Reader Reports: (most recent first)

" Hi there,
Just a quick email to let you know that the nVidia 3.0 Driver Update fixed my screen *flashes* with an ADC Formac Gallery 1740.
Andy W.
www.subsymphonic.com "

I asked if he was sure the problem was fixed - since I've had other emails saying the 3.0 drivers didn't help with the issues of flashes, etc. some GeForce4MX owners reported in the past.

" Hello,
After installing the nVidia driver update 3.0, I experienced Finder freezes (during web surfing?) regularly on my 867 MHz Quicksilver with MacOS 9.2.2 Dutch.

Unfortunately, Apple does not seem to offer the 2.6 version driver anymore on their site. There are links to French, German and Japanese versions of the 2.6 driver version, but no English or American version is offered.
Best regards, Jan (the Netherlands) "

Not sure what would be causing the freezes (not a common complaint), but perhaps it's some extensions/software conflict.
I always suggest making a copy of all driver extensions before applying an update in case you want to revert back. The 2.6 driver update was listed in my March 7th news page with a link to Apple's TIL page - but now that Apple page no longer lists English driver versions (as Jan noted above).

" G'day!
For the first time since I put a mac flashed Leadtek WinFast GeForce2[MX] AGP card into my G4/dual 450, 4x4 Evo and Driver run properly with the 3.0 drivers! Finally!

No more invisible objects in Driver, and 4x4 Evo fully plays.
Rob "

" Hi Mike,
after the NVIDIA 3.0 update , the available resolutions went up by two notches all the way to 1920 X 1080 on my standard machine that uses a GeForce 2 MX. The previous max rez was 1280 X 1024. I'm stocked because I now have so much more desktop space on my 17'. I'm using a Sony A200 which is supposed to max out at 1280 X 1024. I'm rather puzzled as to how NVIDIA managed to do this.

The colors seem a little richer too, although running at 1920 X 1080 makes everything extremely tiny and horizonatlly compressed reminding me of the graphics on an Apple IIGS.
--
Andrew W.
Tech notes:
867 Mhz G4, 1152 MB RAM, 270 GB HD, DVDR/W, DVDRAM, Gigabit Ethernet, Airport (802.11b) "

" I've just installed nVidia driver v3.0 on my G4/933 with Gforce 4mx. I have a Nec MultiSync 95 monitor. Before update, I was able to set monitor resolution to 1920*1440. Now I'm limited to 1280*1024. 3.0 drivers dropped all resolutions above 1280*1024 !
Hope this will be corrected soon...
Jean-Philippe "

" Just letting you know that I'm using a SGI 1600SW LCD display with Multilink adapter on a Apple Geforce 3 video card installed on a PowerMac Dual G4/533mhz system.

I normally use a Molex ADC to DVI adapter to run my SGI display. Recently I've noticed with versions 2.6 and 3.0 of the nVidia drivers that the display no longer autosyncs with the video card properly on startup and you get a distorted desktop screen as a result. Version 2.4 syncs up properly.

I'm left with the choice of either using the newer drivers with a analog VGA adapter cable, or stay with the 2.4 drivers while using the ADC digital hookup. I much prefer the digital since my Summoner game doesn't get spread out and distorted across the screen.

Do you think it's a shortcoming with my ADC to DVI adapter? What are my options here? Is anyone else having this problem?
Thanks,
Chris M.
[Chris later wrote:]

Thanks for the advice, but so far no luck. I've tried what you suggested earlier (zapped the PRAM and trashed the display prefs file) under version 3.0 of the Nvidia drivers - still no success.

Have any other owners of the SGI 1600SW LCD display reported similiar problems? [I don't remember any other SGI LCD owner reports with Nvidia cards other than what's on this page (which to date is only yours.-Mike]

ROM revision on the Apple Geforce 3 is 1055. What's the latest firmware update for these cards? [As far as I know 1055 is the latest GF3 rom-Mike]

Using the digital hookup, the video card autosyncs and jumps to 1600x1024, and identifies the montior as a generic LCD display, under version 2.4 of the Nvidia drivers.

Using the VGA analog hookup, the video card does the same - except it correctly identified the SGI Multilink box as such. Under version 2.4, 2.6 and 3.0 Nvidia drivers.

Using the 2.6 or 3.0 drivers under the digital hookup, I get screen distortions & gibberish that ends in a black screen. I've tried using the Force Detect option on the SGI Multilink box to no avail (it does report receiving a signal of 1280x960 but the final screen is completely black).

