Why do geforce 8 cards have so many problems with games?

[Maximilian]

Why the hell do so many games have problems with a geforce 8? Its never the geforce 7's or 6's no its always the damn 8 series. Is it because this new line has the unified shader architecture? Is that it, what architecture was there before anyways? Is it just crap support from nvidia??

The problems ive encountered range from TDR errors to graphical glitches, both minor and severe, to the game just simply not even working at all. Im not gonna list specific problems as ill find solutions myself but i just wanna know the reason behind the 8xxx being more problematic than previous generations.

 

[ja1484]

And what evidence do you have of this claim?

The GeForce 8 is nvidia's most popular series in a long time, and one of its longest running to boot. They've increased their market chare in the discrete graphics card area considerably over the past two years. You're definitely going to see more griping on the web about GF8s because many more people are *using them* that are of the demographic that consult/frequent web forums.

I've had an 8800GT for a few months now without a single hitch...

 

[Capt Caveman]

I have no problems with my 8800GT playing games.

 

[Syntax Error]

No problems with my 8800GT, either. Correlation does not entail causation, and just because you have problems with your card doesn't mean the hardware is fundamentally flawed.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: ja1484

And what evidence do you have of this claim?

The GeForce 8 is nvidia's most popular series in a long time, and one of its longest running to boot. They've increased their market chare in the discrete graphics card area considerably over the past two years. You're definitely going to see more griping on the web about GF8s because many more people are *using them* that are of the demographic that consult/frequent web forums.

I've had an 8800GT for a few months now without a single hitch...

I personally have had more problems with my 8600 then i had with my 7900GTO and 9800 PRO and X1900XT combined, and they are ALL down to using an 8xxx series card as the problems are common and experienced all over the web.

The reason it is problematic is not because its popular, its because.... well noone has answered that yet, thats my original question.

Heres a small list of problems:

Red faction dosent work

Star wars republic commando dosent work UNLESS frame buffer is set to low

Company of Heros gives frequent TDR errors if using driver version 163.xx or lower

Thats just whats happened with me on my 8600. Ive read about many other problems with 8xxx cards when i was still sitting with my 7900 GTO without a hitch. Also i would like to add just because you have not had any problems that doesnt mean that others havent, it goes both ways.

 

[ja1484]

So what you really meant to put as your thread title is "Why does my GeForce 8 card have so many problems"?


I'm not making any claims about GF8 problem rates - I'm asking you if you have any real proof or if you're just assuming that because you have a card that pisses you off that it must be more common with this batch of chips than others.

So far, you haven't really said anything aside from "no u".

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: ja1484

So what you really meant to put as your thread title is "Why does my GeForce 8 card have so many problems"?


I'm not making any claims about GF8 problem rates - I'm asking you if you have any real proof or if you're just assuming that because you have a card that pisses you off that it must be more common with this batch of chips than others.

So far, you haven't really said anything aside from "no u".

Read the 1st line of my last post....

Also if you cant answer my original question about it being the architecture or drivers etc and are simply here to blow the 8xxx series is great horn then get the hell out of my thread. Thanks.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Soviet

Originally posted by: ja1484

And what evidence do you have of this claim?

The GeForce 8 is nvidia's most popular series in a long time, and one of its longest running to boot. They've increased their market chare in the discrete graphics card area considerably over the past two years. You're definitely going to see more griping on the web about GF8s because many more people are *using them* that are of the demographic that consult/frequent web forums.

I've had an 8800GT for a few months now without a single hitch...

I personally have had more problems with my 8600 then i had with my 7900GTO and 9800 PRO and X1900XT combined, and they are ALL down to using an 8xxx series card as the problems are common and experienced all over the web.

The reason it is problematic is not because its popular, its because.... well noone has answered that yet, thats my original question.

Heres a small list of problems:

Red faction dosent work

Star wars republic commando dosent work UNLESS frame buffer is set to low

Company of Heros gives frequent TDR errors if using driver version 163.xx or lower

Thats just whats happened with me on my 8600. Ive read about many other problems with 8xxx cards when i was still sitting with my 7900 GTO without a hitch. Also i would like to add just because you have not had any problems that doesnt mean that others havent, it goes both ways.

I noticed you mentioned TDRs so I think the answer to your question lies there.

Vista is a much newer operating system than you used those other cards on, and things other than device driver errors can cause TDRs.

For example, when I set up my 3 way with a non certified PSU, I got TDRs constantly. Replaced with a certified- no more TDRs.

Also, the 8 series is the world's first unified arch, so the drivers had to be re-written from the ground up. The other cards you mention are fixed function cards derivative of prior designs.

These two factors have led to more problems when people use a new arch on a new OS- just the way it is.

Personally, my problems have been few and far betwwen, and I've used every version of Vista, 5 different CPUs, 4 different motherboards with 3 different chipsets, and 5 different 8 series video cards. OTOH I've definitely seen people with issues, Red Faction among them, on nZone.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: nRollo

Originally posted by: Soviet

Originally posted by: ja1484

And what evidence do you have of this claim?

The GeForce 8 is nvidia's most popular series in a long time, and one of its longest running to boot. They've increased their market chare in the discrete graphics card area considerably over the past two years. You're definitely going to see more griping on the web about GF8s because many more people are *using them* that are of the demographic that consult/frequent web forums.

