Flickering on GeForce FX - NVIDIA needs your help

[goblin]

I have had what seems to be flicker on both a 8500 and 9700pro. It looked like my refresh was set to like 30hz. If I raised the refresh to 120 it would still be there.

It went away when I upgraded my power supply to a PC Power and cooling 450. It seems its not so much as the card but possibly dirty power or voltage flucuations.


Now both cards operate perfectly.

[Clay]

Originally posted by goblin
I have had what seems to be flicker on both a 8500 and 9700pro. It looked like my refresh was set to like 30hz. If I raised the refresh to 120 it would still be there.

It went away when I upgraded my power supply to a PC Power and cooling 450. It seems its not so much as the card but possibly dirty power or voltage flucuations.


Now both cards operate perfectly.

This is worth noting that the flickering problem is not exclusive to NVIDIA cards...although it does appear to be more prominent. There are compliants about flickering with ATI cards over at Rage3D's forums as well.

I have both a 9800Pro and 5900Ultra and neither have exhibited any flickering problems, with one exception (see my posts on page 11 in this thread). I still have yet to hear anything back from the author of UT2k3Bench as to whether or not this flickering is related to the graph control or not though.

[goblin]

I agree that it seems that Nvidia is stalling. They spend millions of dollars on R&D yet it seems that they do not test their own hardware on real systems.

All they have to do is to buy 80 different popular MBs maybe more the cost is a drop in the bucket to them. Then have some grunts test out the cards on various configurations. Test them with crappy PS test them with good Power supplys etc. Test them with a system that has every utility known to man installed to see if there are any conflicts.

I think they must only test with better than average equipment. We all know that not everyone has the best equipment. They could put a warning on the box about incompatibilties etc.

Thats probably asking too much. They will put the blame on the motherboard companies etc.

Nvidia should take a more active role in the message boards like ATI. If they cared they would. Nvidia was the best but sadly the let ATI roll over them.

Originally posted by Jeffus
I have to say, I'm concerned about the lack of feedback (info) from Nvidia, MSI, Gainward (well stupid feedback) etc... What the F**K is going on here??? Seems to me (and I'm a nvidia man myself), but it seems to me that ATI will come out on top here!!!

I admit upgrading my PSU was a benificial move where the sound issue was concerened and that most of the flickering has gone away wit a few exceptions....... sadly.

Nvidia have the neccesary resource to throw various PCs together from various hardware vendors to investigate these issues...... seems to me they are stalling!! I ask the imortal question of 'WHY?' and 'Have I bought a dead duck, or what??' £400 worth of crap!!??

OK, OK.. I'm pissed with all this mollarchy but come on don't we deserve answers.... where's a WATCHDOG when you need one!! Seems to me Nvidia are more interested in their next NV chipset, next gen GFX card...... I see them now... come on chaps stuff this issue with the FX5900s we need to get our new card out before ATI release theirs!!!???? Seems to me it's about winning te Nvidia/ATI war...... and we the innocent victims!!!

That article over at The Inquirer hit the mark though...... sadly

[Flavius]

I think they must only test with better than average equipment. We all know that not everyone has the best equipment.

If an Intel D875PBZ motherboard, with Kingston RAM, Antec SX830 case, Enermax PSU, $30 Pabst case fans, IBM 19" P97 Trinitron, Maxtor SATA HD, Logitech input devices, and Audigy 2 card are not above average equipment, then what the #@% is? This is has nothing to do with equipment quality. I had the flicker using top of the line, rock solid components on a fresh clean XP up to date install.

NVIDIA IS GOING TO HOLD A SPEECH tomorrow 9/04 at 3:55 PM, which can be seen HERE: http://www.wallstreetwebcasting.com/...t/kbro3/nvda/. I have no idea if they will mention this bug, but maybe they will mention the ETA on their next hopefully FIXED cards! (You have to register but they just want your name and e-mail. It's free.)

[LordSpawn]

I doubt they would publicly admit to the "BUG".

[Morrow]

Originally posted by Flavius
I have no idea if they will mention this bug, but maybe they will mention the ETA on their next hopefully FIXED cards!

How many times does one have to repeat it: There's nothing wrong with the cards!

[Flavius]

How many times does one have to repeat it: There's nothing wrong with the cards!

YES... THERE ... IS!! How many times do we have to repeat that? If you're so sure there is nothing wrong with the cards, PROVE IT. Not by having some Nvidia person say there's nothing wrong with the cards, but by telling us how a card that flickers can be made to stop flickering. Besides, if there is nothing wrong with the cards, WHY DOES THE GEFORCE4 NOT HAVE this problem in the SAME SYSTEM, nothing else changed? And the ATI 9800 Pro doesn't have the problem in the same system. It should be obvious to any idiot that there is something wrong with the cards!

Let me tell you, if next generation of cards, have this problem, Nvidia might as well get out of the graphics business and stick to chipsets, because they'll be as doomed as 3Dfx. I'll switch to ATI and settle for old games crashing rather than all games flickering.

[Clay]

Originally posted by Morrow
How many times does one have to repeat it: There's nothing wrong with the cards!

Can you support this claim? Or, can you at least shed any light on the cause of the problem for some people? I have nothing wrong with my 5900Ultra so I'm not complaining but I'm very interested in finding a definitive answer as to why some people do have problems (be it some fault with their system or not). Some people have the exact same system that they did before they installed the 5900 (or 9800, etc) and only now have problems whereas they had no problems before installing the card. So the "missing piece" does seem to point to the card in some way.

