No Support For FX 5500 in NVidia Vista Drivers?

Downloaded the latest NVidia X86 Vista (RTM) drivers. The installer
complains that it cannot find drivers for my FX5500?
File: 97.46_forceware_winvista_x86_international_whql.ex e

It also seems that both the international and US download links get you the
same file.

Luckily the Vista-supplied driver gives OK results, but I'd like to be able
to use the NVidia drivers.

Any ideas?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...supported.html
Apparently you need a minimum of a Geforce6 card to run Vista. The
FX5-series and earlier cards are not supported.

At the same time, why would you want to run Vista without the Aero
interface? It just becomes a slower version of Windows XP.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"PvdG" wrote in message
...
Downloaded the latest NVidia X86 Vista (RTM) drivers. The installer
complains that it cannot find drivers for my FX5500?
File: 97.46_forceware_winvista_x86_international_whql.ex e

It also seems that both the international and US download links get you
the same file.

Luckily the Vista-supplied driver gives OK results, but I'd like to be
able to use the NVidia drivers.

Any ideas?

First of One wrote:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...supported.html
Apparently you need a minimum of a Geforce6 card to run Vista. The
FX5-series and earlier cards are not supported.

You are joking, of course. Vista's minimum hardware requirements a
SVGA. Yup, that's it, if you run 800x600, you can run Vista.

You had to mean the minimum requirements to run Aero, which are
surprisingly convoluted....Would you like to know more?(tm)

To run desktop compositioning or "Aero", you first need to meet these
technical criteria:

1) The video subsystem runs DirectX9.
2) The primary video card supports PS2.0 in hardware.
3) The PC is using the Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM).
4) The system is using 32bits/pixel color depth.

Most Importantly, especially to those who are still under the impression
low refresh rates do no harm:

5) Your primary monitor has a refresh rate greater than 10Hz.

I'm not kidding, that's a real spec...

It's still not quite 'Aero' yet, there are additional semi-often checks
that take place, including some that occur as a result of normal
operations (such as changing resolutions):

1a) Vista must have more than 512M currently available system memory.
2a) There is enough graphics memory available (for Vista) to support the
resolution selected.
3a) An internal Benchmark must be passed which takes the total number of
pixels (derived from resolution in single, or dual monitors) and then
measures throughput in MB/s, it then accesses a database in the WDDM, to
pass or fail based on the predetermined figures. But the database is not
a mere index, it is formula driven.

Failure in any of these criteria disables composition, most notable
transparency. There are other, user initiated actions than can cause
"DWM Scaleback", such as opening too many windows, or having low
resources available due to the nature of opened window's placement,
content, etc.

The user will be informed that the color scheme has been changed to
"Windows Vista Basic" and unless they re-meet all those criteria, no
more fancy flips for them!

There are many other minor (and major) limitations and quirks of this
new GUI, I can only hope, eventually, the interface will be as
transparent to the average end user as it's glassine windows are now.



At the same time, why would you want to run Vista without the Aero
interface? It just becomes a slower version of Windows XP.

For the new 'MY DRM', of course.

"First of One" root@localhost wrote in message
...
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...supported.html
Apparently you need a minimum of a Geforce6 card to run Vista. The
FX5-series and earlier cards are not supported.

At the same time, why would you want to run Vista without the Aero
interface? It just becomes a slower version of Windows XP.

Actually it's 5200 (w/ 128 meg) or better. DX9 and WDDM.
The FX5500 runs Aero just fine using the MS-supplied drivers. It meets the
requirements.
I'm wondering about the lack of support in NVIDIA's drivers, as indicated by
the error message I cited in my original post.

"Peter van der Goes" wrote in message
...

Actually it's 5200 (w/ 128 meg) or better. DX9 and WDDM.
The FX5500 runs Aero just fine using the MS-supplied drivers. It meets the
requirements.
I'm wondering about the lack of support in NVIDIA's drivers, as indicated
by the error message I cited in my original post.



