Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200

PRIVATE1964 skrev:

 > all the resolutions I use. Have you confirmed what the refresh rate actually is
 > while playing HL on WinXP? Maybe it's not 85 like you think. The next time you

With 44.03 the refreshrate is right. Have checked. With the 56.72 I
have to use "refreshrate override" (it just want remember else, might
be becuase I use 75 for 1024x768 and 85 for 800x600, but that worked
in Win98se). With 56.72 vsync is locked, as it is with 44.03 on Win98.
It's just with 44.03 on WinXP it doesn't lock

But I found other nice stuff in 56.72 (like different AA settings for
different games) so I'll use that. Just a bit annoying with the
refresh rate always beeing set to 60 if I don't use the override
(keeps the refresh switch from 75 to 60 to 85 when staring a game,
making the monitor click-click-click, why did they change that?)

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Lars-Erik - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://home.chello.no/~larse/" target="_blank">http://home.chello.no/~larse/</a> - ICQ # 7297605
Win98se, Asus P4PE, 2.53 GHz, Asus V8420 (Ti4200), SB-Live!<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

 >(it just want remember else, might
 >be becuase I use 75 for 1024x768 and 85 for 800x600, but that worked
 >in Win98se)

That's a problem with WinXP. It likes to change the refresh rate. You should
give a program called refreshforce a a try. You can enter refresh rates for all
the different resolutions you use and it will remember them. You can get it
here.

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/download.html" target="_blank">http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/download.html</a>

 >It's just with 44.03 on WinXP it doesn't lock

I would stay with the 44.03 drivers for your 4200, and I would give
refreshforce a try. You could also lock the fps in half-life.

Open up the config.cfg file in half-life and look for this line below;

fps_max "85"

Make sure it is set to 85

Also make sure your running Half-Life in Opengl. You can set that in the game.


 >But I found other nice stuff in 56.72 (like different AA settings for
 >different games)

Try using a program called atuner with the 44.03 drivers. It makes it easy to
set the AA and AF video card settings for different games. It will
automatically start the game and change the settings for you.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

PRIVATE1964 skrev:

 > That's a problem with WinXP. It likes to change the refresh rate. You should
 > give a program called refreshforce a a try. You can enter refresh rates for all

The 56.72 driver can force the refresh rate itself, (has a support
service that fixes that), but its annoying because the refresh
switches to 60 in the process before it switches back to 85

In Win98 I could do this:

1) Switch to 800x600
2) Set refresh to 85
3) Switch to 1024x768
4) Set refresh to 75

When I started a game that used 800x600 refresh would set to 85.
But in WinXP it will set to 60 (seems like 60 is the default value).
It does not remember the refresh for each resolution (and they say
WinXP is so much better than 98, have only found trouble so far

Is there a way to set the default refresh WinXP will use to something
else that 60? A registry key or something (would like 75 as default,
then my monitor wouldn't "click" each time I switched resolution).

 > I would stay with the 44.03 drivers for your 4200, and I would give
 > refreshforce a try. You could also lock the fps in half-life.

But how do I enable VSYNC? I have tried "On by default" (and that
works on 44.03 in Win98), but it won't lock VSYNC in WinXP
I have checked everything, right refresh, but not VSYNC lock
(with the 56.72 set to "Always On" the VSYNC locks in WinXP too)

 > fps_max "85"

That won't enable VSYNC, you will still get image tearing. It will use
a refresh near the screen refresh, yes, but not really VSYNC

I have used the "cl_showfps 1" to check the refresh, and even with a
"fps_max" of 99 it locks to 85 when VSYNC is "On by default" in 98, og
with the 56.72 drivers in XP - but for some reson not with 44.03 in XP

 > Also make sure your running Half-Life in Opengl. You can set that in the game.

Of course To bad there is no command to force VSYNC in Half-Life

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Lars-Erik - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://home.chello.no/~larse/" target="_blank">http://home.chello.no/~larse/</a> - ICQ # 7297605
Win98se, Asus P4PE, 2.53 GHz, Asus V8420 (Ti4200), SB-Live!<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

I used the application you suggested to force the refreshrate in
800x600 to 85 and at first it seemed to work nicly... BUT.... !!!!!!

Half the times I start Half-Life I get a FPS of 85 (as expected with
refresh set to 85 and VSYNC locked). BUT the other 50% times I start I
get a framerate of only 42/43 (half of 85). That never happend before


Why is that happening?

BTW: I have disabled the frequency override inside the 56.72 driver
to prevent that from interferring. But something must be wrong!

