Maximum nVidia graphics card - Driver for W2k

I'm afraid you're out of luck. Much like 95, 98, and ME... 2K is well out of it's life cycle. Drivers for any kind of modern hardware will be extremely difficult to come by... if they exist at all. The only course of action would be to upgrade to at least WinXP. What driver support there is left for 2K will probably completely die off next year... it's simply too old at this point. MS will soon be 3 generations past it.

Reliable first-hand information, somebody?
Which driver, available where, allows which graphics card?

Just because you don't like the answer, doesn't make it any less reliable. As for first-hand information, do you expect someone from nVidia to make an appearance here and tell you something you want to hear instead of the truth?

Windows 2K is nine years old. It's fortunate that it supports PCI-Express at all... let alone the latest video cards. It's practically a dead OS... you can either accept that and move on or you can continue to look for something you're never going to find.

The GeForce 7 series is the latest supported by Win 2K. If you click on the GeForce 8 series and later, there are only XP drivers available.

Found the ForceWare 175.19 for W2k-Xp here:
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguag...
its nv4_disp.inf explicitly says "for windows 2000" and includes the Gf9800gx2, which is a dX10 and OGL2.1 card released in 2008.
Even better, this driver doesn't seem to restrict to Asus hardware.

Not bad! Advantage to nVidia up to now.

What I want to hear is the truth, and apparently this is not GeForce 7.

By the way, W2k doesn't need to know what Pci-E is, provided the Bios or the chipset driver configures the bus properly. Just like Win 95 uses the Agp bus at full speed as soon as the chipset driver configures it, though Win 95 completely ignores what Agp is.

The kind of answer I'd really like to have is from someone who did try it - that's what I mean with "first-hand".

That was my point. If the drivers exist for the OS, then the OS will support the spec. If the drivers don't exist, then you're out of luck. That is what my "... lucky it even supports PCI-E" means.

Don't expect any DX 10.1 cards to have 2K drivers... at least not directly from nVidia. You might get lucky with vendors like Asus... but the operative word there is lucky.

I'd say it's about time to upgrade to an OS that will better use the hardware. Even XP-64 would be a better choice right now. It's like buying a 2008 Mustang and then putting a 1970s engine in it. You're not getting the most out of your computer using an operating system that wasn't designed with it in mind.

Zoron, a useful post would tell "I've tried on that card with this driver on my W2k, observed that".

That's also my point... I know what you're looking for and I'm simply trying to tell you that you are going to have one hell of a time finding it. When I built this computer, it first had XP and then it was upgraded to Vista... the idea of putting 2K on it didn't even occur to me... even though I had access to 2K.

I'm trying to find a nice way to tell you that you're wasting your time... but you're making that quite difficult. So there, I've said it. Most computer enthusiasts that post here wouldn't consider anything less than XP on new hardware... and some would consider ONLY XP. I know that's not the answer you're looking for... but it's the only one that you're likely to find here.

I'm not trying to come down on you or insult you. I'm simply stating what I believe to be your best course of action... abandon 2K and upgrade to at least XP... especially since you've spent or plan on spending a good chunk on new hardware. If this is simply for curiousity's sake... then I'd say you are REALLY wasting your time. I'm in no way against you sticking with 2K... I just want to make sure you know the limitations of using it versus something newer. Personally, I'd like to know myself if anyone has tried... but no one seems to be coming forward.

I'm sorry that I have nothing more "useful" to you than that to post. I believe I am being useful in telling you to ditch 2K... but I guess you see it otherwise. Nothing I say will convince you, and I wish I knew where to point you so that you can get the answer you seek... but I don't. Win 2K is rarely (if ever) mentioned when new hardware is being tested/reviewed.

Zoron, you didn't bring anything sensible to this discussion.

"W2k is too old" is no information.

"People would consider" is uninteresting.

You were unaware of what driver and hardware goes on W2k or not, but you still pretend to express opinions about alleged limitations.

I really don't need to know what wrong decision your lack of knowledge lets you take.

Listen... I'll say this once and once only.

IF THE MANUFACTURERS DO NOT MAKE DRIVERS FOR THE HARDWARE FOR YOUR OS, THEN THE HARDWARE IS NOT GOING TO RUN ON YOUR OS. THIS IS NOT AN "ALLEGED" LIMITATION.

You come here begging for an answer, and yet you have the unmitigated gall to try and point out MY lack of knowledge? No, I haven't tried the latest drivers on the latest hardware on Win 2K. I simply don't have the time or the desire. There is a point in which you have to say to yourself, "You know, I'm wasting my time with this... it's time to move on."

Well I'm saying that about this thread. Clearly this is a waste of my time, as you are quite stuck on 2K and won't consider a much easier alternative. Windows 2K was nice and all.... but it's time has past. It's still a big OS in the business sector, but as for being a mainstream consumer OS that will continue to be supported by all the latest gaming hardware... you might as well keep dreaming. 2K was never meant to be a gaming OS... even if it could do so quite well about a year after release.

Now, if you wanted a Quadro card instead, then you'd likely find 2K drivers... business class video card means business class support. There may also be a way to modify the 2K Quadro drivers to work on the latest gaming cards... but that you'll have to search for...

Anyway, I'm done. I will not read this thread anymore, nor will I waste my time responding to it. I tried to be nice, but you had to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. Your veiled insults were just the icing on the cake. if you insist on sticking with 2K, then you deserve all the frustrations you'll have in finding the support you're so desperately seeking. Once Windows 7 hits store shelves, expect what little support 2K has to virtually disappear.

And the answer was:

- nVidia officially provides W2k drivers (163.71) for its series 8 cards, which are dX10 hardware. Run perfectly with my Gf8600gt;

- Gigabyte ans Asus provide drivers (181.20, 182.06...) allegedly for W2k and nVidia series 9 cards. These drivers install, some accessories like NWiz.exe don't run on W2k but can be shut off, and then my Gf9600gso (from Xfx, not Gigabyte) displays all my games perfectly;

- These drivers list all nVidia Gpu in their target hardware, including the latest Gtx295.

This is the kind of information that would have been useful to me.

And the driver 186.18 does it cleanly at least.
Its Nwiz and PhysX don't work on W2k, but this one refrains from installing them.
Got mine there, it's the international version:
www.nvidia.fr/object/winxp_186.18_whql_fr.html
directly from nVidia and displaying "For W2k" during install.
Its Inf file cites the latest Gtx295.