommends you can put in the machine, but it might be a quadro 2000 (you can of course tell us what the card is :) ) and this is how it stacks up:
    http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Quadro+2000
  • wuubbwuubb Member Posts: 24 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    ok, it is a Quadro NVS 295, and i did update the drivers from nVIDIA, but that didnt really help as far as i can tell. not sure about the directx stuff...
  • eazzieeazzie Member Posts: 4,230 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    wuubb wrote: »
    ok, it is a Quadro NVS 295, and i did update the drivers from nVIDIA, but that didnt really help as far as i can tell. not sure about the directx stuff...

    Did you check about the half res? if not follow the instructions by hevach
  • castsbugccastsbugc Member Posts: 830 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    yeah taking a look, the 295 quadro benchmarks in the same class as a nvidia 6700 series card, which if I recall is at the bare minimum system requirements at this point...
    http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Quadro+NVS+295
  • tekehdtekehd Member Posts: 2,032 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    Yes, Quadro NVS 295 is a bit dated of a card at this point, it's basically at the low end towards bare minimum requirements for STO.
  • castsbugccastsbugc Member Posts: 830 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    on a plus side, you have a 525w psu in that thing, so you can easily put something nicer in there like a gtx 650 or comparable
  • shadowwraith77shadowwraith77 Member Posts: 6,395 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    castsbugc wrote: »
    on a plus side, you have a 525w psu in that thing, so you can easily put something nicer in there like a gtx 650 or comparable

    For a cheaper cost I can recommend a Galaxy NVidia GeForce GTX 560 as a good quality low cost GPU. Hasn't done me wrong yet in 2+years I have used it! :)
    tumblr_nq9ec3BSAy1qj6sk2o2_500_zpspkqw0mmk.gif


    Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!

  • wuubbwuubb Member Posts: 24 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    hevach wrote: »
    Half resolution is finicky and sometimes turns itself on when it shouldn't. Sometimes the option for it also won't respond, in which case you have to enter the /renderscale 1 command in the chat line.

    for the 1st one is that in-game or in the GPU control panel?
  • jeffel82jeffel82 Member Posts: 2,075 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    wuubb wrote: »
    for the 1st one is that in-game or in the GPU control panel?

    That's an in-game problem. In STO's video options, there's a check box for "Half Resolution." As suggested, you can also type /renderscale 1 in the in-game chat box to see if that clears up any problems.
    You're right. The work here is very important.
    tacofangs wrote: »
    ...talking to players is like being a mall Santa. Everyone immediately wants to tell you all of the things they want, and you are absolutely powerless to deliver 99% of them.
  • daedalus304daedalus304 Member Posts: 1,049 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    check and see if his vid settings have "Half Res/half resolutions" checked off.

    its the way the game started out for me way back when, never knew why untill I accidentally unchecked it.
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