Krazy Canuck Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 In particular the XFX version. My rig goes in tomorrow for it's biannual upgrade. I'm going from a G3 Ti200w/44.03 drivers to the above. I'm wondering which is the optimum driver for this card and CM......if there is one. XP SP1 Asus P4P 800 SE mobo P4 3 gig Samsung 3200 DDR Thanx is advance. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Official NVidia 66.93 should work well for CM, they do for me, although on different cards. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 10, 2005 Author Share Posted February 10, 2005 I hope so. This computer has been running too smooth, I'm expecting the worst. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 I have to warn you that I had random stutters and other problems in some games when I upgraded my NVidia card. I had to reinstall some games to fix it, and I had to mess sound modes back and forth. That is although I used the same drivers. Some games customize their installed based on what card you currently have. No problems with CM, of course. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 12, 2005 Author Share Posted February 12, 2005 O'k, my rig has gone throughthe shop and is, for now working. Apparently they had to reinstall Xp after installing the new motherboard. In doing so they loaded SP 2, and now Virtual Cd will *not* reload, reinstall or anything. everything else seems to be working fine. Temps on the XFX 6600GT seem to be running high 51 C at idle. No overclocking in the system. Will keep you posted as I haven't tried CM yet. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 12, 2005 Author Share Posted February 12, 2005 I HATE Windows!!!!! and don't have the PC savvy to do anything about it. Have I mentioned I HATE Windows. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 Originally posted by Krazy Canuck: Apparently they had to reinstall Xp after installing the new motherboard. No, it is sufficient to set the IDE controller to GENERIC while the harddrive is still connected to the old mainboard (obviously once it is on the mainboard with the new IDE controller it won't boot anymore). Once set to GENERIC you can connect to the new mainboard and install a specific new IDE drivers there. Why MScrap doesn't automatically fall back to the GENERIC IDE driver when the primary one fails, somebody goota explain to me. Linux, FreeBSD and all those do that just fine... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 13, 2005 Author Share Posted February 13, 2005 O'k,..I'm up and running with everything working except my Virtual Cd5 and I'm now waiting for a reply from them regarding the problem. Comparing the overall clarity of the actual 6600GT with the G3Ti200 isn't really fair but it is best described with a WOW. There truly is a dramatic difference. I had an Enermax 460 watt Silencer PSU installed along with the complete mobo, CPu, memory, and vid card. This PSu has two fans one for intake from the case and the other for exhaust from tthe case. It also provides a rheostatically controlled(variable speed) knob on the back of the case ostensibly to provide *optimum* fan speed to control temp and noise. Unfortunately I find even the "low" setting to be to loud, but it seems to work, at 'low' setting the idle temp of the GPu is 60-61C, at the 'high' setting the temp drops to 52-54C. I've yet to see the GPu temp above 68C even under load(after Sisoft benchmarking). Overall I'm pleased with the whole thing, now I have to find a way to get it to run quieter. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 I'm not doing too well with my new 6600 GT (for Silent Hunter III). FSAA and AF do not work in CM with the 66.93 drivers. I'll be working on the problem this afternoon. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 18, 2005 Author Share Posted February 18, 2005 Originally posted by Treeburst155: I'm not doing too well with my new 6600 GT (for Silent Hunter III). FSAA and AF do not work in CM with the 66.93 drivers. I'll be working on the problem this afternoon. Treeburst155 out. I've the same problem, but, I just shrugged and figured all the OTHER games are vastly improved, CM, well, this must be as good as it gets. Coding problem with CM? :confused: KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 I have FSAA and AF working now; but it doesn't look quite as good as before. Before: Ti4200 with 66.93 drivers After: 6600 GT with 66.93 drivers After changing FSAA/AF settings you must quit and relaunch CM for the changes to take affect. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 Check the "Show Advanced Settings" box and make sure all these things are OFF where you have that choice. Choose "trilinear" with "force mipmaps". The default settings all enhance performance at the expense of quality. This explains the inferior FSAA/AF I've noticed. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 18, 2005 Author Share Posted February 18, 2005 I did as you suggested...didn't change a thing. Wonder why it is so difficult to get these games to look good? Oh well, eye candy it's not and never will be, hard to believe this is as good as gets though. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 My CM looks fine now, as good as with the Ti4200. I just had to turn off all the "optimizations" in the "advanced settings". Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 18, 2005 Author Share Posted February 18, 2005 That was my point, it's a shame that *this* is as good as gets. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 I was wrong in my post above. I put my Ti4200 back in just for fun. The game looked better. What is apparently missing with the 6600 GT is the Anisotropic Filtering. We have none. It's obvious that FSAA is working, but things don't look quite up to par because there is no AF with the 6600 GT. The feature simply does not work with the new card and CM. On small maps, I hardly notice the missing AF; but on the larger ones, it's VERY noticeable. I might try going backwards with drivers. