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Author Topic: PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?  (Read 4496 times)

Dinarius

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PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?
« on: April 21, 2010, 04:11:00 am »

System: 3.00 Gig Intel Core2 Extreme; 8Gb RAM.

I have an nVidia Quadro FX 1700 graphics card on my Vista x64 machine.

On the nVidia download site..........

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk

....I am presented with a choice of drivers for this card. They are, Graphics, Performance, Partner Certified, AutoCAD and 3ds Max Performance.

To date, I have been downloading the Graphics driver. This computer is used exclusively for ACR/CS4 work.

The reason I ask is that, when I run Vista's Rate my Computer performance tool, the weak link by a long way is Graphics.

I do have memory issues ("There is not enough memory") in ACR when saving out large files that I have opened in it to make a small tweak (e.g. spot removal) or when I have been editing a lot of Canon files and, eventually, I get the memory message and I have to reboot.

So, should I consider a driver other than the Graphics one? If so, which one?

Thanks.

D.
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Janne Aavasalo

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PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2010, 01:26:08 pm »

Hey,

I wouldn't trust the Windows Experience Index at all. It seems to give a 10 ballpark size evaluation of your computer. There also seems to be clear mistakes about a performance of a given component.

The first thing I'd do is to upgrade to Windows 7, which is much lighter than Vista. Vista eats up all the memory it can get and doesn't give much back as an added performance.

As for the card, you shouldn't have any problems with it's performance or memory issues. The bad score is probably because Vista tests also the gaming speed of the card and for Quadros, it's not going to be good.

Try to find out what's eating your memory. Open task manager and go to the "Processes" - tab. Find out which program takes up most memory (well that would probably be ACR or CS4), but there you should get a pretty good overview of where your RAM is going.

If you're sticking with Vista (pun intended), a simple re-install could also help here.

Hopefully I was able to produce something useful, but if I didn't, feel free to PM me.

Janne
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Dinarius

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PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2010, 08:42:25 am »

Janne,

Many thanks!

If I upgrade to Windows 7, can I do so without having to install all the other programs on the computer?

Thanks.

D.
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Janne Aavasalo

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PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2010, 01:07:17 pm »

Hey again,

If I remember correctly Vista Home Premium should upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate should upgrade to Ultimate, but I'm not really sure about this.

What I do recommend and what I am sure about is that you really don't want to upgrade Windows. A clean install is the only reasonable way to do it. Your Vista installation has been collecting crap from day 1 and if you do an upgrade, the crap will still be there slowing down your computer.

For this reason I keep my operating system in a whole another disk or partition than the rest of the data. So, if you're using a large disk, say 500Gb to 2Tb, I'd go with 200Gb partition with Win 7 (that's 204800 if you want it precisely). Then I usually make a partition of the "leftover" unallocated space, which will be the D - drive.

At the moment my main rig has two 64Gb SSD-drives in Raid0, so I didn't do any partitioning here (128Gb is a bit on the low side, but I'll live). This way I can replace my system drives or make a new install without losing the data (or having to move it around to my server or to an external drive). This is only a part of my usual methods, but I do this for a living and it just makes things easier.

If you want to do a bit more fancy stuff, I'd recommend making an image of the freshly installed Windows. I've used Symantec Ghost with great success for the past 10 years, but now I'm using an application named Macrium Reflect (free version). This makes it a tad easier because you can make the image when in Windows (Ghost needs to be booted to dos before making the image). With Macrium you can make the image and burn a rescue disk. With the disk you can do a complete re-install of Windows in a matter of minutes. You can also make one just after installing Windows and then make another when you have the programs installed. This way you can go back to a clean install and you can go back to a fresh install with all your applications installed.

Another application worth mentioning (for photographers in particular) is Genie Timeline. They introduced a free version as well and the main idea behind it is that it's an Windows alternative to Apple Time Machine and when you combine it with an external hard-drive it's like Time Machine combined with the Time Capsule. So it backs up say your Lightroom catalog in real time (or almost real time). It can do over ethernet, to an external drive and there is a third option, but I can't remember what it is

Summa summarum, install your computer from the ground up (almost no exceptions to this rule). I've installed Windows so many times that I don't even want to remember (about 4-8 times a day), but on the other hand, I don't find it to be a too bad of a task when I know how much it gives back in saved working seconds, minutes and hours. I actually used to install Windows on my own computers once a month, but I don't bother to do it so often anymore, maybe 2-3 times a year. Maybe I'm getting old

If you have more questions, feel free to ask me.