Again, I'm just hoping for the sake of everyone involved that some of these questions can be answered and possible solutions can be presented.

Thanks.

[LordSpawn]

Morrow.. If somone sold you a brand new car off the factory line that made a strange whining sound and had a small but visable spider etched across the entire front windshield you woulden't complain?

[Flavius]

Does anyone get the feeling that our dear friend Morrow works for Nvidia? Either that or he's just trolling.

[Serious Tom]

I can't belive I've waited this long for a answer like that !
It's absurd and it's a cop out !

[Clay]

Originally posted by Serious Tom
I can't belive I've waited this long for a answer like that !
It's absurd and it's a cop out !

There's no proof at all that Morrow represents NVIDIA in any way whatsoever so please keep that in mind.

[skoprowski]

Ok fine- it is not the cards. With the sophistication of today's computer electronics I can actually buy that- but then what is the hold up? I am sure we would appreciate what solutions/recommendations Nvidia will have for the customers who have this problem. I appreciate you updating us regarding this issue Morrow. It is just a bit frustrationg for all of us. BTW- as I had stated before, I had the exact same flickering on an Asus 5800 non-ultra. I believe you when you say it is not just the 5900's.

[LordSpawn]

You're right. There's no proof at all that Morrow represents NVIDIA in any way and even if he did he already expressed that he coulden't let the cat out of the bag. So any information he gives us is pretty much useless. We have to wait untill NVIDIA announces it.

[Jericho]

This is an interesting issue. I have the BFG Geforce FX 5900 Ultra and have had no problems like the ones described at all. I have played 15 games with it so far since I got it and no problems yet. I will be interested to see what Nvidia says tomorrow.

[RoachMojo]

Originally posted by Morrow
How many times does one have to repeat it: There's nothing wrong with the cards!

That was a joke...right...?

[Descombobulator]

I think Morrow said that nVidia were going to reply 'by this week'. Ok, that's Friday at latest.

I suspect that for those of us holding off on a video upgrade, the *real* deadline is Sep 30th, when the next part of a certain very popular game hits the streets.

[Rytr]

Stripe7, I think you should contact Nvidia and see what they say since you live in the Bay Area. The offer still should be valid since we have not heard otherwise.

As for the answers this is BB NVPR's thread and we should wait for his response...yes, I know everyone has waited already...but we should at least hear what he has to say. At least, that will represent what Nvidia has to say.

BTW, I would suggest not to go out and buy a new psu to replace the one that has been serving you well. I have an Enermax EG465P, Antec 480W TP, Enlight 340W, and an Antec 430W TP. I have tried the 5900U using each of these psu's and have experienced no problems. A PC Power&Cooling psu might be great to have but not just for a video card.

[Clay]

Originally posted by Jericho
This is an interesting issue. I have the BFG Geforce FX 5900 Ultra and have had no problems like the ones described at all. I have played 15 games with it so far since I got it and no problems yet. I will be interested to see what Nvidia says tomorrow.

I also have the BFG Geforce FX 5900 Ultra and echo your experience. This whole issue confuses the dickens out of me. I hope tomorrow sheds light on this.

[volt]

Let's go back a bit shall we?

We had one person in the Bay area confirmed with these symptoms. He was kind enough to agree to come visit with system in tow. We had him come in to the NVIDIA offices today. We were able to see the “flicker issue” and try some things to fix it. We have some good theories about the cause. Next step is to reconstruct his system, prove our theories, and then find a solution.

We will let you know when we have some definite conclusions.

Thanks to all for your feedback and help in resolving this issue.

[DuckMaestro]

has anyone gotten any information from their board maker? tech support or customer service?

I used to be in contact with MSI tech support about it, but they ran out of ideas and they havnt replied to my emails for about 3 weeks now.

-duck

[Clay]

Originally posted by volt
Let's go back a bit shall we?

We had one person in the Bay area confirmed with these symptoms. He was kind enough to agree to come visit with system in tow. We had him come in to the NVIDIA offices today. We were able to see the “flicker issue” and try some things to fix it. We have some good theories about the cause. Next step is to reconstruct his system, prove our theories, and then find a solution.

We will let you know when we have some definite conclusions.

Thanks to all for your feedback and help in resolving this issue.

Good point Volt. It's good to remember this as it shows that NVIDIA is not ignoring this issue. It may be taking longer than some would like but it'll be better late than never.

[LordSpawn]

Yeah, he only posted that a month ago. There have been 15 pages of posts with no replies saying hold tight untill next week or were still working on it. I haven't seen anything offical released on this either. Woulden't that be great to put on your site.

"At least 85% of the cards do not expirence flickering or make banshee nosies. The problem is system specific and its not our fault if you have the wrong system configuration. We noticed that the some of the 9800 pros also have flicker so cut us some slack because were not the only ones that screwed up."

[EDLIM]

I think we are hitting against a wall with this issues. This is no longer a motherboard noise issue nor a software issues because it's happening across the board from MSI, ASUS, GAINWARD &EVGA..ETC ETC ETC ........

If it was only a few incident then I'll say...it's a software or hardware set-up issue. At this point...it is sad to say.. FX 5900 had a design flaw...not intended to be but it turn out that way... It's really sad but it happened.

[MikeC]

NVIDIA informed me today that they are still investigating the problem and are close to issuing a statement. That's all the information I have right now.