[SOLVED] GeForce GTX 460 not picking up refresh rate on modern LCD monitors

[sera]

Hi , I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460, and while it has drivers for XP, it does not properly detect my LCD / set the refresh rate properly. Strangely enough, my CRT gets recognized and lets me set the refresh rate freely, though. 

When I do set the refresh rate, Windows says it is running at its proper 144hz, however the display still is updating at only 60hz. I am running it through the HDMI port, and on other versions of Windows (>XP) I do get properly working refresh rate settings.

On the latest driver, it detects it as an SDTV and won't let me add any custom resolutions at all. 

On an older driver, the LCD is detected as an LCD, lets me add custom resolutions, but the refresh rate issue occurs.

Is this issue known at all? Is there a workaround? 

Thanks.

 

Edited January 7 by sera
solved issue

[Rod Steel]

On 12/17/2022 at 7:07 AM, sera said:

On an older driver, the LCD is detected as an LCD, lets me add custom resolutions, but the refresh rate issue occurs.

What resolution you try to run on your LCD with 144Hz ? What native resolution of your monitor? What exact model of your monitor?

[sera]

36 minutes ago, Rod Steel said:

What resolution you try to run on your LCD with 144Hz ? What native resolution of your monitor? What exact model of your monitor?

Trying to run 1920x1080@144. The native resolution of my monitor is 1929x1080@165, however it caps at 144hz on this card. Using Acer XV240Y. 

Also of note with this issue is that the card simply does not pick up any refresh rate higher than 60hz. Seems to cooperate properly with <60hz, though. 

[Rod Steel]

I remember about 10 years ago i read about it and now i totally forgot. I was thinking today about this and did not remeber. I do not have 144Hz monitor so i can not test solutions that i read today in internet. So...

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=75570

Many years ago nvidia drivers have check-mark "Treat as HDTV", which  can be unpicked. But it no longer there perhaps it hidden and needed some reg file to be activated, nvidia did such tricks long time ago with hidden options in drivers. Also i am not sure that would help.

So my idea that you can create an alternative driver for your monitor using 2 methods:

1) Program Monitor Asset Manager (MonInfo) - "App can both read and write data in number of formats. It can also generate INF files, which can be used as custom monitor driver." I assume you can edit that .inf file to add needed refresh rates.

https://www.rarst.net/software/moninfo/

2) Method that i found on some old google cache text:

Quote

We make a display driver (.inf file) with Rivatuner v2.24 and to the column  [Mon.AddReg] add or change the line  HKR,"MODES\1920,1080",Mode1,,"157-170,120-160,+,+".
We put in manual mode and veil of 144 Hz in the list of supported.

I'm sorry i did not find anything else. Only that.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Rod Steel

[D.Draker]

On 12/19/2022 at 10:16 AM, sera said:

The native resolution of my monitor is 1929x1080@165

This solution should help the owners of high-res monitors.

http://wp.xin.at/archives/5616

[sera]

Hi, it's been a year and I finally picked up the motivation to try this setup again. I understand that the combination of an old GPU and a modern monitor isn't exactly the most beautiful thing to set up but it's just what I have at my convenience and it would be pleasant to have a monitor like this at its full capacity on this older machine especially knowing that it is capable of it.
 

Regardless, here's what I've come up with:

I installed Vista, and after some tinkering I was able to achieve the full capacity of my display, 1920x1080@165Hz.

This I believe narrows the issue down to not being the monitor or the cable used to connect it to my computer.

(For the sake of transparency, I am connected to a DVI port on the GTX 460 through an HDMI <-> DVI adapter.)

 

I then took a picture of the monitor configuration settings that were functional in vista and went to attempt to replicate the same custom resolution setup on windows xp.

This resulted in my monitor producing an input not supported error.

These tests were done with the 355.98 nvidia driver.

 

What piqued my interest about this is in the article suggested by D.Draker was that there was an arbitrary limitation on the bandwidth on the Windows XP nvidia drivers, however I'm not so sure they apply to DVI on the GTX 460:
 

Quote

Say you’d run a NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Black on XP, like me, or maybe some other GTX 600 or 700 series (sorry, I don’t know much about older AMD cards, but the same limits should apply as far as I know). You’d have support for DisplayPort 1.2 and its HBR2 protcol, enabling you to use 4K/UHD monitors with resolutions up to 3840×2160@60Hz, with HBR2 giving you a sufficiently high data rate of 17.28 Gbit/s.

The same card on XP is limited to HBR1 however, giving you only a “meager” 8.64 Gbit/s to work with. What the card can do doesn’t matter here, as the XP driver(s) simply don’t implement HBR2!

Does this imply that there's some kind of limitation within the nvidia driver or windows xp itself? Is this something that can be patched?

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions and sorry for replying so late.

[D.Draker]

3 hours ago, sera said:

What piqued my interest about this is in the article suggested by D.Draker was that there was an arbitrary limitation on the bandwidth on the Windows XP nvidia drivers

Thanks for the kind words, glad to be of help, yes, there is a limitation in place, moreover - drivers from the nvidia site are utter crap.

