HELP!!!! GEFORCE2 PRO PROBLEM!

[xfour20x]

Hello,
I just recently purchased a MSI Starfoce Geforce2 Pro a couple days ago and I am not satisfied with the results I am getting, so I was hoping that one of you genius' might be able to help me out. I am running win2kpro, PIII 550, Abit BE-6II motherboard, and 384MB of RAM. The AGP slot on my mother board is 2x I believe (card supports 2x or 4x). When playing Counter-Strike at 1024x768, my FPS is at an even 60, nothing less and nothing more. I was asking the other players (who also had Geforce2 Pro's) what kind of FPS they are getting and most of them were well over 75 FPS at 1024x768 regardless of CPU power. The thing that really ticks me off is that MSI's english version website is down, so I cannot download the latest drivers. I am forced to use nVIDIA's reference drivers which does not use the card to its highest potential. MSI includes in the package 3D Turbo 2001, which is a utility that enables the user to overclock their card (only MSI recognizable cards) amongst other things, but unfortunately, it is not detecting my card as an MSI card because of the nVIDIA reference driver (I think). I also read that my monitor HAS to be a plug n play monitor, which it is. Is it not detecting my card correctly because my mother board supports only AGP 2x? What else can I do to overclock my card without using the software that they provide? And lastly, is there any way I can get ahold of the latest MSI drivers, or MSI themselves? Please help. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

You need to change the maximum fps the hl engine will put out every second. I dont remember how though, sorry.

 

[xfour20x]

I did that...fps_max100...but it's still at 60FPS...HEEELLLLPPPP!

 

[nj]

This is just a guess, but you can download nvmax and untick the box the boxes for vsync (both direct3d and opengl) .. That should let you get above 60fps.

I would also download drivers from m3dzone.com. I don't remember which ones are better for Win2k though. Sorry. 10.80's work like a dream for Win98. Don't quote me, but I *think* 11.01's are good drivers for Win2k and a tad worse for win98.

3dTurbo is kinda of a junky program. I stopped using it after I realized there was no failsafe and that it TOPPED off at 400mhz. Bah. NVMAX has a wonderful o/c feature.

NVMAX

M3DZONE Drivers

 

[Boogak]

You might want to check your vsync option is off. 60hz is usually a default refresh rate, which translates into 60fps.

 

[xfour20x]

what about the 12.x drivers for win2k?

 

[xfour20x]

man boogak...i think you nailed the problem...i turned off the vsync (set it to off by default) and I started a game of Counter-Strike and my FPS jumped from 60FPS to 100!!! Thanks alot...now I'm thinking if I should overclock it to even get some more out of it...heheheheh

 

[Poncherelli]

Now that your getting your deserved fps, how do you like this card. I'm thinking of ordering one in the next few days but i'm sort of aprhensive because i've heard bad things about the 2d display on them. Overall are you happy with this card?

 

[xfour20x]

So far, I am happy with the results of this card...everything looks amazing...the 2D graphics are good too...I don't see anything wrong with them...and a Geforce2 Pro for $150, I can't complain...check out www.memorymedia.com
They have great deals and tons of video cards you can choose from for cheap...good luck in finding your card.

 

[KurtD]

I also have the MSI Pro card and am very happy with it. The 2d on my old Voodoo3-3500 was somewhat sharper, but I only notice that in the way icons are displayed on my desktop - my business apps and browsing are pretty much the same. I would only fault the 2d for not improving much over cards like the V3 (for those of us who do more than play Quake or UT). The amount of support and tweaking available is stunning! BTW, check Pricewatch.com for prices, I bought mine for around $140 + $5 shipping.

 

[xfour20x]

BTW, what does the vertical sync do?...Anyone know?

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Hmmm, this is trying to remember something from waaaayyyy back, but I thought vsynch tries to synchronize game frames to screen refresh rate? I.E. Refresh rate @ 75 Hz (75 cycles/sec?) FPS is capped at 75, usually ends up less. So game frame is matched with screen redraw.

