Curse

moriz · Feb 24, 2008, 09:42 PM // 21:42

i'm currently using a geforce f5500 PCI (256mb) graphics card, and i have a few questions about drivers and settings.

1. i heard that older cards perform better with older drivers. is this true? i've tried searching for this, and the most common answer seems to be driver 96.10 (or something like that). there are other versions mentioned as well, like 77.77 and 66.10.

2. there was a recommendation to use rivatuner and force the card to use pixel shader version 1.4 instead of 2.0. i tried it, and i can't seem to find any difference in GW performance. what does forcing an older pixel shader version actually do? does it lower the graphic card utilization and force the game to make up for it with CPU and ram?

lordpwn · Feb 25, 2008, 03:29 AM // 03:29

1. I've seen some of benchmarks that would suggest video drivers _do_ often get slightly slower as the version number increases, probably due to increased internal complexity. With a new card it's a good idea to keep the drivers up to date due to compatibility tweaks and performance optimizations that usually far outweigh any little slowdown, but I doubt they've touched any GeForce FX-specific code in years - so having the latest driver may not be the best idea. Can't really recommend a specific driver version as I've never owned a GeForce FX card.

2. IIRC the GeForce FX series were the first video cards ever to support Pixel Shader 2.0, which allowed much more complex shading effects and easier shader programming. However, the support isn't very good; most games that make heavy use of model 2.0 shaders run like crap on the fastest GeForce FX cards (Half-Life 2 and its heavy use of 2.0 shaders sold a _lot_ of Radeon cards back when Nvidia's latest was the GeForce FX). So yes, it may be a good idea to avoid 2.0 shaders on a GeForce FX. If the game doesn't run any faster after disabling them externally it's possible the game has some code in place to avoid 2.0 shaders entirely on a GeForce FX, or the external tool doesn't work.

moriz · Feb 25, 2008, 07:32 PM // 19:32

i'm currently using the omega 1.6693 drivers. compared to the forceware 169.21 i used before, it seems to run a little slower for some strange reason (about 1 fps slower at the loading screen). i haven't tried the omega 169.21 drivers yet, but i did try the omega 169.25. it caused black zebra stripes to run down my screen and complete freezes that required a reboot to safe mode to get rid of. so i'm a little hesitant to try the slightly older omega drivers in case it does it again.

i'm not sure what pixel shader version GW uses. i tried forcing 1.4, 1.3, and 1.1 using rivatuner, and there seems to be no difference whatsoever. strangely enough, using the -dx8 tag with GW actually caused the game to run SLOWER.

EternalTempest · Feb 25, 2008, 08:54 PM // 20:54

The Geforce FX (5 series) cards are a little.. unique.

They have it this programmable layer so (in theory) you can tell the card to do a wide variety of things. The problem is Direct X calls get "translated" in to instruction on the programmable layer which introduces lag vs doing direct x instructions directly on the card (like Ati did with it's 9xxx series cards that competed with it).

Make sure Direct X is up to date - current version is Dx 9c Nov 07
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en

Instead of -dx8 switch, you can try -noshaders switch.

I use to own an Geforce FX 5700 Ultra 256mb. I did have some odd issues with guildwars, things like background flickering / disappearing in Temple of the ages / heavy jungle area's.