GforceFX

shaydim · Mar 15, 2003

I just got the PNY GforceFX 5800 Ultra.
I am very disappointed in the driver for this card. It wasnt on the install CD, the card came with a photocopied address where I was to download the driver from. The driver is very buggy, causing me to either crash or see anomolies while playing 3d games (Everquest and Battlefield 1942). I went to both the PNY web site and Nvidia. The PNY has that one driver, The Nvidia site has no drivers for the FX. Nor does either company provide any contact information for tech support. I am considering Ebaying this piece of garbage and getting the Radeon 9800 pro when it comes out this month.

Any opinions, suggestions? You think I could use the normal Nvidia Detonator drivers with this card?

dhlucke · Mar 15, 2003

I swore I was going to bash the living crap out of the first moron that came here complaining about that stupid card.

You seem like a nice guy though so I won't.

If I were you I would sell that card as fast as possible on E-bay. Hopefully you'll break even. If you have to take a loss, I would still do it. Even at a loss you might still be able to buy a R9700 Pro or R9800 Pro.

Good luck.


<A HREF="http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?dhlucke" target="_new">The French are being described as cheese-eating surrender monkeys.</A>

LumberJack · Mar 15, 2003

Yeah... I have to agree.. buying an FX may not have been the best idea. Either way, selling it may be a bit extreem, e-mail nvidia fist to see what they say sometimes they have drivers that aren't on the web.

To err is human... to really screw things up you need a computer!

Willamette_sucks · Mar 15, 2003

now now guys, lets stop the bashing.
heres what you should do.
put your old card back in and use it untill the next driver release from nVidia.
with new drivers these problems should be fixed and performance should be increased.
if ur going to use it though use the 42.74s, or if those are too buggy use the 43.00s but they are slower.

Long live ATI.

brendini · Mar 15, 2003

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!!!!!

It's called reading! You don't buy stuff until you KNOW that it's gonna be good. There have always been doubts about the FX, and with a PROVEN 9700 line at a LOWER price, just why??? Being the first one on your block to get it will last for 3 DAYS.

So here's my advice:

Find another person like yourself, eager to get their hands on new technology but not knowlegable enough to resist getting ripped off. If they're a friend of yours then all the better. Show them something that the FX does really well. Impress the hell out of them. Sell it, then preorder a 9800 Pro if you have the dough. We all KNOW that the 9800 will pimp, because it's pretty much the same as the 9700. If you're still scared from your current experience, get a 9700 pro.

Don't force me to rant like this again!!

<Brendini>

JimStapleton · Mar 15, 2003

as another alternative (as I haven't looked, and they haven't mentioned it)

Have you checked as to weather or not the current Detinator drivers will work (someone mentioned version numbers, but I don't remember seeing the detinator part.

Additionally, does it still sound like a rocket in your case? Or have they toned down the noise level?

Athlon XP 1600+, MSI K7T PRO2 RU (POS), 2x256 MB CRUCIAL PC2100 CL2.5 memory, Asus V6800 DDR Delux (GF 256) video card, 6.4GB+27GB WD HD, 40GB IBM HD (all 7200RPM). My computer is an acronym

TheGreatGrapeApe · Mar 15, 2003

Actually I would suggest the opposite.
The 43.XX drivers are made for everyday use of the card, the early 42.74 driver is for cranking out 3Dmarks.
Go with the 43.XX drivers, and then if you care what people think of your benchmarks, then install the Benchmark only driver.
Remember W_S that he's complaining about stability, who really notices performance differences in games with these two drivers, it's not like it's more than 2% and then wide ranging at that (lowest vs highest FPS)

See if that fixes the stability problems, otherwise yeah W_S has a good tempo. fix of using your old card until newer CERTIFIED drivers come out, if you can play games on your old card (or didn't sell it like I do [usually a week or two before a replacement, D'Oh!])

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! RED GREEN :tongue: GA to SK

bdaley · Mar 15, 2003

Dude, no offense, but after all the negative crap here about this card you went and bought one anyway?

Sorry you're having problems. Can you possibly return it for credit and get another card?

"I'm a man armed with a fork in a land of soup."

shaydim · Mar 15, 2003

This was my first post, so relax.
I dont think the card is very loud, and I do notice great improvement in performance. It needs better drivers.

eden · Mar 15, 2003

No, plain and simple, it blows.
I am with all those who suggested you return it.
It is unstable, has crappy drivers, and yes a lower Radeon 9700PRO will beat the crap out of it in image quality rendering (AA and Aniso).

