VOGONS


First post, by retrograde

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Hello,

For whatever reason, I got the bug to go back to my XP Pro 64bit machine for some old games that were missing features or a pain to get working in the latest versions of our chosen OS and hardware.

There are probably not that many of you who are crazy enough to want to unlock the full HDMI 2.0 bandwidth in Windows XP. However, if you are, I can provide the steps to do so. There are D3D9/XP era games work with widescreen, and the GTX 980 Ti 6G or Titan X can push some of them to 1440p 120hz. This makes some 1440p OLEDs great for this task. Especially, if you're too lazy to move or repair your aging CRT 😀. Unfortunately, all of the drivers provided by NVIDIA that you can get working with said GPUs, are limited to a bandwidth / pixel clock of 135MHz.

I should thank whoever 'Sera' and 'Yas' are over at the following post for most of the work:
https://msfn.org/board/topic/184219-solved-ge … n-lcd-monitors/

The work that Yas did was patched into the driver files available here: https://archive.org/details/NVIDIAHDMIPATCHXP. Unfortunately, it was only updated to 340MHz bandwidth. This is working starting with the 355.98 drivers. I will attempt to rework for the latest XP drivers at a later date (I have noticed FPS increase with 368.81).

I'm not sure if there is any terms of use or legal issue outlining the steps in this forum, but please tell me if it is OK to do so. I figured it would be better to describe the process, rather than provide the modified drivers. But, maybe for 11 year old drivers it is OK to do so?

Thank you.

Reply 1 of 13, by RayeR

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Hi, I know some years about Yas patch, but for my case it does only a one half. It unlocks the pixel clock but the drivers contains another hardcoded artifical limit to Yres only up to 1600 rows. And I'm still interested to run full 4k res, mean 3840 * 2160 at 60Hz that is still impossible. I started to disassembly nvidia driver to see what Yas did and look if the 1600px limit is not somewhere close around but it's a lot of code and I don't have enough time to dedicate it to hacking nvidia crapware...

Gigabyte GA-P67-DS3-B3, Core i7-2600K @4,5GHz, 8GB DDR3, 128GB SSD, GTX970(GF7900GT), SB Audigy + YMF724F + DreamBlaster combo + LPC2ISA

Reply 2 of 13, by retrograde

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Hi Rayer,

It is possible to get 600MHz bandwidth by modifying the nv4mini.sys and nv4disp.dll files. If you are following Yas instructions, then instead of hex value for 340000 (20300500, little endian) you would use hex value for 600000 (C0270900, little endian). Yas instructions are in big endian format.

Reply 3 of 13, by RayeR

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I know, I already unlocked to 600Mhz but as I wrote above there is another limitation of Y-res that nobody hacked yet...

Gigabyte GA-P67-DS3-B3, Core i7-2600K @4,5GHz, 8GB DDR3, 128GB SSD, GTX970(GF7900GT), SB Audigy + YMF724F + DreamBlaster combo + LPC2ISA

Reply 4 of 13, by Skyfly19

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Hi, Can you share the 600MHz patched nv4mini.sys and nv4disp.dll files for xp x64 ?
I tryed to patch those myself but the Nvidia driver didn't load with the new files .. Whould like to try 1080p 240hz on a 980 😀

I7 3770k @ 4.3ghz, Fatal1ty Z77 Professional-M, ASUS STRIX GTX 980 DirectCU II OC, G.Skill RipJaws X 2x8 Go DDR3 2133 MHz CL11 1.50v

Reply 5 of 13, by RayeR

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I myself patched only 32b version, not 64b.

Gigabyte GA-P67-DS3-B3, Core i7-2600K @4,5GHz, 8GB DDR3, 128GB SSD, GTX970(GF7900GT), SB Audigy + YMF724F + DreamBlaster combo + LPC2ISA

Reply 6 of 13, by Dimos

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Is there any progress? Did someone implement the patch to 368.81 drivers?

Cpu: Intel i7 4790k
Gpu: Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming 980 ti
Ram: G-Skill Trident X F3-2400C10Q-16GTD
Mobo: Gigabyte Z97x Gaming 5
Hdd: T-Force Vulcan Z 512 gb Ssd
Psu: Corsair CX650
Soundcard: Creative SB Audigy RX
Os: Windows XP Sp3 x86

Reply 7 of 13, by Dimos

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I made a post about enabling the custom resolutions option in the 368.81 version Control Panel: Enabling the custom resolutions option in Nvidia 368.81 Control Panel.
If someone could patch the 368.81 x86 driver (or provide the instructions to do it) to enable higher refresh rates i would be really grateful. I know where to find the value that corresponds to 135 mhz and change it to 600mhz, but i cannot implement the other edits 'Yas' did to the 355.98 one in the 368.81 version.
I think that being able to overcome the Nvidia clock pixel limit in its latest Win Xp compatible driver (which purportedly offers a slight performance boost in a couple of cases) and also being able to use the custom resolutions option with it would be really helpful for many users.

