VOGONS


First post, by OM606

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Hello everyone,

Long time lurker and first time poster here. I'll introduce myself quickly, i'm 31 and live in France and started PC gaming and tinkering with hardware around 2005 but the interest faded away around 2013... Until i found this forum while fixing some old computer.

Decided to build a dedicated XP machine and went through a few builds with period correct hardware but most of what i had gave me reliability issues. Ended up building something with a Z97 Gigabyte mobo and i5 4460 i had laying around and a GTX 960. My main issue with this is that i want to use my display to its full potential but can't find a way to make the GTX 960 output 1920x1080 75hz.

I've tried forcing 75hz through the Nvidia driver, no problem here but the screen OSD still shows 60hz, enabling v-sync with Fraps running shows the framerate stuck to 60fps. My display only has VGA and HDMI inputs and so far i've tried DVI to VGA, DVI to HDMI and HDMI to no avail. Worth noting that 1920x1080 75hz works in Windows 7. I've also tried 355.98, 368.81 as well as an iCafe driver and it didn't help either. 75Hz is only available for 1280x1024 and below.

At this point i am almost tempted to buy something like a Dell Ultrasharp 19" with a more appropriate aspect ratio and 75hz (or three of them for the nostalgia of the setup i had around 2008-2011).

What do you recommend?

Reply 1 of 9, by Tiido

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From what I remember this is a driver + DVI/HDMI output issue, where XP drivers are not allowing higher than 165MHz pixel clock, and thus high frame rates at 1920x1080 since it is already near the 165MHz limit.

VGA can go to 400MHz pixel clock but the monitor probably cannot, and the VGA to HDMI dongles definitely cannot.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 2 of 9, by OM606

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Is it a limitation of Nvidia drivers only? I personnaly have seen XP running at 1920x1080 75hz on a PC with an HD 4870.

Reply 3 of 9, by Tiido

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Yes, it is a driver issue but I don't remember the details. There's a thread here somewhere about this sort of problem of not being able to get high refresh rates on cards+monitors that do give it on newer OSes.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 4 of 9, by agent_x007

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You need to mod some hex value in driver files to increase Pixel clock limits.
Alternative is to use VGA output and capture card/monitor capable of high Hz at high resolutions on it.
I think this topic seems on point : Windows XP at high resolutions with scaling

Note : Also, this isn't an issue on ATI/AMD, due to drivers for those allowing HBR transmission speed on Display Ports (NV doesn't allow that, hence why 165MHz pixel clock limit, regardless of digital port type used).

Reply 5 of 9, by Joseph_Joestar

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Not a solution to your problem, but I just wanted to note that my GTX 970 can display 1920x1200 @ 75Hz on an ASUS ProArt PA248QV monitor when using Display Port. This is with the 355.98 driver.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 980Ti / X-Fi Titanium

Reply 6 of 9, by OM606

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agent_x007 wrote on 2025-01-17, 20:53:
You need to mod some hex value in driver files to increase Pixel clock limits. Alternative is to use VGA output and capture card […]
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You need to mod some hex value in driver files to increase Pixel clock limits.
Alternative is to use VGA output and capture card/monitor capable of high Hz at high resolutions on it.
I think this topic seems on point : Windows XP at high resolutions with scaling

Note : Also, this isn't an issue on ATI/AMD, due to drivers for those allowing HBR transmission speed on Display Ports (NV doesn't allow that, hence why 165MHz pixel clock limit, regardless of digital port type used).

Thanks, i remember reading this thread a while back but couldn't find it!

I gave up since i figured out i was missing something to make gaming feel like 2007 again, which is a 5:4 monitor. No problem running 1280x1024 75hz of course. Along the way, decided to replace the GTX 960 and experiment with my old HD 4870 for fun.

I'll post updates the day i feel like fixing this issue again.

Reply 7 of 9, by Dimos

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There is a workaround for this . With driver version 355.98, open nvidia control panel and create a custom resolution (in driver version 368.81 this option is not available/ broken), pick 1920x1080, click the timing standard list arrow and select CVT reduced blank. This way you will reduce your pixel clock and you will be able to run 75hz in 1920x1080.