Dude, do yourself a favor, before DHLucke changes his nice stance on you, return it, get an ATi high end card and live the high lane with silent computing. Trust me, the FX is a disappointment, plain and simple. I would've imagined THG's articles and other websites would've gotten people to forget about the card but...

--
This post is brought to you by Eden, on a Via Eden, in the garden of Eden.

Booky · Mar 16, 2003

Don't listen to these people. They jsut upset that they bought the marketing soo long and it didn't perform out of the box as they thought it would.

Use the 43.00 drivers from this page

http://download.guru3d.com/detonator/

but make sure you get the right one for your operating system. These will give you more stability to last untill the official gf fx drivers are released. I really think that the next release of drivers from nvidia will increase stability way more and a little better performance. Try these drivers.

Crap, all the good ones are already taken.

Twitch · Mar 16, 2003

Sure is nice that so many people transfer their hatred for nVidia onto this poor guy. So you don't like FX. Who cares? Help the guy with his problem. Download the 43.00 drivers from the link the previous poster provided.

What I find more amusing than anything is that so many of the posters here who rave about how great the Radeon is don't even own one. They are basing their opinion solely on benchmark reviews. Don't worry about it. Get your card running with better drivers, and I'm sure you'll be satisfied with the performance. Would I have bought that card? No. However, it still doesn't make it a worthless investment. You are now running faster than a 9700 PRO in certain applications, and definitely have upgraded from Ti4600. You will be able to play everything that comes out in the near future. It's not like you spent $400 on a Xabre 600 or something. You got the second-best card on the market right now.

<-----Insert witty sig line here.

eden · Mar 16, 2003

Seemed to me like the 43.00 drivers are actually low performing.

Besides, who said that these drivers will fix his stability problems?

If E-Bay works, he can still sell it for more, plenty of suckers there anyways. Also, I'd expect that refunds are acceptable within a week of purchase, at least last I checked.

Oh and... I'm getting a Radeon 9600PRO or 9500PRO in the next months, so nahh :tongue:

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Twitch · Mar 16, 2003

I just think it's funny because people act like the FX is the crappiest product ever brought to market! Yes, it is disappointing and probably beneath nVidia's expectations, but I happen to think it isn't so much that FX sucks as that Radeon has become very, very good. But you could rightfully argue that the FX is a more powerful graphics card than 9700 PRO--for users who don't feel the need to run everything with 4XFSAA and 8X Anisotropic filtering turned on.

Like I said, knowing what I know about graphics cards, I would prefer the 9700 PRO over the FX. It still doesn't mean FX is worthless.

I will say, though, that if he can get a refund on the FX, and buy a Radeon 9800 PRO instead, that would be an excellent idea. Lol!

And by the way, Eden. I will be getting a 9700 PRO in two months. So neener neener!

<-----Insert witty sig line here.

Edited by Twitch on 03/15/03 07:28 PM.

dhlucke · Mar 16, 2003

The truth of the matter is that selling or returning the card is the best thing he could do. There is nothing that says that performance or even stability will increase with the next driver release. I could have sworn that the original drivers that came with the reference boards (42.xx) were actually better than the 43.00. The only thing the 43.00 drivers did was increase the 3dmark2k3 scores without increasing performance.

I wrote the FX off as crap and I think it's fair to say that the purchase of one is pretty damn dumb. Not returning it when you have the chance, or not selling it while there's still a possibility of breaking even is almost as dumb.

The noise comment shocks me though. The GeForceFX is very very loud so what is this guy comparing it to? I get annoyed when my fans get dust on them and get a few dB louder.


<A HREF="http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?dhlucke" target="_new">The French are being described as cheese-eating surrender monkeys.</A>

TheGreatGrapeApe · Mar 16, 2003

Well, I think EVERYONE is worthless and graphics cards are heavenly. The FX works, not a wise choice IMO, but yes far from worthless, just silver medalist though. Returning it for an R9800p or an R9700p plus change would be my choice, but I'm still waiting for my DX9 purchase.

And I will pre-order an R9999.99 as so as I can so, Sha-Na-Na!
Nah!

