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Cruachan

NVIDIA Newbee looking for a wee bit of help, please.

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Hi,Well finally I've decided to break ranks and find out what all the fuss is about!Being a loyal ATI user for many years this culture change won't be easy for me, but I'm hoping some of you can help smooth the ride.My Antec P150 tower restricts me somewhat in that I have to choose a card that is not too long and a week or so back, following some research, I managed to source and purchase an XFX nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 500M 640MB which is a PCIE x16 compatible card, the latter being important for my tried and trusted MoBo (ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 ( with AM2CPU Board). The price was very reasonable and considering the difficulty I had locating one in the UK they must now be quite scarce.I realise that my current hardware restrictions won't allow me to run this card full tilt, nor am I presently interested in going down the DX10 or Vista route. All I am looking for is somewhat better performance in FSX over my current and faithful ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GPU and I am not yet ready to upgrade my MoBo or CPU (AMD Athlon 64X2 6400+ (BE,3200MHz,Windsor) - better the devil you know, and all that ;) My PSU should be okay: Antec NeoHE 650W.So, here are my questions:1. What stable WHQL (XP32) drivers are currently being recommended for this card while in use with FSX?2. I understand I will need to create a 3D profile in nHancer for FSX using Nick's excellent instructions (what would we all do without him?), but what of other installed gaming software and 3D sims? Do profiles need to be created for each and every game/sim, or is there such a thing as a global setting that can be used with other software of these genres?3. If I have to go down the creation of a unique profile for every other game/sim does this need to be done every time following an nHancer or graphic driver update which would be a right royal pain? Right now I use Ati Tray Tools with my Radeon and I only have one profile for FSX and I use the provided presets 'Max Quality' or 'Auto Balanced' for all the rest and the image quality is consistently good.4. Can I assume that any changes made using nHancer won't conflict with nVidia's Control Panel? Should I leave the latter alone? I'm assuming it will be installed as part of the driver installation unlike the Catalyst drivers where you can choose to run without the Catalyst Control Center.5. What version of nHancer should I be using?I think that's it for the time being.Thanks!Mike

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1. What stable WHQL (XP32) drivers are currently being recommended for this card while in use with FSX?
I would recommend that you try using the latest release drivers and back track from there if performance is not up to your liking. I think alot of driver performance is tied directly to system configuration so what seems best for one, may not be best for all.
2. I understand I will need to create a 3D profile in nHancer for FSX using Nick's excellent instructions (what would we all do without him?), but what of other installed gaming software and 3D sims? Do profiles need to be created for each and every game/sim, or is there such a thing as a global setting that can be used with other software of these genres?
You can create a global profile as well as game specific profiles.
3. If I have to go down the creation of a unique profile for every other game/sim does this need to be done every time following an nHancer or graphic driver update which would be a right royal pain? Right now I use Ati Tray Tools with my Radeon and I only have one profile for FSX and I use the provided presets 'Max Quality' or 'Auto Balanced' for all the rest and the image quality is consistently good.
No, you will not have to redo your settings every time you update a driver. nHancer will automatically detect when you have made a driver change and thus allow you to import the game profiles that you previously made.
4. Can I assume that any changes made using nHancer won't conflict with nVidia's Control Panel? Should I leave the latter alone? I'm assuming it will be installed as part of the driver installation unlike the Catalyst drivers where you can choose to run without the Catalyst Control Center.
nHancer will not conflict with the Nvidia Control Panel. In fact think of it as an extension of the Control Panel that has greater flexibility. There are only a few base settings that need to be made in the Nvidia Control Panel. All game specific settings will be made with nHancer (which actually configures the Nvidia driver without the use of the control panel).
5. What version of nHancer should I be using?
I always use the most current release which at present happens to be v2.4.5Regards,Bob

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I would recommend that you try using the latest release drivers and back track from there if performance is not up to your liking. I think alot of driver performance is tied directly to system configuration so what seems best for one, may not be best for all.You can create a global profile as well as game specific profiles.No, you will not have to redo your settings every time you update a driver. nHancer will automatically detect when you have made a driver change and thus allow you to import the game profiles that you previously made.nHancer will not conflict with the Nvidia Control Panel. In fact think of it as an extension of the Control Panel that has greater flexibility. There are only a few base settings that need to be made in the Nvidia Control Panel. All game specific settings will be made with nHancer (which actually configures the Nvidia driver without the use of the control panel).I always use the most current release which at present happens to be v2.4.5Regards,Bob
Hey Bob, thank you very much indeed!That's all I need to know.Off now to download nHancer and those latest drivers.Will probably change the card sometime over the next few days when time permits.Preparation is everything!As always, I appreciate your help.Best regards,Mike

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Hi,Just thought of another couple of questions:1. Will it be possible to monitor the temp of the 8800 GTS in real time?2. Will I be able to adjust the fan speed of the card with temperature changes?Thanks,Mike

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Hi,Just thought of another couple of questions:1. Will it be possible to monitor the temp of the 8800 GTS in real time?2. Will I be able to adjust the fan speed of the card with temperature changes?Thanks,Mike
EVGA offers a nice utility. Which can be found here http://www.evga.com/precision/I'm not sure if it will work with your card or not (because its made by XFX) but its worth a shot.

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EVGA offers a nice utility. Which can be found here http://www.evga.com/precision/I'm not sure if it will work with your card or not (because its made by XFX) but its worth a shot.
Thanks again, Bob, I'll give it a shot.Regards,Mike :)

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Opinion appears to be divided between EVGA Precision and RivaTuner.The former appears to be attractive because it is simple and easy to use whereas RivaTuner offers more and will adjust fan speeds with temperature changes and appears to be the overclocker's preference (I've never been an overclocker). EVGA Precision has an 'Auto' setting for fan speed control, but it's not clear whether this changes automatically with temperature. Only one way to find out.I gather both utilities are written by the same author.And yes, it seems that EVGA Precision can be used with many other nVidia cards.Mike

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Hi,So, here are my questions:1. What stable WHQL (XP32) drivers are currently being recommended for this card while in use with FSX?Thanks!Mike
If you are still looking..The 175.16 drivers seem to run very well with FSX and Win XP.

Bert

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If you are still looking..The 175.16 drivers seem to run very well with FSX and Win XP.
Thanks Bert, I'll certainly give them a whirl!Regards,Mike :(

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