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nForce3 users out in the cold with Vista

Published on 8th February 2007 by Tim Smalley

nForce3 isn't supported in Vista and it's causing headaches for consumers. It's all about Single Core, Single Pleasure.

Consumers still using an nForce3 motherboard, in conjunction with a dual-core processor and an ATI-based AGP graphics card, may feel left out in the cold if they choose to install Windows Vista.

A knowledge base entry on AMD's support site (#737-24498) states the following:

"Attempting to install the graphics driver on a system containing an NVidia NF3 chipset and an ATI AGP graphics adapter may result in the driver failing to install and the 3D engine not activating.

In Windows Vista 32bit or 64bit versions, the Device Manager will show a (!) mark and the AGP card will operate in PCI mode only. When the properties of the device are shown, the error code will show as code 43."

AMD states that it has seen a similar issue with other AGP chipsets from VIA and SiS, but both of these manufacturers have fixed the issues with updated chipset drivers. Indeed, many end users have been complaining on Microsoft's TechNet forums and the only workaround NVIDIA customers have found is to disable one of the cores on their Athlon 64 X2 processors.

The Tech Report managed to speak to NVIDIA's Bryan Del Rizzo, who stated that nForce3 is not a certified platform under Vista. We also called NVIDIA's UK office, who had nothing further to add.

Del Rizzo's statement suggests that NVIDIA doesn't have any plans to support nForce3 chipsets under Vista at the moment. However, the situation is a little more confusing when you realise that the nForce3 chipsets were listed as "Vista Capable" just a few days ago on the company's website.

The cached page (screenshot attached below) states that NVIDIA planned to officially support nForce3 chipsets under Vista with GeForce graphics cards, but that obviously isn't the case now, as it has now been removed. Whether or not the nForce3-based board is coupled with an NVIDIA graphics card is now a moot point - nForce3 isn't officially supported under Vista.

This U-turn is far from ideal for consumers, and it's surprising to learn that NVIDIA has chosen not to support products it said it would in the run up to (and even a few days after) the Vista launch. It's even more disappointing when you realise that many nForce3-based products are less than three years old, as is the case with motherboards based on nForce3 250Gb and nForce3 Ultra.

Discuss in the forums

25 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

DougEdey 8th February 2007, 10:30

NForce3 works fine on my Vista install with an ATi card. Must be that one-on-one processor action I'm giving the software.

Really annoyed me though when I was trying to sort my sound drivers out to work out.

quack 8th February 2007, 11:47

And what about nForce2? Yeah it's getting a bit long in the tooth now, but it's more than powerful enough to run Vista Ultimate perfectly well.

Before I can actually use Vista I'll have to fork out a few hundred quid for a new PC, when my hardware is already capable. Very disappointing.

hughwi 8th February 2007, 13:51

will nforce2 also be ignored?

Tim S 8th February 2007, 13:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by hughwi
will nforce2 also be ignored?

yes

Tulatin 8th February 2007, 15:17

Good ole Nvidia, leave s'more users out in the cold. Why not leave the 6series of cards unsupported too?

Tyinsar 8th February 2007, 15:54

This means two of my three machines will eventually migrate to Linux - which is not a bad thing but it is disappointing to not have another option.

Gordy 8th February 2007, 16:30

Do nVidia not enjoy customers or something. They seem to be really dropping the ball with vista.

Mord 8th February 2007, 16:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordy
Do nVidia not enjoy customers or something. They seem to be really dropping the ball with vista.

No, I just think they're getting people to go out and buy more boards. They dont make cash from vista sales afterall.

Brooxy 8th February 2007, 16:46

Mord has a point. At the end of the day however, NF3 isn't that old, and it's just decency to support it in vista. nVidia on the other hand, do not seem to have this idea...

zoom314 8th February 2007, 16:53

I noticed two things here, that Nvidia wanted to support the Nforce3 chipset with Geforce video cards, And that when a problem with ATi cards showed up They withdrew support for Vista. Am I imagining something or was Nvidia only willing to support their cards and the Nforce3 chipset and Not ATi cards and the Nforce3 chipset in Vista?

Cause that is what It looks like to Me. :D

Kipman725 8th February 2007, 17:03

meh open source your driver then if it's no longer supported.., :(

Tim S 8th February 2007, 17:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brooxy
Mord has a point. At the end of the day however, NF3 isn't that old, and it's just decency to support it in vista. nVidia on the other hand, do not seem to have this idea...

That's the point, you could build a very fast system based on an nForce3 motherboard today. FX-60 plus X1950 Pro AGP and 2GB of memory - something that most gamers wouldn't sniff at, in all honesty.

DXR_13KE 8th February 2007, 17:56

this sucks.
/me makes conspiracy theory that involves nvidia, ATI, garden gnomes, bananas, G. W. Bush and Wil going away.

TomH 8th February 2007, 22:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by quack
And what about nForce2? Yeah it's getting a bit long in the tooth now, but it's more than powerful enough to run Vista Ultimate perfectly well.

Before I can actually use Vista I'll have to fork out a few hundred quid for a new PC, when my hardware is already capable. Very disappointing.

Although there is no official support for the Nforce2 board, my own experiences were surprising.

Vista ships with a driver for the 'NVIDIA Network Adaptor' and once you're connected to the net, Automatic Update fround drivers for SoundStorm, etc. And even the Sil3112A RAID chip XP driver installed perfectly fine.

The device drivers that Automatic Update downloaded were even signed as Nvidia drivers (as opposed to Microsoft). So it's worth a try, even if Nvidia don't officially support the chipset under Vista.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyinsar
This means two of my three machines will eventually migrate to Linux - which is not a bad thing but it is disappointing to not have another option.

This was my idea from the start, but I'm currently having problems getting Ubuntu to see my RAID array, instead of two seperate drives (supposedly there's not a huge amount of support in the Linux kernal for S-ATA RAID) and I'm still using XP as a result. :(

Gravemind123 8th February 2007, 22:46

Funny thing was until a few months ago I was still using nForce2, and it would have run ultimate perfectly, it had enough ram, a good graphics card, but it just wouldn't be officially supported. nVidia seems to be messing up Vista badly, they have known for a long time it was coming, but are still unprepared. I hope other companies get Vista drivers rolling soon, my wireless card has no driver, despite being a newer Wireless-G model.

Tyinsar 8th February 2007, 23:08

@Tom Hill: Good work on the partial functioning of NF2, too bad it's so spotty though.

This isn't the same Nvidia I used to be a fan of >:( Both of My NF2 systems have 2GB of DDR

waxbytes 9th February 2007, 09:53

... as Nvidia not supporting Microsoft. I wonder if down in Redmond they are getting a bit hot about Nvidia screwing up the sales of Vista by failing to produce drivers? Not to mention the support issues they are facing for stuff that is Nvidia's fault. It's not just the consumer who is getting the shaft on this.

Gordy 9th February 2007, 12:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mord
No, I just think they're getting people to go out and buy more boards. They dont make cash from vista sales afterall.

Would you buy a board from them after they failed to support the previous one properly?

I know I wouldn't.

Cthippo 9th February 2007, 16:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by waxbytes
... as Nvidia not supporting Microsoft. I wonder if down in Redmond they are getting a bit hot about Nvidia screwing up the sales of Vista by failing to produce drivers? Not to mention the support issues they are facing for stuff that is Nvidia's fault. It's not just the consumer who is getting the shaft on this.

Do you think they care? Keep in mind that the gamer / enthusiest market is insignificant in terms of market share for someplace like MS. Our greatest value to these companies is that we generate hype about their mainstream products. nVidia is getting hurt bad by thins and when it all shakes out I think it will be something about their hardware archoitecture not liking the software's unified shader architecture.

Burnout21 6th December 2009, 18:26

drag this thread out of the dark!

Just found out why my Nforce 3 board with a opty 165 and a ATI 4650 wont get along under vista or Win7.

Major Fail!

Tulatin 6th December 2009, 21:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burnout21
drag this thread out of the dark!

Just found out why my Nforce 3 board with a opty 165 and a ATI 4650 wont get along under vista or Win7.

Major Fail!

Well to be fair the nForce chipsets enjoyed a fairly limited run OEM wise, and were basically EOL like what, three years ago now?

Burnout21 6th December 2009, 21:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tulatin
Well to be fair the nForce chipsets enjoyed a fairly limited run OEM wise, and were basically EOL like what, three years ago now?

pretty lame, considering nvidia still do legacy drivers for there graphics cards.

Its all rather annoying! lol!

Tulatin 7th December 2009, 00:56

Yeah, but what are you going to support? 30,000 motherboards, or 30,000,000 videocards?

Burnout21 7th December 2009, 08:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tulatin
Yeah, but what are you going to support? 30,000 motherboards, or 30,000,000 videocards?

Nforce 3 is a chipset they should have supported with a legacy driver for vista and left it at that considering a lot of people were in the position of owning very capable machines at the time.

TomH 7th December 2009, 21:08

Yeah, and guess what: I'm still looking at old Nforce boards on new Windows operating systems.

Except this time it's an NF4-SLI chipset with 7, not the NF2-Ultra with Vista. :)