9 réponses à ce sujet

[notveryclever]

Hi,


System: Macbook Pro (running boot camp) with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU M620 @ 2.67ghz
RAM: 4GB RAM
Video Card: GeForce 330M, Driver version 295.73 (latest that can be installed on boot camp, only a month old)
Audio: NVIDIA Hight Defitnion Audio 
Direct X version 11
Platform: Steam

Issue: I play the game for a few minutes, and it crashes. Black screen, sometimes loopy/incredibly slow audio. No pattern as to when or why it happens, but the game rarely lasts 10 minutes, sometimes as low as one minute. Hard reset is required.

I have zero issues with playing it at max settings, and other games do not crash the system (except for ME2, once, haven't tried it since then). DA:O works just fine, though, for extended periods of time.

I've tried updating the drivers, setting affinity to just one core, turning off UAC, and opening the exe straight from the folder. Lower settings do not work either. I did not have any issues with this game on my old Macbook Pro, though that was with windows XP. 

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated. I haven't tried re-installing the game since that takes HOURS, but I can try verifying the files via steam. In the meantime, any help?

[notveryclever]

Update:
Now the game crashes almost immediately after the opening videos. I tried windowed mode, and that got me a bit more information, since I don't have to hard reset anymore: "display driver stopped responding and has recovered". Should I...use an old driver? If so any recommendations from anyone?

I also tested ME2 (also steam) just for kicks. Everything loaded, game looks fantastic, ran around for a bit with no crashes to speak. I have 40 hrs logged into that game on this laptop, so it's not a performance issue.

Modifié par notveryclever, 20 mars 2012 - 08:50 .

[PsiFive]

Is a MacBook Pro a good machine for this? Apple are not exactly famous for sticking decent graphics cards in their computers unless you give them an extra suitcase of money when you buy your machine. Don't get me wrong, I play PC games on a Mac Pro bootcamped into Windows as well but being a desktop machine I was able to pull out the cruddy card it came with and stick in something with a lot more guts. Not sure I'd even bother trying a non-OS X game with my MacBook Pro.

Edited to add: I was mid post when your update was made and you mentioned ME2. I may be completely wrong but I have a feeling I saw somewhere that ME2 is easier on graphics resources than the first game. Might have that bass ackwards but if it's true it could explain why ME2 is playable while ME isn't. But I'm only guessing here.

Modifié par PsiFive, 20 mars 2012 - 09:00 .

[Gorath Alpha]

In Windows 7, nVIDIA drivers newer than 258-something have been causing ME-1 to crash since the newer ones than that first appeared.

ME-2 and ME-3 are better optimized graphically, although many Geforce users have difficulty with recent drivers in ME-2 also.

[notveryclever]

Thanks, I'll try rolling them back and see how it goes. Definitely had more issues with the newer driver, which seemed... odd.

[Gorath Alpha]

nVIDIA's current situation is greatly different from anything they have had to deal with in the entire history of the company, and their graphics card buyers have been getting the brunt of this changeover they are making from PCs to smartphones and tablets.

[notveryclever]

PsiFive wrote...

Is a MacBook Pro a good machine for this? Apple are not exactly famous for sticking decent graphics cards in their computers unless you give them an extra suitcase of money when you buy your machine. Don't get me wrong, I play PC games on a Mac Pro bootcamped into Windows as well but being a desktop machine I was able to pull out the cruddy card it came with and stick in something with a lot more guts. Not sure I'd even bother trying a non-OS X game with my MacBook Pro.

Edited to add: I was mid post when your update was made and you mentioned ME2. I may be completely wrong but I have a feeling I saw somewhere that ME2 is easier on graphics resources than the first game. Might have that bass ackwards but if it's true it could explain why ME2 is playable while ME isn't. But I'm only guessing here.

To answer this question - the Pros are usually more expensive due to their video cards. I would never say they're top of the line in that regard, but they do the job. I can play mostly anything recent at good enough settings, with The Witcher 2 being the only game to remain completely unplayable (though I THINK it's poorly optimized...since it didn't look that great to me for the performance I was getting). We'll see how ME3 holds up, though, since it'll be the most recent game I'll purchase for PC. ME2 looks very nice.

That said, they're far more expensive for what you get than normal laptops. You're mostly paying for OSX and mac proprietary software, as well as the customer service from Apple, which is pretty great. Wouldn't recommend it for everyone due to price disparity, but it works for me. =)

[PsiFive]

Well, I can't speak for newer Mac Pros and MacBook Pros as both mine are 3-4 years old, but the card that Apple put in my Pro was not the reason it cost what it did because it was a real cheap and crappy bottom of the line NVIDIA, unsuitable for most recent releases and certainly wouldn't have run any Mass Effect game. It was good enough to run photo apps across multiple monitors but even something as old and graphically undemanding as SimCity 4 you had to wait while it drew buildings every time you moved the map. Bioshock worked, but very badly and was prone to exactly the kind of problems you describe having with Mass Effect, all of which went away once I dropped the dollars and upgraded the card. Unfortunately not really an option for either of us as far as the notebook versions go, and if all I'd had was the MacBook Pro I'd probably have spent that upgrade money on an XBox and played the ME games on that instead. As it is I can confirm they run very nicely on the Pro in bootcamped Windows (much less so on a virtual machine unless you take away so many resources from OS X that you may as well boot into Windows anyway) with a nice new ATI whizzing away inside, though oddly Bioshock's still prone to crashing even though it looks a million times better.

I also can't speak for anyone else's experience with Apple's customer service, but mine was really bad. Lovely staff in the stores and I don't object to belief in one's products but there's a corporarte arrogance in assuming your products and quality control are nigh infallible and that your customers don't know what they're talking about. I repeatedly asked for a cheap component in my MacBook Pro to be replaced under warranty and they proceeded to replace everything else around it (though I believe they lied about replacing at least one part) until balking at swallowing the cost of a whole new logic board - which it didn't need because I ended up doing it myself with acable I orded from the US for a few dollars. In my experience Apple, or at least Apple Australia, suck at real customer service. I love the machines, especially the desktop machines having worked with them for years, but I have little love for the company.

[notveryclever]

My old MBP ran Mass Effect all right, but I had to upgrade when I realized it wasn't gonna keep up (DA:O actually convinced me). My new one runs everything fine.

Anyway, I tried rolling back the drivers as far as I could go with the 330M. 257s did NOT fix the issue. The earliest I could get my hands on with a modified INF (required to install it on bootcamp, since they keep drivers on lockdown). 198.05 did NOT work either. I put it in windowed mode and set the affinity to one core. Lasted about 15 minutes (a record!) and then it crashed. Looping audio, black screen, etc.

UPDATE: I tried using Compatability Mode XP SP3, and it was running as admin. Also just one core and all "fancy" effects (like dynamic lighting) turned off. No dice.

Argh. Any other recommendations? I don't like playing FPSs on consoles. This is so frustrating =(

Modifié par notveryclever, 21 mars 2012 - 06:40 .

[notveryclever]

I suppose I should update that I got it working. Overheating was the issue. De-dusting the inside did not do the trick (though it was dusty), so I had to underclock the GPU from 500 to 350 as well as keep the fans at 100% all the time. Only had one crash since I employed those settings. Oh yea, and I reverted back to XP, which did nothing.

Hopefully ME 2 doesn't require such silliness. I have 40 hours logged onto that game from this laptop, but just recently it started crashing like ME1 does.