bikerdude on 6/8/2007 at 00:19
Quote Posted by Biohazard
Is it possible to put an old 3DFX Voodoo card I have in one of the PCI slots as a secondary video card while my 8800 is in the PCI-e slot? I wish I had read this thread before upgrading to the 8800.....
The green tint is just not acceptable. :eww:
yes it is, but I imagine you might have some fun installing the voodoo driver -
biker
Hit Deity on 8/8/2007 at 22:07
Quote Posted by Sluggs
I'd rather have a blistering graphics card and have crappy colours in T2, than a lower end card that displays nice colours in Thief!
Them's fightin' words around here. I'd rather have a perfect, pristine T2 experience -- all other games be damned!!
Ok, that's not entirely true, but if I could get T2 to look like it did in the old days, I'd be one happy taffer.
I can't seem to get the "two graphics cards in my computer at the same time" trick to work. Even after installing the drivers for each one, I can't figure out how to switch displays. My LCD conks out when I tell my computer to start using my "secondary" card and then try to switch the cable to the second card, nothing happens except a watery blur of a black screen. Not sure what's happening...
Biohazard on 8/8/2007 at 23:47
Well what is the secondary card you are trying to use?
Hit Deity on 9/8/2007 at 00:34
Primary: PCI-e slot EVGA GeForce 7950GT
Secondary: PCI slot GeForce FX5500
They use the same drivers, so switching should be a cinch, eh? :confused:
I should clarify that I can get the FX5500 to work, I just have to reboot my system. I thought (and was hoping) that I could do it on the fly.
smithpd on 9/8/2007 at 03:11
Hit Deity,
What drivers you are using on the FX5200? Can get the good sky back with those drivers? I had thought that you would need Nvidia drivers prior to 56.xx to get good sky, and those drivers would not work with the 7950GT. I could be wrong.
Conversely, if you can't get the good sky back, then what is the advantage of using the FX5200? Won't the 7950GT work by itself? Recall that I posted a link in the "Last Nvidia Card" thread to a good version of 84.56 drivers that required no fooling around. Did you try that?
bikerdude on 9/8/2007 at 08:28
I think Ill wade in on this one....
As I have the same sorta setup as H-deity, what works for me should work for him.
1. when you switch monitors using display properties in windows, windows may prompt you asking if you want to keep the second monitor as your primary, and what may be happening is by the time the second vga cable is plugged in the prompt times out, thus switching back to the original card.
2. download a util such as "ultramon" which allows the switching of the monitor on the fly bypassing windows own controls.
You can test either of the ebough buy borrowing a second monitor etc, or just persevere with your current setup.
biker
Hit Deity on 10/8/2007 at 03:20
Damn, thought I posted it already...
No, it looked worse with the 7950GT in Hardware mode. At least, I think it was in Hardware mode (I re-commented the safe_texture_manager line) and it worked OK. It was the colors though, or mainly the views in the dark areas. Slightly worse as far as the dithering went - it was much more noticeable. And the sky was a little worse.
I don't know what I was thinking, except that the FX5500 seemed to play T2 just fine on my kid's computer. Thought I'd try it. Oh, well.
smithpd on 11/8/2007 at 02:47
Quote Posted by Hit Deity
No, it looked worse with the 7950GT in Hardware mode. At least, I think it was in Hardware mode (I re-commented the safe_texture_manager line) and it worked OK. It was the colors though, or mainly the views in the dark areas. Slightly worse as far as the dithering went - it was much more noticeable. And the sky was a little worse.
Sorry, Hit Deity, but I don't fully understand what "slightly worse" means.
First, you were looking at hardware rendering because T2 has no software mode.
FYI, I did a side-by-side A-B comparison, and there is no difference at all between a 6800GT and a 7950GT using 8xxx drivers. Both of those recent cards are obviously much worse (not just slightly worse) than a Ti 4200 using 51.66 drivers. The Ti 4200 has no bad sly / dark texture problem, but the recent cards do.
So where does FX5200 lie in the spectrum of good vs. bad? I would like to see screen shots comparing the 7950GT (or 6800) with the FX5200, and I would also like to know what drivers you are using with both. What I am driving at is that I would like to actually see the benefits before I rush out and buy another video card.
As for the drivers, is there any reason why you cannot use different drivers for the two video cards?
Hit Deity on 11/8/2007 at 04:21
Quote Posted by smithpd
Sorry, Hit Deity, but I don't fully understand what "slightly worse" means.
I guess they're all "much worse" then since I don't remember T2 ever looking this crappy in the past. It doesn't matter at this point, since I have since done screenshot tests between the two cards and they look exactly the same. I couldn't tell any difference whatsoever between the two cards, at least not on my LCD monitor. I probably won't be able to do a true test until I can lay hands on a decent CRT monitor.
Quote Posted by smithpd
First, you were looking at hardware rendering because T2 has no software mode.
What are the two modes called then, when T2 is run with safe_texture_manager
enabled/disabled? We need something simple to refer to each of them by.
(Just for reference: You keep saying FX5200, but it's an FX5500.) Which driver versions should I try with my FX5500? I'm willing to try anything at this point, but not too much more if nothing's going to improve.
My screenshots are so mixed up now (name-wise) that I can't remember which ones are which now, but seeing as how they all look the same, it won't matter anyway. I can redo them however you would like. Just let me know.
As it stands, I can't tell the difference between my 7950GT and FX5500 running 84.56 version drivers.
Guru3d has version 56.55 drivers for FX5500s.
smithpd on 11/8/2007 at 07:45
Quote Posted by Hit Deity
What are the two modes called then, when T2 is run with safe_texture_manager
enabled/disabled? We need something simple to refer to each of them by.
safe_texture_manager is not a video mode, per se. It is a way of avoiding a crash with some video cards / drivers (all recent Nvidia). I think you would have to use that if it were not for your using a fixed exe that does the same thing automatically. Going back to the original EXE does not help, BTW.
Quote:
As it stands, I can't tell the difference between my 7950GT and FX5500 running 84.56 version drivers.
Guru3d has version 56.55 drivers for FX5500s.
Too bad the FX5500 is not an improvement, but I expected as much. I think it is an improvement only when compared with the 8800 series, the topic of this thread.
The 56.55 drivers will probably make no difference. I think those drivers were right at the point where the bad sky was introduced. If you could find an earlier modified driver that recognizes your card, it might make a difference. It won't hurt to try 56.55, but that is my recollection.
