NVIDIA Drivers FAQ

In order to enable support for the 1600x1024 resolution requires the correct graphics chipset, drivers, and BIOS version. NVIDIA licenses their designs to many companies, who each build their own graphics cards with different feature sets. Because of this, it is impossible to test all the different hardware and software configurations. The following sums up what has been reported to work by various individuals with the specific chipsets.

Hardware

The following NVIDIA chipsets with DVI ports have been reported to work:

• NVIDIA GeForce 256 (SGI VPro V3, Hercules 3D Prophet DDR/DVI)
• NVIDIA Quadro (SGI VPro VR3)
• NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra (Hercules 3D Prophet II Ultra)
• NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro (SGI VPro VR7)
• NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR (SGI VPro MXR)

GeForce2 GTS cards with DVI ports will NOT work at 1600x1024. This is due a problem with the DVI chipset used on the GeForce2 GTS cards, which is limited to 1280x1024.

At this time, all cards based on the GeForce3 cards have a problem where the display is shifted several pixels to the right, and the screen "wraps" around to the other edge. This problem has been reported to NVIDIA, and will hopefully be fixed in a future driver. Other users have reported a workaround using Powerstrip 3.0 by setting "Sync Width" to 232 under the "Horizontal Geometry" section in "Advanced Timing Options".

SGI does not support this workaround, and is only providing it for assistance with users who have already purchased a GeForce3 card. Until this problem is resolved, SGI does not recommend graphics cards based on the GeForce3 chipset.

Driver versions

The following drivers have been reported to work at 1600x1024:

• 6.50 (digital (DVI) only - does not support 1600x1024 via the analog port)
• 6.72
• 7.58
• 12.41

Other driver versions do not work or have not been tested. Because of the nature of the NVIDIA driver version number schema, do not assume that higher driver numbers include the same support as previous versions. For example, 6.50 will work in DVI mode, but 6.51 will not. Only the specific driver versions listed above are recommended.

The 12.41 drivers are available from NVIDIA's web page, and are recommended for all OS versions. SGI will not provide any SuperWide Savvy drivers for download in the future.

This may cause problems with software applications that have been qualified only on specific versions of the NVIDIA drivers. Verify with your software vendor what drivers are recommend for use with your applications and that your application will work at 1600x1024.

Graphics card vendors

ELSA - The software provided by ELSA for use on their cards appears to interfere with the 1600x1024 resolution. Some users have reported that the cards will work with only the NVIDIA reference drivers installed. Because of this problem, SGI does not recommend the NVIDIA-based cards from ELSA.