Somebody confirm or ridicule this?

 

[Serpentor]

nj:

Do you know anything about the more recent nVidia drivers (12.40 and 12.60)? I've been using the very latest, 12.60, since I got my MSI Pro a couple weeks back. I haven't had any problems, though I'm wondering if my Win98 performance would be even faster using older drivers. Do you know if the 12.60s are inferior for Win98 performance compared to earlier drivers?

Are there any sites that actually review and test the drivers as they come out?

So far I'm pretty happy with the MSI card, I have it running 230/450 but haven't tried any higher yet (I attached a Blue Orb with Arctic Silver II so I imagine it could go even faster). 2D is a little bit of a let down, 1280x1024 and above are unusable I've found. Though 1152x870 that I'm running at right now is pretty nice.

 

[nj]

Serpentor:

I've only used a couple sets so far, 12.40 and 10.80's. I used the 12.40's when I first got my card and I was severely let down by a 3150 2001 3dmark (close to what I got with an overclocked GTS). However, I did a bit of research, uninstalled the 12.40's and installed 10.80's. And although I did a more tweaks and squeezed out a bit more with even more o/c'ing, those drivers let me hit 3320. Which i'm happy with ... for now

I also did a bunch of tests with all the resolutions and found 1280x1024 to get a much better o/c performance (like 16% more), while 1024x768 only garnered me about 6%.

I've read the 12.60's are a bit better than the 12.40's, but still a bit inferior than some of the older drivers. I personally haven't tried them. There are sites that review drivers, there was this HUGE list of drivers compared to each other in a message thread around here. I can't seem to find it though.

I usually hit m3dzone.com's forums and see what they have to say. Zoiah's site used to be one of the first places to find leaked drivers. The forums are dwindling now though. Also www.reactorcritical.com used to be a good site, once long ago ... back when leaked drivers used to come out weekly.

Oh and as far as vsync. I think I remember it getting less tearing on the screen and a better less jerky picture with it on, rather than it off. Jeez, it's been awhile since I read what it ACTUALLY did (I remember all the discussions about breaking the 60fps with quake II and vsync. I also remember having a verite 2100 and not worrying too much about 60fps ... more like 25.)

Anyway. Benchmark your computer two times with your current setup, uninstall your 12.xx's and install 10.80's and try again a couple of times. Maybe you'll see a jump like me.

EDIT: I found this huge list of comparison of Det's. Jeez, I didn't go through it, way too long.

LINK

 

[Serpentor]

nj:

Thanks for the info. I've been running the 12.60s since I got the card, and lately play Serious Sam with the card at 238/468 (seems to be the sweet spot). I tried running some Sam benchmarks with the 10.80s and a few others that were recommended by that site you mentioned. They actually recommend the 7.52s for anyone with a GF2 instead of a GF3. But as it turned out, the Sam scores with those drivers paled in comparison to the 12.60s.

I switched back and opted for the newer 12.90s, and I just found a great Detonator driver review site here. You can see that at high res 32-bit color, the 12.90s outperform the rest of the pack on the Athlon/GF2 system.

On a quick side note, I've never been able to get the card to work at AGP 4X in my system (Athlon 1.2@1.44Ghz 10.5*137). It just crashes when I run anything 3D or D3D related, however AGP 1X/2X run fine. Is your system overclocked and do you have any problems running at AGP 4X?

 

[nj]

12.90's are great drivers. I managed to get almost 200 more 3dmarks out of them. I think I might add a blorb and mem heatsinks to stable it off and maybe get a few more mhz out of the ram.

As far as 4x agp, I really have no idea. I haven't switched from my old ass BH6 mobo in almost 2 years. Bx boards have no 4x AGP. I've read it's like a max of 5% increase and more like 2-3% in real world performance. But some people spend hundreds just for that extra 2%, so I can understand your want to get it working. Somebody else will have to jump in for that answer, sorry.

