nVidia's not so "Unified" Driver Support

[GOREGRINDER]

here you go

eVGA GeForceFX 5200 128mb PCI $49.00

 

[route66]

I hope you all learned your lesson - don't buy an nVidia or ATI card for a second monitor.

If you're going to spend $50 for a second monitor (which is retarded, Rollo, even you must admit that), then atleast spend the $50 on a Matrox 2d card.

 

[route66]

Originally posted by: GOREGRINDER
here you go

eVGA GeForceFX 5200 128mb PCI $49.00

Why would he buy that? Next year they will probably drop that from the unified driver.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: route66
I hope you all learned your lesson - don't buy an nVidia or ATI card for a second monitor.

If you're going to spend $50 for a second monitor (which is retarded, Rollo, even you must admit that), then atleast spend the $50 on a Matrox 2d card.

Or third monitor, depending on if you SLI or not 😉
But yes, this is a valid point, since the Matrox drivers likely won't conflict with anything else, and you won't get any sort of confusion with having 2 cards of the same mfr in your system.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: southpawuni

Originally posted by: Gstanfor

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Write it themselves? (not bloody likely...)

This is very possible - if a customer with such a card buys Vista and finds the card is unsupported they will blame Microsoft, not ATi.

On a similar vein IIRC the initial Creative Live/SB128 PCI drivers that were built into XP were written by Microsoft, not Creative. It was only later that Creative produced their own updated versions.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen, unlike Creative, ATi don't have the graphics market sewn up.

I'd almost look forward to such a driver though actually. It'd be the laugh of the century if Microsofts driver turned out better than ATi's own (especially given R2xx's driver history).

wow.. pwnage.

excellent posts Gstanfor.. you really stuck it to him.

Oh, wow, pwnage. It'll be even more funny if MS write a driver for the 7800 that ran games without shimmer.

 

[Fenuxx]

Well, there's always modded drivers, as I know our XTreme-G drivers support from TNT2 on up 😉 😀 . But seriously, if you're still using that for multi-monitor setups, isn't it about time you bought a new card 😉 ?

 

[beatle]

I really have no idea why people drone on about buying a new card. I'll never use the extra features or 3d speed on a card that will be SOLELY 2d.

You can extract the contents of nvidia's drivers to a directory. I'll have to see if I can load the drivers manually this way.

edit: Tony, where are these modded drivers that still work with the TNT2?

 

[Gstanfor]

www.tweaksrus.com

 

[route66]

Originally posted by: GeForceTony
But seriously, if you're still using that for multi-monitor setups, isn't it about time you bought a new card 😉 ?

Why, whats wrong with the 2D in the cards that they have now? Nothing. You've bought into this false hype...

 

[GeneralAres]

That sucks the GF2 Ti cards are dropped but the GF2 MX are still supported? WTF? The GF2 Ti cards are twice as fast as the GF2 MX cards. Yes there is a problem here.

 

[GOREGRINDER]

Originally posted by: route66

Originally posted by: GOREGRINDER
here you go

eVGA GeForceFX 5200 128mb PCI $49.00

Why would he buy that? Next year they will probably drop that from the unified driver.

dont be lame,..the 5200's arent even close to bein dropped,...third party manufacturer's make far too much money off variations of them for nvidia too,......whens the last time you seen a TnT variation even on the market? you would have to have been living in a bomb shelter,...and even from there if your paying attention very little,youd at least have a clue as to why dropping TnT is a non-issue in the industry.,..it took em how long to drop it from drivers?...,..theres more 5200 versions than probably any other card being sold,...period

 

[Gstanfor]

Originally posted by: GeneralAres
That sucks the GF2 Ti cards are dropped but the GF2 MX are still supported? WTF? The GF2 Ti cards are twice as fast as the GF2 MX cards. Yes there is a problem here.

There were manymany more GeForce2 MX cards sold than GF2 Ti. The budget cards almost always outlive the flagship cards because of this. Also those who buy flagship cards tend to upgrade them regularly, those who buy budget cards tend to use them for 3 years plus.

