Other nVidia FX 3400 users? Replace it?

[BostonDriver]

Hi,

I have a nVidia FX 3400 that came with a Dell Precision 690. It seems to be troublesome on Win7 64bit. I gave up and moved to 32bit. Even there, this card is the "weak link" when running performance test. All other aspects of the system get very high marks. This card brings the overall rating to a 2.

Anyone else have one of these cards? I'd like to compare notes.

Can anyone suggest a replacement? This card doesn't even show up on the 'legacy' page of nVidia's site. Win7 64bit support is a must.

Thanks

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi,

I have a nVidia FX 3400 that came with a Dell Precision 690. It seems to be troublesome on Win7 64bit. I gave up and moved to 32bit. Even there, this card is the "weak link" when running performance test. All other aspects of the system get very high marks. This card brings the overall rating to a 2.

Anyone else have one of these cards? I'd like to compare notes.

Can anyone suggest a replacement? This card doesn't even show up on the 'legacy' page of nVidia's site. Win7 64bit support is a must.

Thanks

While not the best card on the market that card should be able to do better than a 2 on WEI. Do you have the correct driver installed?

Ken

 

[stormy13]

This card doesn't even show up on the 'legacy' page of nVidia's site.

That would be because the card hasn't been moved to legacy status yet. You need to select Quadro from the drop down list and then you will find the Windows 7 x64 driver,

NVIDIA DRIVERS 197.59 WHQL

P.S. If it helps any your card is based on the same core as used in the 6800 GT,

nVidia NV45 GPU - Specifications, and Pictures - GPUReview.com

Anything is possible but I don't think they'll move your card to legacy status until the also move the 6xxx series of cards as well.

 

[BostonDriver]

While not the best card on the market that card should be able to do better than a 2 on WEI. Do you have the correct driver installed?

I have recent drivers from nVidia's site. I checked last night, and there are updated (end of April 2010) drivers I have yet to try. But what I am using came from there, and is at worst, 90 days old.

I expected better than a 2.(something) as well. That's why I was curious if anyone else was using the FX 3400 before I just used a fork lift.

Thanks

 

[BostonDriver]

This card doesn't even show up on the 'legacy' page of nVidia's site.

That would be because the card hasn't been moved to legacy status yet. You need to select Quadro from the drop down list and then you will find the Windows 7 x64 driver,

NVIDIA DRIVERS 197.59 WHQL

Thanks, this is where I obtain the drivers I have. I haven't tried the 197.59 drivers yet, just saw them last night. I _do_ have prior versions of these drivers installed as I said. I found them exactly has you suggested.

 

[BostonDriver]

I'm up to 4.6 for gaming graphics now on WEI, that being the lowest score by at least an entire point. Next lowest is graphics at 5.9.

I'll try 64 bit, next, assuming it doesn't keep locking up.

Thanks to all for the help to date.... didn't expect this card to be junk... this exact same HW (just swap disk) screams on XPSP3 (32 bit)

 

[stormy13]

Those numbers sound about right for a card of that age. If it helps any the core that is on your card is the same as the one used on the 6800 GT,

nVidia NV45 GPU - Specifications, and Pictures - GPUReview.com

 

[BostonDriver]

Those numbers sound about right for a card of that age. If it helps any the core that is on your card is the same as the one used on the 6800 GT,

nVidia NV45 GPU - Specifications, and Pictures - GPUReview.com

Thanks for the info.... should I expect the same numbers using 64bit on exact same HW (just swap C: (disk0), both being the same WD Caviar Black 1TB drives)

64 bit is better so far with this driver... don't know if the entire screen when black yet... WEI "hung", so C-A-D needed a few times to "lock" screen.... then log in again.

All 64 bit updates applied as since my prior post (didn't have much of a choice, these automatically got applied.) I've been at 64 bit since that post.

What I mean by "hung".... WEI "couldn't measure video performance". Hitting close didn't do anything... nothing but the mouse seemed to work. So C-A-D to get some sort of response.

