Well guys......its been a grueling 36 hours....but finally got the GF3
working in N4 (or any other 3D app...for that matter).
Below is a copy of a post I made a few minutes back on the Hercules Forum.
I had been having nothing but lockups since installing the GF3 card....and
was about to return to the GF2 ULTRA when I found the problem. The post
below is one made after I found/fixed the locking up problem.
Tom
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For a description of the "problem"...see my "post" on 5/21/2001 at 16:43,
"3D Prophet III - New Install".
Well....fixed it. But not before wearing my fingers, toes and elbows
out...searching the "tech" sites for info.
It (the problem) wasn't with the GF3. It wasn't with the Nvidia drivers
either. Nor did it involve the MSI K7 Master-S mobo I'm using, or the AMD
1.2 Ghz CPU, or the AMD 761 Northbridge chipset (and drivers).
Nope! It had nothing to do with any of these....individually. The problem
was a result of the combination of all of them!
The Tech Boards are loaded with posts about GF3 lockup problems.....loaded
to the brim with them! It seems everyone who has been OC'ing their
rigs....running GF2 ULTRAs or similar.....have been having "lockups" galore
once they install their favorite GF3 card....leaving their other "settings"
exactly as they were with the GF2 cards. And, this is independent of the
Nvidia drives used (or Herc's).
The problem seems to be related to the current manufactured inventory of GF3
cards being completely unstable at certain AGP bus speeds. Whether this is
an issue of the GF3 cards alone....or a "combo" of the AGP drivers
used....is hard to tell at this point.
My situation specifics:
I had been running the 1.2 Ghz Athy at 138/38 x 9.5 with the GF2 ULTRA (1311
CPU speed) and all was well. As you know, "all was very NOT well once I
installed the GF3.
***With all the rigamerough I went through, all I did a few hours ago was
change the oc settings to 133/33 x 10 multiplier....and the system is now
rock stable!***
I've been running 3DMark2001 for about two hours (loop).......no lockups.
Tested several other 3D apps...no lockups. N4...no lockups.
Since you guys have been putting up with all these long posts from me (and
providing some good info and feedback...which eventually led me to a
solution)....I figured I would install each of the Nvidia Drivers...since
I'm now so fast at doing it....lol...."practice makes perfect".... you
know.....and run 3DMark2001 on each and report them to you.
Okay...first the basics:
System Specs/Settings:
Mobo: K7 Master-S (AMD 761 Northbridge chip)
CPU: 1.2 Ghz AMD (oc'd to 1333)
RAM: 512 MG PC2100
Video: GF3 (duh!) - "oc'd" to 220/510 (520 morphs the gfx)
Sound: SBL 5.1 X-Gamer
Power: Antec 400w PP403X
Tons of fans case... and a Swiftech C462 CPU cooler.
I ran the 3DMark2000 bench on only the first two drivers...scores were
consistent at mid 9300's....didn't see a need to continue.
Here's the scores for 3DMark2001 on each video driver as indicated: [Notes:
all benchmarks were run 3 times..score average, rounded to nearest 10. GFX
Ratings: based on my own subjective observation of the 3DMark2001
screens/tests on color, clarity and detail...using the 5 years of gfx
experience I have had with 3D graphics work in modifying racing sim tracks,
cars and graphics...and website production gfx. Scale = 1 (low) to 10
(high)...never seen a 10.0....if that helps you get a feel for how critical
I can be with this "subjective" gfx rating.]
***Herc 12.00 drivers from Herc (3D Proph-III) CD:
3DMrk2001 Score: 5330
GFX Rating: 6.5
***Nvidia 12.00 Ref drivers WHQL Certified:
3DMrk2001 Score: 5410
GFX Rating: 7.0
***Nvidia 12.10 Ref drivers Beta:
3DMrk2001 Score: 5790
GFX Rating: 6.5
***Nvidia 12.20 Ref drivers Beta:
3DMrk2001 Score: 5990
GFX Rating: 7.5
***Nvidia 12.40 Ref drivers Beta:
3DMrk2001 Score: 5850
GFX Racing: 9.0
I'm staying with the 12.40's...., though slightly slower than the
12.20's.....the graphics quality was nearly unbelievable. It was as if my
Sony flat screen 21" became a 40x60 Plasma screen...as I'd just seen a ton
of them at E3 last week! The "gamma/colors" were much more brilliant...and
the "detail" was much better...especially the "fog effects" and texture
shading.
In NASCAR 4....I am now running it at 1280x16 res as opposed to 1680x16 res
with the GF2 ULTRA card...with 2x FSAA turned on. The FPS is nearly
identical to the GF2 ULTRA at 1680x16......but the "jaggies" are virtually
gone and the colors more vibrant and the detail ...well, more detailed!
....lol.... My God...this is incredible stuff!
Thanks to all you guys....I'll try to report back on future "drivers" as I
find them.
Regards,
Tom
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post.