 

[velvetwolf]

Hey Nj

I wonder if you could offer some advice? i just purchased and installed the MSI 8831, and i can't seem to get anything better than 20 FPS with any driver. Usually about 10fps w/ Direct3D enabled in Halflife at 800x 600 res. I followed the advice given above- NO FSAA disable vsync, you name it I've done it. I've tried Detonator ver 10.80,12.41,12.90 and nothing. 3DMark 2001 scores never above 1985!!!!. My system is a PIII 500 256mb, Win98. Do you think I could have a bad card? Or what? Maybe settings are wrong, but I tried all kinds of settings. I need help bad. Anyone!! Thanks.

 

[jobberd]

four: in your case, it would be best to leave vsync on, and turn up your monitor refresh rate. 60 mhz refresh rate is much too low, and could hurt your eyes after using the monitor too long. Put the refresh rate to 70-75, and turn on vsync. If you turn off vsync, it might leave some artifacts on the screen which would be undesirable. You won't notice the difference between 70-75 fps and 100 fps. Oh, and counter-strike fps tops out at 100, no matter what. If you wanna use all of the power of your Geforce2 pro, try enabling anisotropic filtering or anti-aliasing

velvetwolf: Did you have any video cards installed beforehand? Some of it's registry settings might still be in your computer

 

[nj]

What is your basic setup? What is your agp speed? 1x 2x 4x?

Also that idea that your last card might be messing up your new one is a good theory. I was reading about some guy who's ATI card registry was severly hosing his new PRO.

I don't think it's a bad card, btw.

 

[velvetwolf]

PIII 500, ASUS P2B-F mobo w/ intel 440BX Chipset AGP 2x, 256mb RAM, WD 13gb HD DSL connection about 1MB down 384 up. Win98
OLd Card was an ATI RAGEPRO 8MB, If there is a problem with the Registry how do I change it? I did a few thing to try and uninstall old drivers, mainly followed advice on guru3d. SAid to install Standard display driver then Install new nVidia Detonator . What else should I do?

 

[nj]

There's a guy who set his AGP aperture setting in bios to 128 and it fixed it up. I've also heard reports of lower settings working, so I'd try some of the others.

The only thing other thing I've read is deleting ALL tweaks, drivers etc etc from your ATI card. Then I guess is, physically going into the registry and deleting the ATI stuff (although I'd be careful doing that) through regedit.exe

Ummmm.. A fresh windows install should work too. But most people don't want to hear that.

Try d/l'ing nvmax and seeing if your AGP is on 1x or something weird. Most of the time, when I have a good answer for somebody, it's because I've HAD to research every aspect of it. I've never had a problem with low frames on my MSI or BX board so I'm not much help here, sorry.

TRY NVMAX

 

[nj]

Doubled up.

 

[Jumpman6]

It hurt me to see 3dfx go. It hurts even more that Nvidia won't even back any of 3dfx products.....they are gonna let it die on its own.
Heads up all 3dfx owners. Nvidia will not make any updates they are jus focused on the 3dfx plans thye aquired...

I called the 3dfx customer support number and all the rep BS ..they are telling me " Oh, if your having a problem with your card get new drivers...finally I put them in a corner and they called my card defective. I said " So give me a RMA number let me send you my card and you give me a replacement". They " told me Nvidia doesn't have an answer to that."

Ya it sux....it seemed at a point3dfx was on top of things..all those Nvidia followers now think they are living large with :disgust: their cards. nvidia was nothing before they had to buy out the competition.
.........Let me know what you guyz think.

 

[xfour20x]

Jobberd,
When I was experiencing problems with my Geforce2 (60 FPS), my refresh rate on my monitor was up to 85hz when my vsync was on, so I don't know why my FPS was still at 60. I don't think my anisotropic filtering was enabled however. What does anisotropic filtering do anyway? I know that it is off by default. Can someone please explaine. Thanks.