How are the new nVidia 40.xx drivers?

[JSACKS 0]

I use nVidia 30.82s on my Ti-4600 and they work great.Should I download the newer nVidia 40.72 drivers? If they are better, in what way so ? Appreciate advice, thanks!JS

[kparrish1 0]

>I use nVidia 30.82s on my Ti-4600 and they work great. >>Should I download the newer nVidia 40.72 drivers? If they >are better, in what way so ? >>Appreciate advice, thanks! >>JS I"ve been using the 41.09 drivers so far so good no problems. keith:-beerchug

[Guest drobson]

I'm using the 42.01s and they work great. I can now crank up the AA and the Anisotropic filtering, and it works great.Darrell

[JSACKS 0]

Do you mean you can increase the FSAA without a frame rate hit or performance degradation?Do the drivers IMPROVE frames or performance at all?Appreciate your post, thanks!JS

[Guest drobson]

With the 4109 drivers, any text on the screen--shift z stuff or ATC had a blur to it, and I had to run AA off or at a very low setting. I now have AA fully to the right. I have the AF setting at 4x, but it is a little too much. I'm gonna cut it back to the next notch to 2x and give that a try. I've got my fps set to 20, all other sliders all the way to the right. With the AF set at 4x I am getting some jerkiness at KSFO, but once away from the airport, it goes up to the max fps setting.I'm running the following: AMD XP2000 @ 1687 mhz512 megs of PC2700DDrGF4 Ti4200-64 meg video card2 19" monitorsDarrell

[Guest]

I was wondering if any of you are doing any other GPU tweaking on your TI4600? I have the Gainward Ultra750 Golden Sample 128 and have good frame rates, but I notice the detail on the scenery tends to have blocky blurred effect to it when viewed from outside the cockpit (i.e. VC on the DF734). This blurring clears up when you close in on a particular area, but is otherwise kind of annoying!

[JSACKS 0]

No tweaking for me! I am just glad the card works!No, but seriously, the card is good. Although frankly my old ELSA DDR GTS card was just as good. But I guess the texture fill capabilities are far superior with this one and the processor is great. All in all, I am pretty happy with the card.I just installed the 40.72 drivers this weekend and honestly cannot see a blind bit of difference between them and the 30.82 series I'd been using. There's a somewhat fancier user interface to customize things, but that's about it. Sometimes I wonder why we do this stuff.....!JS

[Guest]

I too question all the updates! I'm sure there are things happening only the tech guys could appreciate.

[Guest rbbarker]

Do you adjust AA and filtering on the video driver or in FS2K2? I have both disabled on my card and AA enabled in game. Should I change that?Boyd BarkerSenior Command CaptainBOS Hub ManagerWestWind Airlineshttp://home.houston.rr.com/checklist/DFexperience.jpghttp://home.houston.rr.com/checklist/checklist.htmlMy DF737 Around the World Adventure: http://home.houston.rr.com/checklist/aroundtheworld.html

[Guest]

Boyd,Are you asking me about the AA settings? I have everything set to MAX. My drivers are 41.09!

[Cruachan 705]

Hi JS,That, I think, sums it up.I too use the 30.82s and they are rock solid with my Ti4400 in XP. My attitude has slowly matured to the point that now I feel it reckless to risk introducing instabilities unless there is something about the drivers' functionality that REALLY needs fixing. I don't use FSAA, preferring instead to use a higher screen resolution. Mipmapping LOD can be adjusted easily with Rivatuner as can the level of Anisotropy.After several months I have found no significant issues with the 30.82s in any game or sim. I used to chop and change drivers but, like the BIOS on your MoBo, unless an update is offering something significant and relevant to you then stick with that which is already providing proven stability and performance.Mike :-wave

[Guest]

Mike,I respect your thoughts on the 30.82 and would like to ask a favor. Would you provide the following:1) What is the highest driver version used?2) Have you have been successfull at uninstalling drivers in order to revert to a previous release, if so, what procedure did you use?3) What are you FS2002 Display settings, (all three screens)?4) What is you frame rate, (use the straight and level training flight by Rod Michado and report an average for hte first 3 minutes)?5) What are your RivaTuner settings?6) What are your hardware specifications?Sorry for all the questions, but in order to establish a benchmark of success or failure with a particular driver data is required.Thanks!

