GeForce FX 5200
 

Hi folks.

I been trying to run UFO: Aftermath again on my computer, but didn't manage to make it run since the last time I updated my graphic card drivers.

Now, I know that the best thing to try would be to update my drivers with the most recent version... However, when I go to Nvidia site and download the latest version for my graphic card... It simply don't work. At all. XP actually reboot in a 8 (or 6 I don't remember) bit graphic mode in the lowest resolution setting... And I can't change a thing.

The new version I want to install is 175.16 and what I currently use (and which works great except for this game) is the version 6.14.11.6371 dated from 2007-09-17.

So I was wondering if any of you guys knows of a better way to update my drivers so it would actually work with all or most games.

Any help would be appreciated.

-EoF

Sorry to say, but this isn't 2003. Go get a better video card.

Interesting my ATI 9600XT was supported until last year. Maybe you should check what the last driver is that supports your series and up(or down)grade to that and stick with it. I don't know nVidia cards that much, but if it's around the same series as mine, you should be able to run games up to 2006 or so and later if they don't require Shader 3.0.

As much as I understand you used even an older driver before than that one from 2007. If I was you, I would be still using that original driver, or at best that from 2007 since support for a bit more "exotic" GForce FX cards like 5200 and 5700 (the latter I use) was dropped few years ago already as much as I know.
The new drivers wouldn't support that old card and actually will only worsen the troubles because compatibility for old games goes steadily backwards with each new version out. Besides, it's mostly bullshit that using the newest drivers is the best thing. That only is true for newest, up-to-date cards and games, and more like the opposite for old cards and old games. Unless, of course, you want also to play new(est) games with that card, but that's everything but recommendable.

I'm sorry to say, but this is not helpful. I bought this rig around 2003, I'm not going to waste my money purchasing a new card which will most likely not even help me play newer games on this old machine. Beside, the card + drivers combo I have right works way past fine for the vast majority of what I play with and want to play with, not to say that what I play with are old games which would probably not work well with new hardware.

As I said, not helpful.

How can I check that? Everytime I go to the Nvidia site I use the dropdown menu to find the up to date drivers for my card and I do select the FX serie... Which lead me to the drivers which don't work. Would you have a better option?

I was actually using original drivers until I had to update them to be able to play WoW a while ago. That must be around 2007, so it fits. At that time I used the most up to date drivers available at Nvidia website and it is those that I still use. I liked those new drivers a lot because it also automatically installed a Nvidia command menu which I didn't have before, which allow me to tweak a lot of different options for every individual games. I'm not sure it would be wise to downgrade from that.

Hummm... That is unfortunately what I was thinking too. So I should be better to simply stick with those drivers I already have and simply consider some games to be unplayable on this rig... A shame, really.

Not that UFO: Aftermath is really worth the trouble of trying to find a fix... It is one of the worst games I ever played, to be frank. But I did want to finish it one day. Too bad for it then.

Might be not much of a help, but I found this googling around:

Sorry to resurrect this thread but seeing as I am the topic starter and solved my problem...

Searching and finding "omega drivers", which are drivers kept up to date by a very dedicated fellow who go thru the trouble of testing every new driver updates, include things which work and exclude things which simply doesn't or even break the drivers.

This is the best thing I've stumbled on in a long while, so I thought it would be worthwhile to mention it even if the thread is now a little old.

And yes, with Omega Drivers I've been able to play with most old games which stopped working with time. This include UFO: Aftermath.