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    Quality of graphics driver support?

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by incomprehensible, Jun 29, 2012.

  1. incomprehensible

    incomprehensible Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi. I'm considering buying the new S15 but I'm a bit wary of the driver support provided by Sony Vaio. The reason for this is because I bought a Z1 2 years ago and although it was great, Sony also completely failed to provide any new drivers past the original factory ones forcing me to switch and keep Windows 7 in Test Mode to install Nvidia drivers.

    My question is: in the 2 years since has driver support from Sony improved? Will Sony allow you to install the ones provided by Nvidia these days?
     
    incomprehensible, Jun 29, 2012
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  2. coolguy

    coolguy Notebook Prophet

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    You can install the drivers from Nvidia for the newer Vaio Nvidia GPU's, the one in the S15 is supported by the Nvidia released drivers.
     
    coolguy, Jun 29, 2012
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  3. anytimer

    anytimer Notebook Virtuoso

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    The Z1 was an extreme case (which I too am stuck with) as it has hybrid graphics, a technology that has been abandoned by all players. The other laptops are a lot easier to mod drivers for, like coolguy said.
     
    anytimer, Jun 29, 2012
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  4. incomprehensible

    incomprehensible Notebook Enthusiast

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    Awesome! That's great to hear. Thanks
     
    incomprehensible, Jun 29, 2012
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  5. rrm998

    rrm998 Notebook Consultant

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    Keep in mind that, if you buy the PMD with your Z3, you are still dealing with hybrid graphics. So you would need the drivers provided by Sony or some of the user created drivers available in the Sony forum.

    If you are using only the Intel HD 4000 graphics, that certainly makes life easier. In my Z2 case, I have the PMD so I depend on Sony. Since the Z2 came out, there was been one graphics update on the Sony US web site. And it was just published a few weeks ago.

    If memory serves, you also have to use the Sony provided trackpad driver if you want the buttons to behave as they did OTB. Some owners actually like the behavior when using the Synaptics driver, however.
     
    rrm998, Jun 30, 2012
    #5