DaWizeGuy on 4/5/2007 at 14:06
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
what driver version are you using..? T3 is fine for me at any res/setting. (currenty 1600x1200 max settings)
158.19 and 158.22. I've done some more testing. Like I said performance is the same whether the game is maxed out at 1280x1024 (maximum resolution for my LCD) or 640x480 with the lowest settings. In indoor areas the performance is in the 40-60 fps range which is acceptable. Outdoors 30-50 fps (varies). Even with vsync disabled fps never go above 60 even if I stand in a corner staring at the wall! I think this problem has plagued all Nvidia cards since the 6800 Ultra and compared to my old Radeon X1900XTX this level of performance is simply unacceptable. Most of the time my X1900XTX performed in the range of 60-100 + fps with an occassional drop below 50 fps. It's a bit of a mystery really since Nvidia's cards are better optimized for the Thief DS engine than Radeon cards since they render stencil shadows much faster.
Another interesting thing:
The GPU temperature doesn't increase very much when playing this game. It just rises from about 67 degress C to 73-74 degrees C compared to 80-85 degrees C for other 3D games. It seems like the CPU is doing most of the work....
bikerdude on 4/5/2007 at 14:20
Quote Posted by DaWizeGuy
Another interesting thing:
The GPU temperature doesn't increase very much when playing this game. It just rises from about 67 degress C to 73-74 degrees C compared to 80-85 degrees C for other 3D games. It seems like the CPU is doing most of the work....
Slightly off topic, but very usefull to know anyway :-)
Sneak on 4/5/2007 at 16:35
Hmm, well if this does happen to be a case of Nvidia scaling back 16 bit rendering in their newer GPU hardware I am wondering if there might be another fix.
I have John P's High Res textures in Thief 3. Nice stuff. I have higher res T2 textures in Thief Gold. Might it be possible for one of the Texture Wizards to update the T2 textures to they will render better in the game on these new cards? Or will that even work? I don't know anything about the technical workings.
This could be the way things will be with new generation video cards. We don't know what the new ATI's will do yet. But if it is a hardware thing and not a driver thing we will be hard pressed to find a software workaround.
Am going to ask John P how the textures work.
Too bad though, My 8800 GTX generally rocks everything I play on it.
dj_ivocha on 4/5/2007 at 19:58
When I get a 8xxx generation card, I'll just use my $5 worth Voodoo 3/3500 to play the Dark Engine games. My Voodoo 3/3500 is really great and I can play a lot of older games that don't work with newer hardware. I tell you, my Voodoo 3/3500 was the best legacy hardware purchase I've done in a long time :D. Voodoo 3/3500 cards like mine can be found on eBay most of the time. To be honest, I haven't tested it with Thief 1/2 specifically, but I'm sure my Voodoo 3/3500 will have no problems with the fog and sky and all those problems. :cool:
dj
BrendaEM on 5/5/2007 at 03:31
My geforce 6600GT seems to be in the middle. It has the crappy sky, but good lighting.
Sneak on 5/5/2007 at 16:15
Quote Posted by BrendaEM
My geforce 6600GT seems to be in the middle. It has the crappy sky, but good lighting.
Yeah, my 6800 GT had great lighting and textures but the sky was off too. My 5900 was the last card I owned which did everything right.
If all else fails I may have to put together a comp from old parts for old games. Hope there is a fix though.
Sneak on 5/5/2007 at 16:27
Hmm, well thats interesting. All my old cards are AGP but this new comp is PCI-e. But there are some older PCI-e cards around for cheap. I know the 6800 GT was made in PCI-e but is there an older one?
Question: Do you get an extra tab under display properties this way or just the old control panel that you have to click the advanced button to get too. And is the Control Panel applet that the 8800 uses still there in control panel, just not usable with the older card and driver?
Nice idea!
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
Ok, I have found one possible work around....
I got to thinking, windows supports multi gfx cards in one machine and as most monitors these days have dual inputs I thought I should be able to play Thief on the second video card and then just flick the input on the monitor. The spare card I have used for this experiment is an FX5200 PCI (not pci-e)
1. Install the latested driver (158.22) for the 8800GTX
2. Install the 61.21 driver the FX5200 and click 'no' to replace files (when the installer askeds if u want to replace old with new)
3. Then in display properties change the primary display from the 8800 to the 5200.
4. Fire up thief and eureka lovely textures and sky again. (nb. the sky is much better under the 61.21 driver btw)
nb. you will notice that the nVidia control panel has been replaced with the old style CP, there are pro's and cons to this though...
# pros - you can overclock the 8800 again from the CP, no need for Ati tool or riva tuner.
# cons - I was unable to modify 'Anisotropic filter option' - its stuck on application-controlled.
- the FX5200 is a crap slow card, I`ll be looking to replace this with a PCI ATi or VooDoo card.
Biker
MH.TheFreak on 5/5/2007 at 16:41
Quote Posted by BrendaEM
My geforce 6600GT seems to be in the middle. It has the crappy sky, but good lighting.
Don't forget transparency textures & objects (water, too) and coronas. They look crappy, too. ;)
bikerdude on 5/5/2007 at 17:08
Ok, I have found 1 working and 1 possible work arounds....
Please check the first post!
biker
Quote Posted by Sneak
Hmm, well thats interesting. I know the 6800 GT was made in PCI-e but is there an older one?
yes the FX5900 series.
Quote Posted by Sneak
Question: Do you get an extra tab under display properties this way or just the old control panel that you have to click the advanced button to get too. And is the Control Panel applet that the 8800 uses still there in control panel, just not usable with the older card and driver? Nice idea!
Just the old control panel, you can control both cards using the old control panel! This is the same for the 8800/5200 and 8800/7900 combo's (but be aware i havent gottent eh 8800/7900 to work with thif yet)
biker
Sneak on 5/5/2007 at 17:35
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
Ok, I have found two work arounds....
8800GTX(PCI-E) & 7900GT(PCI-E)1. Installed the 158.19 (Z-tweaked) for the 8800GTX
3. Then in display properties change the primary display from the 8800 to the 7900.
4. Fire up thief and eureka lovely textures
5a. As the Z-tweaked driver used the old control panel, both cards can be configured and you can overclock the 8800 and the 7900 from the CP.
5b. The old control panel limits the amount of AA to x4 you can apply on the 8800, this may be a problem for some.
NB - dont forget to change the primary card back to the 8800 when you want to use that one for your newer games
Biker
biker
OK for that 8800 and 7900 combo you used the same driver, right? Did you try the driver that is not the Z-tweaked but the straight Nvidia to see what would happen or will that not work with the 7900? Am asking because it seems Nvidia is not doing the unified driver thing anymore.
Also on that 7900 card, are all textures, sky, and water corrected? If so that is good to know. As was posted above, it seemed that it was before the 6800's that everything was perfect with Thief. My last perfect card was the 5900. But the 6800 seemed only to be the sky that was odd and I didn't really care as Thief is mostly indoors.
Looks like I may be hunting down a second PCI-e card. I have 3 PCI-e slots on my new Mobo. And I am not doing SLI so I will use it to try this. Is just a matter of which video card.
