Nvidia Video Cards + Drivers

[Lee Downham]

Nah ... well, at least not in my experience ... only since Vista SP2 have I had any problems, which I am hoping will be sorted soon by MS or Nvidia and is probably due to some conflict with them or overclocking the Q6600 on the old 680 chipset on my Striker Extreme.

Only other thing to mention tho is that I have casually observed that ATI users do not seem to be suffering quite so regularly as Nvidia users with Evo graphics. Maybe I am wrong, but it is something to look into if you are going for a whole new card to replace your 9800.

 

[Damian Henderson]

He's interested in more demanding games. ie ArmA2, AA3 etc.

So the green machine is the way to.

Personally I would just go for the GTX275 / GTX280 instead of going SLi, or GTX260 216 if you cant push that.

 

[Mark Birney]

Well, checked Ebay again, you can get an EVGA GTX280 for €149 from the US (with shipping to Ireland, it's around €190), is that a good price, and is it a good card (the EVGA version)?

There's also a bid currently going on (at €107 right now) for a BFG GTX280.

 

[Damian Henderson]

Very good prices indeed.

Get it for sure, for that price it's just a cracking deal.

 

[Mark Birney]

Super, cheers Damian, Lee and all

Found one with cheaper shipping:
http://cgi.ebay.ie/EVGA-01G-P3-1280-RX-geforce-gtx-280-1024mb-ddr3-PCIE_W0QQitemZ250440589704QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item3a4f6c2188&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A2|66%3A2|39%3A6|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A25

But the catch is it's "Refurbished".

 

[Nigel Atkins]

But the catch is it's "Refurbished".

and only 30 day warranty compared to 2yrs to lifetime warranty with new stuff :wink2:

 

[Mark Birney]

Best deal so far:
http://cgi.ebay.ie/BFG-GeForce-GTX-280-Video-Card-OC-Edition-1GB-GDDR3_W0QQitemZ320390623403QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item4a98c4f0ab&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A2|66%3A2|39%3A6|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A25

BFG GTX280 OC edition. Very tempting. I'll wait a while, closer to the bid deadline.

 

[Damian Henderson]

Ye buy new, second link will be better.

 

[Mark Birney]

Yes sir!

 

[Lee Downham]

point me at it, i want one

on a serious note, sorry to steal your thread Mark.

what would i be better off getting, an nvidia GTX260 or an ati 4870/90, i have around £180 to spend.

i currently have a 9800gt but its a bit sluggish in some of the more demanding games. ie ArmA2, AA3 etc.

i have a foxxconn G31MX mobo(not the best but hopefully replacing asap)
intel 9550 quad(stock speed)
4gb pc 6400 ram
1tb samsung spinpoint h/d
vista 32 home premium.

That mobo is not SLi ready anyway, so not point thinking of doing that, unless you wanted to spend 180 quid getting a 2nd 9800GTX and putting the rest into this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-329-AS

:wink2:

BTW Mark, I just looked at that link on ebay - don't want to be the bringer of doom and gloom or bad news or owt, but it says "reserve not met", and in my experience these things tend to double in price in the last 10 minutes anyways ... so in all honesty like the rather informed Damo says ... the 260 or 275 might be the way forward for you and your budget.

 

[Damian Henderson]

Ye, reserve could be quite high! The prices you been saying Mark have sounded to good to be true! It's a bidding war, normally people bid at the last minute also, but if you can get one very cheap go for it naturally.

Otherwise as Lee said go for GTX275 or GTX260 216

 

[Mark Birney]

Yeh, I know, wasn't going to bid. Amn't going to buy a card for a while, just posting the prices and products for you guys, just to see if the ebay option was worth it when I get around to it

 

[mrkavanagh]

this is a great place to compare all GPU's

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...s-2009/3DMark06-v1.1.0-3DMark-Score,1195.html

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

New driver out

This is a WHQL-Certified driver for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, and 200-series desktop GPUs and ION GPUs.

New in Release 190.38

• Adds support for OpenGL 3.1
• Adds support for CUDA 2.3 for improved performance in GPU Computing applications. See CUDA Zone for more details.
• Adds a new user-controlled power management setting for GeForce 9-series and later graphics cards (cards must already support more than one power state). This option allows users to set a performance level for each DirectX or OpenGL application.
• Includes several new control panel features and numerous bug fixes. More information can be found in the release documentation.

Existing Support:

• Supports Microsoft’s new DirectX Compute API on Windows 7.
• Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology* on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and OpenGL,including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.
• Installs PhysX System Software version 9.09.0428.
• Supports NVIDIA PhysX acceleration on a dedicated GeForce graphics card. Use one card for graphics and dedicate a different card for PhysX processing for game-changing physical effects. Learn more here.
• Supports GeForce Plus Power Pack #3. Download these FREE PhysX and CUDA applications now!
• Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

Help!!!!.

I have an Endurance race this Sat, also my weekly event this weekend. I have re installed windows 7, installed my previous Nvidia drivers version 186.18 and when I launch GTR Evo I get greenish flickering. Ohhh my, I am a nervous wreck right now trying to sort it out.

 

[Damian Henderson]

Tried reinstall driver's to different version again?

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

Tried reinstall driver's to different version again?

Done all that Damian, went to a lower version and also went to the latest version. Installed DirectX 9 and 10 but problem still persists.

Can I use SLI from the default MS display drivers? Can't even overclock the video cards now. :sweat::sweat:

 

[Damian Henderson]

Not sure if you can, can't think of much right now too :sleepin:

Greenish flickering not to good though I know that. Sorry I cant help more righ tnow though

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

Tried everything I could possibly think to resolve the problem. Eventually the PC agreed to accept driver version 186.18. Game is running fine now. Phew Thanks Damian for your response.

Right problem is still there. I found out that when I enable SLI in Ndivia Control settings the problems starts.

 

[Damian Henderson]

At least you narrowed it down to an SLI problem now. You tried changing SLI profile etc?