Is it better to use the drivers provided by Nvidia or the drivers provided by my card manufacturer (Leadtek in this case)?

I'd start with the manufacturer drivers, and see how your system performs. Test first for stability, so you have a driver you know you can fall back to if you have problems. Most such drivers are generic Nvidia reference, but some manufacturers throw in a few tweaks. One overclocks their card slightly, as an example. I've used the 21.83 drivers included with my card since day one, although I had a brief try at the 29.42 drivers... Saw a slight performance drop with the 29.42's, and went back to the 21.83 drivers. But if you have a later GeF (mine is a GeF/2), newer drivers than those shipped with your card may improve performance.

K, sounds good. I have a Leadtek Winfast GeForce2 Pro. I tried their latest drivers which are the 21.38's (pretty damn old). I saw a slight improvement in frames but the anti-aliasing portion of it sucks major schwanz. When I use RivaTuner to crank up the anti-aliasing it brought my sytem to it's knees. 7 to 10 fps. When I use the the 29.42's I see a only a slight drop in frames but the anti-aliasing works better. So, I dunno! LOL

Use Leadtek's drivers for the base of the video card. Windows needs this in order for the OS to recognize your video card. Then update your Nvidia drivers as needed...removing your old drivers before you upgrade to new ones.30.x of the det. Nvidia drivers should be out in a few weeks....I hear that they are very good.

Huh? I'm running XP, BTW. XP recognizes the card cause it has it's own drivers for it.

Another option is the Omega drivers. Performance isn't the thrust of these: display quality is. Since Flight Simulator is so CPU bound, you'd be hard pressed to see any difference between driver sets regardless of driver version (specially in quality modes). With the Omega drivers, no tweaking is necessary to get the best display quality as its set for that by default (unlike the stock Detonator drivers from Nvidia or any card manufacturer). But even if you wanted to tweak the Omega drivers, its the only Detonator set that comes fully unlocked to do so (the extra "hidden" tabs for driver tweaks for example). The current Omega release is based on the Detonator 29.42's.Highly recommended for novices especially, but all users as well:http://www.omegacorner.comTake care,http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif

I heard the ground textures swim with those drivers.

Hi Gary,No different than setting your LOD low in other drivers as is usually the recommendation here. By default the LOD is tweaked in these drivers "out of box" so to speak (as are many other settings)... Possibly beyond what some/most would consider "correct" for FS. But then again, so are the standard Detonator drivers: they are way too blurry "out of box".These drivers are no different than any others in that case: nothing stops you from tweaking them back to any setting that doesn't bother you. Some do not like low LODs as you say, but some do - its a preference thing. At the minimum with these drivers, you get all driver tabs "unlocked" by default to tweak to your hearts content... And with RivaTuner's help for some of the more esoteric settings.Take care,http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif

Well, I guess I can give them a try. I hope they don't bring my GeForce2 Pro to it's knees. LOL! Thanks for your help Elrond. :D

I should mention I hosed my system last night trying to tweak my drivers with RivaTuner. LOL! It was not a pretty thing. I had to do a clean reinstall over everything this morning.

Ah yes... Thats not too uncommon with RivaTuner unfortunately. Its "Power User" tab should be fully removed from the tool and made into its own stand-alone tool. The standard driver tweaks as available outside the Power User tab should never cause such headaches by themselves however. I talk with the author at times, so now that you make me think of it, I'll write and ask for just that.Sorry to hear what happened, but glad you're back on track.Take care,http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif