-= Gametoast.com =-

Howdy y'all...

I have come upon a nastly little problem. Actually, a huge one. I seem unable to upgrade my Nvidia Geforce 6100 to a new forceware version. Right now, I'm running Forceware 81.85, which is really quite old. The newest version is somewere in the ninties. THis results in lower performance on games that I have run very well on later forceware drivers.

I've tried EVERYTHING I could think of. I've followed every guide (from Nvidia and some 3rd-party ones) and every utility I could think of on how to upgrade, but whenever I finish the installation, it's always all wierd. For example, I can't go very high with desktop resolutions, I get terrible fps in games, and I can't go above 16bit color. I know this is bad, but I can't fix it. I just have to go back to my old forceware drivers, which aren't very good compared to the latest ones. Grrr...

I've even tried to use beta drivers and older drivers, but nothing stinking works...

...does anybody have any suggestions? Or is my computer doomed to low performance?

PS Oh, and I'm running XP with 1GB of RAM, and the Nvidia 6100 I have is an onboard graphics card. Do you think I should get a new graphics card?

You should (cause on-board sucks up ram), but have you tried going to the manufacturer's/Motherboard's website to download those drivers? Sometimes generic drivers don't like 3rd party hardware so usually that is the first step to try.

Yeah, I've tried the motherboard sites and also 3rd party drivers, nothing works...

Anyways, I've been saving some money, so I'll upgrade my graphics card. I've been wanting too for quite a while, and this is a good reason!

Anyways, thanks for the help! I didn't realize that onboard sucks up RAM, so that's good to know.

A new graphics card is sooooo worth it. It tripled my frame rate to upgrade from integrated 64mb video to a $30 board with a nVidia GEForce 6200 processor with 128mb of RAM. Also, shop online; you can find cards for less than half the price you would pay in a store. Buy.com even offers free shipping, and has great deals.

That's a good website, and try Newegg.com. lots of people liked them (me, guru, ect.(that's not a lot of people is it?)) My computer was bought entirely from them and built from the gound up!!

Thanks for the sites guys!

I've got my eye on the GeForce 6800XTreme (the AGP version). It seems like a very good card for the money. I'm not rich, and it's just in my price range, so it's pretty sweet. Any thoughts on which card would be the best? I want to stick with Nvidia, but I can't choose whether to go with AGP or PCIe...

PCI =======> slow

AGP =======> decent

PCI Express ==> Fastest

First, do you have PCIe slots?

I've got a PCIe slot. In fact, the card I've got is a PCIe, I think...albeit a slightly lower-end one...

Latest Nvidia drivers out 2/11/06 v93.71 try those ones just in case, might save you some expense if the problem has been addressed in the latest set of drivers.

Ok, the new drivers fixed my problem! I'm now 100% updated! Thanks guys!

...I'll probably get a new graphics card in the future, but this has saved me some money for the next little bit! Thanks again!

Np