Geforce compatibility

[Mean MrMustard]

Lately a couple of my friends have warned me of getting a Geforce card because they can be unstable with newer systems. I have hardly seen any bad threads about Geforce cards and AMD boards so could this be a problem even if I set up everthing correctly?

One of my friends said he could install and use his Geforce 2 but it would randomly freeze up or shut down the computer in Windows or in games. Once he put his Voodoo3 back in he didn't have any problems since.

Please let me know of any potential problems, as I am on the verge of buying a new Geforce.

 

[harbinger52]

To start I would ask What AMD set up do you have. I have 3 different Geforce cards and I have had no issues at all. I have istalled them on ASUS, Abit and MSI mobo's.

 

[FluxCapacitor]

It's all about using the proper settings and the correct drivers. The Geforce cards have lots of settings you can tweak and play around with, and therefore have more things for you to screw up. I've never had any problems with either the Geforce or Geforce2 on an AMD setup.



<< I have hardly seen any bad threads about Geforce cards and AMD boards so could this be a problem even if I set up everthing correctly? >>



Not likely.



<< One of my friends said he could install and use his Geforce 2 but it would randomly freeze up or shut down the computer in Windows or in games. >>



Not to knock your friend, but that's the problem with getting advice from friends. They'll often give you an opinion/advice without having much, if any, firsthand knowledge. How long did he use the Geforce2 before he gave up? Had he ever used a Geforce before? Is he biased towards 3dfx?

Here's my advice: Get a Geforce. It's a good card and you'll be happy with it. Then, when you get it working just fine, you can go tell your friends that you're the expert now and they can feel free to come to you for advice... lol. Just ask anyone on the forms here if you run into problems, or private message me and I'll be glad to help out.

 

[boran]

most geforce athlon combinations can suffer from lockups and freezes if they are combined witha not so strong PSU, the gefocre (especcially the original Geforce 1 and now the Geforce 2) can eat quite some power ... so if u look in amd's reccomended power supplies, look at the average wattage needed for your computer and ADD 50 watt to the average in order to have guaranteed no problems what so ever if it comes down to power supply for your geforce ...
I'll give an example
a 1,2 Ghz athlon would require about a 300 watt PSU to run ..
that is sufficient to have with most normal addon cards etc ... but with a geforce u could run into problems cous the card uses quite some juice so if u combine a 1,2 ghz athlon I would reccommend to use a 350 watt PSU just to be safe
(and if u intend to upgrade later then you'd beter choose an even higher PSU cous otherwise you'll have to replace the PSU when u change processor ...

 

[RobsTV]

Never a problem with GF2 and AMD, even when using cheap Geeks $20 cases with 250w supplies, if the &quot;previous 3dfx card&quot; is removed correctly.. GF2 actually uses much less power than original GF, and Durons/T-Birds require less power than original Athlons.

Even overclocking a Duron 750 to 1GHz, using 1.85v and 3.5v I/O, overclocking the PCI and AGP bus, overclocking memory, having 4 drives, with all PCI slots filled, including a second high power video card for multimonitor, and 2 NICs, SB Live, Tuner/capture card, and modem, the cheap 250w supply is plenty enough to run any program, 100% rock solid stable. Duplicated all on second system for wife to use.

But, I too took out a V3 and put in a GF2, and crash, bang, boom, lockups, errors.
Turns out it is not the GF2, but is instead the 3dfx drivers!! They take over your system, and it is very difficult to find the hidden portions. In most instances, including mine, the only way to solve was to reformat, and do a fresh install of everything.

 

[bluezebra1098]

Boran is correct.
The GeForce and AMD gear is power hungry and the bigger power supply the better when going with that particular combination.

 

[richleader]

I think what might be going on is he's referring to the old timing problems that the Geforces had with AMD systems. In your bios, there's setting for that, and I don't remember the specifics, but most motherboards have a reccomended timing setting for a geforce 2, my kt7 requires a GA I believe (but it's been ages since I messed with it.) This problem has either been solved entirely, or is correctable on EVERY motherboard you're likely to be looking at.

 

[boran]

<< (especcially the original Geforce 1 and now the Geforce 2) >>



Sorry peeps but I menth the geforce 3, cous nVidia sais that the power consumption of the geforce 3 is &quot;only&quot; as big as the orignial geforce .. in other words .. quite a lot ..

the Geforce 2 is less power hungry (like 50 %)
the reason why the GF3 is so power hungry is because its enorme amount of transistors ...

 

[chainbolt]

using a GF1, GF2, GF2 MX and now a GF3 with a Duron 700, a Duron 850, an Athlon 1200 and now and an Athlon 1333. It's my 4 AMD board, and I did not have ANY problem in more than 1 year with my cards. These are the usual rumors by some frustrated PIII owners.