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View Full Version : Problems with FireGL V5100 and Maya - pls Help :(

Hawke
09-29-2005, 11:58 PM
I have just bought one of these cards and I couldn't be any less impressed :(

I run maya 6 on windows XP SP2 so I have installed the 8.0.6.2 drivers certified for maya 6 and set the card to the 'maya' settings in the options. The result is almost completely unusable. Any time any window gets above some arbitrary size limit it's contents go blank and maya locks up. Examples would include:

1) The main viewport on perspecitive view. Closing the channel box (thus making the persp view a little bit bigger) completely locks up maya.

2) Opening the renderview in a separate window. Maximising it locks up maya. It can be increased in size slowly by dragging it but just suddenly locks up past a certain size and takes maya with it.

3) Opening the hypershade and the renderview reduces the size limit imposed on each window. Now the renderview cannot be dragged to as larger size. Closing the hypershade increases the size limit slightly. This also applies the other way around - closing the renderview allows the hypershade to be increased a bit more.

4) The renderview cannot be opened at all in the main viewport window as this is beyond the maximum size limit.

If anyone can offer any help I would be most grateful. I am a student and this card was a significant investment which is now looking like a complete and utter waste of money. The rest of my system specs are below:

Windows XP SP2
Maya Unlimitied 6.0.1 (academic license)
AMD 4400 dual core
Firegl V5100
4 gigs DDR ram
Asus V8NSLI Premium MB
Dual Monitors
novadude
09-30-2005, 02:10 AM
Exchange the ATI card for an nVidia 7800GTX. ATI drivers have known problems, and their cards aren't suggested for CG use.
dokturpotfor
09-30-2005, 06:20 AM
that is such a marketing talk, never had problems with ati cards (i use moded v5000), although i use 3d studio max.
bmcaff
09-30-2005, 09:20 AM
I have always had ATI cards and ususally not had any problems with them for Maya. But I did buy a v5000 with my Boxx and it has been a disaster. I have win x64 and the drivers from ATI are worse than useless. The first card had a faulty output which caused fickering on one of my screens but Boxx sent a replacement card immeadiately. After continuing to struggle with it untill the maya7 and updated driver release (which made the problems worse) I decided to get an nVidia instead. Boxx have been really cool though and my replacement fx1400 should be delivered today. (thanks again to Ed)

However I will say that I installed XP and the card works fine under that OS with Maya.
Hawke
09-30-2005, 09:29 AM
that is such a marketing talk, never had problems with ati cards (i use moded v5000), although i use 3d studio max.

The V5100 seemed the obvious choice for performance vs cost. I have been working onthis all night and established that the problem is the dual monitors - having another look at the alias hardware charts gave me a clue. If I boot with only 1 monitor connected then maya runs wihout issue, with 2 it is completly unusable after 5 minutes. I upgraded from a quadro4 750XGL which ran dual monitors and maya without any probs so I can only onclude the problem is with the ATI drivers. So I am faced with keeping the card and loosing a monitor (not appealing with maya) or changing again to a quadro fx.

Unless someone has a workaround?
Hawke
09-30-2005, 10:08 PM
FYI for anyone comming to this thread later. I have been running maya all evening on 1 screen (second disconnected) and it's solid as a rock.

Firegl+maya+1screen = good
Firegl+maya+dual screens = unusable - get an nvidia instead.

I'm going to be getting a single large monitor to replace my two 15 inch ones.
novadude
09-30-2005, 10:38 PM
that is such a marketing talk, never had problems with ati cards (i use moded v5000), although i use 3d studio max.


I wasn't aware marketing talk corrupted displays in Maya. I don't like red lines following my cursor around the screen or any of the other numerous problems with ATI's drivers.
Remedy
10-01-2005, 12:07 AM
I'd like to know which BIOS you're using on that Asus board?

Also, ATi has posted up drivers for 9/30 (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1694)

They aren't Maya Certs, but it's worth the try. IMO...
Hawke
10-01-2005, 01:00 AM
I'd like to know which BIOS you're using on that Asus board?

Also, ATi has posted up drivers for 9/30 (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1694)

They aren't Maya Certs, but it's worth the try. IMO...

Thanks for the heads up :) Is worth a go. I now have a 20 inch dell widescreen on order - that wll fix the prob once and for all.

The bios is 1005 on the asus board. I am guessing the question relates to the amount of ram? I know others have had issues running 4 gigs in this MB. I downclocked the DDR400 to 333 to minimize data echos and it runs fine. If you want to know the full memory timings just let me know and I'll copy them out for you as this MB also has issues with autodetecting them for 1 gig sticks.
Remedy
10-01-2005, 01:48 AM
Well 1005 for your BIOS seems a bit dated. Considering that Asus actually made it up to BIOS 1008 beta . (http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=A8N-SLI%20Premium)

