Just upgraded my Video card, now something is amiss

[Grieyls]

Well, upgraded my video card and it runs beautifully for everything accept nwn. If my avie runs around in a static enviroment nothing seems amiss however as soon as there is any movement by other bots the animation of the game gets a little choppy. Now I can still play the game like this with no trouble as the fault is not really that overly distracting. Still being the prefectionist that I am it does erk me a little and so I would like to know why this is occuring and how can I fix it. The new card in question is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gtx-460-us.html

I've tried adjusting the settings for the card to no avail, even went as far as re-installing nwn. Just seems to odd to me that NWN is the only game which this issue occurs. Anyway, if anybody has any idea's...?

[Purist]

I think it has something to do with multi core processing, or so I read somewhere over the forums. And does that card has that feature that some of the processing is handled by the video card processing unit, in an attempt to unload stress to your real processor? Maybe that is it.

[Blacky Rose]

It seems to be a recent issue with the GTX 400 series video cards:

Communication with Nvidia tech. support:

Question Date: 08/29/2010

Q: **repost from: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/187/index/4541153 When Robes/Cloaks/Ranged Weapons are not equiped or seen in anyway, the game plays at 250 FPS. As soon as they are visable, it drops to 20 fps. Specs: Game Version: NWN 1 with all expansions. No CEP, no PRC. Only thing I have installed is an ingame character/item customiser. Game Language: English Retail or Digital: Retail / Diamond Processor Manufacturer: Intel Processor Type: q6600 Processor Speed: 376x9 (3384) Operating System / Service Pack: Win 7 x64 (all updates) System RAM: 8 gigs Video Card Manufacturer: NVIDIA Video Card Model: GTX 470 Video Card RAM: 1280 Video Card Driver Version: GeForce/ION Driver Release 256.96 Sound Card Manufacturer: Creative Sound Card Model: SB X-Fi Sound Card Driver Version: 2.18.0015 CD/ROM Type: LiteON CD/DVD burner. ** Yes, shiny water is disabled. Also, no matter what my video settings are (ie. resolution, AA, textures, shadows, etc...) the FPS stays right at 20.

Answer Date: 08/29/2010

A: Unfortunately this problem would seem to be related to the game that you are playing. I would recommend that you try using a benchmark like the OC Scanner to verify if the video card is working correctly or not. The OC Scanner could be downloaded from www.EVGA.com/ocscanner Please let us know the results of your testing, Thanks, EVGA Support

Tech: Ryan Mohler

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Question Date: 08/29/2010

Q: I ran a benchmark test with the program you provided. It gave a score of 293 at a duration of 30000 ms. I disagree that it is an issue with the game, as an owner of a gtx 295, in the thread of the link provided in the original question, did not have the same issue. While, an owner of a GTX 480 did have the same exact issue.

Answer Date: 08/30/2010

A: Roger, Do you have the memory timings manually set in the BIOS? Please do so then run memtest (memtest.org) for 4-8 passes to ensure your RAM is working correctly. I would also suggest running a test of your HDD with the tools provided by the manufacturer to begin to narrow down the problem. Regards, EVGA

Tech: Matthew Hurwitz

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Question Date: 08/31/2010

Q: I ran the memtest86, which had no errors detected, and the DataLifeguard tool from Western Digital, which passed its smart status test. the memory is set to default settings aside from the FSB Strap to Northbridge, which is set at 333 (this effectively sets my ram speed to 757, an underclock, but it is a 1:1 ratio with the cpu.

Answer Date: 09/01/2010

A: hello, I am not able to go over your forum post as it is blocked. Can you go over the specifics, aside form 20FPS, for instance, what game is this on, as well as a hardware breakdown. Are you running this card on the X38 chipset board listed in your profile information? For your ram, I would advise setting latency and voltage to the recommended setting from the memory manufacturer, which is usually stated on the RAM. If you have further issues please feel free to email us back or call support anytime 24/7. Thanks EVGA Tech Support

Tech: Dave Biel

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Question Date: 09/01/2010

Q: I am sorry that I was not specific on the game. The game is the original Neverwinter Nights. When ranged weapons, cloaks, and robes are visable in-game, equiped to pc or an npc, the FPS goes from 250 to 20 fps. I am running: CPU: Intel q6600 OC to 3.4 Motherboard: Asus p5e Memory: 8 gig G.Skill DDR2 1000 (recommended timings and voltage) Graphics Card: GTX 470 Sound Card: Creative X-FI Elite Pro HDD: 2x 640 gig Western Digital Caviar Black & 2x 160 gig WD RE2 The Asus p5e is an x38 mobo. It supports ATI crossfire setups. I am not doing SLI, and I wanted to switch from ATI, so I upgraded from 2x ATI 3870 to the GTX 470. A member of the support forum who has the same issue: "I'm having the exact same problem with a Nvidia GTX480. Anytime any character in view has a robe or ranged weapon out my FPS drops to an unplayable 10-20. This is even with a vanilla setup (fresh install) on the original NWN campaign. Driver version: 258.96 Windows 7 (64bit) Intel i930 12gb ram Contact Nvidia and hope they can put a fix in? I've tried changing all possible settings ingame and on the nvidia control panel and no change. " From one member of the support forum: "I'm running win 7 professional 64 bit. Processor is dual core e8600, video is 295GTX, I have 8 gigs of DDR 2 RAM. I don't have this problem at all. So either it's the newer vid card (likely it has issues with openGL). I'm running the 197.45 drivers. (probably not an option with that car

Answer Date: 09/02/2010

A: Hello, in light if the game that is the source of the issue, I would have to say the issue is the game. That game is nearly 10 years old, and most games from that era have odd performance issues and/or stability issues, other major titles from major companies of that era have problems on current systems and modern hardware. You can try the newest drivers for the card, but there might not be a fix for it. If you have further issues please feel free to email us back or call support anytime 24/7. Thanks EVGA Tech Support

Tech: Dave Biel

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Question Date: 09/02/2010

Q: I still disagree that it is game related, as a gtx 295 has not this issue, where as a gtx 480 of another person does have this issue. it is disappointing that this does not want to be acknowledged as I upgraded to play more recent games, but I still play NWN often enough to warrent it needing to be playable. I also noticed, in the most recent release notes of the latest drivers, that it mentions Gothic 1 (released 9 years ago) and 2 (releaded 7 years ago), which seem to have their issues with new hardware acknowledged and are being reviewed. Can you not do the same for NWN owners? It must be more popular of a game than the gothic series.

Answer Date: 09/03/2010

A: you might want do use older video drivers such as the 197 drivers. They could be found at: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us Please try the older drivers and let us know if you have the further questions, Thanks EVGA Support

Tech: Ryan Mohler

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Question Date: 09/04/2010

Q: I have completely removed the 256 series drivers, with driver sweeper, and installed the 197 series. The issue with Neverwinter Nights dropping to 20 fps when cloaks/robes/ranged weapons are seen on screen still remains. I hope your team at EVGA can convince nvidia to investigate the issue. I know the game is old, and seems hardly worth the resources to be invested, but part of the reason I switched from ATI was the terrible support. I would hate to have the same thing develop here as well, considering this is my first card from nvidia. I thank you for your support and hope you will continue with this. Roger

Answer Date: 09/04/2010

A: Roger, I will pass along the request. Regards, EVGA

To sum that up, unfortunately for the time being there is no solution available for the GTX 400 series video cards.

[DM Tarokka]

GTX 260 here. Always had these issues in general.

[Grieyls]

Well that really bites....