Haste266
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New GeForce 196.21 WHQL drivers from Nvidia
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sirmonkey1985
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would like to see a few people test these drivers before i try them out.. especially after the 195.62 fiasco.. the 195.62 WHQL drivers were completely unusable on my system.. the beta version of the 195.62 drivers worked completely fine though..
Haste266
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im using 195.62 without a hitch and am scared to upgrade...hoping some people chime in with their results at some point...
heatlesssun
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Just tried a couple of games, Dirt 2, MW2, Serious Sam HD and Need for Speed:Shift and they all seem to be working well. Dirt 2 finally has SLI support. I went from 47 FPS to 112 AVG FPS, 260% scaling with three cards, not bad.
While post-186.xx Nvidia drivers do contribute to Fallout 3 hitching, Fallout 3, just like Oblivion, suffers from stuttering issues not related to the drivers.
Also crashing issues, mis-installed beta versions of .NET and C++ Visual, 100MB/sec memory leaks, untested DRM and more. See my post #22 in this thread.
Fallout 3 is so borked up that it's probably difficult for Nvidia to sort out which problems are actually in their drivers. I gotta give credit to Nvidia for even trying to fix Fallout 3 issues when Bethesda has so completely abandoned the notion of quality control.
haha damn
does anyone of you have problem during the installation? Because It crashed twice during the installation. First, It showed black screen --> I had to reboot my computer. Second, It froze during the installation--> The process bar kept staying at the same spot--> I had to reboot my computer. I have 2 gtx 285 and Win. 7 64 bit and the driver I downloaded is for the windows 7 64 bit.
The stuttery motion is tolerable. What isn't tolerable, however, is 1-2 second pauses as you pan the camera outdoors that never subside. So, I'm wondering if perhaps these drivers address that, which it seems they may.
I fell back to 185.85 and all is as well as Bethesda allows for things to be. I'd try these new ones, but God damn is it difficult to roll back drivers in Windows 7. There's one nightmare I'd rather not have to relive if I can help it.
firas
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after the temperature disappear problem with the 195.62 WQL drivers, a new problem comes with these 196.21 WHQL, the Shader clock is blacked everywhere (evga precsicion, riva tuner, msi afterburner, nvdia syatem tools) and the core/memory control (OC) is broken, the fan control seems to work fine.
I don’t know if it was because of these drivers or it happened gradually through driver updates, frame rates are notably higher than last time I tested, I did that around October when I was comparing performance when vsync is off or on, all with max settings @ 1680x1050 (vsync off)…
old HAWX ingame test: highest 137, avg 45
new HAWX ingame test: highest 251, avg 56
old FC2 ingame test : highest 127, avg 61, min 33
new FC2 ingame test : highest 137, avg 62, min 34
also Crysis Warhead performance is much better now than before 10 months (last time I played it), average 29 FPS with all settings at enthusiast and x2 AA (not that I play at this FPS), other games got better frame rates but I don’t have exact numbers.
no installation, stuttering, crashing or any other issues while playing but I never faced these issues though I used every single driver update NV has released.
I don’t know if it was because of these drivers or it happened gradually through driver updates, frame rates are notably higher than last time I tested, I did that around October when I was comparing performance when vsync is off or on, all with max settings @ 1680x1050 (vsync off)…
old HAWX ingame test: highest 137, avg 45
new HAWX ingame test: highest 251, avg 56
old FC2 ingame test : highest 127, avg 61, min 33
new FC2 ingame test : highest 137, avg 62, min 34
also Crysis Warhead performance is much better now than before 10 months (last time I played it), average 29 FPS with all settings at enthusiast and x2 AA (not that I play at this FPS), other games got better frame rates but I don’t have exact numbers.
no installation, stuttering, crashing or any other issues while playing but I never faced these issues though I used every single driver update NV has released.
Yep same here but seems my old clocks according to Gpuz are fine.
Camberwell
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I've got this too, Afterburner shader clock gone blanked out, no OC allowed either.....odd. Rolled back to 195.62 for now...
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I can 100% confirm this dude. I went from the 40's in dirt2 with no SLI to over 120+ on average with the newest drivers. My jaw hit the floor. I knew it was gonna be alot better but I didn't expect scaling of that magnitude. Totally awesome to see before your eyes, seriously.
There's an issue with the latest drivers and evga precision and is confirmed by evga and unwinder at their forums. He says he will get to a possible fix within the next week since he has issues with his personal rigs and can't spare the time to worry about it right now.
Those of you that know unwinder's personality know he catches an attitude at the drop of a hat and gets all pissy when people start asking him questions or requesting things. But anyway ya, they know about it. The cards are working fine at stock factory settings just can't OC em.I dont OC my video cards anyway so I'm all good there. I just use precision for the fan control and to monitor temps on my G15.
nVidia System Tools don't work either to control overclocking. I am surprised these are a WHQL release. I expect a BETA release within the next few days that gets PhysX working in Dark Void (benchmark and retail patched versions) along with overclocking.
Unknown-One
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I'm with you there, the latest Nvidia drivers that work with my laptop's video card are the 179.48's. I would love to get my hands on a new set.
Haste266
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I installed the 196.21's on my Vista64 system with one GTX 260 [see sig].
I had passed on the drivers after the 190.62's as those were working fine for me and there seemed to be some horror stories with newer versions.
