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Thread: Need a new video card

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    14

    Need a new video card

    Hi,

    I've been experiencing problems with primes occasionally displaying for too long. After exchanging emails with your support staff it looks like part of the problem may be the video card. Currently the computer I am using has a NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800. I recently downloaded all the latest drivers for it. I am trying to have the images display for 15ms. Could anyone recommend a video card that they are sure will work?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    3,328
    Could you possibly attach a dxdiag.txt file and a same log output file, just to show the kind of hardware you have and a typical pattern of display discrepancies?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    14
    Sure, I'm not on my lab computer now but I'll have that up in the next day or two

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    14
    Attached is my input file, a log file and a dxdiag.txt file
    Attached Files Attached Files

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    3,328
    Checking out your system (Precision WorkStation T3500) on Dell's website, they list the following cards as being known for compatibility:

    Support for 2 PCI Express x16 Gen 2 graphics cards up to 225 watts (total) including:
    NVIDIA Quadro® FX 4800
    NVIDIA Quadro® FX 3800
    NVIDIA Quadro® FX 1800
    NVIDIA Quadro® FX 580
    NVIDIA Quadro® NVS 295
    ATI FirePro™ V8700
    ATI FirePro™ V5700
    ATI FirePro™ V3750
    All graphics cards support dual monitor configurations.
    So if the NVIDIA is giving you trouble, I would try the ATI. You could try using one of the better NVIDIA cards (3800, 4800) but if it were me, I'd go ATI simply because we rarely hear of issues like this from users with ATI cards.

    Also, I noticed that your requested times were 15ms--you might try 10ms just to see if it affects your results (15 may be close to a rounding value that sometimes kicks the displays into two rather than one screen refresh--unlikely but possible). You could also try running at a lower screen resolution and see if that helps.

    Hope that helps!
    Blair
    Last edited by jarvis24; 10-15-2010 at 03:16 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    14
    Thanks for the response Blair. Just so I can get a sense are all the ATI cards you listed better than the NVIDIA card I currently have?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    3,328
    I don't know if I would say "better" so much as "likely to be compatible". We get very few video related issues from users with ATI cards. NVIDIA coincidentally, happens to come up frequently when we are doing troubleshooting. So, yes, I would guess that any one of the ATIs would be ok. Would love an update if you try a switch.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    14
    Great, thanks for your help. It looks like we're going to go with one of the ATI cards. I'll post here once we have it up and running and let you know how it works.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Posts
    1
    SageLab, did you get and install the ATI card yet? Im mostly interested whether this fixed your problem or not. I have an NVIDIA myself thats why. I havent really had any problems with it but every once in a while a yellow alert pops up in device manager. Have you checked there and also the error events log under computer management?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    14
    So we went out and bought an ATI FirePro V8700. I know thats a little overkill but we needed a powerful video card for some other applications as well. It still won't consistently display images at 14ms (about every ten images is for 28ms) but it works perfectly for 17ms, which will still work for our experiment.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    3,328
    Sagelab--just out of curiosity--have you tried running a test session with a smaller resolution (e.g., 1024 x 768) to see if that eliminates the occasional 28ms stimulus? Also, did you ever find it made a difference as to whether you specified it in the input file as 1ms or 15ms?

  12. #12
    Just double checking:

    You are using a CRT, correct?

    If you are an LCD you may be getting sporadic input lag. Stimulus presentation times are only ever approximate on an LCD.

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