rec.autos.simulators

I picked up an 8800GTS on an eVGA trade-up for my 7900GTO, since the
trade-up window was going to close soon.

First off, you can crank some unbelievable levels of AA and AF at high
res on this thing.  The Anandtech article was not understating what a
big jump forward this is (on par with the ATI 9700 release).

Unfortunately this is at huge cost in compatibility.  Not unexpected,
but there are some major issues with fairly popular games.  Some brand
cards cannot even load the latest drivers.  My eVGA could use the
97.44's direct from nVidia, but the stupid nTune app refuses to
install.  I haven't tested on all my games, but Halo is the first one
with game-killing artifacts I've run into.  I may do some extensive
testing as I've got a ton of different games.  I just got the card, so
all I've played is Prey, COD2, rFactor, GTR2, RBR, F.E.A.R., Quake 4,
and Halo.  Only spent any length of time in GTR2, and Halo was the only
one with immediate, unplayable bugs.

Lots of little annoying quirks in the driver and control panel, too.
Could only get the old CP through a registry hack, and I had to use the
reforce util to get refresh rates to work properly in OpenGL.

I'm trying to find good forum info - nZone has a thread tracking the
current bugs.  Luckily if I have anything I'm desperate to play I have
an ATI1600 in my "office tasks" PC, and a 6800Ultra in my media box
hooked to the TV.

If people are genuinely interested I'll update this thread with
anything I run into compatibility-wise.

Kendt

[snipped description of experience with GF8800GTS]

That would be great. I was thinking about replacing my two Quadro
FX4500s with a 8800GTX but the fact that the card is not supported by
the standard ForceWare drivers made my curious about the compatibility.
Looks like waiting for the unified drivers to support the 8800 series
isn't a bad idea at all.

BTW: what are your system specs and OS version?

Benjamin

[snip]

I've OC'd the 8800GTS to 600/900 w/o a problem so far.

I'll set AA/AF to app controlled and do a quick run-through of my
games.

Kendt

I'd be very surpised if there are any unsolvable problems with any existing
games..I mean if it runs one DX9 (or 8) prog it will run another ?
Wonder how it copes with (say) DAGGERFALL or DESCENT
Dos game things. Does it offer all the standed Text DOS modes ?

    Also be aware that AMD/ATI are not too far away from releasing the R600,
and have stated in their PR/hype that it should easily match the 8800.  Who
knows when it'll be out, within a few months I'd imagine.

rms

John Lewis

Honestly, if it wasn't for the trade-up program, and I had something
faster than a 7900GTO before hand I wouldn't have touched either an ATI
or nVidia card so soon after launch.

Kendt

Thanks for posting, it is appreciated.  This info, while not surprising,
still provides welcome feedback.  I'll give things a year before buying a
DirectX 10 card of any sort.

The upgrade was surprisingly mostly flawless. I had some Control Panel
quirks at the beginning but I changed card without re-installing drivers.
After a re-install, nTune and the CP are working great. (Without the Classic
CP but I can live with that)

For racing sim this has been a great upgrade (specially for GTL which I can
now run at 3840x1024 even on night races with great fps). GTL, GTR, GTR2,
Netkar, rFactor, RACE all run flawlessly.
On my older games, some DOS, some Win95, some newer ones, no problem either.

Reading the release note from the latest drivers, I'm lucky enough not to
play the games that have some problems, some being subtle. People looking
for a 8800 upgrade should read it before making a move.

Vista and DX10 will tell me, in a year or so, if I made a good move but for
the time being it's a pricey but great upgrade for my sim racing "needs"!

What level of AA/AF are you able to run?  I've got a 21" CRT now at
1600x1200 (max res) and I can comfortably run 8xQAA/16xAF (although
back of the grid at night in GTR2 is slow).
I'm considering getting a large LCD or small 1080p TV to game on.

Also, so far I haven't found the need to drop the D3D "frames rendered
ahead" from 3 to 0 to get rid of that annoying stutter ISI sims seem to
get.  Are you seeing the same thing?

Thanks,
Kendt.

I luckily don't have any stutters in rFactor and other ISI based sims. I use
nVidia drivers default except for AA/AF, no OC.

I have everything maxed out in all the racing games I run.

Oh, that's on a 4800x2 and a GeForce 7800GTX.

8x AA is quite runable, but the fps drops to around 50 in NR2003, and I
prefer to keep it up over 100.  Personally, I think the controls are more
responsive at uber-high fps.

-Larry

While there have always been "fixes" and work-arounds to DOS or Win9x games
in WinXP , I believe with Vista and DirectX 10 there will turly be a need
for a backwards compatible box. Too many significant differences to make a
compatible system.

I recently built a Shuttle SN41G2 box with Sempron 2400+, 1GB RAM, 6800XT
video, 80GB HD to run WinXP and Win98/DOS games. This may just have to work
for me through the next many years until I no longer care to play those
"older" games any more. Granted my up-to-date *** box is much more
powerful, but usually sell off the PC as a whole, or in parts, every year or
two to fund my next *** PC upgrade.

It's unfortunate, but reality that I believe we must face with Windows Vista
and DirectX 10, as far as *** is concerned.

[...]

Google DirectX 9L.