It's the nvidia 45.23 driver, it has generally good compatibility but this game is an exception. Give 30.82 a try.

^ Yep, I have heard that the Detonator 45.23 have compatibility issues with certain NFS games. Using an older driver helps in compatibility.

Nothing of value to add but man, this game has been a very special headache for me on every system I've tried to run it on, from period correct 9x & XP systems through to modern.

I will look into drivers next time I am trying.

Usually it helps to lower the priority on the "Porsche.ICD" process immediately after starting the original version of the game (without patches). This is a known issue and I've had it on all Win98 configurations regardless of driver version (both 45.23 and 56.56 or higher).

Sombrero wrote on 2023-06-15, 18:18:

It's the nvidia 45.23 driver, it has generally good compatibility but this game is an exception. Give 30.82 a try.

Thanks, will do! Tried the 3.5 patch but that did nothing.

Curious though, the game runs fine on my other win98 system which has a P3 450mhz. and Voodoo 3.

Gf2 can use super early drivers, like 8.04 or something. They tend to perform better too.

kolderman wrote on 2023-06-16, 12:58:

Gf2 can use super early drivers, like 8.04 or something. They tend to perform better too.

The whole situation with the CPU overhead only applies for Pentium III CPUs and below.

buckeye wrote on 2023-06-15, 15:31:

Strange, felt for sure this game would run no problem with win98SE installed. My specs: […]
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Strange, felt for sure this game would run no problem with win98SE installed. My specs:

P4 2.4 ghz.
512mb ddr333
Geforce 2 Ultra 64mb
Nvidia drivers 45.23
directx 8.1

It starts fine but once in the menu setting up a "driver" it freezes. Strangely it wakes up when I either pull the usb gamepad
or open/close the cd drive. Is this game sensitive towards faster processors? Believe the game came out in 2000 so it only
supports Pentium 2-3 and that's it? Haven't tried the 3.5 patch yet but wanted some feedback first.

Are you using EAX? And what soundcard do you have? I had that problem too. Fixed it by creating a profile in RivaTuner that sets the process priority for the game's .exe to "Idle", and launched it through RivaTuner. I think disabling EAX also fixed it, but this was years ago.

Ended up trying the 30.82 nvidia drivers and it's working fine now!

Didn't mess with the sound settings, left at default. Sound card is 1st generation Audigy.