In theory you could inf mod whatever the oldest driver is for any of these cards.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/?archit … sort=generation

Presumably the 980 was released first, so in theory you could inf mod whatever drivers it had on release.

myne wrote on 2025-07-22, 13:31:

In theory you could inf mod whatever the oldest driver is for any of these cards.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/?archit … sort=generation

Presumably the 980 was released first, so in theory you could inf mod whatever drivers it had on release.

You have to use the 960 drivers for XP, the oldest version on NVIDIAs site is 353.62 from 2015 and it did not fix the bug. From what I did find some others said the anything newer than version 266 would not work on some dx5 and older games but I not found anything concrete on that. I'd hate to go buy a 580 or something older only to find out it did not fix the bug.

I also recall having the same bug on a 780 ti a few years ago.

Dx5 is old enough that it might be helped by dxwnd or dgvoodoo.
Worth a try.

myne wrote on 2025-07-22, 14:06:

Dx5 is old enough that it might be helped by dxwnd or dgvoodoo.
Worth a try.

I tried both, dgvoodoo2 does not work in xp and dxwnd did not work ether. I also tried a bunch of different versions of ddraw.dll, some wine render thing and so many other things.

screw it, bought a pair 3gb of 580s with blocks and a 3rd one with a air cooler. I'll test the air card and see if it works and if not I'll send the cards back or sell them or something. Hopefully I don't have to go back further as I know the 2gb gtx 285 is not fast enough for me, the 4890 is borderline fast enough but I still need more vram and a 2gb one is hard as hell to find, the gtx 480 would be pushing it on vram for the newer gameas I play.

Back in the day, everything after Nvidia’s 7000 series seemed to revert to software dithering for Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2. So even 8800GT’s would have an issue.

For a while 7950GT/7800GTX were the best JK2 cards. I can’t remember to the extent AMD cards experience this.

BinaryDemon wrote on 2025-07-22, 17:07:

Back in the day, everything after Nvidia’s 7000 series seemed to revert to software dithering for Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2. So even 8800GT’s would have an issue.

For a while 7950GT/7800GTX were the best JK2 cards. I can’t remember to the extent AMD cards experience this.

say it isn't so. I could never go back that far for a GPU, TBH it would not be so bad if I could get these older DX games to run in 1600x1200. software mode is not that bad in high res, darkforces 2 crashes in 1600x1200 and most other games do not support that high. I'm going to give wined3d a try. I tried other wine/opengl wrappers but not that one.

An easy way to deal with older DirectX titles when using a GPU from the mid 2010s is to dual boot WinXP with either Win7 or Win10.

That way, you can use dgVoodoo2 and similar wrappers for any problematic games.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-07-22, 17:54:

An easy way to deal with older DirectX titles when using a GPU from the mid 2010s is to dual boot WinXP with either Win7 or Win10.

That way, you can use dgVoodoo2 and similar wrappers for any problematic games.

yeah no. that's annoying and I'm trying to move away from dual booting

I can't recommend playing any DX5 game or DX6 games without 32-bit color awareness on GeForce GTX 580 natively. Modern* Nvidia and AMD GPUs do not have dithering for 16-bit color and games have terrible banding. This includes Dark Forces II. But at least they can be mostly launched on GTX 580.

*GeForce 8800+/AMD Radeon HD 2900+

Found a dx5 to dx9 wrapper that works on xp that fixed the issue with DX5 games, now to find a fix for older dx games 🤣. granted most older dx3 games don't have hardware 3d sooo not a big deal

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-23, 17:26:

Found a dx5 to dx9 wrapper that works on xp that fixed the issue with DX5 games, now to find a fix for older dx games 🤣. granted most older dx3 games don't have hardware 3d sooo not a big deal

Enter its name (Or a link to the description) - this may help others (who are facing the same difficulties).

DoZator wrote on Yesterday, 03:28:

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-23, 17:26:

Found a dx5 to dx9 wrapper that works on xp that fixed the issue with DX5 games, now to find a fix for older dx games 🤣. granted most older dx3 games don't have hardware 3d sooo not a big deal

Enter its name (Or a link to the description) - this may help others (who are facing the same difficulties).

sorry but this site doesn't support abandon ware

old school gamer man wrote on Yesterday, 12:20:

DoZator wrote on Yesterday, 03:28:

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-23, 17:26:

Found a dx5 to dx9 wrapper that works on xp that fixed the issue with DX5 games, now to find a fix for older dx games 🤣. granted most older dx3 games don't have hardware 3d sooo not a big deal

Enter its name (Or a link to the description) - this may help others (who are facing the same difficulties).

sorry but this site doesn't support abandon ware

It is not forbidden to specify the name of the program (without links). Users will find it themselves.
Could you please write about this in a private message? Thank you.

DoZator wrote on Yesterday, 14:06:

old school gamer man wrote on Yesterday, 12:20:

DoZator wrote on Yesterday, 03:28:

Enter its name (Or a link to the description) - this may help others (who are facing the same difficulties).

sorry but this site doesn't support abandon ware

It is not forbidden to specify the name of the program (without links). Users will find it themselves.
Could you please write about this in a private message? Thank you.

the software was commercial and isn't sold anymore. you'd have to pirate it so no i'm not bringing it up as the rules here forbid supporting abandoneware

old school gamer man wrote on Yesterday, 17:37:

DoZator wrote on Yesterday, 14:06:

old school gamer man wrote on Yesterday, 12:20:

sorry but this site doesn't support abandon ware

It is not forbidden to specify the name of the program (without links). Users will find it themselves.
Could you please write about this in a private message? Thank you.

the software was commercial and isn't sold anymore. you'd have to pirate it so no i'm not bringing it up as the rules here forbid supporting abandoneware

You're mistaken. If a program is no longer sold, it can usually be legally purchased from a third-party provider, as long as you comply with the terms of the license agreement. This is how I acquired boxed (packaged) versions of Windows and other outdated software that is no longer sold. However, in this case, there was no mention of distribution. You were only asked to provide the product name, and nothing more (to ensure that we understand the context). If we follow your logic, we should not mention outdated versions of Windows that are no longer sold. Isn't it?

the software wasn't sold retail... this site doesn't support abandoneware. if you have a problem with that go bitch to the people that run this site and not me.

old school gamer man wrote on Yesterday, 17:54:

the software wasn't sold retail... this site doesn't support abandoneware. if you have a problem with that go bitch to the people that run this site and not me.

Once again, mentioning the name of a software solution is not a violation here! Period.

old school gamer man wrote on Yesterday, 17:54:

the software wasn't sold retail... this site doesn't support abandoneware. if you have a problem with that go bitch to the people that run this site and not me.

Not mentioning the software you used to solve your problem prevents anyone from using the same solution when they could actually have a way to acquiring the commercial software legally or already have said software. Furthermore if you identify the program, someone could recognize what it does and also identify a free alternative or help review and implement a free alternative. None of that is supporting piracy.