Nvidia will fix 8800 by mid-September

Tom|Nbk · 31 Jul 2007 at 22:47

I thought this was just a game problem when I experienced it on my 320 GTS in BF2/S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Didn't realise the card's were actually broke

.

http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=41351

AFTER OUR ORIGINAL story, we managed to get an update from an Nvidia rep regarding the actual timeframe of the driver release that will fix the 8800 slowdown issue.
As it stands right now, fix for this highly annoying bug is planned for a release between the end of August and middle of September. My personal assumption would be that the latter date is a more realistic one. Nvidia stated that this problem is "of complex nature," and it seems to us that fixing one card leads to issues with another.

We wonder whether something went wrong in the whole 320-bit/384-bit memory controller combination, or whether the problem is caused by the fact that game developers were creating games with 256/512/1024 MB boards in mind, and Nvidia showed up with 320/640/768MB ones?

Just in case, if you play Battlefield and are one of numerous gamers plagued by the slowdown problem, Alt+Tab is not the answer you might need. Pascal, one of our readers came back to us and told us that Nvidia encourages you to use special button in the main page of the menu - this button opens a browser outside the game, and then you can swap back into the game without having the game screen destroyed.

It seems that the race for the most interesting/annoying bug of 2007 is now officially open. µ

-Nick- · 31 Jul 2007 at 22:49

Tom|Nbk · 31 Jul 2007 at 22:54

This explains the bug a bit more

http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41330s

Gerard · 31 Jul 2007 at 23:08

Remember reading about that on nv news, almost seems like the card is throttling back to 2d clocks, you then have to go to desktop and back into a game to reinitialise the 3d clocks. :confused:

Tom|Nbk · 31 Jul 2007 at 23:09

Gerard said:
Remember reading about that on nv news, almost seems like the card is throttling back to 2d clocks, you then have to go to desktop and back into a game to reinitialise the 3d clocks.

Yea I had this issue loads, just presumed it was a driver bug with that particular set didn't realise it was as bad as this. :eek:

sunlitsix · 31 Jul 2007 at 23:10

eh? so the memory on the card gets filled then doesnt clear again after exiting the game?

Tom|Nbk · 31 Jul 2007 at 23:19

sunlitsix said:
eh? so the memory on the card gets filled then doesnt clear again after exiting the game?

Yep, I always wondered why I saw a corrupted screenshot of last frame rendered of the game I had just closed as I loaded another up

and general crappy performance.

Mercutio · 31 Jul 2007 at 23:41

As I have one of these cards coming soon (tho will hopefully be the 640MB version) is this only an issue if you run different games in the same session (i.e get a couple of levels of DoW: Dark Crusade done then go play some WoW id have trouble with WoW?) and does a reboot fix?

sunlitsix · 31 Jul 2007 at 23:56

Tom|Nbk said:
Yep, I always wondered why I saw a corrupted screenshot of last frame rendered of the game I had just closed as I loaded another up and general crappy performance.

its strange that the card doesnt clear the ram automatically :confused:

Mercutio said:
As I have one of these cards coming soon (tho will hopefully be the 640MB version) is this only an issue if you run different games in the same session (i.e get a couple of levels of DoW: Dark Crusade done then go play some WoW id have trouble with WoW?) and does a reboot fix?

id of thaught a reboot would fix it

ergonomics · 31 Jul 2007 at 23:58

ive had my 640mb version for a while now, and ive never ever experienced this 'slowdown' which ive heard a lot about.

guess im just lucky

Tom|Nbk · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:04

ergonomics said:
ive had my 640mb version for a while now, and ive never ever experienced this 'slowdown' which ive heard a lot about.

guess im just lucky

Orrrrrrr. It could be the fact it affects only the 320 really

ergonomics · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:07

chaparral · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:08

ergonomics said:
ive had my 640mb version for a while now, and ive never ever experienced this 'slowdown' which ive heard a lot about.

guess im just lucky

IT SEEMS THAT Nvidia's Geforce 8800 series of graphics cards suffers random slowdowns, and this can be particularly problematic for owners of the Geforce 8800GTS 320MB, the cheapest 8800 out there.

http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41330

truebluecfc · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:27

Lucky a bought a new 22" along with my gfx card or i would have picked up the 320

C64 · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:36

I have a bfg 8800 gts 320mb not experienced anything like this what so ever.
I have even gone out of my way to experience this bug
could it be that it affects the very early cards only?

markyb · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:44

The only thing ive noticed If I join a BF2142 game half way through, I find that the FPS are slower than if the game loads a new map. Although this problem tends to get better the longer the game goes on and if the game changes the map, everythings fine.

Never had this problem on my previous card which was a 7900GTO.

lay-z-boy · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:47

meh, got 1.5gb vram so I'm good

gord · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:47

Just got my 8800GTS.. but.. couldnt tell you about this issue yet.. will investigate..

but i hope its fixed in time for bioshock..

C64 · 1 Aug 2007 at 00:48

Interesting gone out of my way to find this bug i have played
company of heroes pes6 sup com then gone to cs source immediately
and i got the same frame rates and no issues at all scratching my head here.
Could it be that in the last 2 drivers the issue is fixed for some brands and not others or maybe the fact i am using riva tuner and overclocking.

dalin80 · 1 Aug 2007 at 08:10

i havent experienced anything like this either, is it a issue with any specific games that trigger it?