K thanx.

I wound up going with a GTX 1650, stocked by Best Buy. Because I noticed that card from Newegg is not Nvidia, it is a company called GPVHOSO (I think). Is GPVHOSO as good as Nvidia? Maybe, maybe not. Not taking any chances though.

Weird that GPVHOSO uses Nvidia numbers & letters to designate their stock, in fact I noticed a bunch of third-party companies do this. Maybe this is a sales trick to fool fools like me. Almost worked! Or maybe it's just their way of saying "our product is is equivalent to Nvidia's version if you purchase our (fill in stock number here)."

This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 7 2024, 06:14 PM

Finally got the new graphics card running but there are probs. I'll just focus on two of them.

1). My computer defaulted to max resolution: 1920 x 1080 with the new card, which is wrong. A bunch of icons were getting pushed offscreen, most of all. Should be 1360 x 768. So I changed it. Either way, everything looks really jagged on the desktop. Icons are too small, as well. I dunno how to put it; everything just looks bad.

Here is a screenshot with old card (the way it should be)

Here is a screenshot with new card (Baaad!)

Actual gaming is okay, if a bit off. Everything is sized correctly, at least.


2). But it's sunny today, which means some Fallout 3. So I try to start that game. "An error occurred while installing Fallout 3 "no internet connection". Thing is, the game is already installed. It's been this way for years. Why would swapping a graphics card mess this up?

This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 14 2024, 07:07 PM

It probably changed your screen magnification if icons are too small. Which Windows version are you running? Check Settings -> System -> Display. There should be a setting to scale your desktop there.

As to why Fallout decided to reinstall itself... Swapping a graphics card is a big thing for a game, actually. May be it is programmed to install different shaders for this card?

Yes, this helped. Good gosh PCs have so many options I don't even know about. But anyway, everything's sized correctly now.



Hey, you would know better than me! This is probably the reason. Right now I've got a headache though. Mess with the game later.

1 - 1920 x 1080 is probably the native resolution on your monitor. It has been pretty standard for the last decade or more. Typically video cards will want to default to the native resolution of whatever monitor they are connected to. When you use a different resolution, the image can get fuzzy or distorted in appearance. When you go to set your resolution and it gives you list to choose one, the one that says: (Recommended) next to it will be the native resolution.

In any case, whenever you change your resolution, the icons on your desktop will be moved around a little when that happens. That is normal. Just move them back to where you want. Unless the icons are too small to see, I would suggest keeping it at 1920 x 1080. You have a lot more screen space that way.

2 - The Fallout thing is an entirely different issue. It is saying you have no internet connection. Which is ironic, considering that you posted this on the internet. Maybe your internet was down when you tried to start Fallout? Is your copy of Fallout from Steam? A google search implies that this is a common issue with Steam games when they cannot connect to Steam. If it persists, you could try setting it to offline mode.

I have the exact same dilemma. My computer wants to run at 1920 stuff, but my eyes are more suitable to 1360. It isn't just the icons that get too small, but also text. And no, text in the Construction Set does not scale with the Windows "Make text look bigger" option - it is too old school for that. You genuinely need to lower the resolution to get the CS to a readable font size.

Another issue is that my PC does not have enough muscle to run Oblivion at 1920 something. The best it can do is 1600.

And here again we have the issue of eye sight. The peculiarity of mine is that I have issues with fine detail, in particular thin lines - they appear double (or more). And that's even without rum! So to my eyes 1920 looks blurrier than 1360... even though you are right, and non-native resolutions can look jagged and blurry.

So in my case, while my hardware can do better, my wetware lags behind... And I can't just swap out those eyeballs.

FWIW nVidia make the GPU, and other companies make the cards that they go on. Just like your motherboard is HP, not AMD or intel, who make the CPU. You might find an intel motherboard, or an nVidia card, but not many.


This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 14 2024, 09:48 PM

Thanks all for your concern.

Rosa: Actually my "monitor" is a flatscreen TV from 2012. It's got a VGA input as well as two HDMI ports, as well as the old-fashioned RCA connectors. So 1360x768 is actually best. Right now my desktop is looking pretty good. Still not perfect, but at least it doesn't look like it was drawn with crayons!

Now with Fallout. Internet connection shouldn't matter. It's a Steam game, but I always play offline. I have two monitors and two desktop towers. One for gaming, one for everything else. That's how I'm able to type online yet still be gaming.

Anyway, doesn't matter either way. If I do have the gaming computer online it immediately asks if I want to install Fallout 3. I'm literally clicking on the FOSE desktop icon which should start the game. : And it's asking this question.