--
Lars-Erik - http://home.chello.no/~larse/ - ICQ # 7297605
Win98se, Asus P4PE, 2.53 GHz, Asus V8420 (Ti4200), SB-Live!
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

Lars-Erik Østerud skrev:

 > Half the times I start Half-Life I get a FPS of 85 (as expected with
 > refresh set to 85 and VSYNC locked). BUT the other 50% times I start I
 > get a framerate of only 42/43 (half of 85). That never happend before

Seems like this is related to XP too, or the 56.72 driver.
Restored the settings from RefreshForce, problem is still there

Tried the same in 98, and got 85 every time there

So for some reason in 50% of the startups, HalfLife seems to think
that the refresh rate is half (42) instead of 85. Is this a 56.72
driver issue, or is it a WinXP issue, or a HalfLife issue

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Lars-Erik - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://home.chello.no/~larse/" target="_blank">http://home.chello.no/~larse/</a> - ICQ # 7297605
Win98se, Asus P4PE, 2.53 GHz, Asus V8420 (Ti4200), SB-Live!<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

 >I used the application you suggested to force the refreshrate in
 >800x600 to 85 and at first it seemed to work nicly... BUT.... !!!!!!
 >
 >Half the times I start Half-Life I get a FPS of 85 (as expected with
 >refresh set to 85 and VSYNC locked). BUT the other 50% times I start I
 >get a framerate of only 42/43 (half of 85). That never happend before
 >
 >
 >Why is that happening?

That happens because your video card can not do a solid 85 fps at that
resoltuion and detail level. That proves Vsync is working also. With Vsync
enabled if your video card can not do 85fps, it splits the number in half. If
it falls below half it drops to 1/3 of 85.

So with Vsync on 85fps would drop to around 42fps, then I think around 28fps.
This can be confirmed also using Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

There is nothing wrong there.

It is a trade off in a way. If you set a refresh rate of 60Hz then you would
probably always see 60 fps because your card can handle it. Maybe also even 75,
but the lower you set the refresh rate then you also have more flicker of the
screen.

I use 85 because it is high enough that I see no flicker, and does not put a
strain on the monitor. Some monitors even though they list 100+ refresh rates,
they do those higher rates very badly. 85Hz is a good overall compromise.

So you either leave it at 85 and lower the resolution and details a little bit
so you get it solid at 85 or shut off Vsync and have the fps jump all over the
place.
You could also lower the refresh rate to 75, you might be able to get a solid
75fps with no jumping which should be fine. Anything higher then a solid 60fps
is icing on the cake IMO.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

 >HalfLife seems to think
 >that the refresh rate is half (42) instead of 85.

That's normal with Vsync enabled, if your card can not do a solid 85 it lowers
it to 42.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

PRIVATE1964 skrev:

 > That's normal with Vsync enabled, if your card can not do a solid 85 it lowers
 > it to 42.

The cards can nicly do 85, if I disable VSYNC it'll do 99 constant
(so it has lots of margin to do 85, it's in 800x600 too
It'll do 85 steady in 98 with MaxAA and Anistrophic filtering,
but now these are disabled too.

And this only happends in XP - never in Win98. Is there anyway round
this (is it WInXP that uses to much CPU at start, or the 56.72 drivers
that gives to less FPS at start, or something else, any ideas...)

If XP steals that much CPU and GPU power that my max framerate in
HalfLife drops from 99 (that max HL can display so it might be more)
to below 85, then XP is not really a good upgrade from Win98

--
Lars-Erik - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://home.chello.no/~larse/" target="_blank">http://home.chello.no/~larse/</a> - ICQ # 7297605
Win98se, Asus P4PE, 2.53 GHz, Asus V8420 (Ti4200), SB-Live!<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

PRIVATE1964 skrev:

 > That happens because your video card can not do a solid 85 fps at that
 > resoltuion and detail level. That proves Vsync is working also. With Vsync
 > enabled if your video card can not do 85fps, it splits the number in half. If
 > it falls below half it drops to 1/3 of 85.

See other post. If it can do 99 (without VSYNC) in Win98 with the
44.03 drivers and ALWAYS 85 with VSYNC why should it not manage 85
with the same settings in WinXP with the 56.72 drivers (I'll try
disabling VSYNC in XP and see what the max framerate is there, if that
is much lower than the 99 I get in Win98/44.03 then XP/56.72 stinks!)

 > It is a trade off in a way. If you set a refresh rate of 60Hz then you would
 > probably always see 60 fps because your card can handle it. Maybe also even 75,

Nope, tried that to (had some trouble with setting refresh rates) and
then I got 30 FPS half the times I started (that odd BTW, I get 85 and
42 exacly 50% of the time, 85, 42, 85, 42 when I start the game
several times (as you do from time to time, changing game/server).