P.S. Eden , yes the 43.xx drivers are lower performing, but like I said in my post they ARE more stable, they just don't look good in benchmarks, but who PLAYS benchmarks anyways?

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! RED GREEN :tongue: GA to SK

TheGreatGrapeApe · Mar 16, 2003

Actually according to all the reviews I've read the opposite is true the 42.72 drivers are the Benchmark drivers the 43.xx are the stable quality drivers. Here's a clip from the article here in Tom's for the 5600 & 5200 review;


The interesting question is which driver will accompany the final card to the market. The manufacturer PNY gives us a first answer (http://www.pny.com/support/drivers/drivers_verto.cfm) as to where a first FX 5800 driver can be found, and the answer is v43.00 from 13.02.2003! Put in this light, v42.72 gives the impression of being purely a "benchmark driver." However, we can only get a final answer with the final WHQL driver release, and that does not exist yet. 

Anywhoo, I think he should go with the quality/stability in the 43.xx, and forget about the 42.xx driver set until there are WHQL drivers. Just my onion. There's supposed to be a 'p' in there somewhere but I'll wait for an updated set of consonants.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! RED GREEN :tongue: GA to SK

eden · Mar 16, 2003

I admit I was a bit off the mark. Yes the FX5800 Ultra is higher performing in normal gaming than the R9700PRO. However there is some image quality sacrifice, even without any image enhancing techniques.

The fact is and you would admit this as well, there are far too many more disadvantages than advantages for the FX to be considered.
First of all, like some said, it is not even guaranteed the performance will increase any further (it already performs well for being at 16GB/sec of bandwidth), let alone stability. If the guy had stability problems, then he should've been more informed.
Why would people even buy it if it's not out, not even supported yet by nVidia?
And besides, I would not and never buy a new card, regardless of how good it is, if it's not guaranteed to properly run now.
Would you buy the R9800PRO if reviewers had said that while it had some performance boosts over the R9700PRO, it had lots of image and stability problems? Sure I could tell myself: Hey they'll support it within the next months, it'll pick up! My purchase will be worth tons in a few!
But I'd be shooting myself in the foot.
With the rumors of the 3.3 Catalysts enhancing R9700 performance, you gotta be tempted to expect so much more from ATi than nVidia at the moment.

Oh and to DH, the person who comes into this forum buying an FX5600 Ultra, FLAME HER. Now THAT is the kind that deserves a huge beating till they regret ever saving money in the first place.

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Unit01 · Mar 16, 2003

SaiyaJin · Mar 16, 2003

Ok, I can't take it anymore. This is for the people who's doing all the bashing.

How childish can you people get? Calling someone a moron just because they bought something YOU don't like? C'mon how pathetic is that? There's nothing wrong with stating your opinion, but putting people down just because they think differently from you or because they didn't have enough information like you did, it's ridiculous!!!!
And besides we all know the GeForce FX is a good card, VERY disappointing comparing to what we've been expecting but still a good card. I wouldn't buy it because I know that the Radeons offer better value right now. He came here asking for help and you've been nowhere near helpful.
I think it's about time you grew up and have a little more respect towards other people.

Call me what you want, the fact that you're being childish doesn't change at all.
There I said it.

jaythaman · Mar 16, 2003

WHOA OUTBURST!!!. True though

My computer NEVER cras...DOH!.

Twitch · Mar 16, 2003

I agree. There is a lot of animosity being directed towards nVidia right now. I understand it, since I think a lot of people feel like nVidia is not living up to expectations with their new product releases. And they are probably right, but I will say that you can at least be confident nVidia will do everything possible to fix their problems. Does anyone really think nVidia's drivers team can't fix a few instability issues and squeeze performance from their products? C'mon!

People like us who spend way too much time on hardware sites are able to make informed buying decisions. People who are not like us (read: Like to play games and surf the net, but don't obsess over their systems) may not be as well-informed. Doesn't make them stupid.

Furthermore, if a person has bought three or four nVidia graphics cards prior to now, I will bet that person has been pretty damned happy with the performance and stability of those cards. nVidia has worked hard to ensure that stability and support, and it could be argued nVidia has EARNED repeat buyers because of their attention to detail. It couls also be argued ATI still has to prove they will be as solid and consistent now that they are the big kid on the block. I don't have a problem with a person buying an nVidia-based product because of prior experience. We are, after all, creatures of habit.

