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Graphics Stutter when pairing NVidia FX PCI with VIA motherboard

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First post, by randomdavid

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Hi everyone,

I have a Lex BN860T1RTV (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/jetway-b860t), it's my first ever PIII Tualatin board!

  • Chipset: VIA PLE133T (VT8601T and VT82C686B)
  • CPU: Pentium III-S Tualatin 1.4GHz
  • RAM: 2 x 256MB 32Mx64 133MHz CL2 SDRAM
The attachment image_2025-06-14_18-27-07.jpg is no longer available

The graphics options I have are limited to integrated or these PCI cards, being the only available expansion slot on the board:

  • Integrated Trident 8420B (CyberBlade i7)
  • NVidia FX5500 256MB PCI
  • NVidia Quadro NVS 280 64MB PCI
  • ATI Rage XL 8MB PCI

Nvidia driver version 56.64, seems to be the earliest that supports the NVS 280
ATI driver version 4.12.2647

I noticed a strange behaviour:

On Windows 98SE, when paired with either the NVidia cards, the gaming performance suffers from terrible stuttering. In Half life, the fps circles between around 10fps to 71 fps, making it unplayable. The issue doesn't go away when lowering resolution, and all the way down to 400 x 300 software mode. Even in 2D games such as StarCraft, I see the same stuttering. As far as I know, the NVS 280 is based off of the same chip as the FX 5200/5500, so it has the same problem. The same thing happens when I use integrated graphics. The issue does NOT happen when I use the ATI Rage XL 8MB, StarCraft runs absolutely smoothly. Half Life hardware mode runs like crap due to the low powered graphics card, but extremely playable in 400 x 300 software mode with the fps being stable at around 60.

On Windows XP, the iGPU and the NVS 280 no longer stutters, performance is unhindered by any weird bottlenecks. But the FX 5500 cannot initialised with code 10 error, even though it is recognised. I tried disabling the iGPU in Device Manager (can't find a way to disable it in BIOS), no difference. So this proves that this board and a Nvidia card using the FX5500/5200 chip can work together nicely. However I would like to use Windows 98SE on this board.

In summary:

Win 98

  • FX 5500: Stutter
  • NVS 280: Stutter
  • iGPU: Stutter
  • ATI Rage XL: No stutter but terrible performance due to low GPU power

Win XP

  • FX 5500: Doesn't initialise with code 10
  • NVS 280: No stutter
  • iGPU: No stutter
  • ATI Rage XL: No stutter but terrible performance due to low GPU power

So I am in a weird situation where the ATI Rage XL 8MB ironically performs a whole lot better than the many times more powerful FX 5500 and NVS 280. At this point I think it might be something with the VIA chipset, but I couldn't find a BIOS setting that would do anything. I tried setting AGP Aperture Size to 8MB, 64MB and 128MB, didn't make any difference. Maybe the behaviour on XP is hinting at the iGPU competing for resources with the PCI card, but there are no BIOS settings to disable the iGPU.

Does anyone have any advice for me?

Reply 1 of 2, by onethirdxcubed

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Did you install the VIA 4 in 1 chipset drivers on Windows 98 and if so which version? There's a lot of discussion here about which driver versions have more or less problems with IDE, PCI sound cards or the AGP GART for each chipset. The usual recommendation is version 4.35 but VIA's drivers are a gigantic pain to get to work correctly sometimes. The nVidia 45.23 driver is also preferred and should work with a FX5500 but you will have to manually install the inf.

After installing the chipset drivers also make sure your storage is running in DMA mode because slow disk performance could cause stutters too.

You might also try AWARD BIOS Editor and see if there are any hidden options you can enable like disabling the iGPU.

Reply 2 of 2, by Repo Man11

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You can force install the 45.23 driver in Windows 98 with the NVS 280 - choose the FX 5200 from the list. I've had good luck with the NVS 280/FX 5200 and 5500 with Windows 98 and Socket 7 motherboards. I think it is a resource issue, so if you have the option to disable serial and parallel ports that would be worth a try.

After watching many YouTube videos about older computer hardware, YouTube began recommending videos about trains - are they trying to tell me something?

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