More new nVidea drivers

[Kevin Farnell]

Only a couple of weeks after the last release, nVidea have issued more drivers (V 178.24) for their GeForce 6100 cards onwards.
Can only think that the previous release had some problems.
I've just down loaded them and about to give them a try.

Kevin

[RobDob]

Any improvement so far Kevin?

[Kevin Farnell]

Hi Rob

I can't see any major improvement over the previous drivers (178.13), but the previous ones (178.13) did show a marked improvement over their predecessors (175.19).
The improvement is noticeable (particularly in FS9) in smoothness rather than FPS.
I did read somewhere (nHancer website, I think) that if you connect your monitor via DVI, then you won't see frame rates above the refresh frequency of your monitor (egg 60Hz). If this is true (and it fits what I see), then FPS comparisons are meaningless.
The other factor, could be that nVidea now supply PhysX acceleration software with the drivers (from 178 drivers onwards). I believe that the PhysX software is only applicable to GeForce 8 series onwards.

Hope this is useful.

Kevin

[DaveB]

Hi Kevin

Tks for that ;-) Can you remember if that article mentioned dual monitors?? I run a CRT as the main monitor and a TFT off DVI :think:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[petermcleland]

Dave,

Frame Rates at the refresh rate of the screen should make absolutely anyone happy :flying:

[DaveB]

Oh yes.. I concur with that 100% Peter Having one monitor or both 'dragged down' to 60fps is certainly no hardship

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[ChrisHunt]

FPS of 60 - Luxury! My B day soon (and the good cricket score one at that!) so am hoping to get an Nvidia 9800GTX (will have to beg lots probably) so am sworn off playing until it arrives. Currently run an ATI 1950Pro so it ought to be a significant step up! Will consider free cycling said card if anyone is interested?

Regards,
Chris

[Rick Piper]

Hi Chris

you migth find the 9800GTX is significantly slower than the 8800 cards it's supposed to replace.

it's 30% slower for FSX for sure.

Kings of FSX are still the 8800GTS & GTX.

but other games should be faster on the 9800

Regards
Rick

[ChrisHunt]

Hi Rick,

I've based my decision on the Q3 Graphics Card charts over at Toms Hardware - they show the 9800GTX sitting just below the 8800GTS and just above the 8800GT but there isn't much in it. Have you heard something that contradicts the TH view? Incidentally the chart is also why I'm not going for the Radeon HD4850.

Regards,
Chris

[Rick Piper]

Hi Chris

He must have adjusted the chart as it was different when i last looked.

i might be quoting the 9800GT figures not the GTX

Regards
Rick