<-----Insert witty sig line here.

eden · Mar 17, 2003

Dude, first of all, DH did not call the guy moron per se. Don't put words into his mouth.

He did give a conditional statement, but the fact is he did not call him that, because he thought the guy deserved information instead of being flamed.

Who here has even "flamed" the person herself?
Did I? Did DH? No, sorry but, I believe most here are really seeing and taking things to the next level. We recommended he returns it for a better product, and try to get more info from the website (who comes here without having at least once read THG, seriously! Unless you found the community off Google...). I may be so blind to fail to see how the thread is so ignorant at the poster, but, I still disagree, and think you are the one who is overreacting.

I still stick with my claim about the FX5600 Ultra though. Have you at least been dignified enough to back your rage by checking out the benchmarks?
You do realize that at the same price as the R9500PRO, with cheaper AA and Aniso, and currently doubtful driver stability, someone would really have to be such a fanboy that he would be willing to put down image quality, stability AND performance just for the nVidia tag on his card. You are using the context "Just because you disagree with someone's purchase" in a totally wrong position. This one is more than justified. Now if we disagreed and flamed someone for getting say, the FX5200 Ultra, you would have a point. But for me to state the FX5600 Ultra being a horrid performer and that the person who buys it must be an idiot, well, I'm sorry but, it's just true...

Am I anti-nVidia? Say that and you've got another thing coming at ya!

--
This post is brought to you by Eden, on a Via Eden, in the garden of Eden.

dhlucke · Mar 17, 2003

Outburst is all you.

You can think the card is a good card all you want but you have to first ignore the drivers, heat, weight, and noise in order to do that. You have to also ignore the AA/AF performance and image quality. So basically, if you ignore 90% of what counts when buying a videocard, then the FX is great. Oh, did I mention price? The card is priced horribly. Did I mention the 48GB/s bandwidth promised? What about Gainwards 7db promised? What about the 3dmark scores that increase without an increase in actual performance?

Your definition of good is not my definition of good. We aren't talking about negligable differences between the competition. We're talking substantial differences.

Anyone who wishes to call the FX a good card will hear from me every single time until Nvidia gets their act together. I nonetheless was not rude to the guy above and chose to just give him good advice: return or sell the card. Although the gentleman above did say the card is quiet, I can't help but think he is used to 80mm fans roaring in his case. Numbers range all the way up 77dba of noise and that's just unacceptable.

There's absolutely no reason to stick up for the FX. Not yet at least. Maybe Nvidia will get their act together in 6 months or a year.


<A HREF="http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?dhlucke" target="_new">The French are being described as cheese-eating surrender monkeys.</A>

davepermen · Mar 17, 2003

hello dudes. here is a radeon9700 owner. and i can tell you one thing that helps: go to the nvidia page, and download WHQL CERTIFIED drivers. i think 30.xx is it. i don't know if they give you good FX support at all (or possibly it behaves as a gf4 then), but you get stability. every other driver, the WHQL proposed ones, don't use them. if you want stability, and good quality, get WHQL certified drivers, and _NOTHING_ELSE_. this is true for my radeon as well as for your gfFX. and it is definitely true after the last driver releases, wich all where more or less released to win some benchmarks.

there will come a WHQL driver for gfFX, and till then, eighter accept bluescreens, bugs, and sucking image quality, or get an older, WHQL certified driver.

never use anything else if you want a working card.

and yes, imho, i would not use that gfFX at all. i own an ati card, and so i can tell you, that thing is rockstable and great. on the other hand, if i would yet have a gfFX, i would try to get the best out of it. i wish you all the best in getting the best out of your card. if you have luck, you get something similar to my one. at least, you can have dawn dancing around, and with the patch, you can have naked dawn dancing around, hehe. that alone is worth the hassle to get stable drivers working, not?

all the ones bashing on him. stop it. i tried to help my friend getting a voodoo5 pci working. everyone told him to get an agp mobo and a real gpu. but so what? he got that voodoo, and he had no money to change. and hey, he could play games for a longlong time. recently he could make the upgrade, now he never wants to move back

you got one of the leading cards in performance, technique and image quality. the card is an nvidia card. that is a problem, because i dislike nvidia since quite some time. but else, hey, its a good card

"take a look around" - limp bizkit

www.google.com

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