 

[GeneralAres]

So, I understand the TNT2 cards but they should either continue to support all the GF2 or none. And if you support any GF2 it should the faster ones. Otherwise that is just BS.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: beatle
I really have no idea why people drone on about buying a new card. I'll never use the extra features or 3d speed on a card that will be SOLELY 2d.

You can extract the contents of nvidia's drivers to a directory. I'll have to see if I can load the drivers manually this way.

edit: Tony, where are these modded drivers that still work with the TNT2?

Errr, because the amount of time you put into this thread wouldn't be worth $50 to me.

When you add in the time you've spent trying to make it work, when you could have spent $50 and been done with it, alarming.

Dude, if you've got some new hardware you want to put some time in that isn't working, you might make a case for that.

When you're talking about spending time and writing complaining threads over GF2s, we part company.

Buy a card, be done with it. GF3s don't have "3d capabilities" these days anyway, you're upping your baseline to current.

 

[Ryan Smith]

Originally posted by: GeneralAres
So, I understand the TNT2 cards but they should either continue to support all the GF2 or none. And if you support any GF2 it should the faster ones. Otherwise that is just BS.

Funny timing on this, I was just taking a break from working on a new article along these same lines.

Something to keep in mind with supported cards is regression testing. For Nvidia to support a card in their WHQL drivers, that can must be tested under the full Nvidia/Microsoft test battery, which takes time and money(and more money, since time is money). While this is by no means a definitive answer to your question, I would venture an educated guess that the reason you're not seeing GF2 Ti support with their latest drivers is because the costs of regression testing are not worth it for such a relatively small number of old cards still in use. Granted the drivers would likely work as you note, but the realities of regression testing are likely discouraging Nvidia from supporting it.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: beatle
I really have no idea why people drone on about buying a new card. I'll never use the extra features or 3d speed on a card that will be SOLELY 2d.

You can extract the contents of nvidia's drivers to a directory. I'll have to see if I can load the drivers manually this way.

edit: Tony, where are these modded drivers that still work with the TNT2?

Errr, because the amount of time you put into this thread wouldn't be worth $50 to me.

When you add in the time you've spent trying to make it work, when you could have spent $50 and been done with it, alarming.

Dude, if you've got some new hardware you want to put some time in that isn't working, you might make a case for that.

When you're talking about spending time and writing complaining threads over GF2s, we part company.

Buy a card, be done with it. GF3s don't have "3d capabilities" these days anyway, you're upping your baseline to current.

Not even $50.

Text

Try $20 and under. And there are plenty more where that came from.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Avalon

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: beatle
I really have no idea why people drone on about buying a new card. I'll never use the extra features or 3d speed on a card that will be SOLELY 2d.

You can extract the contents of nvidia's drivers to a directory. I'll have to see if I can load the drivers manually this way.

edit: Tony, where are these modded drivers that still work with the TNT2?

Errr, because the amount of time you put into this thread wouldn't be worth $50 to me.

When you add in the time you've spent trying to make it work, when you could have spent $50 and been done with it, alarming.

Dude, if you've got some new hardware you want to put some time in that isn't working, you might make a case for that.

When you're talking about spending time and writing complaining threads over GF2s, we part company.

Buy a card, be done with it. GF3s don't have "3d capabilities" these days anyway, you're upping your baseline to current.

Not even $50.

Text

Try $20 and under. And there are plenty more where that came from.

AGP.

 

[BFG10K]

Doesnt Vista require at least a DX9 compatible card, preferably a DX10 card?

It requires SM 2.0 for the full Aero experience but it can run on cards as low as DirectX 7 under legacy mode.

excellent posts Gstanfor.. you really stuck it to him.

How about you remove your lips from the butts of those people who disagree with me and make your own posts for a change?

Do you have a source for this?

No links offhand, sorry. It was years ago when I read it, even before XP was out IIRC.

 

[GeneralAres]

Maybe some people don't want to buy a used card? Seriously instead of telling people to buy a new card, why don't you buy it for me since it couldn't be that people don't buy them because they don't have even $50 to spare, it must be they were really waiting for you to tell them to buy it, please.

 

[Gstanfor]

I can't believe we are still discussing this.

I just checked out the rig Beatle has the TNT-2 M64 in and there is a BFG 6800OC in there.