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted February 19, 2005 Share Posted February 19, 2005 I find it hard to believe that this really doesn't work. Maybe NVidia also did something to disabled AF after a certain distance, like ATI appears to do (see other thread). Can somebody give me a reference map and position so that I can see whether my card does it for CM? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted February 19, 2005 Share Posted February 19, 2005 If AF is working at all in CM, it's only working at very close range. I use a heavy 20m grid with CM. With the Ti4200 the grid looks good (not broken into dotted lines) until way out towards the horizon. With the 6600 GT it looks bad at about 200 meters from the camera point with AF at 16x. I get the same results with the Ti4200 when I turn AF off. For purposes of CM, there is no AF with the 6600 GT and the 66.93 drivers. It just ain't there. FSAA works fine. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Can you post a screenshot so that I can compare and see whether mine does it? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 I have never figured out how to post pictures to a forum. I used to link from here to my homepage; but now I can't even access that. I also do not have an FTP thingy installed. Besides, it really doesn't prove anything. What you should do is turn on full AF, fire up CM, get into a game with a large map,then take a screenshot. Repeat this entire process with AF off. Compare the two. There will be no difference. Make sure you quit and restart CM after any AF changes. Make sure you take the screenshots from the same point on the map, looking in the same direction. I used a VL as the camera point. I've already gotten used to the non-existent AF. No big deal. I can handle a little sparklies in the distance as I scroll around. It's just a shame that spending $200 on a vid card can make things worse for some apps. It's a fact of life though. CM is an OLD game. I have other older programs that don't work as well with the 6600 GT also. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Hm... Now I'm curious. cmmods is down, can you mail that gridded terrain mod to me? What I can see is pavement shimmering when moving, and the shimmering kicks in at a pretty short distance. Seems AF settings in NVidia control don't change anything about it. I think it is time to paint some anisotropic testing textures for CM, but I have to work today 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 20, 2005 Author Share Posted February 20, 2005 Originally posted by Treeburst155: ....I've already gotten used to the non-existent AF. No big deal. I can handle a little sparklies in the distance as I scroll around. It's just a shame that spending $200 on a vid card can make things worse for some apps. It's a fact of life though. CM is an OLD game. I have other older programs that don't work as well with the 6600 GT also. *disclaimer*This not a CM slam*disclaimer off* I'm feeling the same angst. Most of the other games(old or new) I play have shown vast improvement in video quality. CM isn't improving, if anything it is getting 'visually' worse. I wonder what machine the game was developed on, I seem to remember it was on a Mac. Could this explain many of the nagging minor issues many are having with this game(s)? KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Originally posted by Krazy Canuck: I wonder what machine the game was developed on, I seem to remember it was on a Mac. Could this explain many of the nagging minor issues many are having with this game(s)? CMx1 on Mac uses the Rave 3D API which is now unsupported. CMx1 on Windows uses almost all Direct 5.x calls which no other game in current usage uses and is hence below the radar of the driver makers. Having said that, anisotropic filtering should work. CMx1 doesn't mess with it at all. So just setting it in the control panel should make it unconditionally work for any game that uses mipmapped textures. Now, if the driver writers "optimized" AF filtering to only affect near areas that would be an explanation but it would be unlikely in the extreme that NVidia and ATI introduce it at the same time. Also, "distance" is relative, what is 1000 meters for CM is 2 meters in other games, I don't think that distances in CM actually look any different to the drivers than distances in other games. Also, it would be unlikely that they did that optimization for the 6600 GT but not for the GF 3. Something else funky is going on here. [ February 20, 2005, 07:35 AM: Message edited by: Redwolf ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 I think Schrullenhaft hit the nail on the head in the ATI thread below. Redwolf, I would LOVE to paint some AF testing textures! What exactly would such textures look like? I'll send you my CM mod if you want; but you won't like it. The BEST way to see that AF is not working is to put in a card where it DOES work, like a GF4 Ti4200. With AF on, very little sparkly effect and nice solid grid. With AF off, sparkles and dotted grid. With 6600 GT, sparkles and broken grid regardless of what AF setting is applied. It's not the 66.93 drivers either. I say this because the very same drivers work fine with a Ti4200. It's the 6600 GT itself that is breaking AF, or the way the drivers interact with the 6600 GT. Because CM works perfectly with the GF4 Ti4200, there is no way this can be blamed on BFC. It's the vid card people taking shortcuts for performance, as Schrullenhaft suggests. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 20, 2005 Author Share Posted February 20, 2005 I'm not sure it's funky or not. All I have to compare the 6600gt was the G3Ti200 it replaced. I assure you that the 'shimmering' effect I had with the G3 is still annoyingly present with the 6600GT, no matter the settings. For me this 'shimmering' is most noticeable when scrolling through trees(scattered or woods) at low levels while trying to find the next hole for my guys to hide in. I had assumed that the 'shimmering' affect was due to my having a low end card, now, I presume that other than 'fog' Nvidia holds no advantage over ATI when it comes to CM. Again though, what amazes me is that every other game I play has improved dramatically in visual clarity. < shrug> sh*t happens...every day. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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