Given that the folks at NVIDIA, in their infinite wisdom, have decided NOT
to support the nForce2 motherboard in Vista (a chipset which supports
processors WAY ABOVE the minimum spec for Vista), this does not surprise me
in the least. Hopefully they will release a driver that supports the FX
series after the end of the month, but I would not hold my breath.

These guys are just as bad as Sony - if you don't own a current or recent
generation product, they act as though they don't know who you are anymore.
Meanwhile, motherboard chipsets from Intel for the Pentium 3 are supported
in Vista, and even AMD/ATI is providing support for video cards all the way
down to the Radeon 9500 (which is the comparable series to the GeForce FX -
albeit superior).

"Wax" wrote in message
...
Given that the folks at NVIDIA, in their infinite wisdom, have decided NOT
to support the nForce2 motherboard in Vista (a chipset which supports
processors WAY ABOVE the minimum spec for Vista), this does not surprise
me in the least. Hopefully they will release a driver that supports the
FX series after the end of the month, but I would not hold my breath.

These guys are just as bad as Sony - if you don't own a current or recent
generation product, they act as though they don't know who you are
anymore. Meanwhile, motherboard chipsets from Intel for the Pentium 3 are
supported in Vista, and even AMD/ATI is providing support for video cards
all the way down to the Radeon 9500 (which is the comparable series to the
GeForce FX - albeit superior).
I went to the NVIDIA forums and found articles indicating that the current
Vista drivers are actually beta and that support for the full range of cards
which support Vista is supposedly "coming soon".

PvdG wrote:
Downloaded the latest NVidia X86 Vista (RTM) drivers. The installer
complains that it cannot find drivers for my FX5500?
File: 97.46_forceware_winvista_x86_international_whql.ex e

It also seems that both the international and US download links get you
the same file.

Luckily the Vista-supplied driver gives OK results, but I'd like to be
able to use the NVidia drivers.

Any ideas?

So you are going to pay hundreds of dollars for Vista, and are not
willing to spend $50 on a video card upgrade???

On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:19:47 -0600, "Peter van der Goes"
wrote:


"First of One" root@localhost wrote in message
...
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...supported.html
Apparently you need a minimum of a Geforce6 card to run Vista. The
FX5-series and earlier cards are not supported.

At the same time, why would you want to run Vista without the Aero
interface? It just becomes a slower version of Windows XP.

Actually it's 5200 (w/ 128 meg) or better. DX9 and WDDM.
The FX5500 runs Aero just fine using the MS-supplied drivers. It meets the
requirements.
I'm wondering about the lack of support in NVIDIA's drivers, as indicated by
the error message I cited in my original post.


Since Vista gives negative gains in performance (regardless of driver)
over XP anyway where performance really matters... i.e. 3D games...
then just don't worry, be happy and use the drivers supplied by MS.
If you want real performance and far less hassle with any current
application, just load XP and its drivers and forget Vista, for at
least 6 months.

John Lewis

"No Spam" wrote in message
...
PvdG wrote:
Downloaded the latest NVidia X86 Vista (RTM) drivers. The installer
complains that it cannot find drivers for my FX5500?
File: 97.46_forceware_winvista_x86_international_whql.ex e

It also seems that both the international and US download links get you
the same file.

Luckily the Vista-supplied driver gives OK results, but I'd like to be
able to use the NVidia drivers.

Any ideas?

So you are going to pay hundreds of dollars for Vista, and are not willing
to spend $50 on a video card upgrade???

Heh.
Vista's in my MSDN subscription, so 0 marginal cost.
I've got it on my obsolete "Frankenstein" test box, due to gutted and
rebuilt with a month. New motherboard will use a new PCI-E video card. If
you didn't see my subsequent post about info in the NVIDIA forums, it
appears that driver support for the full range of cards that are "Vista
capable" will be forthcoming.