Ahhhhh!I see some old hands still doing their thing in RAS! I like to
pop in every once and awhile especially if there is some sim related
news! Anyway, to business: Nvidia drivers. Noooo, not a 'side' issue in
re Nvidia vs ATI since I have both cards on various machines but the
Nvidia DRIVER matter or situation if you will, as some Nvidia owners
know, can be frustrating at times!

The old familiar story.. it's a great flight [no matter the FS series
sim from '98 to '04] for perhaps 10 minutes or so and then, 'wham', a
machine freeze --or-- the sim loads up and the ###@# panel is suddenly
missing! Or both...or, worse, the sim simply doesn't load at all!

9 times out of 10, I'll wager it's the Nvidia video 'driver' and VERY
fussy they can be too .... depending also on the model of Nvidia card
you're running! So too, I've seen horror stories on the various boards
where folks speak of returning their high-end Nvidia [or ATI!] card and
sometimes getting back a reply that the card tested to be 'fine' yet it
just doesn't work in their system! Again, suspect the video driver as
the culprit!

Case in point: I got [the latest] a FX5900 Ultra w/256MB DDR on-board
video [and those 2 enclosed blue LED muffin fans to boot!] and the old
classic driver probs began ...just like I had with a former FX5700
series...only now with the latest FX5900 series [and a great sale price]
with the latest Nvidia driver 56.64 [released March 2004] and that
tweaked 56.82 version [*check at at Guru3d.com although the 56.82 is not
'certified'...but it works], chronic machine freezes after no more than
15 minutes, 'tops', of sim use, or, put another way, CPU load and 'its'
effect on the driver! Each and every time! And no matter what FS sim
from '98 through the latest FS9. I rolled back to 53.03 Nvidia driver
[2003 vintage] which was the first Nvidia driver to support Direct X 9
series ['9B' is now the thing]and that stopped the freezes entirely BUT,
I say BUT, with 53.03 loading OK for FS98, 2K and FS2K2 and performing
decently, well, the moment I went to the new FS9, 'ALL' the panels
disappeared! Just a black space where the panel should be! Soooo, and
noting that one can use various Nvidia FX series drivers for virtually
all the FX series cards, I load again the latest 56.64 [March, 2004
issue] on top of 53.03 [do 'NOT' take out 53.03] which when apparently
MIXED with bits and pieces of 53.03 or whatever else got churned up in
the process, dunno, as I thought they were separate and distinct files,
but everything worked like a charm! Why? Dunno! I only know the results!

Perhaps some of the pieces of the driver code [note that most of these
drivers can exceed 10 megs of code!] went to Windows itself for all I
know! But hey, no more machine freezes during extended sim use no matter
how long the flight and 'all' panels in 'all' FS series sims now show up
perfectly and overall excellent graphics plus decent speed and frame
rates! Seems to me that the key to getting Nvidia cards [and results
therein] to perform and perform 'well' without hassles turns 'entirely'
on the Nvidia driver! Or mixtures therein of Nvidia driver code therein.

There you have it!

Doc Tony


One tip too: IF you begin to spot especially near the EDGES of your
screen, viz., the GUI itself, what looks like a flutter or ripples that
you know is NOT related to or caused by any changes in monitor refresh
issues --and-- overall loading of webpages seems sluggish and the colors
decent but having a washed-out look requiring color and hue adjustments
via the Nvidia driver software for an otherwise fast machine, suspect,
inter alia, the video card 'driver' as the culprit! When I did the video
card tinkering, and th cure of the sim usage problems, the screen dance
ripple went away also and loading speed 'decidedly' increased for
graphic-heavy webpages! Overall pi quality also increased without
adjustment 'help' from the Nvidia software!