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8800GT waste of time - games don't work in Windows!!!

Trishul

Trishul

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 27, 2006
141
1
Sarasota, FL
this is getting highly frustrating, I first used a 'copy' of XP SP2, tried all the drivers, boot camp, nvidia, omega and the beta from guru3d and making sure each install is clean. And i've yet to see one frame of gameplay from demos of Crysis, The Club and Kayne & Lynch. Crysis would hard crash just before you parachute out, and the sound would divert to the internal speaker and just keep stuttering.

When using the 2600XT everything is fine, so its definately the card/drivers.

Then i went out and brought a copy of Vista 64-bit (not as bad as i thought it would be btw), and now i can't even get past the opening text of the crysis demo without experiencing a serious crash.

I'm so glad i didn't custom build my mac pro with the 8800GT, i would have had to wait all that time just to find its pretty much useless for games, and it seems the 2600XT actually performs better with Final Cut Studio... apart from having an extra graphics card i'm finding it hard to see why i should keep this card, it seems like a complete waste of time, unless some better drivers come out at some point.

From what i've read on the net it seems i'm not the only one experiencing this, most are lucky to experience gameplay only to experience a crash after a few minutes. Has anyone been able to play games successfully with the 8800GT and if so what did you do? :confused:
 
Trishul said:
this is getting highly frustrating, I first used a 'copy' of XP SP2, tried all the drivers, boot camp, nvidia, omega and the beta from guru3d and making sure each install is clean. And i've yet to see one frame of gameplay from demos of Crysis, The Club and Kayne & Lynch. Crysis would hard crash just before you parachute out, and the sound would divert to the internal speaker and just keep stuttering.

When using the 2600XT everything is fine, so its definately the card/drivers.

Then i went out and brought a copy of Vista 64-bit (not as bad as i thought it would be btw), and now i can't even get past the opening text of the crysis demo without experiencing a serious crash.

I'm so glad i didn't custom build my mac pro with the 8800GT, i would have had to wait all that time just to find its pretty much useless for games, and it seems the 2600XT actually performs better with Final Cut Studio... apart from having an extra graphics card i'm finding it hard to see why i should keep this card, it seems like a complete waste of time, unless some better drivers come out at some point.

From what i've read on the net it seems i'm not the only one experiencing this, most are lucky to experience gameplay only to experience a crash after a few minutes. Has anyone been able to play games successfully with the 8800GT and if so what did you do? :confused:
Click to expand...

Call Apple Care. My MP runs Crysis fine!
 
It's not the hardware, or at least not that combination of hardware, because other people are running it. I have a separate 500GB internal with Vista-64 on it and have Crysis, TF2, CoD4, WAR beta and AoC beta and they all run perfectly.

Perhaps your 8800GT is buggered?
 
I got the 8800 GT (CTO) card in my '08 Mac Pro (Octo 2.8, 4 GB RAM), and have used Vista 32 bits for a couple of games:
- Half Life 2
- Richard Burns Rally (God, I love this game..!)
- Far Cry
- Crysis demo.

All games run PERFECTLY!! :):cool:
I have used both the Boot Camp drivers, and the latest Vista 32 bits drivers from nVidia's site, and I have had no problems at all....?

So, I don't know what's going wrong with your setup. :confused:
 
I got my 8800GT last night and installed it in my Mac Pro.

Running Vista 64bit, with latest NVidia drivers.

So far Ive only tried Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) in DX10 mode, with all visuals cranked to highest, resolution 1680x1050.

Everything runs buttery smooth. LOTRO is beautiful.

Must be your card, matey. Sorry!
 
Wait. Do you have both the ATI and NVIDIA cards in your machine at the same time when you're in Windows trying to run games? If so I'd imagine this is the problem.

If not, sounds like a bum card.
 
Trishul said:
this is getting highly frustrating, I first used a 'copy' of XP SP2, tried all the drivers, boot camp, nvidia, omega and the beta from guru3d and making sure each install is clean. And i've yet to see one frame of gameplay from demos of Crysis, The Club and Kayne & Lynch. Crysis would hard crash just before you parachute out, and the sound would divert to the internal speaker and just keep stuttering.

When using the 2600XT everything is fine, so its definately the card/drivers.

Then i went out and brought a copy of Vista 64-bit (not as bad as i thought it would be btw), and now i can't even get past the opening text of the crysis demo without experiencing a serious crash.

I'm so glad i didn't custom build my mac pro with the 8800GT, i would have had to wait all that time just to find its pretty much useless for games, and it seems the 2600XT actually performs better with Final Cut Studio... apart from having an extra graphics card i'm finding it hard to see why i should keep this card, it seems like a complete waste of time, unless some better drivers come out at some point.

From what i've read on the net it seems i'm not the only one experiencing this, most are lucky to experience gameplay only to experience a crash after a few minutes. Has anyone been able to play games successfully with the 8800GT and if so what did you do? :confused:
Click to expand...

I have the same problems with that card, on a early 2008 2.8. I have not tried Vista yet, will do soon.
 
