Integrated graphics causing overall system lag?

[ShawnD1]

My media computer was using a GeForce 7950GT to help with video playback. This is a great video card, but right now it's summer and my computer room gets incredibly hot, so I decided to take that card out and just use the integrated Radeon 2100 graphics. Right after doing this, the system ran like shit. Videos were dropping frames, and the computer would freeze for a few seconds every couple of minutes. It wasn't just a local problem; Remote Desktop sessions would freeze up which doesn't seem to make any sense since Remote Desktop doesn't even use the video card (or at least I don't think it does). Another weird problem was that Remote Desktop had really screwed up colors, like everything was a bit blue.

I put the GeForce 7950GT back in, and everything worked fine again. Does this sound like a problem with integrated vs discrete graphics, or does it sound like the integrated video is simply broken? I did the OCCT video test on the Radeon 2100 and it didn't have any detectable video errors.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Sounds like a driver issue, ATI vs. nvidia. The ATI integrated may be running as a plain VGA card.

I used nv 6100 integrated graphics on my work PC for several years and it was reasonably snappy if a bit slower than the 7300 I have in my new system.

 

[BladeVenom]

I agree with DaveSimmons. It's almost certainly a driver issue.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
I agree with DaveSimmons. It's almost certainly a driver issue.

It would be my first choice, I think Cat 9.3s are latest drivers for 2100 onboard video,I would run Driver Cleaner or Driver Sweeper too to clean out the old Nvidia drivers before installing latest onboard video drivers.

Btw might as well download latest DX9.0c too (March 2009) link.

 

[ShawnD1]

Thanks guys

 

[Binky]

Uninstall the Nvidia drivers. Install the latest drivers for that motherboard video system. Driver sweeper isn't necessary.

 

[ShawnD1]

Alright I dicked around with this for a long time and I've come to the conclusion that it really is ATI causing the problems I'm facing. Here's an interesting post I found where another guy describes having similar problems:

http://www.krunk4ever.com/blog...s-with-remote-desktop/

ATI Catalyst 8.3 Problems with Remote Desktop
......
I scratched my head and wondered what else could be causing the problem. I recall since I was going to reboot, I decided to update my graphics drivers. I have an ATI Radeon X1600Pro and upgraded to the latest ATI Catalyst 8.3 for Windows XP. I uninstalled all the ATI crap and rebooted and immediately I was able to connect via Remote Desktop. However my monitor was now running in like 800×600 mode.
.......
So I went and downloaded the newest Display Driver only and installed that. However, I immediately hit the same Remote Desktop problem again. Grrrrr? I decided to try previous drivers one by one moving backwards and stop after the 1st one that worked. The sucky part of this is after each driver installation, I had to reboot to be able to test if my Remote Desktop connection is fixed. Good news is that after installing ATI Catalyst 8.2 Display Driver, my Remote Desktop connection was in full working order again, so I didn?t have to keep on going. I didn?t bother installing the Catalyst Control Center this time around since I don?t believe there?s any need for me.

In conclusion, it appears a change in ATI Catalyst 8.3 broke compatibility with Remote Desktop (at least on Windows XP).

What's weird is that it was posted on april fool's day, 2008. Now it's one year later, I'm using Vista instead of XP, and it has similar problems with Remote Desktop being virtually unusable.

 

[Denithor]

Actually the advice in that post is good - try some older versions of Catalyst drivers if the latest don't do the trick. I've seen cases where an older one worked perfectly while a newer was just broken.

Another option would be to put back in the 7950 and use rivatuner to downclock it. Turn it way down - won't use as much power/generate as much heat and should still be powerful enough to handle your workload.