I took a chance with these because I don't want to be too far behind and there is a new phsx iteration contained also. So far so good.
Dirt2 seems even smoother/quicker
Shift balked at the new PhysX drivers the first few times but got past that easily and performance is fine.
Stalker SoC no problems, nothing negative.
Burnout Paradise, same
Left For dead- same
Dirt 1
MoH Airborne.
CoD WaW
Far Cry 1+2=fine
Fallout 3 same
Crysis/Warhead same
Wolfenstein
Half Life/Valve type games good too.
So for me, with no multiple gpus, these drivers are good except EVGA's Precision utilitie's shader clock adjustment doesn't work. I rarely use it so no big deal for me anyway.
I had passed on the drivers after the 190.62's as those were working fine for me and there seemed to be some horror stories with newer versions.
I took a chance with these because I don't want to be too far behind and there is a new phsx iteration contained also. So far so good.
Dirt2 seems even smoother/quicker
Shift balked at the new PhysX drivers the first few times but got past that easily and performance is fine.
Stalker SoC no problems, nothing negative.
Burnout Paradise, same
Left For dead- same
Dirt 1
MoH Airborne.
CoD WaW
Far Cry 1+2=fine
Fallout 3 same
Crysis/Warhead same
Wolfenstein
Half Life/Valve type games good too.
So for me, with no multiple gpus, these drivers are good except EVGA's Precision utilitie's shader clock adjustment doesn't work. I rarely use it so no big deal for me anyway.
Unknown-One
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im using 195.62 on my laptop with an 8400m gs...
Key word missed
Installing any drivers more recent than the 179.48's on my laptop results in a BSoD. Luckily I can boot into safe mode and revert the changes. I guess there's something odd about the GeForce 7600 in my laptop that the new drivers don't like.
wowzors
sirmonkey1985
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theres actually no reason for you to update past 179.48.. nvidia stopped improving the drivers for the 7 and 8 series cards a long time ago.. only time they ever fix something for the 8 series cards is when they change something to fix the G200 series and it breaks something in the drivers for the 8 series.. so stick with what ya have.. not like you can run physX anyways so theres no point in updating just for the physX updates..
sirmonkey1985
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nope nvidia must of hired the old driver team from ATI or something.. because its becoming a friggin joke at this point.. if i wasnt so friggin poor i would of already switched back to ATI..
Already a new version of Evga's "Precision" overclocking/monitoring utility.
This fixes the loss of some clock controls with the new Nvidia drivers.
Works for me
http://www.evga.com/precision/
This fixes the loss of some clock controls with the new Nvidia drivers.
Works for me
http://www.evga.com/precision/
Camberwell
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Hopefully an updated Afterburner will follow shortly...
Honestly thought it was only me
LOL
It didn't improve Aero's performance though. It's still sluggish, which is why I'm moving back to ATI.
Unknown-One
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Hmm, Aero performs fine here on my Nvidia card.
What card are you using? A GeForce FX 5200?
Camberwell
Gawd
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There is a new 1.5.0 beta 5 version of Afterburner which solves the OC issues with 196.21, you can download it at Guru3D.com.....works like a charm! Got my 2D/3D underclock/overclock profiles back, and shader clock too. There's also a new 'K' button which is a Furmark-style stress test. Thanks, Unwinder!
Unknown-One
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Seems like it might be a good idea to skip these drivers, at least until software catches up with the changes. Performance with them looks good, though.
heatlesssun
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I think I'm seeing "microstuttering" in 3 and 2 way SLI. Tested all my cards on by one and in Dirt 2 (which only got official SLI this week in the 196.21 drivers) and Need for Speed Shift I get that momentary hitching effect that many people observe with games when running with multi-gpu configurations, happens with both AMD and nVidia hardware from what I've read. I have never played Shift before these drivers and haven't tested it with older drivers. This may or may not be a problem with older drivers, I don't know.
But something like MW 2 runs just great with SLI, as most mother games, just now and then games like these. I just run Dirt 2 and Shift in single card mode. While the average frame rates are much lower, they aren't horrible, around 45 FPS average in Dirt 2 and about 50 in Shift. And the games just don't show any signs of "microstuttering" with one card and just run much better. In some cases the stuttering isn't so "micro", its a VERY noticeable stutter, in both games.
Still though I have loved these 3 280s. Still powerful enough that 18 months after it was launched it can still max out a new AAA title with a lot of GPU guzzling capability is very nice. And when three work you just get a great experience.
March is gonna be expensive for me. New CPU, GPUs, PSU might be necessary this time. A lot of VERY powerful toys on the way.
But something like MW 2 runs just great with SLI, as most mother games, just now and then games like these. I just run Dirt 2 and Shift in single card mode. While the average frame rates are much lower, they aren't horrible, around 45 FPS average in Dirt 2 and about 50 in Shift. And the games just don't show any signs of "microstuttering" with one card and just run much better. In some cases the stuttering isn't so "micro", its a VERY noticeable stutter, in both games.
Still though I have loved these 3 280s. Still powerful enough that 18 months after it was launched it can still max out a new AAA title with a lot of GPU guzzling capability is very nice. And when three work you just get a great experience.
March is gonna be expensive for me. New CPU, GPUs, PSU might be necessary this time. A lot of VERY powerful toys on the way.