That's assuming the board you mention is an actual Asus A8N SLi Premium and not V8NSLI Premium like mentioned in your first post.
Hawke
10-01-2005, 02:02 AM
yes - it's is the 8nsli premium. I have not upgraded the bios as it seems to result in even more problems with other aspects of the system (ram for one)
Hawke
10-06-2005, 04:46 PM
Well, my new monitor came, a Dell 24 inch Widescreen no less, but does the firegl run it properly? No, it does not. The resolution of 1920 by 1200 is a standard selectable mode in the latest ATI driver for the V5100 but it still doesn't work with maya - I open maya and hit a fatal error immediately. And infact it's not just maya, any other opengl app has the same problem - the firegl will not run opengl apps on any widescreen resolution (16:10 or 16:9) in 32 bit color mode. If I switch the monitor to a 4:3 ratio on 32 bit color all is well - things run without incident. And if I switch to a 16 bit color widescreen aspect ratio again - things run fine. But I did not pay for a top end monitor and card so I could run things in 16 bit color. I have updated every driver and bios on my system to the latest one including the graphics card, motherboard, nforce chipset and directx all to no avail. I am left with one conclusion - the firegl series is useless for running opengl apps and should be avoided at all costs, the only option I have left is to sell this piece of junk to another unsuspecting fool and buy a 6800 as I nolonger have enough funds to get a quadro - thank you very much ATI.
sambath
10-06-2005, 10:01 PM
the firegl v5100 also has problems running xsi, with dual monitors....slowdown and such(info form softimage website). Funny thing i only see this card being advertised for 3ds max.
Remedy
10-07-2005, 04:40 AM
Well, my new monitor came, a Dell 24 inch Widescreen no less, but does the firegl run it properly? No, it does not. The resolution of 1920 by 1200 is a standard selectable mode in the latest ATI driver for the V5100 but it still doesn't work with maya - I open maya and hit a fatal error immediately. And infact it's not just maya, any other opengl app has the same problem - the firegl will not run opengl apps on any widescreen resolution (16:10 or 16:9) in 32 bit color mode. If I switch the monitor to a 4:3 ratio on 32 bit color all is well - things run without incident. And if I switch to a 16 bit color widescreen aspect ratio again - things run fine. But I did not pay for a top end monitor and card so I could run things in 16 bit color. I have updated every driver and bios on my system to the latest one including the graphics card, motherboard, nforce chipset and directx all to no avail. I am left with one conclusion - the firegl series is useless for running opengl apps and should be avoided at all costs, the only option I have left is to sell this piece of junk to another unsuspecting fool and buy a 6800 as I nolonger have enough funds to get a quadro - thank you very much ATI.

Make sure you report the problem to ATi's FGL support so they can actually troubleshoot the problem. I know it sucks to have your hardware not perform as expected. But, if you just dump the FGL and never submit the problem to ATi, then they have no way of applying a solution with Beta or next build of drivers. The problem will go un notice.
Hawke
10-07-2005, 08:12 AM
yes - I have been on the phone to tech support troubleshooting the problem all day. They have advised me to try returning the card to the store where I bought it as they are out of ideas :(
Hawke
10-10-2005, 02:38 PM
Another update as I'm sure someone else will have this problem in the future.

After starting maya in crash reporting mode the following opengl error is reported:

'SetPixelFormat failed, Error code = 0'

My limited knowledge and a bit of googling leads me to believe
this essentially means the ATI opengl implimentation does not support
wide-screen aspect ratios as maya is looking for the setting in some table
somewhere and can't find it? This despite the specification of the card saying it does.
Anyway - thats my best guess, I'm by no means an expert. If it is what I
think then I see no way of fixing it short
of ATI correcting the problem with the drivers - I will be reporting it to them
so we'll see what they do about it. For me at least though that is it - I now have
a Quadro fx 1400 on it's way as my vendor agreed to give me a refund on
compatibility grounds and given there is a review here of an fx 1300 running my
monitor and maya I am at least hopeful it will work (touch wood) :)
BillSpradlin
10-10-2005, 04:54 PM
I had a similar problem a couple of years ago when upgrading my computer. I decided to go with an ATI FireGL X2 256. This was the so called "top of the line" offering from ATI in the workstation segment. I had nothing but problems, horrible support from ATI's FireGL support "team" the driver support and updates were a joke, and ended up sending the card back for a refund. The card was the worst card I had ever owned in my entire life. My GeForce 4 performed better in Maya than the FireGL did. I ended up biting it and picking up a Quadro FX 3000 (at the time the top of the line from Nvidia) and have had that card in my system running solid as a rock since.

I've had similar problems with ATI's gaming cards and after that debacle with the FireGL I'll stick with my rock solid Nvidias which I've never had a problem with.
mattwright
10-10-2005, 10:50 PM
I have had a world of trouble with ATI, especially the FireGL range...I reckon they are decent cards, just with completely terrible drivers..


I always go for NVDIA now.. I use the Quadro range, just for peace of mind.. I realise I pay over the odds for them, and that a gamer card will be 90% as good... but I love the stability of the quadro cards, and their drivers.
Hawke
10-10-2005, 11:35 PM
I have had a world of trouble with ATI, especially the FireGL range...I reckon they are decent cards, just with completely terrible drivers..


I always go for NVDIA now.. I use the Quadro range, just for peace of mind.. I realise I pay over the odds for them, and that a gamer card will be 90% as good... but I love the stability of the quadro cards, and their drivers.

I'd agree with that :( When this card works (i.e. on small screens) it's great but the drivers have really let it down, I certainly won't go ATI ever again. Tech support tried to help but it's the usual 'upgrade all your current drivers' routine and cost me £30 in phone calls to Canada at the end of which they told me to return the card to where I bought it as there is nothing they can do :( I was quite supprised to have all this difficulty as I did look around prior to opting for it but found no issues mentioned anywhere concerning the firegl range.
Lorecanth
10-12-2005, 02:41 AM
Been using nvidia quadro's now for 2 years. My job depends on them. At home I'm running a 6800 gt and its fine for maya. However, if I have a client sitting behind me, I can NEVER afford a driver error. So no matter how hard ATI tries as long as the quadro keeps performing this is one customer they'll never get back.
Hawke
10-13-2005, 11:18 AM
My quadro came and......MAYA works :thumbsup: Finally I can work again :love: I think I just became a life-long nvida customer :D Thanks to everyone who offered advice :)
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