Any help would be appreciated - otherwise I'm stuck using version 2.4 of the Nvidia drivers.
Chris M. "

If the adapter worked fine with earlier drivers, then it's not the adapter or the card/firmware in my opinion (logically).

" Hi Mike,
I have an iMac 700 G4. When I tried to install the update it said that my machine would be unsupported. At apple they say that it is powermac-only. I just extracted the tome and replaced version 2.5 that shipped with my iMac by default.

UT results (cityintro):
Drivers v2.5:
Min 16.6
Max 55.73
Avg 31.18.

Drivers v3.0:
Min 17.64
Max 56.20
Avg 31.14

So there is almost no difference. Those benchmarks were taken using Rave.
ingmar"

I asked ingmar if he had Quake3 to test opengl performance. (The UT cityintro flyby isn't a good test really.)

" Hi,
I just tested the new 3.0 driver on a new iMac with GeForce-2 under a german 9.2.2 (Had to extract with Tomeviewer, got 6 NVidia extensions).

Tested it in UT vers. 436 (32 bit, all set to "high", 1024 x 768):
In RAVE-mode framerate goes down from 60 to under 40 fps :(((
but
in OpenGL-mode it raises from 37 to more than 65 fps constantly. That rocks! :)))

Seemes, NVidia has done a good job (OpenGL). It also seemes, that the end of Rave is in sight...
Regards, macmercy "

In the past even the Nvidia cards seem to run faster in UT RAVE mode than OpenGL (see recent reviews of the GeForce4MX vs Radeon 7500, etc). It's hard to get a repeatable test (consistent run/run) during normal play since FPS rates vary almost constantly depending on the what's happening in the game. (Which is almost infinitely variable). If anyone runs UTBench or Wicked400 demos let me know the results.

"Mike:
I'm on a PowerMac G4-533 "Digital Audio" (single processor) with an Apple OEM GeForce3 (ROM 1055) and the OpenGL performance seems to be the same, as is the RAVE performance. Unfortunately there are still some RAVE glitches in the NVIDIA drivers, and despite communicating with both Apple and the NVIDIA Apple rep (who both confirm my findings) I have yet to see a driver revision that addresses these issues.

As a side note, during OS 9 extension loading, the background pattern (mine happens to be MacOS Standard) is noticeably darker for a moment before applying the corrected Apple Gamma-something I hadn't seen before this driver revision. Perhaps Apple is having a small calibration take place every reboot now? -Sincerely,
Chris "AltiVec" Bishop

[I asked for specific examples of the Rave issues he's seen-Mike.]

In unreal tournament-go into DM-Agony and look at the sky. You will see an outline of blue on the ridges; this occurs on some other maps with "static" sky backgrounds-not the rolling cloud formatioins.

Additionally, you will see texture flickering from light to dark in certain maps, wuch as CTF-EternalCave where it is painfully obvious and makes the map annoying to play.

You can also see some of these issues in the original Unreal. Most skys have a "skybox" bug.

As a side note, both Rune (has *very* mintor glitches) & Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, both games based on the Unreal Engine, are completely fine under OS 9 RAVE.

Both of these issues have been confirmed on other machines, as well as by the NVIDIA rep I spoke with. Of course, they are possibly a game bug, and in that case, I'm not exactly sure what chance we will see of MacSoft paying Westlake Interactive to release a fix for them.
-Chris B. "

I asked Chris if he had textures set to 32bit in the UT ini file. (It may not matter, but there's also a 'non-ATI' setting in the ini file.) I noted Nvidia RAVE transparency is not as good as ATI's in the RaveBench image quality tests noted in the previous Radeon 7500 vs GF4MX and Radeon 8500 reviews benchmark pages. (Sample screenshots there.)

" Mike, A note on the new nVidia drivers (3.0) posted yesterday for OS 9.2.2. They seem to have made a good improvement in Diablo II (LOD) on my machine. Prior to installing them, I couldn't run Diablo in anything but software rendering. OpenGL too choppy, even at thousands of colors. Now, I'm running Diablo in OpenGL, millions of colors, 800x600, with no observable stuttering (framerate choppiness). A first for me. Appears that nVidia has done some work on their OpenGL drivers in the update. BTW, my system: G4 733 (digital audio-last model before Quicksilver) overclocked to 867mhz. GeForce3 (Visiontek-flashed with mac roms), 896 megs ram. OS 9.2.2. Regards, Jay"

I asked what driver version he was running previously.

