Unfortunately further testing revealed that drivers past 45.23 have bad Windows 98 games compatibility and cannot be recommended. 5x.x caused Thief 2 to crash. With 8x.x many old EA sports games crashed. For some games there may be fixes in config or patches but not a general solution. 45.23 has very good compatibility although there are issues with fonts in certain games like Need For Speed Porsche 2000. Therefore drivers newer than 45.23 and graphics cards newer than GeForce FX cannot be recommended for Windows 98.

Also, I would like to touch upon such a parameter as "video output delay", which in NT systems we usually measure using tools such as "DPC Latency Checker" or "LatencyMon". Unfortunately, I did not find such tools for Windows 9x (If anyone here suddenly knows such tools, please let me know). Therefore, I could not fully test the drivers for delay in their native environment. However, knowing that nVidia adhered to the "UDA" technology, when writing my drivers, I decided to at least try to test the XP versions of the same name in Windows XP. I first checked 45.23 (This version exists for Windows XP as well) and the DPC Latency Chacker showed unacceptably high latency (More than a few hundred). With 56.56 drivers, the delay is already completely normal (4-5 units, as usual). I do not presume to assert that in the 9x it will necessarily be exactly the same, all the same, very different architectures, but, as you know, cancer is a fish in the absence of fish, because, unfortunately, nothing can be measured. Do not refute (instrumentally), do not confirm. However, I still lean towards the version that this is true (Because the delay during the game is still felt, even on CRT). Since then, I don't recommend anyone to use anything below 5X.XX versions under Win9x, in conjunction with GeForce FX, to say the least.

AlexZ wrote on 2022-12-07, 16:42:

Unfortunately further testing revealed that drivers past 45.23 have bad Windows 98 games compatibility and cannot be recommended. 5x.x caused Thief 2 to crash. With 8x.x many old EA sports games crashed. For some games there may be fixes in config or patches but not a general solution. 45.23 has very good compatibility although there are issues with fonts in certain games like Need For Speed Porsche 2000. Therefore drivers newer than 45.23 and graphics cards newer than GeForce FX cannot be recommended for Windows 98.

Above wrote how to fix the failure. I do not recommend 8x.x at all (Except in special cases, for example, when you need the fastest OpenGL or the GPU of your video card does not support anything below). Therefore, I see no particular reason not to use them (With GeForce FX, for sure). They do have a lot more advantages. Rare problems are easier to try to resolve in other available ways (I generally don’t have such problems in my memory). As a last resort, I'd rather make two different boot options - "main" (With ForceWare 56.56, for most cases) and "test" (With 45.23 in case there are any difficulties). But, again, I did not have such difficulties. If you encounter them regularly, then you should report them here, or use 45.23 or some other lame version that doesn't cause problems in your particular case. In all other cases, it is better to use the fastest and most compatible.

Using 45.23 driver in Windows XP is not of much value anyway as you would typically use graphics cards much more powerful than GeForce FX. In ideal case AGP graphics cards should not be used in Windows XP at all as their performance is mediocre.

Having a workaround in Thief 2 is great, but that doesn't make the issues in newer drivers go away. There will likely be no workarounds for other games. Table Fog & 8-bit Paletted Textures and AGP GPU benchmarks from ixbt.com - 101 cards tested are another interesting topics to read. GeForce 4 and FX are so overpowered for Windows 98 games that having extra performance is unnecessary, especially when traded for compatibility. GeForce 4 is hands down the best choice for Windows 98 (even 128bit MX440) followed by FX with a compatible driver.

AlexZ wrote on 2022-12-07, 19:12:

GeForce 4 and FX are so overpowered for Windows 98 games that having extra performance is unnecessary, especially when traded for compatibility.

I agree with this to an extent, but there is one use case where you might need more power than the GeForce 4 or even FX can provide. And that is if you want to max out Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering while using the 1600x1200 resolution.

This is an edge case though, and many people prefer playing Win9x games without Anti Aliasing. Also, not everyone wants to play at 1600x1200 since it often makes the game's UI and text really tiny.

Iris4g wrote on 2019-08-20, 12:58:

Don't hold me to it, but I am almost positive it is 9.0b?
I remember having this issue with 9.0c games. Need for speed underground 2 and UT2004 would puke graphics all over the screen with the FX5600 under Windows 98se. Once again, worked fine in Windows xp. The plus 98 screen savers with white textures was always the case no matter what direct x version I had.

You're not going to like the answer but do a reinstall. It sounds like you're in driver hell. Consider using directx 8.1 and 45.23 drivers this time, it's the better choice for W98SE + FX. Now please excuse me but I want to get on with this other conversation that's going on.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-12-07, 19:30:

AlexZ wrote on 2022-12-07, 19:12:

GeForce 4 and FX are so overpowered for Windows 98 games that having extra performance is unnecessary, especially when traded for compatibility.

I agree with this to an extent, but there is one use case where you might need more power than the GeForce 4 or even FX can provide. And that is if you want to max out Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering while using the 1600x1200 resolution.

This is an edge case though, and many people prefer playing Win9x games without Anti Aliasing. Also, not everyone wants to play at 1600x1200 since it often makes the game's UI and text really tiny.

Typically AA is best utilized at 1024x768 and under anyway, I guess unless you're playing on some monstrous, exceedingly rare monitor (not consumer market) and at high resolutions like 1600x1200. Then you might notice the jaggies. I usually opt for the high resolutions despite the UI scale, did in the old days and still do today.

The only other drivers are the 9X 45.32 betas. Those drivers when released, intended to eliminate various image disturbances in the form of "flickering". and "mouse wheel noise bug" found in the 45.23 Drivers.

They have slightly lower performance than 45.23 and they are supposedly only for FXs, not for cards like Ge force 3 etc. Since I don't think those GPUs have the problem anyways, and they might be unstable on other cards than FXs.

Ofcourse I went down the rabit hole. Here is the drivers tested you will have to translate to english or whatever with Chrome. They tested the 45.33 2k/xp version. 45.32 is the 9X version. https://web.archive.org/web/20031207112426/ht … iberRoundup.htm

You can find the driver on this site.

https://drivers.eu/Video/MSI%20%28Microstar%29/FX5900-VTD128

I've been testing them and found them just as compatible as the 45.23s with a FX5900XT your mileage may vary.

maestro wrote on 2022-12-08, 02:19:

Typically AA is best utilized at 1024x768 and under anyway, I guess unless you're playing on some monstrous, exceedingly rare monitor (not consumer market) and at high resolutions like 1600x1200. Then you might notice the jaggies. I usually opt for the high resolutions despite the UI scale, did in the old days and still do today.

People sometimes buy 1920x1200 widescreen LCD monitors (16:10) and use them for retro gaming at 1600x1200. Disabling image stretching provides a proper 4:3 aspect ratio.

The jaggies are slightly more noticeable on those, especially if they are 24" in size, or more. But like I said, it's an edge case.

Well, safe-texture-manager was in the thief2 user.cfg for some possible incompatibilities with TNT2 and old detonators drivers, so problems could always arise even with older hardware/drivers, you have to tinker at least a bit with old software/hardware.
In my experience Forceware 45.23 is great for gf4, not so great, performance wise, for GeForce FX on my 5900 Ultra and my Athlon 64 system for latest Win98 gaming. So instead of worrying about compatibility only, I prefer to achieve a good compromise compatibility/performances with the tip of the scale toward performances and, if needed, I'm going to play older games on older systems. Whoever has read some pages on this forum, knows pretty well that is almost impossible to build a single system to play, with no problems at all, trough 10 or 20 years of games library, personal preferences about hardware components put aside.

I would suggest discussing this issue in more detail (less unfounded). What specific games (give at least a few titles) do you think won't run on the GeForce FX with the faster 56.56 driver, but will run smoothly with the slower 45.23 driver?

I would like to just check, test and try to find workarounds (If problems are confirmed) to start with, in order to stay with the fastest and most functional driver for GeForce FX.