Main Restorations Software Audio/Jukebox/MP3 Everything Else Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements Monitor/Video GroovyMAME Merit/JVL Touchscreen Meet Up Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing Woodworking Software Support Forums Consoles Project Arcade Reviews
Automated Projects Artwork Frontend Support Forums Pinball Forum Discussion Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board controls.dat Linux Miscellaneous Arcade Wiki Discussion Old Archives
Lightguns Arcade1Up Try the site in https mode Site News

Unread posts | New Replies | Recent posts | Rules | Chatroom | Wiki | File Repository | RSS | Submit news

  

Author Topic: So is anyone using an Nvidia card now?  (Read 2565 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Gray_Area

  • -Banned-
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3363
  • Last login:June 23, 2013, 06:52:30 pm
  • -Banned-
So is anyone using an Nvidia card now?
« on: January 15, 2013, 04:15:10 pm »
Given that is theoretically supports any card?
-Banned-

Calamity

  • Moderator
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7414
  • Last login:April 10, 2024, 02:02:31 pm
  • Quote me with care
Re: So is anyone using an Nvidia card now?
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2013, 06:26:41 pm »
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'supports any card'

Under Windows, now GM can indeed use Powerstrip with the cards supported by it, in order to tweak the existing modes. You still need Soft-15kHz to get the low-res modes installed.

I don't know of anybody using this yet. I was expecting a crowd of happy NVidia users landing here but this never happened.

I did test with a NVidia Geforce Go 6400, and it took me several hours to get a decent result, even knowing what was required exactly, etc. and even then it wasn't as good as what you get with a modest ATI card, and for the price you can get a Radeon HD 4xxx I think it's not worth the pain. It's there however to be used when an ATI card is not an option.

Important note: posts reporting GM issues without a log will be IGNORED.
Steps to create a log:
 - From command line, run: groovymame.exe -v romname >romname.txt
 - Attach resulting romname.txt file to your post, instead of pasting it.

CRT Emudriver, VMMaker & Arcade OSD downloads, documentation and discussion:  Eiusdemmodi

Gray_Area

  • -Banned-
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3363
  • Last login:June 23, 2013, 06:52:30 pm
  • -Banned-
Re: So is anyone using an Nvidia card now?
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2013, 04:16:13 am »
I thought Powerstrip did everything you would want, hence not needing soft15. I've created custom resolutions on my Nvidia 6800 through the Forceware (about the same kind of process as using Powerstrip), so I'm surprised there's an issue. It used to be that Nvidia cards could do anything you wanted because of this (and perhaps why they have worked with another build so well). In any case, I created a directory with GM and VMaker in it. What else am I supposed to put in there for VMaker to run?
-Banned-

Calamity

  • Moderator
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7414
  • Last login:April 10, 2024, 02:02:31 pm
  • Quote me with care
Re: So is anyone using an Nvidia card now?
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2013, 05:21:09 am »
AdvanceMAME worked so well with GeForce2 cards because it uses its own custom driver 'svgawin'. Forceware did not provide dynamic custom resolutions (i.e., modifying timings without reboot) at least when I tested it. It's not a matter of creating a bunch of custom modes, you need to be able to edit them on the fly. Any information on how to achieve this with NVidia is welcome. You can't use VMMaker with NVidia cards, use Soft-15kHz instead.

Important note: posts reporting GM issues without a log will be IGNORED.
Steps to create a log:
 - From command line, run: groovymame.exe -v romname >romname.txt
 - Attach resulting romname.txt file to your post, instead of pasting it.

CRT Emudriver, VMMaker & Arcade OSD downloads, documentation and discussion:  Eiusdemmodi

Gray_Area

  • -Banned-
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3363
  • Last login:June 23, 2013, 06:52:30 pm
  • -Banned-
Re: So is anyone using an Nvidia card now?
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2013, 05:57:07 pm »
Here's the control panel for Forceware 93.71 (100+ have been the same or similar. It apparently has full control, and doesn't require re-start to make active. You can even test the mode from the page.

This was how a lot of people made their own pre-06. This page is via Nvidia Control Panel>resolutions and refresh rates>advanced timings.

It seems straight-forward; you need only the proper information, which I've read about, but haven't learned, how to figure.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2013, 05:58:53 pm by Gray_Area »
-Banned-

Calamity

  • Moderator
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7414
  • Last login:April 10, 2024, 02:02:31 pm
  • Quote me with care
Re: So is anyone using an Nvidia card now?
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2013, 05:46:23 pm »
If it doesn't require re-start, then there must be some specific Nvidia API to make that happen, because from my testing, just updating the registry with the new custom modes didn't have any effect until next session. A different matter is whether this API is documented. Nvidia's API is NVAPI (https://developer.nvidia.com/nvapi), but I can't get anything clear out of that (probably need further reading).

Both Nvidia and ATI must have these options in order to make new video modes available without rebooting. ATI does have the "timing overrides" feature from the ADL SDK, it's the 'new' method, different from the one we're using in GM, but unfortunately it is not as reliable as the old one, it will re-cook our values if it feels like doing so, it won't work with low resolutions, etc., It's not an usable method.

It's not that ATI cards are especially good or anything, it's just a strike of luck that the old drivers allowed dynamic modelines under Windows, it's not the case with the newer versions, as this was probably an unintended feature.

Anyway I'll keep an eye on any information that might be used to extend the support to Nvidia cards. By now, the best option for NVidia is GM + Soft-15khz + Powerstrip.
Important note: posts reporting GM issues without a log will be IGNORED.
Steps to create a log:
 - From command line, run: groovymame.exe -v romname >romname.txt
 - Attach resulting romname.txt file to your post, instead of pasting it.

CRT Emudriver, VMMaker & Arcade OSD downloads, documentation and discussion:  Eiusdemmodi

Gray_Area

  • -Banned-
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3363
  • Last login:June 23, 2013, 06:52:30 pm
  • -Banned-
Re: So is anyone using an Nvidia card now?
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2013, 09:08:27 pm »
Cool. Thanks.
-Banned-