Latest drivers for nForce 3

[Unbreakable]

@ Unbreakable

Hello there, still running fine on your suggestions, but wondered if the new official release from Nvidia changes anything?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4 ... _6.66.html

Take it easy mate!

Nope, no changes. The IDE driver from the 7.13 set is still newer (5.35) than the one released with the 6.66 set (5.34). And this is about the only difference between both driver sets.

[Gek]

@ Unbreakable

Cheers mate, thanks for the info. It seems we might have something to look forward to soon though:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24723

Fingers crossed!

[Time]

Gek,
Nice info. I'll be lookin forward to their release, but I doubt they will spark my Nforce3 board into a new life. Better than nothing though.

[Gek]

Got my new Antec 500w PSU so the Sempron 3100+ Palermo CPU overclock is now at 2367 mhz, with the Crucial 133 DDR stock RAM now running rock solid at 169 mhz. The RAM is holding it back now, can't wait to get some nice Corsair in a few months. Motherboard is of course the trusty DFI Lanparty NF3 250gb. Solid as a rock. Looking forward to seeing how far the CPU will go...

[DrAtomic]

Well, "Soon" has come and gone and still no new Nforce3 drivers. I'm kind of bummed since there seems to be little difference between the Nforce3 Ultra (939) versus Nforce4, other than AGP/PCI of course. Is Nforce3 Ultra closer to Nforce2 or Nforce4?
I can't understand why they'd stop supporting (or severly limit support) on such a new and powerful chipset. Kind of makes me regret my purchase, and even more it makes me wonder about future support for any chipset that isn't the latest and greatest.

Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 w/A64 3200+
I don't think it's a dinosaur, but maybe I'm wrong...

[Gek]

@ DrAtomic

They should probably come out when Nvidia's new motherboard with integrated graphics comes out. See here:

http://theinquirer.net/?article=25418

They haven't stopped supporting the board, and if you follow the simple procedure Unbreakable outlines earlier in the thread then you get really good performance. The point is that it isn't necessarily bad that there aren't loads of new releases, as the current one is pretty good, they have been solid all the way from Nforce 2.

In performance terms the chipset isn't far behind the NF4. Same PATA, same network, etc. As long as you have decent components and a decent board (DFI Lanparty 250gb) you can have a lot of fun with S754 and it costs a lot less than S939. To get a decent S939 board and the cheapest S939 Athlon 64 costs about £90 more than the solution I went for. I can spend that money on a 6800....

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/di ... -2600.html

[DrAtomic]

To get a decent S939 board and the cheapest S939 Athlon 64 costs about £90 more than the solution I went for. I can spend that money on a 6800....

Thanks for the info on the chipset! The K8NSNXP-939 board I have is a socket 939 that uses the Nforce3 Ultra chipset. The only difference I found between it and the Nforce4 was the use of AGP versus SLI video interface. The rest of the specs look nearly identical (minus SATA-II). It is a whole lot different from the Nforce2. I'll try piecing together the latest Nforce4 driver and the GART driver and see if it works.
And you’re dead on with the video! The only reason I went with Nforce3 Ultra over Nforce4 was that I already had an AGP version 6800GT.

[Gek]

Hey Hey! This goes out to Unbreakable! New drivers available here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4 ... _6.70.html

Do these change anything or should I just keep on with the setup of yours I've been enjoying? Cheers mate, we all depend on you!

EDIT: They seem to provide a newer IDE driver, at least.

Only this driver seems to provide newer network stuff:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4 ... 2_x16_6.82

It would be cool if you could update your plan if necessary, I can't tell for sure, lol.

[Unbreakable]

I'd take the 6.70 nForce4 AMD driver as a basis. I dunno what to think of 6.82...
As you mentioned, the only thing that has changed, is the IDE driver. I've used the 5.52 without any issues on my nf2 setup. Well, there was one uninstall issue but that has been - hopefully - fixed in this driver...

nForce3 driver guide:
1. Download the official nForce3 5.11 drivers from nvidia
2. Extract them into a folder called nforce (using WinRAR or WinZip)
3. Delete the content of the \IDE\WinXP and \IDE\Win2K subfolders
4. Delete the folders: \AudioDrv and \AudioUtl
5. Download the new nForce4 AMD 6.70 drivers (see thread in this forum for further info)
6. Extract em into a folder called nforce670
7. Now go to nforce670\IDE\WinXP\legacy and copy the content to nforce\IDE\WinXP and nforce\IDE\Win2K (the driver is identical for both XP and 2K)
8. Copy/Move the \AudioDrv and \AudioUtl folders from \nforce670 to \nforce
9. That's it! Well, not exactly: some NF3 mobos just have the old integrated network (nForce3 150). The drivers are already in \Ethernet\PreNRM. The newer nForce3 250Gb southbridge has the integrated firewall and uses a different driver:
9a. If you have the old NF3 southbridge, you're ready to install your new driver by starting setup.exe in the \nforce folder.
9b. Owners of the NF3 Gb250 southbridge should just start the setup of the 6.70 drivers and only install the Ethernet drivers.

Attention: This guide is not meant for RAID setups!
Updated: Step 9b is obsolete since nvidia updated the ethernet component in the 5.11 drivers but everything else still applies.

[Gek]

Thanks mate, your help is golden! Respect to you!