To me it seems like something is messed up after the last game exit.

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Lars-Erik - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://home.chello.no/~larse/" target="_blank">http://home.chello.no/~larse/</a> - ICQ # 7297605
Win98se, Asus P4PE, 2.53 GHz, Asus V8420 (Ti4200), SB-Live!<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

 >See other post. If it can do 99 (without VSYNC) in Win98 with the
 >44.03 drivers and ALWAYS 85 with VSYNC why should it not manage 85
 >with the same settings in WinXP with the 56.72 drivers (I'll try
 >disabling VSYNC in XP and see what the max framerate is there, if that
 >is much lower than the 99 I get in Win98/44.03 then XP/56.72 stinks!)

Your never gonna get the same exact results with two different operating
systems. The drivers for WinXP and Win98 are different, even though they might
have the same version number. I also noticed a slight loss in speed when I
upgraded from Win98 to WinXP. I also noticed a slight loss upgrading to DirectX
9. (yes I know the 4200 is only 8.1).

With your 4200 you should stay with the 44.03's on both operating systems they
seem to be around the best for speed. The newest drivers will work OK, but I
have experieneced quite a loss in performance using them with my 4200. Unless
you have a specific game bug that will be solved by using the newest drivers
you should stay with the 44.03's IMO.

 >Nope, tried that to (had some trouble with setting refresh rates) and
 >then I got 30 FPS half the times I started (that odd BTW, I get 85 and
 >42 exacly 50% of the time, 85, 42, 85, 42 when I start the game
 >several times (as you do from time to time, changing game/server).
 >

If your framerate is getting cut in half then your video card can not put out
enough fps's for the refresh rate. Which can be because of the operating system
like in your case. When you use Vsync your telling the video card 85fps and
nothing more.
If your getting 30 fps with a refresh rate of 85 it is like I explained. Your
card can not handle a solid 42 to so it puts out 1/3 of 85 or 28.3 which is
rounding it to 30.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

 >It'll do 85 steady in 98 with MaxAA and Anistrophic filtering,
 >but now these are disabled too.

It sounds like a decrease in performance because of the OS. I don't think there
is much you can do about it., but the 44.03's or a version close to that work
the best with the 4200 IMO.

Trust me here. Switch to the 44.03's. Run refresh force, and use atuner which
you can get here;

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.3dcenter.org/atuner/index_e.php" target="_blank">http://www.3dcenter.org/atuner/index_e.php</a>

You can set up AA and AF settings for each game using the 44.03 drivers. It is
easier to use then what is in newer Nvidia drivers. It is a small program that
runs in the tray. You just click on a game and it start the game and loads the
settings you have saved for each game.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

Now I have tried to test everything...

I have turned of ALL enhancments
Set the refresh rate to 60 Hz
Set "VSYNC" to "always off"

First start: 99 FPS (max)
2nd start: 60 FPS (vsync is back on, why?)
3rd start: 30 FPS (half again)
4th start: 60 FPS
5th start: 30 FPS
and so on....

I could try installing the 44.03 driver on XP,
but I remember somthing about something not working
there (vsync or gamma adjustments or something). There was a reason
for me keeping the 29.41 drivers on Win98, only with the drivers
updated to 44.03 (no other files). But that didn't work on XP.

Argghhhh... D**n drivers... D**n games... D**n XP...

--
Lars-Erik - http://home.chello.no/~larse/ - ICQ # 7297605
Win98se, Asus P4PE, 2.53 GHz, Asus V8420 (Ti4200), SB-Live!
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200 

PRIVATE1964 skrev:

 > Trust me here. Switch to the 44.03's. Run refresh force, and use atuner which
 > you can get here;

But how do I get VSYNC to work then? I tried 44.03 and set "Vsync
Default ON" but I still didn't get VSYNC in Half-Life (and HL itself
has no commands for enabling VSYNC). That's why I use the 29.41
install on XP (the control panel and stuff from 29.41) and only the
drivers (ANVDISP.DLL and NVOPENGL.LRC) from the 44.03, that worked.

But I couldn't get the XP 29.41 drivers to work on my XP SP2.
Don't ask why, nothing appeared of settings, and only 16 colors.

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Lars-Erik - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://home.chello.no/~larse/" target="_blank">http://home.chello.no/~larse/</a> - ICQ # 7297605
Win98se, Asus P4PE, 2.53 GHz, Asus V8420 (Ti4200), SB-Live!<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Asus 44.03 and 56.72 drivers for Nvidia Ti-4200