UT-04 & 8800

[vanvock]

I upgraded from a 7900gt, which was smooth, to the 8800gt which helps playing newer games at better res. but I still like to visit UT-04 sometimes & it stutters like hell now. The card & drivers is the only change (169.21) & I'm wondering if I should try a beta set. I've seen this alluded to in another thread, by BFG10K I think, but I've been unable to find any other posts regarding it. Sorry if it's allready been done.

 

[lxskllr]

That's an issue with UT2k4(and probably all UT2 engine games) and XP. I haven't experienced that myself, but I'm on Vista. I haven't run across any fixes yet, though I haven't really been looking either.

 

[zerocool84]

Did you uninstall the old drivers/clean the registry after you changed video cards???

 

[vanvock]

Thanks for the replies. Yes I cleaned then installed the latest whql set, I generaly shy away from any beta's. Would that be an issue with XP only with the 8800?

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: vanvock
Thanks for the replies. Yes I cleaned then installed the latest whql set, I generaly shy away from any beta's. Would that be an issue with XP only with the 8800?

That's correct. A couple of friends in my clan have the same issue. Nobody's found a fix yet, though they're busy with Real Life® and haven't had the best opportunity to look at it. I would try some of the newer betas to see if they fix it, but I wouldn't get your hopes up :^/

 

[vanvock]

Hmmmm, maybe that DX update will help

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
That's an issue with UT2k4(and probably all UT2 engine games) and XP. I haven't experienced that myself, but I'm on Vista. I haven't run across any fixes yet, though I haven't really been looking either.

No it's not.

This is an issue that's existed in XP with nVidia's 8800 series ever since they first came out.

There is a very old ongoing thread on nVidia's forums on this, as well as other elsewhere.

It's not new, nVidia is well aware of it, & they have done nothing to fix it.
It's pretty sad to see them ignore something that's been a problem for 16 months now, but they have.

The only real solutions are:
Run Vista instead
Get a non-8800 series card.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: lxskllr
That's an issue with UT2k4(and probably all UT2 engine games) and XP. I haven't experienced that myself, but I'm on Vista. I haven't run across any fixes yet, though I haven't really been looking either.

No it's not.

This is an issue that's existed in XP with nVidia's 8800 series ever since they first came out.

There is a very old ongoing thread on nVidia's forums on this, as well as other elsewhere.

It's not new, nVidia is well aware of it, & they have done nothing to fix it.
It's pretty sad to see them ignore something that's been a problem for 16 months now, but they have.

The only real solutions are:
Run Vista instead
Get a non-8800 series card.

Are you saying it isn't only with UT2 engine games? I haven't heard anybody make any other complaints, but my circle is fairly insular ;^)

 

[vanvock]

@ n7-- Have you installed the DX 9.0c update yet? I just did a ran through 3 TDM maps & it really seemed to help. The mouse was still a little jerky but I helped that out in the settings.

 

[n7]

I don't run XP, or i would have dumped my 8800 long ago (since there's no game i've played more than UT2k4).

Luckily i've never seen this issue in Vista.

lxskllr, i thought you were saying it happened for all video cards in XP, sorry, my mistake.

I'm only aware that it affects 8800s...not sure on the 9000 series of nV cards yet.

 

[vanvock]

I was wondering about the 9's too, but I doubt there's much hope there.

 

[EvilComputer92]

Does this affect UT2004 only or all games based on that engine? (like the Splinter Cell games or Deus Ex: Invisible War)

 

[BFG10K]

As N7 says, this is a known problem with the 8xxx/9xxx series on XP . It also affects other Unreal 2 games like Unreal 2, Splinter Cell, Ravenshield and possibly others, though I haven?t had any issues in Deus Ex Invisible War.

The problem has been around since the G80?s launch in Nov 06 and the game is also a TWIMTBP title which makes it exceptionally aggravating and yet again confirms what a hindrance that program really is.

My theory is that nVidia's drivers have problems mapping lighting done through legacy T&L onto their unified shader architecture which explains why the problem persists in the game when running under OpenGL, and it even happens on Linux too. It also explains why earlier cards like the GF 7xxx series have no such issues.

nVidia promised a fix in the 17x.xx drivers but so far all of the leaked betas in that series have the same problem and we haven't seen any official drivers since December 2007.

A temporary fix is to disable T&L in the game?s UT2004.ini file but be prepared for a possible performance hit and/or visual artifacts.

Other options include moving to Vista or switching to ATi's HD3xxx series which is confirmed to work perfectly in the game under XP.

 

[PingSpike]

I could have sworn I played UT04 fine on my 8800GTS 640mb awhile back. I have since sidegraded to an 8800GT and haven't really played the game since.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I have the same problem with my 8800 GT and now I'm barely playing UT3 at all but still play lots of UT 2004 Invasion Monster Mash RPG and Onslaught. :-(.

 

[vanvock]

This is the same kind of deal that made me switch to nV after the ATI 8500 & had I been aware of it there would be a 3870 in my rig now. I really wasn't paying attention because I didn't plan on an 8 series card at all untill this refresh & new games came out, the price was right, seemed like the next gen was still a while out so I jumped. I guess I could just chalk it up to technological progression but I think they should change the slogan to "The way YOU'RE meant to be played".

 

[sanzen07]

I have an 8800GTS and never had an issue running Unreal, UT, Unreal 2, UT2K4, or UT3 on XP. I've since switched to Vista but I was running all of these on XP perfectly fine.