Ususal Vid card and DirectX questions

[darkhorse]

I Finally got my new card.  64MB GeForce MX 440-SE PCI card.  I know it isn't much, but couldn't afford better.  I have it running, but I have a few more bugs to work out.  This is where I need help.

Which is the most common NVIDA driver for FPS over image qaulity?  And does anyone have a link to it?  I have seen it posted here before, but don't remember which one it was.  I checked their site, and all I found was the new 44.03 drivers.  

Also, my card doesn't say if it supports DX 9 or not.  Somehow I got DX 9 installed on my computer.  Don't know how or when, but will rolling it back to 8.1 (which is listed as being supported) help any?  If so, how do I get DX 9 out so I can put 8.1 in?  

I have also been getting a warning at first that with the new card, FS 2002 Pro would enable safe mode because my computer could not enable hardware acceleration, which led to crap graphics and fps.  Thing is, though, in dxdiag.exe, it listed as having all of my hardware accels enabled with no problems listed, and also had accel sliders set to full accel in my regular display properties.  I went in and changed my display.cfg file (made back up copy first of course) and changed these lines:

       nVidia i128
       
       [STBV128D.DLL.1]
       MinDriverRev=4.10.1.9183
       Disable=2

AND

       NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K

      [nv4_disp.dll.1]
      MinDriverRev=5.13.01.1241
      Disable=2

The "disable=2 " value was changed to 1 for both sets.  Now when I start FS, it gives a warning to the effect that it thinks that my computer isn't capable for hardware accel, but I can click okay and force the program to use hardware accel.  I clicked OK and the game worked like it should for the most part.  But I ended up getting the pink dots on the default Cessna panel that was mentioned in an earlier post either here, or in the FS 2002 forum.  I have heard of changing those lines for some cards so the program will recognize a GeForce card, and also another set of lines to add to the .cfg file.  Would I need those also?

I think that is it for now, but I'm sure more will come up later.

P.S.  There is another game that now has a screen that will flicker in the menu screens, but not during the actual race.  It is NHRA Main Event, but I'm hoping that when I get FS 2002 working, I will have also fixed the other problems.  If not, i'll see if I can find a web site for that game.

[congo]

If anyone else reads this, PLEASE don't buy a PCI video card unless you are in the most desperate situation and have absolutely no other option. A PCI upgrade is the worst option.

The PCI bus speed is very inadequate for modern games and an AGP bus is needed to take an AGP video card. This usually means a motherboard upgrade..........
BUT..... don't despair, modern mainboards with 8x AGP buses are very cheap now. If you shop around you can get a budget system with AGP graphics as well as many more modern features.

I wish this was the last post I'll ever see about a PCI video card upgrade.

It really doesn't matter what you do, you will always have compromised graphics with a PCI video card.

Now, as for DirectX 9.........  Leave it alone as you cannot go back to any previous version of direct X without formatting, to my knowledge. It is only a later version and should not cause a problem, hopefully.

Your problems may be the result of the drivers being designed for AGP video cards rather than PCI. Not sure about that though. I recently tried a newer (29.42 lol)driver on a PCI card and had no success. Contact the cards manufacturer or use the driver that came supplied or an upgrade of that driver perhaps. Sorry, it's been so long since I've messed around with a PCI card, that my knowledge of them is out of date.

There is a tweak for the mx 440 in FS2002, but I wont recommend it for a PCI card, because it will slow your graphics too much as it enables reflections and a PCI card won't handle it properly.

If you continue to post articles about PCI video cards, I'll be forced to take up a collection at church and raise money to get you some decent gear on your desktop!!!  

[ATI_7500]

okay,congo,you're right,but a PCI card is a hundred times better than onboard graphics.

and concerning the direct-x rolling-back-issue: there's a nice little program called "direct-x buster",which uninstalls any direct-x version (even the 9.0 one). just do a google search for it.

darkhorse,do you have an AGP-slot on your mainboard?? if you pay the shipping ,i could give you my old ATI 7500...

[darkhorse]

A donation would be the only way I could get anything half way decent by todays standards.  I don't have an AGP slot, but thanks for the offer ATI_PRO.  To update my computer, I'd be looking at $100-$150 for a decent AGP card, plus $150 for the main board, plus the new ram, and anything else I would need and instalation fees.  That may be cheap nowadays, but it is still expensive for me.