User manual NVIDIA FORCEWARE GRAPHICS DRIVERS RELEASE 70 NOTES MANUALL

[. . . ] ForceWare Graphics Drivers Release 70 Notes Version 71. 89 For Windows XP / 2000 Windows XP Media Center Edition Windows 98 / ME Windows NT 4. 0 NVIDIA Corporation April 14, 2005 Published by NVIDIA Corporation 2701 San Tomas Expressway Santa Clara, CA 95050 Notice ALL NVIDIA DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS, REFERENCE BOARDS, FILES, DRAWINGS, DIAGNOSTICS, LISTS, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS (TOGETHER AND SEPARATELY, “MATERIALS”) ARE BEING PROVIDED “AS IS. ” NVIDIA MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE WITH RESPECT TO THE MATERIALS, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. However, NVIDIA Corporation assumes no responsibility for the consequences of use of such information or for any infringement of patents or other rights of third parties that may result from its use. No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent or patent rights of NVIDIA Corporation. Specifications mentioned in this publication are subject to change without notice. [. . . ] If there is an available setting for an application, it should be used, otherwise incorrect behavior or reduced performance is likely to occur. • Issues Application profile changes are subject to the following conditions: • Configuration Changes Require Application Restart Running applications do not receive notification of configuration changes, Therefore, if you change the configuration while the application is running, you must exit and restart the application for the configuration changes to take effect. • Some Profiles Release DirectDraw Some profiles release DirectDraw. If you change the configuration while the application is running, the application will not continue to run. See the table below for a list of application profiles that release DirectDraw. • Some Profiles Require System Reboot 16 NVIDIA Corporation Release 70 Version 71. 89 See the table below for a list of application profiles that require system reboot for the configuration changes to take effect. Table 2. 1 Workstation Application Profile Issues Releases Direct Draw X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Application Profile Name Ansys Cadcentre PDMS CATIA CDRS ESPRi Exceed I-DEAS Master Series ICEM Surf IronCAD Large Model CAD Microstation NADAMS NASTRAN, Patran OneSpace Designer OneSpace Designer-Large Model Plant Designer, Imagineer Pro/ENGINEER Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire PTC DIVISION Mockup OneSpace Designer Modeling Solid Edge Solidworks ThinkDesign TOGO POST Unigraphics Requires a Reboot to take effect X X NVIDIA Corporation 17 Chapter 2: Release 70 Driver Issues Known Product Limitations Advanced Timing Adjustment Limitations • Problem The Advanced Timing page—accessed from the NVIDIA Display Properties Change Resolution page—is not available for some cards using the DVI connector. • Explanation DVI timing adjustment is supported for NV3x-based cards only if they have an external TMDS, such as the SiliconImage 164. However, cards with an internal TMDS can support refresh rates less than 60 Hz in this driver. No Antialiasing of 3DMark03 Image Quality Screen Captures • Problem After enabling antialiasing from the NVIDIA Properties page, 3DMark03 screen captures—obtained using the application’s screen capture function— might not be antialiased. • Explanation This is not an NVIDIA bug, but rather a result of different methods used to render antialiased images. Depending on a combination of factors, the driver may take advantage of the NVIDIA hardware’s ability to bypass the front buffer while rendering an antialiased image. In this case, the front buffer does not contain antialiased data, so if an application takes data from the front buffer—as is the case with 3DMark03’s Image Quality screen captures—then the resulting image is not antialiased. To accommodate applications that request use of the front buffer, the NVIDIA software can provide the antialiased data in a buffer to the application. Since this negates the advantages of the NVIDIA hardware capability, this support is enabled only when antialiasing is enabled within the application, and not from the NVIDIA control panel. In all cases when antialiasing is enabled, screen images as well as screen captures obtained using the Print Screen key are always antialiased. 18 NVIDIA Corporation Release 70 Version 71. 89 Medal of Honor Under Windows XP / Windows 2000 • Problem The Electronic Arts game Medal of Honor uses a hard coded buffer to parse the OpenGL extension string. This can cause a system crash under Windows XP and Windows 2000. • Workaround NVIDIA has implemented Medal of Honor application detection to work around this extension string crash. Hide Modes Check Box Cannot be Cleared • Background One of the NVIDIA display property page dialog boxes contains the check box labelled “Hide modes that this monitor cannot display”. It is checked by default, indicating that only the refresh rates supported by the monitor are listed in the refresh rate drop down list. The check box appears in the Device Adjustments->Monitor Settings page. • Problem If you clear the check box, click Apply, and then close the dialog box, the check box is still checked when the page is re-opened. • Explanation This function is no longer controlled by the NVIDIA driver, but has not been removed from the control panel in order to maintain consistency with driver designs that are currently being shipped to OEMs. NVIDIA Corporation 19 Chapter 2: Release 70 Driver Issues Known Product Limitations Windows XP/2000 Issue with Settings Tab Monitor Positioning • Problem In the Windows Display Properties > Settings tab, the secondary monitors cannot be positioned directly above monitor #1 without snapping horizontally to a position diagonal to monitor #1. • When the Problem Occurs The problem occurs when four monitors are connected to the graphics adapter card, but only two of them are enabled. • Cause and Workaround This is a Microsoft—not an NVIDIA—bug, and there is no workaround to correct the positioning of the monitor icons. However, the actual positioning of the displays on the desktop can be corrected using the nView Desktop Manager window as follows: 1 Under the Tools tab in the Desktop Manager windows, make sure Automatically Align Displays is checked. #1, then click Apply. 2 In the Settings tab, position the appropriate monitor icon above monitor The mouse cursor movement between monitor desktops will correspond to a vertical orientation of the monitors, even though the monitor icons in the Settings tab are diagonal to each other. Note: This will be the case even if the monitor icons are deliberately positioned diagonal to each other. Gigabyte GA-6BX Motherboard This motherboard uses a LinFinity regulator on the 3. 3-V rail that is rated to only 5 A—less than the AGP specification, which requires 6 A. When diagnostics or applications are running, the temperature of the regulator rises, causing the voltage to the NVIDIA chip to drop as low as 2. 2 V. Under these circumstances, the regulator cannot supply the current on the 3. 3-V rail that the NVIDIA chip requires. This problem does not occur when the graphics board has a switching regulator or when an external power supply is connected to the 3. 3-V rail. Controlling Windows 9x TV Tuner Scaling Artifacts Bus-mastering TV tuners that do not flip leave artifacts when they are scaled. On Windows 9x, this problem is addressed by setting the local DirectDraw™ registry value VideoBusMasterMode to 1. [. . . ] PAE is an extension that enables Intel compatible computers to address more than 4 GB of physical memory. 40 NVIDIA Corporation Release 70 Version 71. 89 3D Graphics API Enhancements Direct3D • Improved antialiasing performance • Improved shaders OpenGL New extension: GL_NV_pixel_buffer_object Release 50 Enhancements The Release 50 driver offers new features not found in previous releases of the NVIDIA Driver for Windows. 64-Bit Support Driver Release 50 offers AMD64 and IA64 OS support. Dynamic Memory Mapping Dynamic memory mapping adds support for 256 MB graphics cards for video, display, and OpenGL drivers. NVIDIA Unified Compiler As today’s GPUs become more and more programmable they are entering a similar era to that of the CPU. For CPUs, it is common for developers to implement code paths specifically optimized for AMD or Intel (e. g MMX and 3DNow!). Because architectures vary, it makes sense that one common assembly language can’t cover all the nuances of specific GPU micro-architectures. [. . . ]