What graphics card should I use?

[Fredrik Lundholm]

Ai currently struggle with TPA on i7-620 with nvs-3100m. If I turn off all features it is almost playable on 1920x1200. Which graphics card will let me enable anti alias, ball reflection etc without slowing down?

Also I would be grateful if there would be some reference speed so that I know that the table plays as intended.

Regards, Fredrik

 

[Crazy Newt]

I've been having great success with the highest setting enabled at 1920x1080 with an i7-3770K cpu and nVidia GTX770 video card and 16GB of moderately fast RAM with Windows 7.

I know Mike (the developer) has mentioned having an nVidia GTX660 on his PC, probably using Windows 7 as well, and he might stop by and provide additional information.

Not sure how important the cpu is compared to that of the video card. Typically you would get more bang for your buck by adding a better video card with most games.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

nvs-3100m is a mobile GPU, so talking about GTX770s isn't going to help much.

The NVS 3100M is definitely not a gaming card either: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-NVS-3100M.24738.0.html

Currently the top-rated mobile GPUs are the nVidia 680M and Radeon 7970M, both of which are fairly equivalent to the GTX660 in performance.

 

[TheSlayerNL]

Mobile, this means you can't really upgrade it unless you get yourself a new laptop, or better, a PC

 

[chinzman93]

I would suggest you wait a bit on an upgrade until the DX11 lighting features are added. Hopefully not to much longer. That way you/we will have a better idea of what it will take to get it to run smooth. I would hate to see you upgrade now which may run the current tables fine, but then not run at full detail when the upgrade is released. Just a suggestion...

 

[Fredrik Lundholm]

I couldn't wait and plunged for a older T430s with NVS-5200M, not 660 class but at-least have support for direct x 11.
I noticed that today the game is pretty playable on hd4000 without AA, ball reflection and texture filter applied with i5 processor.
Thanks for all the hints on measuring FPS, I believe NVS5200 should be faster than hd4000 but I dont know if it will play the new version perfectly fine.
As the new laptop had a broken HDD I have not yet tried it.

 

[Fredrik Lundholm]

I couldn't wait and plunged for a older T430s with NVS-5200M, not 660 class but at-least have support for direct x 11.
I noticed that today the game is pretty playable on hd4000 without AA, ball reflection and texture filter applied with i5 processor.
Thanks for all the hints on measuring FPS, I believe NVS5200 should be faster than hd4000 but I dont know if it will play the new version perfectly fine.
As the new laptop had a broken HDD I have not yet tried it.

Ran a test today after exchaning the broken laptop. NVS-5200M will run PBA well on 1600x900 but with 1920x1200 I had to disable some features to make it run. I could run it with 2x oversampling etc in full screen mode as opposed to full screen window mode. In window mode the table looks washed out and in full screen the colors and lighting looks better.

 

[JPelter]

Ran a test today after exchaning the broken laptop. NVS-5200M will run PBA well on 1600x900 but with 1920x1200 I had to disable some features to make it run. I could run it with 2x oversampling etc in full screen mode as opposed to full screen window mode. In window mode the table looks washed out and in full screen the colors and lighting looks better.

The washed out look is likely because games can't adjust gamma values in windowed mode. You can fiddle with your desktop brightness to make it look better if you want to run windowed.

 

[rehtroboi40]

I would suggest you wait a bit on an upgrade until the DX11 lighting features are added. Hopefully not to much longer. That way you/we will have a better idea of what it will take to get it to run smooth. I would hate to see you upgrade now which may run the current tables fine, but then not run at full detail when the upgrade is released. Just a suggestion...

Good point!

 

[Fredrik Lundholm]

The washed out look is likely because games can't adjust gamma values in windowed mode. You can fiddle with your desktop brightness to make it look better if you want to run windowed.

Thanks,
will try this.
I just noticed after adjusting the different config values playing Attack from Mars with 60fps and the switching to TAXI frame rate drop and I had to reduce some features. This was playing 1200x1920 (portrait mode). Why is TAXI more taxing on the machine that for example Attack from MARS? Which table is worst from Season One?

Secondly: I used MSI afterburner anf GPU-Z to check GPU and Memory utilization and for TAXI the GPU was not maxed out but still had problems maintaing 60 fps.

Regards,
Fredrik

 

[JavaJack]

games can't adjust gamma values in windowed mode

How does f.lux change my desktop's gamma, I wonder?
(see: justgetflux.com )

 

[JPelter]

How does f.lux change my desktop's gamma, I wonder?
(see: justgetflux.com )

I'm honestly not sure. I'm not an expert on how things interact with the OS, I just know that I haven't run into a single game released in the last five years or so that can actually adjust gamma in windowed mode. Windows probably blocks most programs from messing with it automatically.

 

[Firefox2000]

If you have the game running in windows mode then you simple minimise it and go to your drivers control panel were you can alter all your video settings, including gamma and other settings.

 

[Fredrik Lundholm]

OK, after loosing many hairs I have now connected a GTX 770 eGPU to my laptop and it works fine with TPA even at 2xDSR, 4x AA etc. It seems post processing adds a small lag so I disabled it.