Hardware Problem: Orbiter and nVidia GT320M. Very low FPS.

[The Aviator]

Hello all.
Here is my problem. After my old laptop said me goodbye a week ago, I bought a new one. At first, I downloaded all the latest drivers and OS updates. Then, downloaded Orbiter 2006-P1 base package and launched it to see if everything was working well. The scenario was "Cape Canaveral" in the stock Delta Glider folder. Seconds after I faced a nightmare: internal view, 2D panel all messed up and 7fps. Switching to the 3D panel didn't worked: the panel was ok, but I got only 10 fps as peak performance. Swithing to the glass cockpit mode shot down my fps to 2 to 4. I switched to external view: same problem. Noticed also the black sky problem, resolved installing the missing dll.
Tried to disable v-sync and to lower resolution: nothing to do.
Now my question is: it isn't strange that with an old generation 512 Mb card I got up to 50 fps, and with a new 1Gb card I get this mess?
Any ideas on how to solve this problem?
I hope someone can help me... I miss Orbiter!
Here are my specs:
Asus K50ID series
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T6670; RAM: 4Gb
GPU: nVidia GeForce GT 320M; VRAM: 1Gb
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

 

[orb]

It's probably because of Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
This article may help a bit.

 

[dbeachy1]

If you're only getting 7 fps on a system with good specs like that, it's almost certainly not just because of Windows 7. However, don't worry: it's quite likely that you just need to configure Orbiter to use the correct video mode for your new card:

1. Go into the "Video" tab on the Orbiter Launchpad and make sure that "Always enumerate devices" is checked.
2. In the device drop-down, select "Direct3D T&L HAL".
3. Set your window or full-screen preference. If you choose full-screen, make sure that color depth is set to 32 bpp.
4. [Optional] If you choose full-screen mode, make sure "Disable vertical sync" is checked so the sim won't be framerate-limited unnecessarily.

Then bring up Orbiter. Beyond that, to squeeze more FPS out under Windows 7 you may want to try running VistaBoost as well; you can get it on my site here.

 

[The Aviator]

Thanks for your quick response.
VistaBoost resolved the low fps problem, but the 2d panel is still all messed up. I can't figure out what could be the cause of this. :blink:

 

[dbeachy1]

Have you verified that your video mode is set to "Direct3D T&L HAL"? Also, please make sure you're using the latest NVidia driver for your card: you can check here.

 

[orb]

This looks exactly the same as this problem, but I don't see it has been resolved.

 

[The Aviator]

Have you verified that your video mode is set to "Direct3D T&L HAL"? Also, please make sure you're using the latest NVidia driver for your card: you can check here.

Yes, video mode is set to Direct3D T&L HAL. About the latest drivers: this card is OEM, so I had to search the drivers from the asus support site. There I've found all the drivers for my laptop. I've downloaded and installed the "VGA" ones, but I see other nVidia drivers under the voice "chipset". I'm downloading them, but I think the right ones were the VGA.
Checked the other topic: seems that the "Windows 7 64 bit - nVidia GPU" coupling is not so happy as it could appear at a first glance... at least for Orbiter.

 

[dbeachy1]

Perhaps it's just specific to certain card models -- it's running fine on my Windows 7 x64 box here with a GTX 280. That's a weird bug!

 

[MJR]

Can your PSU support the use of the card? What about the motherboard?

 

[orb]

Perhaps it's just specific to certain card models -- it's running fine on my Windows 7 x64 box here with a GTX 280. That's a weird bug!

This could be because of Mobile version of graphics card (at least 2 cases have M in model name), or because of low models of the cards. Problems were reported with GF 210M, 220, and 320M, so at the low part of these series.

Can your PSU support the use of the card? What about the motherboard?

I think the PSU, motherboard, and graphics card are packed inside a laptop in this case, so if anything needed to be additionally connected to the graphics card, it already was.

 

[The Aviator]

This could be because of Mobile version of graphics card (at least 2 cases have M in model name), or because of low models of the cards. Problems were reported with GF 210M, 220, and 320M, so at the low part of these series.

I don't know if it could be because of Mobile version. My old GPU was a mobile model too, an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, 512Mb. Didn't gave me any problems. I used to run Orbiter with a lot of addons, 1680x1050 resolution, without VistaBoost and with V-sync enabled. More, it was a Vista 32 bit OS.With these specs I got 30 - 50 fps.
Isn't my current configuration supposed to be better than the former one? :idk:

 

[Hielor]

Looks like a driver issue, but updated drivers aren't available for this card yet.

According to this thread, drivers for the GT320M should be available in May...