" Hi Mike:
I downloaded and applied the Nvidia 3.0 Drivers for OS 9.2 last night. For some reason, my 22" ACD looks richer and deeper in color but maybe I'm getting old.

In any case, the Nvidia 3.0 Drivers for OS 9.2 does not apply a new firmware. My version remains 1088.

Interestingly, I experience occasional flashes in X as well, so the new drivers for 9 really don't address the issue of flashing at least where booting to X is concerned.

My telephone call with Apple Tech on the issue was frustrating.
When the tech told me that there is no substantial issue with the flashes, I reminded him of hundreds of posts on Apple's own Discussion Board. He then tried to analogize my issue with a incorrectly installed FW external HD.

I reminded him that I wasn't installiing ANYTHING; I just plug my ADC into my DP 1Ghz and experienced flashes.
His solution was to take it to an Apple Repair facility (100 miles RT twice), let them look at (it doesn't happen on cue), take the ACD with me (can't afford days without a computer) and then maybe they'll replace something.
Not exactly the most efficient manner of dealing with something.
Thanks for a great site.
David S.
pixelcraft studios "

(For previous reports on the "flashes" and corruption some GF4MX owners reported see this previous article here.)

" Hi Mike,
Just to let you and others know I was one of the Sony 420GS owners who lost resolutions when I installed the last Nvidia driver updte. I'm happy to report that I downloaded the Nvidia 3.0 dirver update last night and everything works perfectly (so far). I've also regained some lost resolutions and refresh rates I used to have when I first upgraded to my G4/733 tower.
Thanks for your great site and hard work on behalf of us mac users.
Regards,
Dave P. "

" mike..
i did the flyby in unreal and this is what i found..

nvidia version: 2.3
low: 25
high: 123
ave: 59

nvidia version: 2.4
low: 24
high: 127
ave: 59

nvidia version: 2.6
low: 37
high: 173
ave: 81

nvidia version: 3.0
low: 25
high: 126
ave: 59

[ Update - I asked if he could run the tests 3 times since that was a big drop w/3.0 and he replied.-Mike]
I re-ran the tests with the 3.0 drivers. I ran Unreal three times with three flybys each.

The results were almost exactly the same as the 2.6 driver results:
low: 37
high: 176
ave: 81

ran all the tests on a dual 800 with 1.5gig ram and geforce3, unreal 2.2.4b7 with 402,312 ram preferred in os9.2.2. i didnt test quake3, as i only have the os10 version on my system.

its interesting that with the same hardware and version 2.3 under os9.2.1 i saw the following:

nvidia version: 2.3
low: 31
high: 174
ave: 81.7

and not that anyone uses it as a reference, but i got the following numbers from rune 1.0.7a:

nvidia version: 2.3
title: 60
scene: 27.7

nvidia version: 2.4
title: 42
scene: 27.7

nvidia version: 2.6
title: 43
scene: 27.7

nvidia version: 3.0
title: 60
scene: 27.7

by "scene" i mean that i started a (the same) saved game and didnt move the POV.

i've always got pathetic scores in rune. i think my 3dfx 3000 scored better than the geforce3.

hardly consistent results, but results nonetheless.
Ryan G. "

" Hi, just thought I'd supply some information.
I'm looking in TomViewer now at the Installer Tom[e] File, and there is NO flash ROM update. The listing is as follows:
NVIDIA 2d Accelleration, NVIDIA Driver, NVIDIA DVD Accellerator, NVIDIA Engine, NVIDIA Open GL, and NVIDIA Video Accelerator.

I'd also thought I'd supply some rather good information. In Quake 3 1.31 running on a G4 single 533, 256 RAM, and a PC PNY Geforce 2MX 400 mac flashed, I got between 30-50 FPS in 1024x768 with 32 bit textures, 32 bit colors, lightmap, and textures quality one step down from highest. This was with the 2.6 NVIDIA Drivers.
With the 3.0 NVIDIA drivers, I am now getting between 60-90 FPS on the same settings, and my Scrolling is faster, and DivX Movies play much better. Good update! hope you find this information usefull
-marcus "

I asked if he could run a timedemo (which reports one AVG FPS for a repeatable test instead of a range seen in play).

" Has anyone, (besides me), noticed a markedly brighter display since installing the new drivers? I no longer have to turn the brightness up on my IBM P260 to play UT!
Vlad "

Another reader noted the same thing in a forum post in reply to Vlad's comments.

If any Nvidia card owner notes other pros/cons of the update, let me know your test results/system/card details. Thanks.

For other Graphics card related articles and reviews - see the Video Topics page, Graphics card section.