[NVIDIA] Anyone with experience using Zotac 9800GT? (1 Viewer)

MLH01

MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • March 11, 2009
    158
    23
    Gold Coast
    Home Country
    Australia Australia
    Hi All,

    I have been doing some searching for NVidia cards and came across the Zotac 9800GT (short review here).

    Has anyone had experience with this (or another 9800GT) card? I'm looking for an NVidia solution to eliminate the flickering problem common with the ATI cards at the moment, and this card seems to fit the bill for my needs: S-Video and HDMI interfaces that will suit me when I eventually upgrade from SD CRT to a HD LCD or Plasma TV, with a single slot format and lowish power consumption.

    Any advice welcome :)

    Mike.
     

    Owlsroost

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 28, 2008
    5,540
    5,038
    Cambridge
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    A 9800GT is overkill for just video/MP use - a 9500GT is powerful enough (and much lower power consumption than a 9800GT), and is available with passive cooling if noise is an issue.

    Tony
     

    MLH01

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • March 11, 2009
    158
    23
    Gold Coast
    Home Country
    Australia Australia
    Thanks Owlsroost.

    I agree with the 9800GT being overkill. I ended up going for a 9400GT (not as powerful as a 9500GT, but sufficient for SD and probably OK for HD). I plan to install it tonight then post back within the next few days with how it turns out. Being fairly new to recent NVidia cards (my last one was purchased about 8-10 years ago) means it'll probably take me some time to set it up :)

    Cheers,
    Mike.
     

    Owlsroost

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 28, 2008
    5,540
    5,038
    Cambridge
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    The only real problems I've had are related to HDMI display detection when resuming from S3 sleep - with my TV I get BSODs on resume (unless the TV is actually turned on) with driver versions after 182.50. I also have to disable the nVidia driver helper service otherwise I get black screens on resume even with 182.50 drivers.

    I'm pretty sure these issues are peculiar to my combo of TV+nVidia, but it might be worth bearing in mind when deciding which driver version to install.

    Tony
     

    MLH01

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • March 11, 2009
    158
    23
    Gold Coast
    Home Country
    Australia Australia
    Funny you should say that. I had no luck with recent drivers (probably due to me using Vista x64). Any driver newer than 182.50 (even though they were for Vista/Win7 x64) would not install - I was getting Zip7 errors.

    The card I purchased is a Galaxy Geforce 9400GT 512MB DDR2, which came with XP/Vista 32 bit drivers, so I needed to find a driver for Vista x64.

    I have successfully installed 182.50. But the fan is running at full speed (it has 2 wires connected to the board) and sounds like it is about to lift the HTPC out the window :eek:

    I've tried Rivatuner, EVGA Precision tuner and Galaxy XtremeTuner v2.3 (from the Galaxy web site) to control - that is, reduce - fan speed without success :(

    Not sure what to do from here...

    Mike.
     

    Owlsroost

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 28, 2008
    5,540
    5,038
    Cambridge
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    Not sure there is much to do other than swapping the card for a different model, unless you are handy with a soldering iron (to put a resistor in series with the fan wires).

    My XFX 9500GT does have fan speed control (it normally runs at 50% and is pretty quiet), so I suspect Galaxy have been penny-pinching....

    Tony
     

    MLH01

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • March 11, 2009
    158
    23
    Gold Coast
    Home Country
    Australia Australia
    Not sure there is much to do other than swapping the card for a different model, unless you are handy with a soldering iron (to put a resistor in series with the fan wires).
    Hi Tony,

    I've spent the last couple of nights trying different resistor values in series with the red wire leading to the fan. I settled on a 56 ohm, 1 Watt resistor. This reduces the fan speed to near-inaudible levels while keeping the GPU relatively cool (45 deg C at idle and 48C watching TV, surfing web etc.), which is a huge improvement on the crazy noise it was making at full speed. I am now a happy NVidia user without the flickering problems I have had in the past. :D

    My XFX 9500GT does have fan speed control (it normally runs at 50% and is pretty quiet), so I suspect Galaxy have been penny-pinching....
    Tony
    Yes, I'd say penny-pinching is close to the mark. I originally ordered a Gigabyte 9400GT card, but when I went to pick it up I realised it didn't have a TV out connection. They had the Galaxy card in stock for about $12 cheaper, so I went with it. Anyway, it seems to be good now with the 10 cent resistor, so I can't complain.

    Thanks again for your advice :D
    Mike.
     

    winterescape

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • April 5, 2009
    245
    16
    Home Country
    United States of America United States of America
    The only real problems I've had are related to HDMI display detection when resuming from S3 sleep - with my TV I get BSODs on resume (unless the TV is actually turned on) with driver versions after 182.50. I also have to disable the nVidia driver helper service otherwise I get black screens on resume even with 182.50 drivers.

    I'm pretty sure these issues are peculiar to my combo of TV+nVidia, but it might be worth bearing in mind when deciding which driver version to install.

    Tony

    yep see this thread... not unique to you I have the same issue...thanks for your help, not sure if you read the "solution" , anyone brave enough to try Version: 190.38 WHQL Release Date: July 21, 2009 ?

    https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...e-hdmi-detection-60706/index2.html#post481101
     

    Owlsroost

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 28, 2008
    5,540
    5,038
    Cambridge
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    yep see this thread... not unique to you I have the same issue...thanks for your help, not sure if you read the "solution"

    Yes, I did

    anyone brave enough to try Version: 190.38 WHQL Release Date: July 21, 2009 ?

    Not yet....I'm currently in a 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' phase :)

    The BSODs I got with 186.18 were really nasty - it would BSOD on resume and then BSOD again on the reboot (after which it would be OK until the next resume) - I reached for the system restore button pretty quickly !

    Tony
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom