EVE General Discussion

I wasn't quite sure where to put this...

Ever since November, I've been unable to play EVE Online on my ($2000) desktop computer, due to some kind of GPU screwup.

I've been thinking about getting a new computer, ideally a laptop. I'd be mostly using it for my writing, Internet, and stuff, but I'd like to be able to play EVE Online again.

One option I like, is the Lenovo IdeaPad S205. It has the graphics card mentioned in the subject -- a AMD Radeon HD 6310M 512MB.

I was wondering -- will this play EVE?

I always prefer the 1 gig cards myself but I also use my comp for maya/3dsmax.

Laptops overheat and run hot with 3D graphics. Period. Your hands hot.

Powerful gaming Desktops generate enough Heat to warm up a room in 2 hours.

Even most powerful gaming computers have short time 'hang ups', performance drops which can be critical to gaming.

Laptops almost always struggle to run complex games such as EVE-o.

Simple game - Heroes of might and magic 3. Complex game - online 3D shooter with sound, physics and fast graphics. You'll get lots of stutter on your laptop.

I gave up the idea of playing eve on a laptop. Experience is too poor. Max I can do, check skills, chat and fulfill some contracts.

This is a useful list: Graphics Card Hierarchy
The card you mentioned is roughly equivalent to an Intel HD 3000. Make sure to look under "mobility," not "discrete."

When comparing Radeons, the second digit is the important one.

Many modern laptops can run EVE just fine, but Lenovo tends to cater more to the workstation market. Laptops that aren't geared for gaming in general tend to sacrifice graphics for processor speed and features like WiMAX.

I would say, if you can salvage your desktop, pop a new card in. It'll be a lot cheaper. If you're set on a laptop, go for custom (iBuyPower, CyberPower, etc.), or maybe ASUS.

/2 ISK

So much misinformation here. Also if you're killing graphics cards on a regular basis you're doing something wrong, I still have cards from the late 90s that will still run.

As far as video card memory is concerned:

• What resolution are you running the game at? 512 MB is ok for most games at around 1024x768 or lower resolution, but if you have a larger monitor, there's a good chance that you'll start taking a performance hit.
• Make sure the card doesn't use DDR2 memory - some manufacturers use it in budget cards to lower the price but it is considerably slower than other memory such as DDR3 or GDDR5.

Personally I wouldn't play on a laptop if you have options, most aren't really designed for extended gaming and often have poor cooling (which kills components). Maybe working out the desktop graphics issue is a good place to start, and will save you a lot of money.

I had a similar issue when my 'top' gpu failed and CCP at the same time decided that they really wanted SM3.

My issue was that I had some decent (for a given value of decent) hardware running, but only AGP :/

My saviour was Radeon HD 4600 series, 1 GB AGP and much cheaper than buying a new mobo and most likely a pile of other gadgets to fit it.

Wow, biased much? You get what you pay for.

The cheap AMD cards are crap, just like the cheap Nvidia cards are crap.

If you want great performance buy one of the full cards from one of the good manufacturers. Its also great because they actually stand behind their warranty.

If you buy a budget version from one of the poor manufacturers you will get a less functional card, and poor to no warranty support.

Both companies have good products, although it seems lately Nvidia is falling way behind. They are only really competitive for high end cards.

I have not had a card from ether company fail. I still have a Geforce 4, and a Radeon 9800 that run fine.

I have a Radeon X800XT that ended up in my home server after it became outdated. I had to replace the fan once. It likely had 30,000 hours on it by that point. And it still works, but its simply sitting in a cabinet because its become too outdated for my server as well.

Its a pretty low end card. Its got the power that high end cards did about 8 years ago, with a newer shader/DirectX versions. I would try to go up to at least another tier if you can.

For AMDs HD series you can learn alot about the card by the first 2 numbers. For example HD4700.

• It would be part of the 4th series since they changed their naming scheme in 2003ish. They are currently on the 7th series.
• The second number tells you what type of card it is. The higher the better. The 9s are top shelf, best of line cards. The 7-8s are strong cards as well. The flagship cards are always the hd x7xx's and up, with cheaper cards coming later.
• The last 2 numbers will tell you exactly where it lies within those points, with higher being faster.

Does it do it all the time, or just under load? It could be the card overheating. Try underclocking it and see what happens.

Hopefully the graphics card is still ok, it sounds like you have a bit of a dust issue. I would recommend buying a can of compressed air, taking out the expansion cards (graphics, network, sound, etc) and blow out as much dust/crap as you can. Then stick the cards back into their respective slot and turn on the computer without the side on, and check to make sure all of the fans are running (preferably without sticking your finger in them). Also it's perfectly ok to run the computer without the side on, especially if you are having heat issues.

What's funny is, my father suggested just this, and I said "no, that'll screw it up." The thing about taking the side off, anyways.