[Guest]

Just to add to the post, here are my findings:I have a AMD 1800XP+ Overclocked to 2000XP+. I also overclocked my video card (Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 Golden Sample), which was already factory overclocked, to 235/500Mhz. That is the equivalent of the Ti500. All this using the 42.01 drivers along with RivaTuner.At first my sim was running at low frame rates like around 7-8 at Meigs. After I turned on the side band addressing the frame rates are double that with all sliders maxed to the right, with FSAA 2X and 75m Terrain Mesh.On my system everything runs smooth until, like someone mentioned above, I start increasing the anisotropy level. Frame rates are still high but the stutter factor is there.All in all I would say these drivers are definately what I was looking for. Your milage may differ however. Enjoy tweaking!AMD 1800XP+ (ovc to 2000XP+)Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 Golden Sample (ovc to 235/501Mhz)Soyo K7V Dragon Plus (FSB ovc to 143Mhz)Kingston PC2100 DDRSeagate Barracuda 40.0 GB HDD at 7200rpmEnermax Whisper Power Supply 450WWindows XP Home EditionRegards,Andy CecchettiKCMH

[Guest rbbarker]

Are you using the AA setting on your video driver or in FS2K2?Boyd BarkerSenior Command CaptainBOS Hub ManagerWestWind Airlineshttp://home.houston.rr.com/checklist/DFexperience.jpghttp://home.houston.rr.com/checklist/checklist.htmlMy DF737 Around the World Adventure: http://home.houston.rr.com/checklist/aroundtheworld.html

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Scott,I see now I should have kept my mouth shut...LoL!I'll try and answer by taking each query in turn:1) What is the highest driver version used?......... I have not tried anything later than the 30.82s There has been no justification for doing so as I am very happy with this set. Under Windows 98SE I lost count of the number of drivers tried and became quite an 'expert' at their successful installation and uninstallation. However, under WindowsXP Home I have only had to try three sets. The first was the 27.50s, then the 29.42s but these seemed to be at the root of occasional lockups. The 30.82s, on the other hand, seem very stable and perform well.2) Have you have been successfull at uninstalling drivers in order to revert to a previous release, if so, what procedure did you use?......... So far I have not been faced with this issue under XP. All you need to do is ensure that you create a RESTORE point prior to installing a different set of drivers. If things then subsequently go pear shaped simply perform a 'System Restore' by selecting the date at which the RESTORE point was created.One thing to note here: Many recommend the use of Detonator Destroyer. This works well under Windows98/SE/ME. However, my understanding is that there is not yet an XP version. Arguably, it is not really needed under XP.3) What are you FS2002 Display settings, (all three screens)?......... My desktop display is 1024x768x32......... FS2002 (Full Screen) is 1280x960x32 on a 17" Sony Monitor4) What is you frame rate, (use the straight and level training flight by Rod Michado and report an average for hte first 3 minutes)?......... This is a tricky one as it depends on so many variables. Suffice to say most of my display levers are set fairly high and I like to load and display extended textures right out to the horizon. FSUIPC adjusts viewing distance automatically depending on your altitude and I note the training flight takes place at 2000'AGL. The conditions are clear with slight haze in the distance so I guess my max viewing distance was around 15-20 miles. I set the frame rate lock to 98fps (normally I have it set at 30fps).Here goes:Looking straight ahead (Full Panel).... 50+ (occasional peaks of 70+)Looking straight ahead (Gauges only)... 30+Looking straight ahead (Clear screen).. 40+Looking 90 degrees left ............... 30+Looking 90 degrees right .............. 40+I should add that this test was carried out while composing this response, i.e. no Windows background tasks were stopped, including IE6.5) What are your RivaTuner settings?......... Mipmapping LOD -0.1......... Texture Anisotropy forced to level 4 with no further adjustments under 'Optimize'......... VSync is set to 'Always On' (my monitor refeshes at 85Hz and I am not interested in allowing frame rates to rise higher than 85fps in any game/sim).6) What are your hardware specifications?........ My System Spec:Gigabyte GA-8IRXP MoBoIntel Pentium 4 2.2A512MB Crucial PC2100 DDR Ram3D Blaster4 Ti4400 (Creative's 30.82 driver variants tweaked with RivaTuner LOD -0.1 and Anisotropy forced level 4)Sony Multiscan G200 17" MonitorSB Audigy Player (Drivers version 5.12.01.0253 Signed)Deskstar 120GXP UDMA100 HDs x 2 (60 and 40 Gig)CH Products USB Yoke, Pedals and FighterstickPlantronics Headset and Mike comboPlexWriter 40/12/40APioneer DVD-106SWindows XP Home Edition (SP1)DirectX 8.1AGP Aperture = 128MBNo overclocking3DMark2001 SE score: Around 9600 - I can't recall the exact figure off hand (N.B. Anisotropy restored to default setting)It's a while since I last ran this benchmark as there really has been little need to do so - everything runs great! FS2002 would soon tell me if there was something amiss!Hope all or some of this is helpful.Mike :-wave