I've had an 8800GT for a few months now without a single hitch...

I personally have had more problems with my 8600 then i had with my 7900GTO and 9800 PRO and X1900XT combined, and they are ALL down to using an 8xxx series card as the problems are common and experienced all over the web.

The reason it is problematic is not because its popular, its because.... well noone has answered that yet, thats my original question.

Heres a small list of problems:

Red faction dosent work

Star wars republic commando dosent work UNLESS frame buffer is set to low

Company of Heros gives frequent TDR errors if using driver version 163.xx or lower

Thats just whats happened with me on my 8600. Ive read about many other problems with 8xxx cards when i was still sitting with my 7900 GTO without a hitch. Also i would like to add just because you have not had any problems that doesnt mean that others havent, it goes both ways.

I noticed you mentioned TDRs so I think the answer to your question lies there.

Vista is a much newer operating system than you used those other cards on, and things other than device driver errors can cause TDRs.

For example, when I set up my 3 way with a non certified PSU, I got TDRs constantly. Replaced with a certified- no more TDRs.

Also, the 8 series is the world's first unified arch, so the drivers had to be re-written from the ground up. The other cards you mention are fixed function cards derivative of prior designs.

These two factors have led to more problems when people use a new arch on a new OS- just the way it is.

Personally, my problems have been few and far betwwen, and I've used every version of Vista, 5 different CPUs, 4 different motherboards with 3 different chipsets, and 5 different 8 series video cards. OTOH I've definitely seen people with issues, Red Faction among them, on nZone.

Thats probably the cause of the problems then since its XP im using. Just wanted confirmation of why theres some odd issues with these 8xxx cards. Theyre all mostly fixable and related to old/unpopular games but it still made me wonder why they happened.

In the time i started this thread ive managed to get red faction working with something called Pro Faction, this game reminds me of total recall a lot which aint a bad thing

 

[evolucion8]

Originally posted by: nRollo

Originally posted by: Soviet

Originally posted by: ja1484


I noticed you mentioned TDRs so I think the answer to your question lies there.

Vista is a much newer operating system than you used those other cards on, and things other than device driver errors can cause TDRs.

For example, when I set up my 3 way with a non certified PSU, I got TDRs constantly. Replaced with a certified- no more TDRs.

Also, the 8 series is the world's first unified arch, so the drivers had to be re-written from the ground up. The other cards you mention are fixed function cards derivative of prior designs.

These two factors have led to more problems when people use a new arch on a new OS- just the way it is.

Personally, my problems have been few and far betwwen, and I've used every version of Vista, 5 different CPUs, 4 different motherboards with 3 different chipsets, and 5 different 8 series video cards. OTOH I've definitely seen people with issues, Red Faction among them, on nZone.

Actually, the Xbox 360 GPU was the very first unified architecture, even though ATi didn't make it on time on the PC world.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: evolucion8

Originally posted by: nRollo

Originally posted by: Soviet

Originally posted by: ja1484


I noticed you mentioned TDRs so I think the answer to your question lies there.

Vista is a much newer operating system than you used those other cards on, and things other than device driver errors can cause TDRs.

For example, when I set up my 3 way with a non certified PSU, I got TDRs constantly. Replaced with a certified- no more TDRs.

Also, the 8 series is the world's first unified arch, so the drivers had to be re-written from the ground up. The other cards you mention are fixed function cards derivative of prior designs.

These two factors have led to more problems when people use a new arch on a new OS- just the way it is.

Personally, my problems have been few and far betwwen, and I've used every version of Vista, 5 different CPUs, 4 different motherboards with 3 different chipsets, and 5 different 8 series video cards. OTOH I've definitely seen people with issues, Red Faction among them, on nZone.

Actually, the Xbox 360 GPU was the very first unified architecture, even though ATi didn't make it on time on the PC world.

Agreed- it would have been more accurate if I said "NVIDIA's first unified arch GPU".

 

[lavaheadache]

Originally posted by: nRollo



what happend to your name Rollo ?

 

[lavaheadache]

OP,

I guess you never had a 7800 GT or 7900 GT with bad Ram. Hell I even had a 7800 GTX XXX version that had to be Rma'ed twice because of the excessive "factory" clocks. Sure the 8800's have had their ups and downs but I've had a good time enjoying a handful them over the last year.

 

[CP5670]

I think he's referring to driver related issues in specific games. The 8 series do seem to have a disproportionate number of them, at least compared to previous gen cards.

 

[clickynext]

I'm not sure why. I've got an 8800GTS and had an 8600GT before, and they're both pretty terrible. I keep getting blank screens or "driver stopped responding" during gaming, at stock clock speed. Never had these kinds of problems before, my vid card before these was a 9600pro.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: clickynext
I'm not sure why. I've got an 8800GTS and had an 8600GT before, and they're both pretty terrible. I keep getting blank screens or "driver stopped responding" during gaming, at stock clock speed. Never had these kinds of problems before, my vid card before these was a 9600pro.

Those are what is called "TDR errors" dunno why but thats what theyre named. Update the driver to the newer 169.xx versions or the latest 17x.xx and see if they work. I used the 163's and the what i thought was newer 165's (theyre actually much older despite the number) and finally my driver stopped responding problems stopped with the 169 series.