Vaio Z - Video Drivers

Hi,

When is Sony going to update us with new graphics drivers utilizing all the benefits of the 260 and new 266 NVIDIA drivers? I am personally disgusted with the lack of driver updates provided by Sony. I love my laptop but will never purchase another Sony PC nor laptop again.

Purchasing a $3,000 laptop to see your ancient 188.xx drivers was not fun. Then to watch NVIDIA build a reputable Verde program while Sony does nothing...shows how lazy they are.

I'd just use latest drivers from NVIDIA, but I use the hybrid power a lot.

 

You can always try community-modded drivers: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/342947-my-discoveries-vaio-z-s-hybrid-graphics.html

But to answer your question, possibly never. However, when sony released the VPCZ13, it did come with newer official drivers that arent on the VPCZ11 driver download site, but should work with the VPCZ11. You can find them here:

Sony eSupport - VPCZ1390X - Software Updates & Drivers

Sony Japan has released the VPCZ14... maybe they'll come with even newer drivers? In any case, the community ones work well too.

 

With you there...will have to look into the "My discoveries on Viao Z's Hybrid Graphics" thread..

I especially love when my computer wakes up, flashes a few times until I get the "your video drivers have crashed.." blah, blah...awesome. Glad I paid over $3k for that....

 

One of the main reasons I'm gonna switch to Mac... None of these problems.

On the other hand, I don't really care about newest graphics drivers these days, since I do pretty much all of my gaming on OnLive, and Z12 on Intel graphics is fast enough for it.

 

So you think mac has no problems with Nvidias drivers? heh you are up for a ruuuude awakening....

 

I think that I will buy a MacBook, unbox it, turn it on, fill out my name and start using it. No bull to worry about.

 

^I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not, but MacBooks have their own share of problems.

 

Not to mention the driver support is significantly less than what you get with the Vaio Z... from both Apple itself and from the community. Good luck with that and with lesser graphics performance.

 

lol, theres no problems on Macs because none of the users are knowledgable enough to even know what a driver is lol.

 

Yeah I'd also rather have a machine to fiddle around with and where an active community works at than a somewhat 'limited' and 'consumer-oriented' product like a mac or a spyphone. My Z works like a charm, I got it with me most of the time when travelling, no SSD slowdowns, great performance, everything cool when under full load and absolutely stable with community graphics drivers. My friend games much with his crappy MBP 17" - it crashes all the time, it is hot like hell and he can't use his ExpressCard slot in Bootcamp/Windows (Error 12, no USB3.0/eSATA for him).

Not to mention that I can't stand apple's ridiculous privacy policy Apple - Apple Customer Privacy Policy or its advertised environmental responsibility reports http://images.apple.com/environment...ro_13-inch-Environmental-Report-April2010.pdf.

 

I used to be that way when I was 18 I guess.

Now I'm 24, and I have like 5 computers (desktop, Vaio Z laptop and 2 netbooks, at lab, etc.) and every time I change something to suit my tastes on one computer, I have to manually do it on all others. And then re-do it from scratch every time I reinstall an OS. It's a nightmare and I'm sick and tired of it. So now I have as little installed programs as possible, rely heavily on Dropbox, Gmail, OnLive to keep things in the cloud and synced, computer-agnostic.

In any case, I'm not throwing out my Vaio Z when I get a MacBook, so I will have the best of both worlds. I just don't want another high maintenance nightmare.

Vaio Z: Reinstall OS from scratch, install 10+ drivers/services/whatever in specific order to make brightness keys work.
MacBook: No need to reinstall since it doesn't come with bloatware like Vaio Z (this statement is my opinion; others may disagree).

TL;DR: I *do NOT* want another machine to fiddle around with, I have 5+ of those already.

It's a non-issue for me. I do all my gaming on a 9" netbook with a wireless Xbox 360 controller these days.

 

^I think you make your z experience more difficult than it needs to be. There is zero reason for a fresh install. Don't like the applications it comes with? Uninstall them. It takes like 15 minutes.

Not singling you out, but I'm not sure what possesses people to immediately blow away and reinstall the OS on a brand new machine...especially a machine like the Z. The few programs sony throws in can simply be uninstalled.

Anyhow, once you've uninstalled the apps or reinstalled the O/S...what fiddling is left?

 

Unfortunately, I have very high standards. I want my system to be super clean. Uninstalling large programs on Windows tends to leave traces behind, and I don't like that. I know I'm being very picky, but it is what it is.

After OS and drivers are installed and working smoothly (which might not happen on first try), there's not much left. But I just wanna use a different OS with a different, well designed and efficient User Interface. I also wanna have access to programs like iPhoto and iMovie. I already have an iPhone and love it.