Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[freeformschooler]

Okay now here's a problem.

I'm running Windows 7 with an ATI Mobility Radeon 4250 card. When I go to right click desktop > Screen Resolution > Advanced settings > Monitor, "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" is greyed out. How can I un-grey it?

[Aklyon]

Doesn't ATI have a catalyst thing or something that it uses for its options? (not sure if it was an ati or some other thing that had that name)

[freeformschooler]

Doesn't ATI have a catalyst thing or something that it uses for its options?

Yes, but that doesn't allow me to use unsupported modes, either. I'm using ATI's Catalyst Control Center, by the way. If there's a way to crank up my resolution beyond max on it, I'd love to know.

[Aklyon]

What monitor do you have? That might be related.

[freeformschooler]

I'm not using an external or specific monitor. This is a laptop. The Acer Aspire 5552-7819 to be specific.

[Zrk2]

THIS NEEDS ALL THE STICKIES. ALL OF THEM. THE MOST STICKIES. SUPERLATIVE STICKIES. GET THOSE STICKIES ALL UP IN THIS BITCH.

[Seriyu]

EDIT: Nevermind.

[Stargrasper]

I'm glad people appreciate this thread.

the XKCD Tech Support Flow Chart.  Note the option "Pick one at random".

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I showed this to someone before, they showed it to someone else who thought it was a joke to get out of fixing their computer for the nth time.

Well, isn't it?  This is xkcd we're talking about here.  Besides, it's annoying that everyone just assumes I know everything about computers and technology in general.  I'm just good to figuring stuff out.  Incidentally, I like puzzles.

Okay now here's a problem.

I'm running Windows 7 with an ATI Mobility Radeon 4250 card. When I go to right click desktop > Screen Resolution > Advanced settings > Monitor, "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" is greyed out. How can I un-grey it?

I'm betting this is a driver issue with the monitor and not a graphics card problem.  Grab the latest drivers off of the Acer website.  You'll find 'Drivers and Downloads' under the Support menu.  Let me know if that doesn't work and I'll look for a better answer.

THIS NEEDS ALL THE STICKIES. ALL OF THEM. THE MOST STICKIES. SUPERLATIVE STICKIES. GET THOSE STICKIES ALL UP IN THIS BITCH.

Turn off your capslock or I'll thwack you with a big foam cluebat!

EDIT: Nevermind.

Everything good, then?  Ask questions if you need to.

[hermes]

So, I'm in the market for a new laptop, having been on aged and hand-me-down machines for over five years, and I need some advice...

Buy cheap computers every 2 or 3 years .... or .... expensive and stick it out for 5 or more?

I really don't know which way to go.  I'd love a more expensive machine, and can afford it just, but for the same price I could easily buy 2 or 3 slower machines so it seems rather extravagent.  Which way do you folks recommend?

edit - And what would a 4Gb --> 8Gb RAM upgrade be good for?  Even playing games, 4Gb would be enough, right??

[Alastar]

Cheap and replace every 3 or so years makes sense.
Moderately high, upgrade whatever become limiting after 3 years does too.
I wouldn't pay through the nose for performance; components will be obsolete on technological standards long before they are  too slow.

If you go beyond what's sensible, do it for something other than performance - quality case/body and input devices will remain a pleasure to use. Normally I'd say the same about screens  but we may be facing a paradigm shift there soonish.

*

Games don't usually benefit much from additional RAM.
If you're doing demanding audio/video editing or modeling, you probably know. It may be helpful for excessive multitasking (modern browsers can be quite RAM-hungry).

Running your entire system in RAM can be nice - fast and silky smooth, as most jerkiness/poor responsiveness is caused by I/O bottlenecks.

Those aside, 4G ought to be enough for anyone

[hermes]

Cool, thanks for the advice.  Mainly I'd like a smoother OS experience and something portable, so perhaps a cheaper one would do.  Actually I just realized I hadn't installed the proper graphics card drivers  , so that's made a nice difference on this piece of junk and I might make do just a bit longer...   

[Vespulan]

     RIGHT NERDS!

       This is a questions I've been meaning to ask for a while, but my families resident Nerd is incomprehensible in this area. 
            To what extent does Anti-Aliasing actually make a difference?
       Now I understand this is a pretty complicated questions because with Nvidia's new tessellation thingies and being all happy about MXSAA the whole subject of Anti-Aliasing is rather blurry, but if you                    have a 1920x1080p monitor is there any point in putting MSAA any higher than 4x?  (If it helps, I'm asking this because having 8x on Skyrim is causing the odd lag spike near fences )

       Any help would be appreciated, and if you don't understand anything I've just said then please feel free to beneficially criticise me!

         Vespulan

[Killjoy]

To what extent does Anti-Aliasing actually make a difference?

It makes a difference as long as you see a difference.
The need for AA does not really depend on resolution, but on pixel density. The higher DPI, the less need there is for AA. If you are bothered by the noisy edges, then set AA to do a few more samples.

[Vespulan]

To what extent does Anti-Aliasing actually make a difference?

It makes a difference as long as you see a difference.
The need for AA does not really depend on resolution, but on pixel density. The higher DPI, the less need there is for AA. If you are bothered by the noisy edges, then set AA to do a few more samples.

So there isn't a point where you just stop noticing the difference?  I suppose if I'm more distracted by dodging Dragons and swinging axes I won't be paying much attention to fence-posts anyway - Thanks!
 

[darkrider2]

Hello I have a question.

So, if what I'm reading around is correct, PCIE 3 has effectively double the bandwidth that PCIE 2 offers. So does that mean a 384 bit PCIE 2 card has the same bandwidth as a 192 bit PCIE 3 card?

Also, AMD has graphics cards that are listed as using PCIE 3, but no AMD board supports PCIE 3, why is that? Isn't that just guaranteeing that PCIE 3 users will opt for an intel chip & board.