I just got one of the new Mac Pros, at 2.8 and with the nVidia 8800 GT. I installed Windows XP using bootcamp and things seem to be working fine. The Windows is really only there for my games and I installed all my Sims 2 games on it.
When I first started to play, shortly after loading the game, the screen would get pixally and freeze. I would have to restart my computer. I installed the nVidia Windows drivers and things got better, though it would still freeze up after maybe an hour of gameplay (and, inevitably, without saving
). I saw a guide on the forums here somewhere about getting the games to work (though with the ATI that comes standard) so I installed .Net and all the Sims 2 patches. The game would still freeze after a while (though occasionally I could play for an hour or less and it wouldn't freeze, but prolonged play would freeze it).
Upon suggestion from a friend, I wiped XP of any nVidia drivers, from both nVidia and Bootcamp (using Drive Cleaner to make sure it was all gone) and re-installed just the nVidia drivers to give it a fresh start. Played the game and after about half an hour or so it froze. I don't have any games for my Mac side to see if it's the video card itself. My friend also suggested running some kind of benchmarking software on both OS's to see if I could trip it into a freeze, as a way of testing the video card, but I can't seem to find anything (I'm not very familiar with those kinds of programs, so I don't really know what to look for).
Anybody else having gaming problems with the nVidia and anybody have any good fixes? Or do you think I have a bum card? If I do, what's a good way of getting it replaced without being computerless for a while? (Though I do have a MacBook that could suffice for a bit.)
When I first started to play, shortly after loading the game, the screen would get pixally and freeze. I would have to restart my computer. I installed the nVidia Windows drivers and things got better, though it would still freeze up after maybe an hour of gameplay (and, inevitably, without saving
). I saw a guide on the forums here somewhere about getting the games to work (though with the ATI that comes standard) so I installed .Net and all the Sims 2 patches. The game would still freeze after a while (though occasionally I could play for an hour or less and it wouldn't freeze, but prolonged play would freeze it). Upon suggestion from a friend, I wiped XP of any nVidia drivers, from both nVidia and Bootcamp (using Drive Cleaner to make sure it was all gone) and re-installed just the nVidia drivers to give it a fresh start. Played the game and after about half an hour or so it froze. I don't have any games for my Mac side to see if it's the video card itself. My friend also suggested running some kind of benchmarking software on both OS's to see if I could trip it into a freeze, as a way of testing the video card, but I can't seem to find anything (I'm not very familiar with those kinds of programs, so I don't really know what to look for).
Anybody else having gaming problems with the nVidia and anybody have any good fixes? Or do you think I have a bum card? If I do, what's a good way of getting it replaced without being computerless for a while? (Though I do have a MacBook that could suffice for a bit.)