93.71 please.
Also, you are quite CPU limited on 2000 and 01 SE tests.

agent_x007 wrote:

93.71 please.
Also, you are quite CPU limited on 2000 and 01 SE tests.

Downloading now!

EDIT - Tests are done, results are in the first post. 3dmark06 runs fine now which is nice. I might stick with the 93.71 drivers long term.

EDIT 2 - HOMM2 looks nice and sharp still with these newer drivers, the only weird thing I've run into is the built-in "coolbits" overclocking keeps saying the 500mhz core and 800mhz memory isn't stable enough but of course Rivatuner still works so it's up and running at those speeds.

I would skip 3Dmark and test games you care about if possible.

Plus those drivers are way newer than the FX series. Differences will probably be almost margin of error unless you find a new game they actually cared to tweak/fix up for the old FX cards. 3DMark 06 would fit in that category I suppose. But to run that on a FX! yikes!

swaaye wrote:

I would skip 3Dmark and test games you care about if possible.

Plus those drivers are way newer than the FX series. Differences will probably be almost margin of error unless you find a new game they actually cared to tweak/fix up for the old FX cards. 3DMark 06 would fit in that category I suppose. But to run that on a FX! yikes!

heh yeah I guess 3 years is a big difference, December 2003 for the FX5900XT and November 2006 for the 93.71 drivers.

As for testing games, well the games I'm playing on that machine are I76 and Heroes 2, not exactly benchmarkable. I have been playing Quake 3 on there too though and it runs very well.

I also installed Battlefield 1942 and the expansions last night and man that game is fun.

I'd give 45.23 a try. Unless you want to play DirectX 9 games on that card. The drivers after that were mostly about speed optimizations (read: image quality dropped) and desperation to be competitive in early DirectX 9 games before GeForce 6 was ready.

I mean you can run any drivers you like and neither HL2 dx9 mode or Oblivion are going to run acceptably on there for example. 🤣

I feel like the newest drivers are mostly for goofing around and experimenting, or running like Vista or Win7.

swaaye wrote:

I'd give 45.23 a try. Unless you want to play DirectX 9 games on that card. The drivers after that were mostly about speed optimizations (read: image quality dropped) and desperation to be competitive in early DirectX 9 games before GeForce 6 was ready.

I mean you can run any drivers you like and neither HL2 dx9 mode or Oblivion are going to run acceptably on there for example. 🤣

I feel like the newest drivers are mostly for goofing around and experimenting, or running like Vista or Win7.

hah sounds good, I'll get 45.23 later tonight and post some numbers.

As for HL2 and Oblivion they run properly on Windows 10 and modern hardware, so I don't see any reason to install them here. I might put HL2 on here just to see how bad it runs though, heh.

Half Life 2 will run great as long as you run in the default DirectX 8.1 mode it uses for the FX series. It looks pretty good. I'm not sure what's entirely missing, but you will notice some blockyness in some effects.

Far Cry runs pretty well too. I think it uses a special FX rendering path with some DirectX 9 level effects.

Doom 3 might be the most impressive thing you can run well on them.

swaaye wrote:

Half Life 2 will run great as long as you run in the default DirectX 8.1 mode it uses for the FX series. It looks pretty good. I'm not sure what's entirely missing, but you will notice some blockyness in some effects.

Far Cry runs pretty well too. I think it uses a special FX rendering path with some DirectX 9 level effects.

Doom 3 might be the most impressive thing you can run well on them.

if I remember correctly the water reflection is far nicer with DX9 in HL2,

swaaye wrote:

Half Life 2 will run great as long as you run in the default DirectX 8.1 mode it uses for the FX series. It looks pretty good. I'm not sure what's entirely missing, but you will notice some blockyness in some effects.

Far Cry runs pretty well too. I think it uses a special FX rendering path with some DirectX 9 level effects.

Doom 3 might be the most impressive thing you can run well on them.

Yeah all those run on current operating systems and hardware, no reason to install them on this machine.

I might try Interstate 82 on here, but I remember not liking the changes they made from 76 back when it was new.

SPBHM wrote:

if I remember correctly the water reflection is far nicer with DX9 in HL2,

Yeah the water effects are quite blocky on DirectX 8 mode.

swaaye wrote:

I'd give 45.23 a try.

So I downloaded that version and it doesn't support this model, the readme shows FX5800 and FX5800 Ultra as supported.

The oldest version that I can find that supports the 5900XT is 56.64, so I'm going to run some benches with that version. I'll add the results to the first post in this thread.

pete8475 wrote:

swaaye wrote:

I'd give 45.23 a try.

So I downloaded that version and it doesn't support this model, the readme shows FX5800 and FX5800 Ultra as supported.

The oldest version that I can find that supports the 5900XT is 56.64, so I'm going to run some benches with that version. I'll add the results to the first post in this thread.

If you edit the .inf it'll run. The 45.23 driver supports the FX5900 and the FX5900XT uses the same NV35 chip.

extract the drivers, open nv4_disp.inf in notepad and add...

this line under [Manufacturer]

1%NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0332.1% = nv4_NV3x,                 PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0332

and this line under [Strings]

1NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0332.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT"

BushLin wrote:

If you edit the .inf it'll run. The 45.23 driver supports the FX5900 and the FX5900XT uses the same NV35 chip. extract the driv […]
Show full quote

If you edit the .inf it'll run. The 45.23 driver supports the FX5900 and the FX5900XT uses the same NV35 chip.
extract the drivers, open nv4_disp.inf in notepad and add...
this line under [Manufacturer]

Copy code to clipboard

1%NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0332.1% = nv4_NV3x,                 PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0332

and this line under [Strings]

Copy code to clipboard

1NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0332.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT"

Thank you! I will try that and post results in a little bit.

I think the first string of text actually goes in the [NVIDIA.Mfg] section, the [Manufacturer] section only has one line of text that says "%NVIDIA% = NVIDIA.Mfg" and the [NVIDIA.Mfg] is full of similar PCI\VEN stuff.

EDIT - Testing done, 56.64 seems to be a better choice for this card.