Cpu: Intel i7 4790k
Gpu: Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming 980 ti
Ram: G-Skill Trident X F3-2400C10Q-16GTD
Mobo: Gigabyte Z97x Gaming 5
Hdd: T-Force Vulcan Z 512 gb Ssd
Psu: Corsair CX650
Soundcard: Creative SB Audigy RX
Os: Windows XP Sp3 x86

Reply 8 of 13, by Dimos

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Well i patched the 368.81 files to 600mhz, stripped the signature with cff explorer and also updated the checksums with the same tool. Didn't manage to apply anything over 60hz (at 1080p) refresh rate though through Nvidia's custom resolutions option, not even with cvt-rb. Also tried the 355.98 driver with its patched files. 120 hz works fine. Patched again those files to 600mhz, updated their checksums, 180 mhz option at 1080p (my monitor's max) shows up to windows control panel, but does not work when selected, nor does with custom resolutions option from Nvidia control panel, even again with cvt - rb. So it seems that with either driver version i am limited to 120 hz at 1080p, which i already had with Dp. Monitor is Aoc C24G42E.

Cpu: Intel i7 4790k
Gpu: Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming 980 ti
Ram: G-Skill Trident X F3-2400C10Q-16GTD
Mobo: Gigabyte Z97x Gaming 5
Hdd: T-Force Vulcan Z 512 gb Ssd
Psu: Corsair CX650
Soundcard: Creative SB Audigy RX
Os: Windows XP Sp3 x86

Reply 9 of 13, by RayeR

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Do you have some monitor with more than 1600p to try remove the height limit?

Gigabyte GA-P67-DS3-B3, Core i7-2600K @4,5GHz, 8GB DDR3, 128GB SSD, GTX970(GF7900GT), SB Audigy + YMF724F + DreamBlaster combo + LPC2ISA

Reply 10 of 13, by Dimos

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I am afraid not. Did you manage to run your monitor at more than 120hz refresh rate with the files patched to 600000?

Cpu: Intel i7 4790k
Gpu: Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming 980 ti
Ram: G-Skill Trident X F3-2400C10Q-16GTD
Mobo: Gigabyte Z97x Gaming 5
Hdd: T-Force Vulcan Z 512 gb Ssd
Psu: Corsair CX650
Soundcard: Creative SB Audigy RX
Os: Windows XP Sp3 x86

Reply 11 of 13, by RayeR

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I don't have a chance to test on such high-refresh rate monitor, I only did some test on 4k monitor where I reached highest freq. 89Hz at 3840 x 1600 if remember well...

Gigabyte GA-P67-DS3-B3, Core i7-2600K @4,5GHz, 8GB DDR3, 128GB SSD, GTX970(GF7900GT), SB Audigy + YMF724F + DreamBlaster combo + LPC2ISA

Reply 12 of 13, by Skyfly19

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I have a 1080p 240hz monitor for test but on XP x64, if you explain me how to patch 355.98 or 368.81 to 600mhz, will tell if 120hz+ is an os or driver limitation. Or can you share your patched 368.81 ? will install XP x86 on another SDD.

I7 3770k @ 4.3ghz, Fatal1ty Z77 Professional-M, ASUS STRIX GTX 980 DirectCU II OC, G.Skill RipJaws X 2x8 Go DDR3 2133 MHz CL11 1.50v

Reply 13 of 13, by Dimos

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There is an os limitation certainly. I have never encountered someone claim more than 144 hz 1080p on Win Xp. Even with the 600mhz clock patch, i think you will either achieve 120 or 144 hz at 1080p depending on the gpu and monitor combo (My monitor is a 180 hz capable one).
I have deleted both patched driver versions, cause i didn't achieve a higher refresh rate than the 120 hz i already had with Dp, but i can patch them again pretty easily when i have the time and upload them for you to test.

Cpu: Intel i7 4790k
Gpu: Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming 980 ti
Ram: G-Skill Trident X F3-2400C10Q-16GTD
Mobo: Gigabyte Z97x Gaming 5
Hdd: T-Force Vulcan Z 512 gb Ssd
Psu: Corsair CX650
Soundcard: Creative SB Audigy RX
Os: Windows XP Sp3 x86