FULL BLOWN WIN2K drivers!!

[Rogier]

After all the whining about driver availability and development, finally, this is the one: Full opengl 1.2 support, DX7 support, DualHead support. Chapeaux Matrox!!!
I' m curious about performance & stability, will start testing right away...

C300@464, Abit BH6,128Mb,G400DH32,PX40TSI,PXW4220,2x9Gb Quantum 7200, SBLive!

[ObiBen]

Sounds awesome!

I wasn't expecting this much for this driver set. Now I can warm up my 2nd monitor again.


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Regards,

ObiBen

[Rogier]

I decided to install a fresh RC3 professional to give it a good try
Not so good after all:
- The OPENGL section seems not to work properly, even the 3dtext screensaver GPF'ed (but showed 3d text).
- Quake 2 started a few moments but completely FROZE my workstation (which never happened the last months with win2K)
- Quake3 detected the OPENGL driver but shows a grey screen. End of story. Duuh. No benchmarks, no gaming. Anyone having success here?
- D3D games seem to work OK. Touring Car Rallye and FlightSIm 2000 run perfect. Microsoft is finally supporting their own hardware on RC3 (Sidewinder FF joystick) which was a problem before RC3.
- The Dual Head feature actually works, enabling and disabling without annyoing reboots . It is not possible (at least I did not find the feature) to run different resolutions on both monitors, when you enable multi monitor, the resolution shows something like 1600*600 (dual monitors 800X600). I want 1600x1200 for my 19" and 1024x786 for my old 15" like it is possible in Win98.
- Other PD features OK: actually this is the first graphics driver extending the Display properties tabsheet in win2000 I have seen.

Mixed feelings with this beta as you might understand, but it's a start...

C300@464, Abit BH6,128Mb,G400DH32,PX40TSI,PXW4220,2x9Gb Quantum 7200, SBLive!

[paulcs]

It is a start, although I'm having OpenGL problems too.

Quake3 Demo Test locks up at the ID intro screen and never makes it to the menu. The Windows mouse pointer remains, and after while, the game crashes back to the desktop. The desktop is faded and pastel, just like the TurboGL bug in Windows 98. Quake3 claims to have generated an error log, although I can't find it. My Wingate client is open as well. (Could be a conflict.)

I opened the Quake3 Test 1.08, and with this older version, managed to get to the desktop, but the game locked up hard after pulling down the console and typing a couple of letters.

The DirectX's Direct3D and Direct Draw tests all ran fine.

While Windows 2000 is loading, I get a brief black screen during the splash screen sequence ("Windows 2000 Professional, Built on NT Technology") about 2/3 through the progress gauge.

Someone on the Hardware forum managed to get into the game and play a bit, so there is hope for Quake3 and this release.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Martin Holm]

I have the same exact problems.

I think we need to figure out how to disable AGPx2, since the same thing occurs under win98, if AGPx2 isn't turned off.

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Athlon550, Asus K7M,160Mb,G400DH32,Pioneer DVD-103,Plextor PX-R820T, 17Gb WD 7200, SBLive!

[wiggo]

Update: Half Life is working fine, after I installed the 1.013 patch. Very nice. Maybe I'll be able to get rid on win98 soon, if only Aureal would release full a3d drivers :-)

[Strafe]

I agree, we need to push Aureal. Their drivers are not SMP friendly so I can't play any games =( otherwise the drivers are working flawlessly for me, it's just that I lock up when the system plays more than one sound at a time.

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Dual P3-450@504 - 128MB PC100 - Matrox G400Max - Sony 21" GDM-500PS - Diamond MX300 - 9.1GB Seagate Cheetah (2nd gen) - Pioneer 6X DVD - 3Com 10/100 - Hauppauge Win-TV Theater - A partridge in a pear tree =)

[wiggo]

Another update: Half Life, Grim Fandango, and Messiah demo 2 are all working, and I am now working on System Shock 2. The D3D games I have tried seem to run just as well as on win98. Foolishly, I am going to get rid on win98, and move over to Windows 2000 RC2 this weekend. Wish me luck :-)

[Rob M.]

heh yeah, aureal is the only reason why I havn't totally killed of win98 already too I think. Everything else seems to be alright, no major problems. I get exactly the same results as you wiggo in q3a, although I didn't think performance was bad at all, I have nothing to judge it by really though. Remember to make sure your bus mastering is turned on, mine was disabled by default. (?)

[Rogier]

The good:
- Unreal 2.24 runs fine and fast with D3D.
- Expendable runs fast!

The bad:
- Tried AGP 1x (now the OPENGL screensaver does not hang, shows the preview, but still generates a GPF), Starting Quake 2 now results in a spontanious reboot. Q3 still same, grey screen etc. Since I use a celeron it has nothing to do with TurboGL.

My G400 is at IRQ3, I remember someone said the IRQ should be above 7, anyone knows how to change this under Win2K?

[Rob M.]

I just got the full version, and it's pretty much the same for me as v1.09 was, except the menus are a bit faster and the game is a bit slower. Not quite a good tradeoff, but it'll be fixed I'm sure

[Rogier]

Another Update: DUAL-HEAD GAMING!!!
I got my Dual-Head settings improved to 1024x768 on both monitors by hacking registry (the tip from the release notes dod not work)

Better: It seems that D3D runs Dual-Head without trouble

I ran Unreal 2.25 800x600 on both Monitors (select 1600x600 as resolution) it costed only 10% performance. A few glitches on the second monitor though, but absolutely playable.

I downloaded UT demo and same effect here: twin 1024x786 monitors, good performance, cool!

[Rogier]

Another Update: DUAL-HEAD GAMING!!!
I got my Dual-Head settings improved to 1024x768 on both monitors by hacking registry (the tip from the release notes did not work)

Better: It seems that D3D runs Dual-Head without trouble

I ran Unreal 2.25 800x600 on both Monitors (select 1600x600 as resolution) it costed only 10% performance. A few glitches on the second monitor though, but absolutely playable.

I downloaded UT demo and same effect here: twin 1024x786 monitors, good performance, cool!

[Gurm]

Hey, I noticed that some of you having problems are still using RC2 of Win2k. Is that the case for most everyone here? Am I the only one running RC3 or higher?

- Ash

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[wiggo]

Quake3 demo test runs on my setup. The main menu screen has some odd mouse response, which seems to be related to low performance of the background rendering of the menu. The demos do not play, and so timedemo testing is not possible. Once into the game proper, the performance is poor, and is not comparable to win98. Also gamma can only be decreased from 1.0, any values above this have no effect.
So yes, there are problems, but I think they are more to do with Quake 3 than the drivers. I have tried all the samples in the DirectX 7 SDK as well as some graphics demos using opengl, and they all work fine.