Just enable nView and plug the 2nd monitor into the 2nd output already on the card!

If that's still not enough, pick up a 6200 or FX5200, even a GF4 MX will do (i'd go 6200 because it's the same "family" as the 6800, less chance for wierd driver problems).

Given that he lists 4 pcs in his sig, I don't want to hear about financial constraints...

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor
I can't believe we are still discussing this.

I just checked out the rig Beatle has the TNT-2 M64 in and there is a BFG 6800OC in there.

Just enable nView and plug the 2nd monitor into the 2nd output already on the card!

If that's still not enough, pick up a 6200 or FX5200, even a GF4 MX will do (i'd go 6200 because it's the same "family" as the 6800, less chance for wierd driver problems).

Given that he lists 4 pcs in his sig, I don't want to hear about financial constraints...

Did you also notice there were 3 (three) monitors, and that 2 were already plugged into the 6800OC?
Not everybody wants the hassle of removing cards, adding cards, updating drivers etc, because it can be annoying.
4 PC's also looks like getting a new PC each time and keeping the old one, not having 4 top of the line PC's.
I am tight for money, and I could say I have 3 or 4 PC's. Doesn't mean I could really afford to spend $50 on getting a new graphics card to support an extra monitor (I even have that extra monitor if I wanted it).

 

[BrokenArrow]

Originally posted by: beatle
For everyone lambasting people with older hardware, please tell me the importance of a modern 3d accelerator when it is being used solely as a 2d display card.

Can you tell us then the importance of being able to use the latest drivers on an older piece of hardware? If the older driver versions work, and obviously you aren't getting any improvements from newer releases that update support for features those old cards dont even have, why do you care about upgrading the drivers?

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: BrokenArrow

Originally posted by: beatle
For everyone lambasting people with older hardware, please tell me the importance of a modern 3d accelerator when it is being used solely as a 2d display card.

Can you tell us then the importance of being able to use the latest drivers on an older piece of hardware? If the older driver versions work, and obviously you aren't getting any improvements from newer releases that update support for features those old cards dont even have, why do you care about upgrading the drivers?

Since nvidia's drivers are "unified" the driver installer application will install drivers for all cards that it sees fit, even if they're incompatible. This is what bugs me. I only care about upgrading the drivers on my 6800 because I have graphic issues with some of the newer games (BF2, FEAR). Believe me, if I had it my way, I would keep the drivers that have been stable for me since the early spring.

Rollo, I accept Paypal.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Originally posted by: Gstanfor
I can't believe we are still discussing this.

I just checked out the rig Beatle has the TNT-2 M64 in and there is a BFG 6800OC in there.

Just enable nView and plug the 2nd monitor into the 2nd output already on the card!

If that's still not enough, pick up a 6200 or FX5200, even a GF4 MX will do (i'd go 6200 because it's the same "family" as the 6800, less chance for wierd driver problems).

Given that he lists 4 pcs in his sig, I don't want to hear about financial constraints...

Did you also notice there were 3 (three) monitors, and that 2 were already plugged into the 6800OC?
Not everybody wants the hassle of removing cards, adding cards, updating drivers etc, because it can be annoying.
4 PC's also looks like getting a new PC each time and keeping the old one, not having 4 top of the line PC's.
I am tight for money, and I could say I have 3 or 4 PC's. Doesn't mean I could really afford to spend $50 on getting a new graphics card to support an extra monitor (I even have that extra monitor if I wanted it).

Geeez, dude, this isn't worth ANYBODY'S time!

Check it out:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=45&threadid=1716994&enterthread=y]http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=45&threadid=1716994&enterthread=y[/url]

Pay the guy with 127-0-0 Heat $25 for a Hercules GF3 an be done with it?

 

[route66]

Originally posted by: Rollo
Pay the guy with 127-0-0 Heat $25 for a Hercules GF3 an be done with it?

The GF2 just got dropped, why pay $25 when this card will probably be dropped next year?!?!

Don't buy into the nVidia and ATi hype - there are such things as 2D video cards. AMAZING! If you're looking for a new video card for your second monitor, then buy a vanilla PCI VGA card for $25.