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Nvidia Driver Issues
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These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Nvidia Driver Issues // Hardware
Post by splinters // Sep 4, 2008, 1:58am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Then I am extra glad that I bought Nvidia...:D
When you read up on Ati cards they seem to trounce Nvidia on a bang per buck comparison but this seems to be in games where they look for FPS using various levels of AA and AF...I guess these are less relevant to realtime renders. |
Post by TomG // Sep 4, 2008, 2:24am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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FPS and AA are relevant for real-time, when moving around and working in the scene. I like to model at about 2 or 4 times AA, makes for a much nicer display :) And of course good FPS is required to give smooth screen updates as you move around and model.
As far as I recall, NVIDIA has (for the last few generations) been first to adopt new tech (eg DX10, hardware shadowing, physics performed in GPU, etc) and from my reading, they were always ahead these last 2 or 3 years in terms of overall performance, always bringing out the top performing cards (ie their new high end latest cards were always better than the high end ATI cards - again, as far as I recall in my reading). Drivers have been less stable than ATI, for tS users at least, though.
HTH!
Tom |
Post by splinters // Sep 4, 2008, 2:26am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Just thinking Tom, I guess the mainstream gaming cards are just as good as the pro ones nowadays?
I looked at PCworld range of 'Pro' Nvidia cards and their specs seem way below my 9800GT...I could not justify £200+ for one of those.
I guess it is just down to optimized drivers eh? |
Post by TomG // Sep 4, 2008, 2:33am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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If by pro you mean Quadro, see other thread on that :) Basically Quadro are openGL cards, not DX cards, and are designed for CAD applications, with drivers that are specific to specific applications to ensure the best is wrung out of the card for that particular piece of software.
Good if you are using AutoCAD and similar. Not good for DirectX, which means all gaming and trueSpace too :)
HTH!
Tom |
Post by nigec // Sep 4, 2008, 6:25am
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nigec
Total Posts: 314
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I using a NVIDIA under Vista and have loads of problems, i can't use the DirectX tools and have to use wire frame, if you try and scroll the scene back or drag something theres a huge delay, after a while TS will crash, I since setup a dual boot with XP and everything is fine
I can't use cartoon shaders (under Vista) and on a whole its prone to random crashes
I kept trying different drives but Vista often decides to roll back to the previous one which is damn annoying!
I bought the pc xmas time to replace a 2.3 ghz thing with a really poor intel card and to be honest the new one has been a waste of space lol |
Post by Délé // Sep 4, 2008, 6:30am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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At £111, I seriously considered the 512mb ATi HD4850 but I have a small micro ATX system and the fact that they run hot (90 degrees I have heard) put me off.
Yes, it does run hot. I noticed that right away. I put my hand under the fan and it was warm right after starting up. My case has a thermometer in it. I noticed that when I play games for a while, the inside of the case gets about 10 to 15 degrees hotter. With three fans, I've got pretty good airflow in this case too. So it definitely does get pretty warm.
This card is absolutely great for video games and such. I'm playing all of my old games with the highest settings now and it's smooth as silk. I'm seeing things in these games that I had never noticed before. However, I'm really bummed about the real-time shadowing. I do mostly real-time stuff in tS and now I don't know how I'm going to go about lighting scenes. I can get it to look good on my computer, but it may bog someone else down needlessly. :(
Why can't Nvidia just hire the ATI developers to write their drivers? :rolleyes: |
Post by splinters // Sep 4, 2008, 6:57am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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I agree Dele, I loaded Half Life 2 the other day and originally ran it at 1024x768 with most settings on high...it ran fine. Now I have 16xAA, full FA, all settings on high and 1280x1024 (max for my monitor anyway), absolutely flies and as I already said, Crysis looks stunning.
Overall for a £100 spend I am well happy...plus I recycled my 7900GT so it only cost me £60...:D
You are clearly a visual person, have you tried Bioshock? Very original and great narrative...a real departure from Crysis/Far Cry/Quake style games. Probably why they snapped up the film rights... |
Post by Délé // Sep 4, 2008, 8:24am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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Yeah, Bioshock was the first thing that I tried. Looks great! I really like the atmosphere of that game. Very creepy. The style and look of the game is very well done. I think the game play could be a bit better though. I often find myself standing there wondering what I'm supposed to be doing. I also seem to run out of Atom and ammunition quickly, even when I try to preserve it. So I give the look, atmosphere, and story line 5 out of 5. I would give the game play about 3 and half out of 5.
I've been playing Far Cry some too. This is probably my favorite game all around. I had never played it with the highest settings before though. Now there is swaying grass, better looking particles, higher detailed textures (including normal maps), birds and bugs flying around, fish under water, better water reflections and the plants under the water look proper (before I could see the alpha mapped planes), and the rockets have shadow casting lights. It's also a little more difficult to shoot bad guys (maybe due to the higher resolution 1680x1050). Even though I know the game very well having played it a lot, it almost feels like a new game.
Man, I can't wait to play Far Cry 2. :D
If I can't get this card working well with tS though, I may have to get rid of it and switch back to Nvidia. :(
I have a question for anyone who might know. My mother board is "Crossfire" ready. I know that in theory Crossfire and SLI are virtually the same thing. If I switched back to Nvidia, would I need a motherboard that is specifically "SLI" ready, or would it work with my "Crossfire" ready motherboard? |
Post by splinters // Sep 4, 2008, 8:35am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Crossfire is an Ati platform as far as I am aware...wanna swap for a 9800GT...;) |
Post by TomG // Sep 4, 2008, 9:12am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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While Xfire and SLI "do the same thing" (join two video cards together), as far as I know they are completely different and an Xfire board won't run two NVIDIA cards (though it will run one), and an SLI board wont run two ATI cards (but will run one). I could be wrong though, not investigated as the two card solution hasn't been cost effective for me. Seems only if you are at the top end of the cards with nowhere left to go would you want to go "dual wielding" with your graphics cards as it would be the only way to get more power, but otherwise just upgrading the card is a more cost effective solution.
Thanks!
Tom |
Post by splinters // Sep 4, 2008, 10:12am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Aaah, just get one of these;
http://gpucafe.com/2008/09/amd-firestream-9250/
Whooooaaah! Nice price...:( |
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