Still much better than earlier experiences with 64bit. Someday I'll use all 16GB of RAM

Thanks again for your help.

 

[ken9122]

I've got a dell 690 also but with an FX 3450 GPU. I getting a WEI of 4.5 on 64bit, but my week point is my CPU. Getting 5..9 on graphics. I don't use this system for anything but accounting so these low scores aren't important. In fact i will probably turn it into a Windows Home Server V2 soon.

Ken

 

[BostonDriver]

I've got a dell 690 also but with an FX 3450 GPU. I getting a WEI of 4.5 on 64bit, but my week point is my CPU. Getting 5..9 on graphics. I don't use this system for anything but accounting so these low scores aren't important. In fact i will probably turn it into a Windows Home Server V2 soon.

Thanks for the data. What's your CPU? ON 32bit, I get 6.(I forget) for CPU and RAM with 2*dual core 3Ghz Xeon.... still waiting for WEI to finish on 64bit. Hoping rebooting helps... that machine is off doing FreeBSD stuff at the moment or I'd refresh my memory.

I don't have a problem updating the graphics card if it will help get me to 64bit and leverage the capability of the P690. But I don't want to just end up where I am now. The system is intended for video, audio and photo editing, WinTV video capture (all hobby), VMWare (many FreeBSD and Linux guests running concurrently, not hobby), VNC to work and other nerd stuff.... no gaming or anything similar, but when I click, I expect the machine to respond instantly, especially with nothing running yet. Not the case (so far) with Win7, even 32bit. Same HW with XPSP3... well, it almost predicts my mouse clicks.

What "other" drivers are you using for the MB? Are they the 64bit vista drivers from the Dell site for the P690? That's what I did... machine was useless at first until someone on this site suggest those for e.g. chip set drivers. BTW, I if there is a more appropriate place for this sort of "P690 User Group", no problem moving the non-graphics card discussion there.

Thanks!

 

[ken9122]

My CPU dual core Xeon 1.6Ghz with 6gig of ram. all drivers come vNidia or for MS.
My experence with W7 is it's VERY graphic intensive. You need a mid range card with at least 512 meg memory. My 690 which i got for almost free is going to be a Win Home Server.

Ken

 

[BostonDriver]

My experence with W7 is it's VERY graphic intensive. You need a mid range card with at least 512 meg memory.

I'll entertain suggestions on a replacement.. I've considered a few ATI and at least one nVidia.

Can the P690 even support > 512MB memory? I'm working w/out benefit of coffee so might not be thinking clearly... put the first cup down on the Dell P690 Data Sheet and just happened to notice the "up to 512MB" text in the graphics card section.

Thanks again for the help

 

[Joshatdot]

I'll entertain suggestions on a replacement.. I've considered a few ATI and at least one nVidia.

Can the P690 even support > 512MB memory? I'm working w/out benefit of coffee so might not be thinking clearly... put the first cup down on the Dell P690 Data Sheet and just happened to notice the "up to 512MB" text in the graphics card section.

Thanks again for the help

From Dell's siteP690 Product Details, the P690 has one or two PCI-e x16 slots (if you have the 1kw chassis), so it should support >512mb gfx cards. I didn't see the limitation of "up to 512mb" .. shrug.

edit: I checked wikipedia & Intels site for info on the 5000x chipset, and I didn't see 512mb limitation on the PCIs x16.

edit2: I did find out that the PCIe x16 has a limit of up to 150w supported.

edit3: Dang! for S&G I checked Dells site for upgrades & replacement gfx cards for the P690 .. the FX3450 sold there is $1149.99 USD!

 

[ken9122]

Joshadot is correct, you can use almost any PCIe x16 board. I personalty like nVidia.

Ken

 

[rev1775]

Not sure if the 6800GS is the same but, I'm using one of those on 7 pro 64 bit and manage okay scores with WEI.. I was using a pair of these with my older socket 939 which squeaked perhaps a bit more on the gaming graphics score but with current hardware I get 5.9 (graphics) and 5.1 (gaming graphics)

 

[BostonDriver]

Joshadot is correct, you can use almost any PCIe x16 board. I personalty like nVidia.

