New WHQL Driver Out for all NVIDIA GPU's

[Guest Jim Knows]

Hi Guys/Gals,I tried the new drivers. I also have noticed an improvement in smoothness. nHancer is not required either. Any setting thats important in nHancer performs just as well using the same settings in the nVidia Control Panel. Q6600 quad @ 3.6ghz (Temps: min/max: 28C/55C)ASUS P5K-E WiFi moboBFG9800GX2 - Core@700/Shader@1750/Memory@1100 (amazing video card)(Temps: min/max: 44C/54C)Win XP Pro SP3FSX AccelerationUTX-CanadaTrackIR Pro 4.0RivaTuner 2.9

[jwenham 1]

I agree about not using Nhancer as well. When I used Nhancer I actually noticed a decline in performance. I am also seeing better cloud performance.

[Guest Nick_N]

>I agree about not using Nhancer as well. When I used Nhancer>I actually noticed a decline in performance. I am also seeing>better cloud performance.So you are saying you are running 8xS in the Nividia control panel?Because without that here, I get lousy ground and tree shimmers and the images is not anywhere near as appealing which is why I have stuck with the 174.74 beta drivers

[jwenham 1]

At the moment I have it set to let the application decide. I know for all you purests that that is no good for you but for me and my modest system I am using it has given me a much smoother sim. I probably could set it higher but this new driver without nhancer, has given a notable difference in smoothness. Actually I dont see any difference in image quality by not using nhancer but my system is not top of the line as yours. I am going to play around with some settings tonight and see what happens. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll hit 100 FPS blurrie free at KLAX!:-lol :-lol :-lol

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

Hi Gary,I see you live in NSW. back in '62 my parents emigrated as apparently you needed electricians and other tradespeople. We lived north of Sydney in Frenches Forest and spent many happy days at Manly beach.Dad didn't like it (he couldn't cope with the heat) so we returned home in '64. I'd love to go back but unless I win the lottery it's unlikely.Great country and I hope you get some rain soon!

[Guest Jim Knows]

>Because without that here, I get lousy ground and tree>shimmers and the images is not anywhere near as appealing>which is why I have stuck with the 174.74 beta driversI get zero shimmering anywhere. And zero blurries, whether it be low altitude or high altitude. Real crisp, incredibly sharp graphics. It almost doesn't matter which driver I use. The smoothness I get in FSX is so smooth, its equivalent to console graphic smoothness giving a real 3D feeling. That kind of 3D smoothness is really cool. Having said that, prior to 175.19, when I would be looking 90 degrees to my left or right, I would get the odd microstutter. BUFFERPOOLS helped with reducing the 90 degree view microstutter to a rare occurence. But with the 175.19 drivers, its gone. In FSX, I get 70-160 fps without vsync. And with vsync/triple buffer ON, I get a rock solid, very smooth 3D effect, 60 fps with vsync/triple buffer ON. In XP Pro 32 bit, I hardly do any maintenance. I rarely defrag neither.No tweaks in XP except for shutting down services that are not going to be used.In FSX.cfg, only the BUFFERPOOL and MipBias tweak is used.And in the nVidia Control Panel, all I do is put...AF - "Application Controlled" (Set AF to Anisotropic WITHIN FSX, and no less than that, or you will get the most gawd-awful looking graphics that I think Nick is talking about)AA MODE - "Enhance the application" (This is the the cause of most menu lockups right here. If you put that setting to "Override any application setting",its a guaranteed menu lockup in FSX".AA SETTING - 8xQ.Negative LOD bias - ClampTexture filtering quality - Performance (if you can see a difference between "High Quality or High Performance", then your eyes are much better than mineTrilinear optimization - ONTriple Buffering - ON (a must if you use vsync or your fps will drop)Vsync - Forced ON (This is a must for any driver/game, or you will get tearing/waving)

[Guest UlfB]

>I get zero shimmering anywhere.Jim, I can confirm that. No need for nHancer any more :-)Ulf BCore2Duo X6800 3.3GHz4GB RAM Corsair XMS2-8500C5BFG 8800GTX, Creative SB X-FiFSX Acc/SP2, Vista 32

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

Hi Ulf,This is beginning to sound quite good. Once the football is over I shall try them myself.Thanks too to Jim for his pioneering spirit!:-beerchug

[sargeski 16]

All I can say is WOW!These drivers produce the best looking graphics I have yet to experience in FSX and they are great performers to boot. The shimmering is gone and I am no longer utilizing nHancer to configure graphics settings. The NVIDIA Control Panel works like a charm.IMO these are MUST haves for NVIDIA owners.Two HUGE thumbs up from me!!

[tfm 169]

My experience of this driver is that it slightly increases framerates compared with 175.16. But in "Display Settings" it calls my 8800 Ultra an 8800GTS (although it is correctly recognised in the "Device Manager"); and it gave me my first "blue screen of death" for many many months.Tim

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

Funny you mention the 10 pound POM emigration scheme. In fact, I am one, with my parents and brothers moving from England to live in Australia in 1970. Unlike your parents, mine absolutely thrived on the place and now wonder how they ever put up with the constant less than sunny weather in England when they go back to visit relatives. I know no better as I was 2 yrs old when we moved to Australia, so it has all been good to me!Re rain, we've actually had quite a bit this year on the east coast, which is helping to refill the dams, but we aren't quite there yet.Gary

[Mace 1,928]

>All I can say is WOW!>>These drivers produce the best looking graphics I have yet to>experience in FSX and they are great performers to boot. The>shimmering is gone and I am no longer utilizing nHancer to>configure graphics settings. The NVIDIA Control Panel works>like a charm.>>IMO these are MUST haves for NVIDIA owners.>>Two HUGE thumbs up from me!!>>Nice to hear from another 8800GTX owner. Albeit an eVGA owner rather than BFG.I do indeed have a shimmer control problem with the 169 WHQL's. And in limited testing I have stability problems with 8xS mode (which may actually be unrelated to the AA setting) which some claim cures it.If 175 WHQL's cures it without resorting to 8xS I will probably have to install this.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

Yes, our weather is not that clever if you're a sun worshipper as I used to be in my younger days. But you do get used to it and when I read of folk having to run air-cond to stay cool I have to smile. I've never had an overheated computer here! :7So the big question has to be... who do you support when England plays Oz in cricket? Remember your roots! ;-)

[Guest UlfB]

Rhett and Ray,Please let me know about your view on shimmering in FSX with these new drivers.I have set the checkbox for Anti-aliasing in the FSX settings and filtering to Trilinear.In the nVIDIA control panel I have set:Anisotropic filtering: Application-controlledAA-gamma correction: OnAA-mode: Enhance application settingAA - Setting: 8xQAA - Transparency: OffConformant texture clamp: Use hardwareError reporting: OffExtension limit: OffForce mipmaps: OffMax pre-rendered frames: 3Multi-display: Multiple display performance mode (I've got 2 monitors)Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample opt: OffTexture filtering - Neg LOD bias: ClampTexture filtering - Quality: QualityTexture filtering - Trilinear opt: OnThreaded opt: OnTriple buffering: OnVertical sync: Force onI'm very curious on how you percieve FSX and the shimmering with these settings.Ulf BCore2Duo 6800 3.3GHz4GB RAM Corsair XMS2-8500C5BFG 8800GTX, Creative SB X-FiFSX Acc/SP2, Vista 32

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

Hi Ulf,It won't be until Friday evening before I try these new drivers and settings. Too much football to watch! :-)