Janne
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Dinarius

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PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2010, 04:57:28 am »

Janne,

I think I may have solved my problem!

1. It appears that after Service Pack 2 was installed, the orginal installation of Vista was still there. I removed it and gained 130Gb (approx) in HD space! The defrag after the removal took 9 hours!

2. Someone gave me a tip about virtual memory. So, I did the following..........

Click Start/Right Click Computer/Properties/Advanced System Settings/Advanced Tab/Performance Settings/Advanced/Change

Now the "Total paging file size for all drives/Recommended" is 12186 MB for *each* drive. So, I changed the "Initial Size" and "Maximum Size" to this number (12186) for *each* drive. In other words, I made the number the same in each box where it had been differenct - very different in fact. I then rebooted and defragmented.

I have just run a test that usually produces the "There is not enough memory" error. I opened ten 220Mb TIFFs in ACR (via Bridge), made a small collective change to all of them and the saved them all out together. Usually, the error would kick in after about the third or fourth file. This time, no error!  

Right now, I'm one happy bunny. This machine is running like a train!

D.

ps. Was also told to download Process Explorer from here>

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb896653.aspx

Vastly, superior to Task Manager. But, you probably know about it already.

pps. Do you know of a Disk Defrag that is the old XP version? i.e. one that tells you what's happening! and tells you how badly you disk in fragmented?



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John.Murray

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PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2010, 06:46:39 pm »

The graphical disk degrag is gone.  To invoke in Vista or 7

Start | type "defrag c: /v" in the search box, without the quotes.  Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to Run as Administrator
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Janne Aavasalo

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PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2010, 03:37:10 am »

If you're looking for a good disk de-fragmenter, http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/ would be the way to go. Highly recommended. Works mostly in minutes, not hours.

Now on another note, I'm having a hard time figuring out what has happened to your computer.

You're saying that after installing SP2, there's about 130Gb of space that could be freed, the original installation of Vista? Service packs are not new installations, they are just a collection of all the Windows updates that have been released to that date. There are also some tweaks and other stuff, but by installing a service pack, you're not getting a new installation, just your old installation patched with the latest updates.

Only thing that comes to my mind is that you've installed Vista SP2 on top of your old install, which will make an "Windows.old" folder to your C - drive. If this is the case I'd still highly recommend a total from the scratch re-installation of Windows. Be it Vista or Win 7, but seeing that Windows.old folder in someones computer always grinds my gears

For Process Explorer, I've used it a couple of times, but usually it's a bit HC for finding out the simple stuff. It does come in handy from time to time.

I don't have too much experience when it comes to tweaking the page files, but I'd still say that you have something wrong with your computer. Ten 220Mb files equal 2,2Gb, which should fit in your RAM quite nicely.

Page files are used when you run out of RAM and the computer starts using the hard drive as an extension to your RAM. I'm glad that you got it working, but there is a downside to using page files. Using the hard disk as a RAM extension makes your computer run really slow and it gets even worse if your page file is located in your system disk.

As I said, I really don't know much about this issue, but maybe someone with more experience can help you here. All I know that there should not be much need for page files in new computers with 6Gb or more RAM. That statement is true in general use, which this isn't, so as I said, I really don't have enough experience to comment about this any further.

Janne
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Dinarius

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PC/Vista x64: Driver for nVidia Quadro FX 1700?
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2010, 05:33:25 am »

Janne,

Yes, with 8Gb RAM, I should never have run into any problems. But, whatever they were, they're gone. The C: drive is now probably cleaner than it has ever been. Along with there no longer being a memory error, boot up and shut down times are markedly reduced too.

For what it's worth, with a total of 2.08Gb of programs installed, I now have have the C: drive showing 154Gb of free space from a total of 230Gb.

There is no Windows.old folder.

I'm very happy with it now, so I think I'll leave well enough alone.

Thanks again.

D.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2010, 05:33:42 am by Dinarius »
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