It's not a Mac-specific thing. Crysis crashes on some PCs after a few minutes of gaming. Apparently some cards just can't handle it and they overheat very quickly. You may have a bad 8800GT, or something is wrong with your drivers.

If the Boot Camp drivers don't work, download the official drivers from nvidia.com (I think it's version 169.something). If that doesn't work, download the Beta 171.17 drivers from http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1848, as it has a fix for some fan problems. If you still have problems after that, it may be your card.
 
yeah from the sounds of things i think it is a faulty card or the power supply from the logic board is buggered, will do one last test by trying a game in Mac OS.. but otherwise i've tried everything, removed all other cards including blackmagic i/o card and all the current drivers and pre-releases, I even put back in the original apple ram in case that was an issue... but something is definitely wrong.

Thanks for the advice and comments guys! good to know there are folks running the card successfully! :)
 
killmoms said:
Wait. Do you have both the ATI and NVIDIA cards in your machine at the same time when you're in Windows trying to run games? If so I'd imagine this is the problem.

If not, sounds like a bum card.
Click to expand...

Crysis under XP SP2 with an 8800GT (slot 1) and a 2600XT (slot 2) works fine - that's my setup!
 
If the 8800GT works in OSX and has the ability to use its 3D functions in openGL apps or games (get a trial version of some 3D game maybe) then the card is just fine.

The original poster said its a 'copy' of XP. Anyone know if this is a legit copy from reputable sources? A lot of issues I see stem from this. If you can get XP Home OEM for cheap, this would be the best route.
 
it seems my card is definitely faulty, i just tried Quake 4 demo in Mac OS and it crashed as soon as the game started.. fortunately i have my 2600XT and i've already been waiting 2 months for the 8800GT, so no big deal waiting another few days for a replacement!

I wish i just tried a game in Mac instead of wasting all that time and countless reboots in windows.
 
Yeah, I am not sure what you mean, but games run beautifully on my Mac Pro with an 8800GT. Crysis runs beautifully at 1600x1200 with all the settings on high, and COD 4 runs great at 1920x1200 with all the settings on high with 2x AA.

I am going to try Bioshock today, but I doubt it is going to be as fun as COD 4 or look as good as Crysis.
 
bioshock is a beauty under XP on the new MP with 8800. I finished last week at 1600x1200 all high.
I have played Crysis demo same way so far with no problems. Also on XP (with the trick to get very high settings instead of only high).

Only defect of this machine is the sligthly waving noise of the fans once the drive bay are filled.

Being picky :D
 
I'm not sure what the problem is. But I too have Vista 64 installed, I run Crysis with everything on high, Oblivion w/ everything on high, COD 4 with everything on high and I do not have any problems. I also used the leopard 64 Nvidia drivers, which I heard recently that most people use the drivers directly from Nvidia's website instead, but still, no problems.
 
Trishul said:
this is getting highly frustrating, I first used a 'copy' of XP SP2, tried all the drivers, boot camp, nvidia, omega and the beta from guru3d and making sure each install is clean. And i've yet to see one frame of gameplay from demos of Crysis, The Club and Kayne & Lynch. Crysis would hard crash just before you parachute out, and the sound would divert to the internal speaker and just keep stuttering.

:confused:
Click to expand...

Sound like you may have multiple drivers installed. Also installing Beta Drivers and asking for help on why my machine is Crashing is like Crying Wolf.

I have no issues at all with stuttering.... Crashing or otherwise... Crysis runs like a charm. I am running XP SP2

Uninstall your Beta Drivers (AND THE ATI 2600XT You don't need to have them mucking up the system)Cards Driversgo back to Zero and Re install the current Nvidia Branded Drivers.
 
it feels like i'm repeating myself, but i mentioned i tried all the drivers official and beta with fresh installs each time, i'm no expert but i have some experience with building pc's etc..

but like i just said a few posts up, i've come to the definite conclusion the card is faulty and have arranged with apple to get it replaced, lady over the phone said it should be with me by the end of the week, but the order status says 23rd april, anyway i'm just hoping that's just a generated statement basing itself by the store's stock level.. either way it seems at the moment the 8800gt is only worthwhile having for gaming purposes, and pc gaming is isn't a massive priority for me right now, i'd much rather have a card that performs better in Final Cut Studio.. hopefully by the time i get my replacement 8800gt apple/nvidia will have released some drivers that improve some of its current deficiencies with the pro apps, just how many people buy a mac pro purely to play games in windows anyway? i'm sure the majority of these peeps just get a regular card and flash it etc.. really hope they sort this out soon though, until they do though fortunately i'll be happy with the 2600XT! :eek:

but yeah consider this concluded, if i had a working card i doubt i'd consider it a waste of time, though if you stumbled on this thread as a potential buyer of the card, take a look at the motion benchmarks from barefeats.com as it might put you off spending that extra cash on it at the moment, potential buyers can only hope a better driver is released at some point because on paper there's no reason why the 8800GT shouldn't outperform the 2600XT in every situation.. but if you're after the card just for gaming, then read some of the posts concerning putting in a faster non-apple GPU and flashing it.
 
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