Graphic Cards Caution : Buyers of 8800 for HTPC

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Ronnie22

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Hi,

Have discovered a major issue with my EVGA 8800 GTS (640 MB). Had bought this video card for my HTPC. I use it on my rig connected to my LCD tv to watch movies. Till recently had plugged the card to the tv using VGA, however recently tested the waters with DVI since the card possess a DVI out and the TV too. Also had read that with too much conversion from digital to analog and vice versa there is a drop in PQ.

Now when I made the chage from VGA to DVI-D (Single link), the PQ improved substantially to my eye. However there is an issue with these cards. There is no way for me to control the overscan. The desktop with the VGA card was perfect, with the DVI it goes beyond the viewing areas. So parts of the screen are not visible. Have tried to control this using the nTune but doesn't work.

After some research on the net, found that Nvidia has yet to correct this overscanning problem and lots of ppl have been complaining about it.

SO HTPC buyers of this card, beware.

Has anybody found a solution to this btw? Would love to implement it. THe VGA is a major drop down after experiencing DVI.
 
That has been the problem on 8800 series since its launch.

I have fired countless emails at them but still there is no solution. Even 15x.xx series havent solved this overscan issue.

The only reply i got from Nvidia was back in march saying it will be solved with the next driver set. There has been 1 official driver launch and still issue was not solved.

I dont use my card with HTPC much but i wanted to enjoy few movies on my LCD TV.
 
dont know if the over scanning you peeps refer to is the same as Scaling referred to by the poster of the following message in another forum .... check this out ....

Basically, I have been installing and uninstalling drivers to see which one of these drivers actually still had no scaling feature working:

96.89-WHQL (Guru 3D) - This one is the one that everyone has found to have a working 'no scaling'. There is a slight performance hit vs the latest 158.19, but it seems to be a lot more stable (on my system).

97.xx series, some people got no scaling to work on this series, I personally had it working for about 2 weeks before it flaked out on me again.. so take this with a grain of salt.

Anything higher then 97.xx drivers have broken no scaling option.

So just a info if anyone was looking into it, save the trouble of having to browse through tons of posts to find the info.
Click to expand...

SOURCE: http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32815
 
@Eazy
Yes, its the same.

Currently using the 97.92 drivers. Have been reading in some places that the 96.89 drivers do not have this problem. And since I don't game much, an updated driver is not a necessity. However have not been able to get my hands on this driver till now.

Might give the 96.89 drivers a shot now if I manage to locate it.
 
When I checked various forums the people there mentioned the 96.89 WHQL drivers which they got from Guru3d - but when I went to Guru3d only the beta version of this driver is on that site :( I have now downloaded the beta driver but like you it is not a necessity for me too .. so will not install it.
 
i'm using 96.89 drivers from Guru3d on my 8800GTS right now.

works like a charm and no scaling issue :)
 
RiO said:
burnz, can you share the link/location from where you downloaded 96.89?

Nevermind, found it.
Click to expand...

The drivers in the link are BETA drivers ... anyone have a link for the WHQL's ? By the way these drivers are known to be amongst the slowest of the lot :)
 
I just installed the new driver 158.19 Release Date: April 17, 2007, and have noticed a marked improvement in overall performance, but not sure if they fixed this issue or not
 
ArtfulDodger said:
I just installed the new driver 158.19 Release Date: April 17, 2007, and have noticed a marked improvement in overall performance, but not sure if they fixed this issue or not
Click to expand...

According to people in the nvidia forums the 158.xx drivers are the fastest of the lot but they have too many issues to be acceptable. Some people have complained of very high temperatures others report of BSODs and system lockups and many complaints of problems with the nvidia control panel and of course the main problem with these latest drivers is the disabling of the fan control option. The reason given for disabling of the fan control is that it seems some STOOPID people actually slow down the fans RPM and this kills the card with high temperatures. :O
 
I installed them about a week ago, and so far no issues. My card has never run that hot, so I guess it really depends on the card :)

I am using EVGA 8800 320mb superclocked (factory overclocked) I don't do any additional overclocking on the card as I haven't really felt the need to.
 
Eazy said:
The drivers in the link are BETA drivers ... anyone have a link for the WHQL's ? By the way these drivers are known to be amongst the slowest of the lot :)
Click to expand...

there aren't any WHQL's for the 96.89... the guru3d ones are your best bet... anyway, those are the same ones i'm using too...

tried the 158.19 earlier today... the scaling problem is still there, so i'm back to the 96.89s again...

as for the benchies, i won't be too overly concerned which is the fastest driver at this moment, when nvidia is still trying to get their act together and write some proper drivers for once... besides, for my gaming usage (cnc3, cs, company of heroes, nfs carbon), the 96.89s are doing a good enough job with max settings...
 
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