EDIT; wait a minute, I'll search for the archives.

Edited January 5 by D.Draker

[D.Draker]

Try these ones. GTX 460 came in several flavours: just 460, SE and GTX 460  v2.

Driver Model: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 /SE/V2

Driver Provider: nVidia

Version: 6.14.13.2101

Version Date: 10/29/2013

https://catalog.s.download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/driver/drvs/2013/12/20608085_177c7504272d2c9d9e30f83657582879023dfd51.cab

[D.Draker]

And 64 bit for Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003, also fits the usual 460, SE and GTX 460  v2.

https://catalog.s.download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/driver/drvs/2013/12/20608086_4a1f3d90e5a4b91dcfdb2da41fd0be93a9ea53f8.cab

Start from the setup.exe (not nvsetup!)

[sera]

Hi, thanks for the suggestions again. I figured out the answer!

Turns out this entire time a kind person named Yas had figured out that yes, the limitations that cause the issues I was facing are linked directly to bandwidth and found a way to patch the nvidia 355.98 driver. It was posted in the comments the whole time. Oh well!

This arbitrary limitation is in fact a hard coded value and can be modified to match the spec of what the card can actually support.

I'll quote the instructions given to modify the driver:

Quote

Yas says:

November 24, 2022 at 19:56

Hello, thanks for your information about the version of nVIDIA drivers.

I just wanna display as WQHD@60Hz by GT710(10DE:128B), I found and modified the upper limit codes of pixel clock via HDMI in nVIDIA drivers for Windows XP.

like this (in v355.98):

0.Strip the signature.(Just in case)
nv4_mini.sys(32bit)
000001A0: 00A14BC0H -> 00000000H
000001A4: 00001E78H -> 00000000H

nv4_mini.sys(64bit)
000001A0: 00859700H -> 00000000H
000001A4: 00001E78H -> 00000000H

And, in the case of 32bit, remove from 00A14BC0 to the end, in the case of 64bit, remove 00859700 to the end of file.
(For now, the CheckSum turns 00A15BC0H in 32bit, 0085A700H in 64bit.)

1.Increase the limit values up to HDMI 1.4.
nv4_disp.dll(32bit) 00031C9D:
nv4_mini.sys(32bit) 004E402C:
nv4_disp.dll(64bit) 0004B1D2:
nv4_mini.sys(64bit) 001CA9A3 and 001CA9AE:
00028488H -> 00053020H (165000 -> 340000[KHz])

(By the way, nearby jump-code seems by me like crash one will never run.)

2.Apply the CheckSum.
nv4_disp.dll(32bit)
00000150: 00356780H -> 0036022BH
nv4_mini.sys(32bit)
00000160: 00A193ECH -> 00A2075AH

nv4_disp.dll(64bit)
000002C8: 00BA2A80H -> 00BAD61AH
nv4_mini.sys(64bit)
00000150: 0085D87EH -> 0085ED46H

I haven’t tested other resolutions over HDMI 1.4 like 4K or 8K and so on, so I tested only the pixel clock for WQHD@60Hz in 32bit mode.(I haven’t in 64bit mode.)
I also haven’t investigated precisery that has any other limits include via DVI-D.

Just for reference.

This is tested to work, and fully unlocks the capability of my monitor on Windows XP.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions over the past year, very happy to say that a solution has finally been found.

Edited January 7 by sera

[D.Draker]

The ones I gave you don't have that limiting values. This once yet confirms - the official drivers are garbage.

[D.Draker]

Looks like this one doesn't have the limit, also.

347.26-espresso-icafe-winxp-international

https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRAPHICS-BOARD/NVIDIA/NVIDIA-GeForce-iCafe-Graphics-Driver-34726-for-XP.shtml

Edited January 8 by D.Draker
link

[sera]

I wasn't able to get each of the ones you sent to display properly without the limitation. Sorry!

[xrayer]

Hi, thanks for info about the patch, I've been waiting for this a long time and I believed it could be patched such way, that it's just some stupid constant nvidiot's limitation...

Well, from what I read, it seems this patch unlock HDMI output only, not the DisplayPort, well?
Did/can someone try this if it will work also for 4k resolution @60Hz? I would like to try this but I have access to 4k monitor only at work and my GTX970 is in home PC and both things are not small enought to take it in a pocket or bag to meet them 😀

Edited January 13 by xrayer

[xrayer]

I tested the patch on GTX 970 and Dell 4k LCD and the HDMI pixel clock limit patch works but there's another artifical limitation to max 1600p! It needs to ba patched too... I played with custom modes and timings. The max I can reach is 3840x1600 @89Hz - near 600MHz pixel clock. But Anything over 1600p is immediatelly refused - test mode failed. I need to remove this limit to utilize the native 4k resolution 3840x2160, pixel clock is enough to get 60Hz, maybe a bit more.