First post, by brostenen
- Rank
- l33t++
First up, I will say that I don't know if this is hardware or software related, as this is a post regarding a bit of both.....
That's why I have put this in "Marvin". (sorry if this is a bit messy tread to look at)
You all have seen me, complaining and not really advicing GF4's and GF-FX-5xxx cards for Win98 gaming. I have allways had some issues on these, as they are rendering UT99 and NFS-Porche in a bad way. And I have found a solution, so far. This involves some more works, if you'r starting point is the same as mine.
A bit of story first, as there is a number of reasons to why I did this test of finding out what to do when running GF4.
A lot of people have this idea, of eighter Geforce FX-5XXX series being the best for fast Win98 systems. Other's have been arguing that Radeon cards are the best. So I originally bought an FX-5200 for this, just to test if I should go for something like one of the fastest 5XXX series of cards. And I have bought stuff like Radeon-9600's and 9800's to test that out. And eventually, though running fine, I have had bad luck with the Geforces. Even GF4 cards have these issues. Then I have bid my time, listening to every argument on what drivers to use and what GF4 model to use. Yeah...
To round this up. I have had some glitches with GF4 cards too, and as some people here point out, the GF4 is like a GF3 on steroids, and tweaked. All in all, the GF4 is like a GF3 core.
Then I have tested with GF2, TNT2, V3, V2, Matrox G400, and with Radeon-9600/9800. And none of these cards have this issue of rendering stuff wrong.
So I sat down and tested it yesterday, and I have documented this, in order for others to see and not make the same mistakes as I did for a long time.
I have written the driver version on each pictures below, and then I will write what I did, and why I still don't think GF4 is good for first buyers of retro gaming machines. First up... Some pictures of the testbench.... 😉 (I have named it "Testie")
- Intel D815EEA2 Motherboard.
- Intel P-III-933 mhz (non-Tualatin).
- 512mb PC-133 Kingston Ram (one module).
- GF4-ti4200 branded Medion.
- Yamaha YMF-724 Soundcard.
- Samsung 40gb Spinpoint 2mb cache model.
- Some SATA DVD-RW with a converter.
- ALPS 1.44mb Floppy drive.
Now for some pictures of the drivers that I have tested with (version written under each photo.
Version 40.71
Version 40.71
Version 40.71
Version 40.71
Version 41.09
Version 41.09
Version 41.09
Version 41.09
Version 43.45
Version 43.45
Version 43.45
Version 43.45
Version 44.03
Version 44.03
Version 44.03
Version 44.03
Version 45.23
Version 45.23
Version 45.23
Version 45.23
After these tests, I changed the driver to 45.23 and installed the UT99-Patches number: 428, 432 and 436.
The result was a lot better this time......
Why do I not recommend this card? Well... If you buy the game, you might get hands on one of the original un/non-patched version. And if you don't know were to look, you might not be able to find the patches. This shall only be seen as a loooong tip for those who wants some GF4-action on UT99.
Yet.... If you know what to look for and how to get the patches. Then go for GF4. 😜
Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....
My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen
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