It seems that a leaked copy of nVidia beta 60.72 drivers has leaked out on Guru3d and a few other sites. I was getting quite slow preformance in FS2004, around 16fps now I'm up to 25 and even 30fps. Not much for a slower system like mine but you never know what higher systems will get. These are with high aircraft, high terrain, low weather, no AA, 4x AS.Of course, like all leaked drivers, these are highly beta. Try them at your own risk. They worked for me but others may have some problems. The driver inf file supports all know nVidia cards. Some people have reported problems with some games but no major ones.You can look around for links on the guru3d forums or link directly from here. This is a direct download that does work.http://www.googlemaster.plus.com/60.72_winxp2k.exeThe drivers will probably be uploaded to the Guru3d library in a few days.

These look good -- just had a quick play with them - FS9 runs smoother- maybe a frame or two faster. Most noticeable is a much smoother effect when in a tight bank so that the scenery is runniong diagonally across the screen - very very much smoother. Certainly good ones for K7S5A users.DaveAMD Athlon 2000XP (@133/133)ECS K7S5A Mobo 3.1 :04/29/02 Rev BiosSiS 735 Chipset Rev 12 x 256mb DDR RAMGeforce4 Ti-4200-8x 128mb DDR AGPAGP 1.17 WHQL .Nvidia 60.72 XP Drivers2 x Maxtor 40GB HDD (7200rpm)LG 8x4x32 CDRWLG 52x CDRDirect X 9.0b Windows ME/ Windows XP dual boot(FS9 on WinXP)BIOS Settings- DRAM Timing Ultra. CAS Latency 3T,RAS ACtive 6T,RAS Precharge 3TL1 Cache Enabled.L2 Cache Enabled.Sys BIOS Cache Disabled.DRAM Drive Slew Rating - Fast

I agree...these drivers are much better than my 53.03's!!! Hoped into my Jayhawk, departed vancouver and did some 360's over the city with building storm weather settings. The darker clouds will kill drivers quickly! These drivers hardly even "hiccupped"! Man, these are very smooth!!!Now I'm gonna install 'em properly! Just installed these over my older ones.....so it may be better yet! Here's hoping any way!Thanks for the heads up!!!! Harry

They run fast and seem pretty good. Beautiful colors and crispness. However on my PC (AMD2200 with 1GB Sdram) and a Ti4800se GFX card, I still had some flickering etc. So uninstalled these and went back to 53.03 which is a good stable set.These have great promise though. I'll be watching for later builds. Keep the group informed! I dont change drivers too much any more, but these have real promise. BTW, Stay away from the Starstorm hacked Nvidia drivers. They arent that great. Basically same as Nvidia with some tweaked up contrast etc. Eric

Hello,I run the latest StarStorm 56.72 BUT the "B" version on my PIV 2.4, 1 Gb RAM, GF4 TI4600 and I have a nice 25 FPS very smooth images.I like them!

For me these weren

Two things:Emile, the `B` Starstorm are purely benchmarking drivers, scarificing IQ for speed. Try the `X` set for a better compromise in FS.The 60.xx series drivers are the initial set for the NEW range of Nvidia cards, due out next week. As such they probably contain very few optimisations for the older series of cards. The improved smoothness is noticeable, but watch out for these drivers in other games - they seem to introduce unwanted fog effects in many games.Also, as with many number change in NVidia driver sets it is best to remove the old drivers FIRST, before installing the new. Most users seem to just install new drivers over old, but this set definitely works best with a clean install. I used Uninstall, then Driver Cleaner, after creating a system restore point to my current 56.72x Starstorm drivers, which are magnificent in FS! I also deleted the relevant lines in the fs9.cfg and forced the game to recognise the new drivers - that alone made all the difference in visual quality as I think the new drivers are doing something new with mipmapping- the slider can now be moved beyond `4` in FS without causing shimmering! Allcott

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>Two things:>Emile, the `B` Starstorm are purely benchmarking drivers,>scarificing IQ for speed. Try the `X` set for a better>compromise in FS.>>The 60.xx series drivers are the initial set for the NEW range>of Nvidia cards, due out next week. As such they probably>contain very few optimisations for the older series of cards.>The improved smoothness is noticeable, but watch out for these>drivers in other games - they seem to introduce unwanted fog>effects in many games.>>Also, as with many number change in NVidia driver sets it is>best to remove the old drivers FIRST, before installing the>new. Most users seem to just install new drivers over old, but>this set definitely works best with a clean install. I used>Uninstall, then Driver Cleaner, after creating a system>restore point to my current 56.72x Starstorm drivers, which>are magnificent in FS! >>I also deleted the relevant lines in the fs9.cfg and forced>the game to recognise the new drivers - that alone made all>the difference in visual quality as I think the new drivers>are doing something new with mipmapping- the slider can now be>moved beyond `4` in FS without causing shimmering! >>AllcottThanks for pointing this out. As I said, these drivers are highly beta so your bound to find some problem. I figure nVidia leaks them on purpose and browses forums to find any problems that might have been overlooked. Still, there are some problems with other games. If you read the "nVidia Drivers" forum on Guru3d, you'll get an idea of what works and what is having problems. I figure that the better preformance we're noticing may be due to improved DirectX 9.0 compatability. As we all know, the FX series has had some problems with DX9.

In the main the increase comes from a reduction in the effective level of Anisotropic filtering.One of Nvidia's `optimisations`? or just a glitch in a beta driver? Only time will tell.Allcott

Well, whatever the reason, I am getting better FPS and smoother flights. And therefore I'm happy. This is the first time I've actually installed beta drivers and I don't regret it.

that googlemaster link just isn't working for me - does anyone have a link that does? Can't find these on Guru3d either - were they there and pulled? Just curious.Thanks,sg

Hello Allcott,I did try the "X" SS one, I agree IQ seams better, have lost some FPS but is acceptable.Thanks for the suggestion

Maybe too late for you but I am currently at Guru3D and the 60.72 are there, look towards the bottom of the front page under 'hot downloads' and click on the Forceware Drivers.HTH

I have gone form the 52.16 drivers to the 60.72 drivers and did notice an increase in the smoothness. I did not notice an increase in frame rates. As far as clarity I could not really see a difference. The other big thing it cured was the scrolling on the kneeboard. With the 52.16 drivers I could not scrool but this problem has been cured with the 60.72 I am running a P4 2.53 and a Ti 4200 video card and 1meg of DDR 2100 memory.Chuck;)