I've heard the issue is only with dual-core CPU's.

That's a note for clarification, not to defend nVidia. Their not supporting nForce3 under Vista is a major mistake. That, and several questionable quirks and hardware flaws they've had with mainboard chipsets over the past several years mean that my next chipset will be Intel.

Intel chipsets three years old (and likely older) are supported by Vista. nVidia would do well to take the hint, and do likewise.

P.S. Someone should Digg this.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:www.nvidia.com/page/nf3.html:

"Windows Vista™ Capable
NVIDIA nForce®3-based motherboards are perfect for Microsoft® Windows Vista™ when coupled with an NVIDIA® GeForce® graphics card and 512MB of system memory."

priceless.

well we all want to stick it to nvidia for doing this, but I've yet to find an AMD motherboard that has dual lan + firewire + 7 expansion slots that doesn't use a nvidia chipset.

Ridiculous. It's a platform that can house a quite high end single core Athlon 64.

NV's chipset drivers are the worst part of that company.

Anyone know if 440BX works with Vista? :)

Here's another point. Statistics have shown that Microsoft sells a very small percentage of operating systems at retail. Computer enthusiasts purchases of OEM copies aside. What does Nvidia care whether a very small percentage of a small percentage of users can't run their dual core NF3 systems with an ATI video card? It really has nothing to do with them wanting people to buy Nvidia cards but the economics of the whole thing. It would cost them more money to get the drivers written then it would be worth. These are sales that have already happened. Writing drivers for the now fairly defunct NF3 is not going to bring them any more revenue and in fact would reduce it.

It is all about money but I don't believe it's an ATI vs Nvidia thing.

Knowing the folks at nVidia, this does NOT surprise me in the least. There is no real reason not to support older nForce motherboards in Vista, especially since Microsoft said that the minimum processor for the OS is an 800MHz Pentium III (although 1GHz or higher is recommended).

People have knocked ATI over the years, but one thing that really impressed me with them is how I was able to continue to run the newest driver for my 9800 Pro video card after that card was beyond three years old, and without problems. At least they don't forget customers who don't have the latest (or recent) products.

Are there any AGP chipsets that are certified for Vista? That would explain why they are not bothering with support for them.

Vista ran fine on my NF2 board. It runs great on my NF4 system.

IMHO, AGP is effectively dead. Sure, it would be "nice" if they fixed the problem. But I don't believe there is any law mandating that they continue to support an outdated product. It is in their best interest not to. The longer they have to support a product the more money they have to take from developing new products into keeping old ones alive. This is especially true since AGP is quickly being phased out.

heehee... my old 875P and X800XL are still rockin strong... even in Vista. hehe... silly suckers and their newer computers!

Interestingly:

I don't think the NF3 chipset was designed with dual cores in mind? So, this errant bug under Vista ain't worth the time?

Ok, just to clarify... It looks like AGP is not left out of Vista certification.

This is a quote from the Windows Logo Program Requirements document for the requirement for Vista Basic:

Discrete or UMA graphics solution with performance equivalent to AGP 2.X or greater.

This is the minimum requirement for Vista Basic certification. There is no mention of AGP in the Bus Controllers and Ports or Device Connectivity sections.

Ha ha ! This and the latest Geforce 8800 Vista drivers debacke really makes nvidia look like the old ATi :) Oh the irony !

Adi

nForce3 is not a certified platform for Vista. We are supporting and have certified nForce4, nForce5, and nForce 6OO series only. WHQLed drivers for those platforms are posted to nvidia.com.

I'm through with nVidia. What really sucks is not less than four days ago they had a page up on there website that said "nForce3 is VISTA READY," and now they have taken it down.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/technology_vista_home.html

If you look at google cache, you can see that they removed the nforce 3 chipset from their "VISTA READY" page.

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:LwM82osNRWkJ:www.nvidia.com/pa...technology_vista_home.html+vista+certified+nforc...[4]

Oh yeah, I'm Damien BTW. Can you change the name in the story so that it's droopy1592 and not Damien?

Someone get me the info for a lawyer that handles these types of things... Sheesh

While all valid points, what the hell is the difference between the Nforce 3 and Nforce 4, besides the useless broken features in the Nforce 4 board.

If its because PCIe is needed as the previous poster said, that is also a load of BS.

and I need to upgrade to Visa because?

Hey Cyril, could you correct your errant information to stipulate that it's only with dual-core CPU's?

This is enough for me to reconsider buying a board with an Nvidia chipset - if they think that 2 - 3 years driver support is adequate then I'm afraid that's not good enough - there are plenty of nForce 3 based machines around that could be doing useful work 5 or more years from now and could run Vista very nicely indeed. This is the sort of crap you might expect from VIA or some mickey mouse outfit like that.

Why is NV having such a big problem with vista. It almost seems like they just don't have the resources to deal with everything.

World
Class
Driver
Support

As an owner of both an nForce3 and nForce2 board (both of which can still be purchased), I give nVidia a big ol' F-U.

Well, this is quite a surprise to me, considering I've been running several versions of Vista on my nF3 mboard at home over the last few months, up to most recently RC2. It also didn't present problems with my older x800 xt, and my newer x1950 Pro AGP card is running great under Vista RC2 at the moment under the Cat 7.1's.

From what I'm hearing, this seems an issue mainly with x2 cpus in nf3 motherboards under Vista. I have a 90nm A64 San Diego clocked at 2.79GHz running on my MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum mboard under bios 1.C, and I'm not having a problem. In fact, I've never had a problem since I bought the board in 1/2005 in running the ATi 3d card of my choice. Hmmmm.....

I agree though that it is surprising to see nVidia decline to support the nF3 chipset under Vista, especially as there is no reason not to do so. But, it's been awhile since I had much confidence in nVidia drivers generally, and on my nF3 for the past couple of years (as with an nF2 board I had before that) I could never seem to be able to figure out how to use the nVidia IDE drivers with the kind of stability I prefer--but that was easily remedied by simply using Microsoft's drivers, instead. I've always had a suspicion that where nVidia's drivers are concerned the company is far more interested in benchmark numbers than in stability. Yet, all things considered, I've preferred the nVidia chipset to everything else I've tried for Athlon support thus far. Have to say I'm looking forward to see how the newer AMD/ATI core-logic designs will perform in terms of future purchases.

They mention nForce3 doesn't work, does that mean nForce2 and regular old nForce inherently don't work? They don't explicitly mention this

Now that is retarded.

It is Nvidia's way of saying to Nforce 1, 2 and 3 users.

"Sorry, AGP is dead please send more $$$$ upgrade to PCIe!"