Cpu: Intel i5 3570k
Gpu: Gigabyte GV-N970IXOC-4GD
Ram: G.Skill Ares F3-2133C11D-16GAR
Mobo: Asus P8h61-m LX R2.0
Hdd: T-Force Vulcan Z 512 gb Ssd
Psu: Thermaltake Hamburg 530w
Soundcard: Creative SB Audigy RX
Os: Windows XP Sp3 x86

Reply 8 of 9, by LSS10999

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Does your GTX 960 have native HDMI port? If so, maybe using a native HDMI-HDMI cable will help, as GTX 960 should have proper support of HDMI 2.0.

However, you probably still need to use the Custom Resolution dialog to make it output correctly, preferably in CVT Reduced Blank mode, as there's a chance that the default refresh rate options provided by the video/monitor driver may not set the timings correctly leading to distorted output on the monitor.

From what I know DVI (single-link) is capped at 165MHz on driver level though some did make a patch to remove that limitation from the driver, just not for WinXP.

DVI had a dual-link mode for higher resolutions, but so far no adapters exist to convert *true* dual-link DVI to HDMI 2.0. Actually, HDMI also had a Type-B connector meant for dual-link connectivity, but it was never really used on anything I've seen.

agent_x007 wrote on 2025-01-17, 20:53:

Note : Also, this isn't an issue on ATI/AMD, due to drivers for those allowing HBR transmission speed on Display Ports (NV doesn't allow that, hence why 165MHz pixel clock limit, regardless of digital port type used).

WinXP does allow HBR1 for nVidia cards. For HDMI, AFAIK up to 340MHz should work. It's just that higher resolutions weren't common back then so the video/monitor driver may end up feeding incorrect timings with the default (selectable) options, for which Custom Resolution dialog can be used to set correct ones.

Reply 9 of 9, by agent_x007

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LSS10999 wrote on 2025-02-21, 01:22:

WinXP does allow HBR1 for nVidia cards. For HDMI, AFAIK up to 340MHz should work. It's just that higher resolutions weren't common back then so the video/monitor driver may end up feeding incorrect timings with the default (selectable) options, for which Custom Resolution dialog can be used to set correct ones.

Some topics worth reading : Windows XP at high resolutions with scaling
Clock patcher (Vista+ required) : https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-NVI … l-Clock-Patcher
Also, the most important part :

Hello, thanks for your information about the version of nVIDIA drivers. […]
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Hello, thanks for your information about the version of nVIDIA drivers.

I just wanna display as WQHD@60Hz by GT710(10DE:128B), I found and modified the upper limit codes of pixel clock via HDMI in nVIDIA drivers for Windows XP.

like this (in v355.98):

0.Strip the signature.(Just in case)
nv4_mini.sys(32bit)
000001A0: 00A14BC0H -> 00000000H
000001A4: 00001E78H -> 00000000H

nv4_mini.sys(64bit)
000001A0: 00859700H -> 00000000H
000001A4: 00001E78H -> 00000000H

And, in the case of 32bit, remove from 00A14BC0 to the end, in the case of 64bit, remove 00859700 to the end of file.
(For now, the CheckSum turns 00A15BC0H in 32bit, 0085A700H in 64bit.)

1.Increase the limit values up to HDMI 1.4.
nv4_disp.dll(32bit) 00031C9D:
nv4_mini.sys(32bit) 004E402C:
nv4_disp.dll(64bit) 0004B1D2:
nv4_mini.sys(64bit) 001CA9A3 and 001CA9AE:
00028488H -> 00053020H (165000 -> 340000[KHz])

(By the way, nearby jump-code seems by me like crash one will never run.)

2.Apply the CheckSum.
nv4_disp.dll(32bit)
00000150: 00356780H -> 0036022BH
nv4_mini.sys(32bit)
00000160: 00A193ECH -> 00A2075AH

nv4_disp.dll(64bit)
000002C8: 00BA2A80H -> 00BAD61AH
nv4_mini.sys(64bit)
00000150: 0085D87EH -> 0085ED46H

I haven’t tested other resolutions over HDMI 1.4 like 4K or 8K and so on, so I tested only the pixel clock for WQHD@60Hz in 32bit mode.(I haven’t in 64bit mode.)
I also haven’t investigated precisery that has any other limits include via DVI-D.

Just for reference.

Source : http://wp.xin.at/archives/5616#comment-169787