Looking for a more powerful GPU for my computer.

CP30126 said:
Hahaha sorry Mr. beers, I thought I wouldn't have to say that the screenshot wasn't mine, what with it being on Nvidia's official website which I obviously don't have access to. But to be fair, it could have been a forum attachment hosted on their server :)
Click to expand...
It'd actually take less effort to use the snip tool, you can paste images into the text field directly :)
 
Ok guys this is really weird. The card appears to be outputting the right signal now and I don't know why. The screen does appear to be unusually curved but that may be damage that was done to the monitor because of the card previously outputting a 1280x1024 signal. Maybe it can be adjusted by changing the monitor's settings but because of a broken button I cannot verify that. Finding a replacement button is extremely hard and costly which is why I still haven't fixed it.

This is what I've done.
  1. Buy the card. Install it.
  2. Install the latest drivers found on Nvidia's website.
  3. Set the resolution to 1280x960. It lies and instead outputs a 1280x1024 signal.
  4. Set the resolution to 1024x768 to avoid damaging the monitor.
  5. Turn the computer off. Remove the graphics card.
  6. Turn the computer on. Windows boots into 1024x768.
  7. Change the resolution to 1280x960. It works since I am back on the integrated graphics.
  8. Change the resolution back to 1024x768.
  9. Turn the computer off. Put the card back in.
  10. Turn the computer on. Windows boots into 1024x768.
  11. Right click on the desktop to access Nvidia's configuration utility.
  12. Click on customize. Click on custom resolution. Close both dialog boxes.
  13. Set the resolution to 1280x960. Strangely, it keeps the 85Hz vertical sync.
  14. The monitor warns that the signal is incompatible. Wait for the test period of the config utility to stop.
  15. Set vertical sync to 60Hz.
To anyone having this problem, following these exact instructions might fix it, though I don't know for how long.

Here are some screenshots:
This is what it showed when it was outputting the wrong signal.

This is what it shows now. For the moment, I think these are the correct settings.


Yes, you can see why I didn't want to post my own screenshots... I'm a race traitor. o_O


Does someone know why all of this is so ghetto? Is it the fault of Zotac, the drivers, or is it a problem with the GPU itself?
 
CP30126 said:
Does someone know why all of this is so ghetto?
Click to expand...
I mean, you're using decades old components and interface standards, it was already ghetto from the start.

At least you got it somewhere you're happier with it.
 
As expected it did not last. And even if I now have the apparently correct settings, which I've learned is actually DMT timing, I cannot add them as a custom resolution. When I click on test it works, and then if I click on add it saves the wrong settings. If I click on no or if the timer runs out it goes back to the previous resolution. I have found only one way to set it to the correct resolution and that is to kill the Nvidia configuration utility process with task manager while in the testing period, which kills the timer.

You guys did warn me about third-parties... So is Zotac really, really bad? Or is it Nvidia that's awful? Is the problem with Zotac, the GPU, or the drivers?

Ok there are two things I did not try. I did not try running the configuration utility in administrator mode, and I did not try running it while AVG is deactivated. I'll try that next time I have to set the resolution, because it periodically goes back to 1024x768, for example when I turn the monitor off.
 
There's nothing archaic about my setup. it's just a standard HP computer, made up of standard Intel parts. When Nvidia invented the GT 710, the computer was around 3 years old. What am I missing?

I installed the drivers from Zotac's CD and so far the configuration utility appears to be a lot stabler. For one, I am actually able to save a custom resolution and use it, unlike the newer config utility that "saves" your custom resolution but does not actually take any of the settings in consideration.

So, I was right about there being something messed up with Nvidia's drivers?
 
As proposed by Nvidia's technical support, I have re-installed the latest drivers, which somehow fixed the instability of the configuration utility. It even let me create a custom resolution now. But the problem remained that I would have to periodically re-create the custom resolution, for example when turning the computer off or restarting it. Again, as proposed by Nvidia's technical support I created a new Windows 7 user account. I decided to create two, one administrator and one standard. I logged off of my account and logged into the new administrator account. The custom resolution was still present. I opened the config utility as an administrator (my own idea), then disabled AVG Antivirus (my own idea as well), and then restarted the computer. I logged into my main account and the custom resolution was still there. This makes no sense but I haven't had to re-create the custom resolution since then. Maybe something I did allowed the config utility to save the custom resolution for good.

From my experiences I can say that Nvidia's technical support is gold-tier. Even if I cannot explain it, it seems that simply chatting with them has made all of my problems go away. The last technician told me that he would send a survey to my e-mail address. Sadly I have never received it, maybe there was a problem or I gave them an incorrect e-mail address. But no matter what the questions were I answer "10" to all of them.
 
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