Hmm I don't know if it is relevant. I have a Quadro2 (GF2 Pro) which also has DVI and it works just fine, regardless of the monitor. As the card has no Dual Screen support, you have to disconnect VGA as it will default to analog.

swaaye wrote:

I got one of the SGI V3 GeForce 256 cards. It appears to be a NV reference design of the GeForce 256, but with the DVI circuitry included unlike most GeForce 256 cards. NV990.0 Rev A.

I can't get the DVI to work with my monitor or a TV's HDMI. Is the DVI dead or is the card just not initializing with these displays (1920x1080 and x1200 native). The computer doesn't boot with DVI connected (it's not booting up blind). VGA comes up fine.

DVI and 1280x1024 limit. The linked page is not available, but here's a mirror: NVIDIA Drivers FAQ

I have a Creative CT6970 GeForce 256 DDR with DVI that I use with a 1280x1024 monitor.
Tried it on a 1080p monitor and a 1080p TV with a DVI to HDMI adapter with no success.
Also tried it on a native DVI monitor with 1440x900 resolution with no success.

Looks like the documentation for the SiI154(CT64) chip my card is using for DVI mention 1280x1024 112MHz as highest resolution.

Yeah I saw the SGI page about 1280x1024 and 1600x1024. It seems strange that the card wouldn't still output lower resolutions of the BIOS and such. I suppose it's reading the monitor's EDID (or something like that) and failing.

I also have a GeForce 3 with DVI via another Silicon Image chip and it can do 1920x1200. I was somewhat surprised by that. Some resolutions give it problems though. The Windows 98 boot screen for example is just a mess of corruption. But otherwise it works very well, much better than Radeon 7500/8500 which don't seem work with <640x480 at all on my Dell 2405FPW.

In theory even the 165 MHz single link TMDS chips could do 1920x1200 if you changed the blanking (unfortunately i've never tried it, so you have to research it yourself). I'm not able to check now which chip is on my V3, but could you check which is on yours?

GL1zdA wrote:

In theory even the 165 MHz single link TMDS chips could do 1920x1200 if you changed the blanking (unfortunately i've never tried it, so you have to research it yourself). I'm not able to check now which chip is on my V3, but could you check which is on yours?

The Dell 2405FPW is single link. I imagine most 1920x1200 monitors are because it is within the pixel rate limits of single link DVI. It works with quite a few old cards, like GeForce 3, Radeon 8500, Parhelia. I had a GeForce FX 5200 card that couldn't handle even 1680x1050 though without creating a custom resolution using CVT-RB.

I will see which chip is on the GF256 when I get a chance.

I have a Guillemot Geforce that i never got to work with my monitor (using DVI). I just figured i had a bad card. It's stored away waiting for better days.
Reading this it seems that the card may be just fine, just not accepting my 1440x900 or my 1080p monitors...
I would love to read more if any success is achieved.

SGI V3 GeForce DDR has Sil164CT64

Anyway I think I understand the problem. It seems like some/most DVI outputs automatically upscale to native resolution, maybe assuming the monitor only supports one resolution. So even in DOS the card is trying to output at 1920x1200. Since it's pretty clear that these old Sil164CT64 chips can't handle that resolution, there is no output.

I've also noticed some problems with GeForce 3 and GeForce 4 now, but they are generally solid.

It seems like DVI wasn't perfected until GeForce 6 and Radeon X.

I was going to guess that you monitor probably wants DVI-D or I or whatever and the 256 probably puts out A. Remember, when DVI cards came with an SVGA adapter rather than an HDMI adapter?

No the card has DVI-D. I'm not sure there are cards that have a DVI-A-only output... Might as well just have another VGA output.