Ken

"almost" lol. What do I need to watch out for?

Is PCIe 2.0 compatible for example? I see a few of these at NewEgg that interest me. Most > 512MB say PCIe 2.0, which I one reason I'm asking.

Replacing the card to solve the Win7 64 bit problem is an option. I'd rather use the machine then deal with getting this to work.

Right now I can't get a WEI to complete using 64 bit with the latest (see a few posts back for specific) drivers.

One thing that was strange.... After using the drivers from nVidia site, via device manager I let it check for updates. It said my driver was out of date. The date according to the release notes (from memory) is 2-3 weeks ago. Since I'm still kicking tires until things are stable, I let device manager update. What I ended up with for a driver is from 2009.

I re-installed I I just pulled from nVidia to at least get back to where I was. I don't see this problem on the 32bit version of Win7 (again, same system, swap SATA C: disk.)

As for the 512MB memory limit, that's on the pdf data sheet I printed out. I'll scan it in if needed just to show.

I think I commented/responded to everything. As always, thanks to all for your help and education. I appreciate it. This is the first place I come for info. More often than not, never need to ask a question.

Time to pop something to get me through the root canal I just had No hurry to get back to me, I'm gonna be out (zzz) for the night.

 

[ken9122]

As for you "512 memory limit" it my just apply to the 3400. You should be able to use any PCIe board listed comparable with W7.
Don't lose to much sleep about the WEI number. As long as it's above 2 Areo will work and that's all you need.

Ken

 

[BostonDriver]

As for you "512 memory limit" it my just apply to the 3400. You should be able to use any PCIe board listed comparable with W7.
Don't lose to much sleep about the WEI number. As long as it's above 2 Areo will work and that's all you need.

Things look OK with Win7 32 bit. But I want to use all 16GB of RAM.

On 64bit, the screen goes blank often. C-A-D needed to get the systems attention, then typically I need to "lock" the computer, then re-logon. Then move a window (i.e. task manager) to get the entire desktop to show.

I posted about this when I first installed Win7 (my initial joining this site.)

I'm looking at the FX 1800 w/7xxMB RAM (on NewEgg). It is PCIe 2.0.... I'm sure the card is backward compatible, but still am trying to educate myself on what I loose. Does all the memory get used for example? The FX 1700 cost more, but isn't PCIe v2.0. So that might be a safer bet.

Thanks

 

[Joshatdot]

PCIe 2.0 motherboard slots are fully backward compatible with PCIe v1.x cards. PCIe 2.0 cards are also generally backward compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards, using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1. Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with the other being v1.1 or v1.0.

Looks like any PCIe 1.x or 2.x should work just fine in your P690

 

[BostonDriver]

I went with the nVidia FX 580.... the system screams. NOT ONE ISSUE so far. Not even the slightest hint of a lockup or problem at all. My only gripe is the retail upgrade bs one is forced to go through to activate since XPSP3 is long ago gone to to re-format. But that's out of scope of this thread.

NO other mods to the HW described in prior posts, in sum this is pretty much a stock P690 with 16GB RAM vs. 4GB typically shipped.

Fresh install of Win7 64bit on a new 1TB disk (using just 500GB, the rest unallocated.) No need to find any driver from Dell or elsewhere.... every chip, pci card etc. detected from boot DVD (or magically found via install), including the FX 580 driver. One exception is the WinTV card (HVR-2250) which was dealt with just find via device manager finding the driver.

Note: the prior installs with the old video card did find the HVR-2250 the first time, go figure.

Thanks to all for your help. I hope this thread helps someone else not have to deal with any of these issues. My WEI is 6.4 for both video categories... low score is now 5.9 for the SATA disk. I would have just replaced the video card initially if I knew (vs. suspected)... and would have with an even higher end card.