Lena: Thanks again for suggesting Magnification. That tool is really wonky to use, and I have no idea what I did right or wrong. But it worked!


ghastley: Okay that makes sense. So that's why I'm noticing a lot of companies with nVidia part numbers, yet the card is made by Asus or some other manufacturer.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 15 2024, 02:42 AM

Your problem with Fallout seems to be a known issue with Steam. My guess is that trying the "Add previously existing alternate installation libraries/folders to Steam" option might be what will fix it.

My goodness, you guys have been busy while I was away


I just found it interesting to see what stuff you have on your desktop


This is why I refuse to use Steam for my games. It's also why I would never buy a car made after 2015 or whatever; the more stuff there is the more stuff that can go wrong


Hope you get everything sorted, Renee!

This post has been edited by mirocu: Jul 15 2024, 08:51 AM

Awesome thanx Sub, what a Godsend. Thing is, I can figure all this out myself, but another thing is, I already have figured a lot of stuff. After a while it all starts to wear down on me; not sure what happens to y'all. So it really helps when I don't have to look up something else, figure out something else. Headaches ensue, and all.

mirocu: Ha ha thought someone would get a kick out of that! In fact my desktop is about half-organized in that pic. All the utility stuff (Fraps, Xpadder, etc.) should be on the very left side, with the trash can at the very top left. Next comes the older games: Baldur's, Arena, Daggerfall, etc.. In the middle are the more modern games, in order of their release: Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout NV, and Skyrim. Elder Scrolls Online. And then on the right of the screen are just miscellaneous things I don't use as often, such as Modio, Steam's page, and so on.

But like I said, it was a mess yesterday. Everything got moved around and I gave up trying to organize it. Plus, normally I wouldn't use that horrible color for the background! Was just trying to give an example so folks could see the icon sizes, and so on.

Yeah, I hate the idea of Steam, and every once in a while Steam gives me grief. But I need to play Fallout 3 and Skyrim. That trumps everything else about avoiding Steam.

Gog.com sells Fallout 3 and Skyrim SE. Don't see the original Skyrim though. It's on sale right now though.

Yes, GOG.

Not a computer Issue, just a couple general questions.

1). The new card has two Display Ports on the rear, as well as an HDMI output. I want to run a Display Port cable all the way, but my TV is older; hasn't got any Display Ports. So I got two cables from Newegg: 1- a Display Port to HDMI, and 2 - a Display port to VGA.

Here is what I notice. When using the display port to HDMI cable, the images on my TV were very sharp. "Jagged", like I said yesterday. With the display port to VGA the images look smoother. More like my old graphics cards, the 640 and 760, prob because I used VGA cables with those cards.

I like the second cable better actually. But is this typical? For different cables to render so differently on PC?


2). I also notice my new card's GPU temperature falls to about 40C at the lowest, when no game is playing. While gaming it rises into the 50s. Granted, I'm only playing Baldur's Gate right now. But that minimal temp... it never dips below 40, even when the game is off... Is this okay?

My old card, the GTX-760, when there was no game going, its temp would fall into the low 30s. Heck, if it was cold and I had a window open it'd fall into the 20s! 26C at the lowest.

I did a web search for GTX 1650 temps. Here is what the A.I. results say:

"Based on the provided search results, here are the normal temperatures for a GTX 1650 GPU:

Anything between 55-60 degrees C range is considered great.
Between 60-65 C is fine too.
Temperatures above 70 C can be a concern, and it’s recommended to improve system airflow or consider changing the case fans.
Some users have reported temperatures ranging from 68 to 74 C while gaming.
The safe temperature for a GTX 1650 is considered to be under 80-83 C while gaming."

Your post led me to realize that I had not installed GPU-z since needing to reinstall Windows from scratch on my Primary PC when its Win Boot Partition suffered unrecoverable damage. That's now rectified. To my satisfaction, it shows my RTX 4070 to be at 35c with a "hot spot" of around 40-41c. Not bad. I of course suspect it to jump noticeably higher while gaming.

Why is my mobile phone signal always rubbish?


Feat. I don't need my dishwasher to connect to my car to connect to my washing machine to connect to my fridge.



#technologyfatigue

This post has been edited by mirocu: Jul 16 2024, 11:11 AM

But… but… I want my fridge to play Skyrim!

Don't you mean Doom?

My fridge doesn't play any games too good, but it does play pizza really well.

Decrepit: thanks, that helps. I'm in the habit of letting my card cool down before I shut it off.

You want your fridge to be cold, resist frost, but do not want it invaded.

I wrote what I meant.


Fridge belongs to the NOOORDS!