I did (I have a test scenario I always use), and my average frame rate went down with the 180.48's vs. the 169.25's. But the shimmering is definitely much reduced with the 180.48's. Image qual is of course subjective but fps in my identical condtion scenario is not. Right now, I am enjoying the lack of shimmering, so much so that I may keep the 180.48's for a while.

Just out of curiosity, you should check the following settings in the NV Control Panel for both driver revisions for:Conformant texture clamp: Use hardwareTexture filtering - negative LOD bias: ClampTexture filtering - quality: High quality (note: this will automatically disable the "brilinear" and aniso filtering optimization options [which is a good thing])If you do these things you will ensure optimal texture filtering quality which should basically eliminate shimmering. Check performance of both drivers again and I think you'll find that the 180.48 driver may just come out on top after all.Regards,Max

What is the proper way to install new drivers?Greg

What is the proper way to install new drivers?Greg

Just install. If you experience difficulties, uninstall the old driver from the system control panel, reboot, then reinstall the driver. The only need for further cleaning is if you're changing graphics card vendors (i.e. going from Nvidia to ATi or vice versa).

What is the proper way to install new drivers?Greg

There's quiet a bit of opinion around on this topic and it is good to know your options, especially if things go wrong.Guru3D.com is the best place to get your Forceware drivers. There are always discussion threads for new beta and whql drivers so you can check out other folks experiences before downloading and installing yourself. Beta drivers are only recommended if you play the very latest AAA game titles (Far Cry 2, Crysis Warhead, Call of Duty 5 etc), otherwise stick with the whql versions.I highly recommend that you (and anyone else unsure of installing new forceware drivers) check out http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html

Just out of curiosity, you should check the following settings in the NV Control Panel for both driver revisions for:Conformant texture clamp: Use hardwareTexture filtering - negative LOD bias: ClampTexture filtering - quality: High quality (note: this will automatically disable the "brilinear" and aniso filtering optimization options [which is a good thing])If you do these things you will ensure optimal texture filtering quality which should basically eliminate shimmering. Check performance of both drivers again and I think you'll find that the 180.48 driver may just come out on top after all.Regards,Max

I have those settings going already.The 180.48s did bench slower on my rig. But I will test again. One comparo is not enough of a sample size.

I have those settings going already.The 180.48s did bench slower on my rig. But I will test again. One comparo is not enough of a sample size.

Were the same settings used in the previous driver? None of those settings are default values.

Were the same settings used in the previous driver? None of those settings are default values.

Yes, I had the previous driver set up the same;This weekend I'll do more test runs in my EGLL hell scenario and see if I can't pull up the performance of the 180.48's. I may do a defrag too. I really like the Image Quality on this new driver though.I do have relatively older hardware (8800GTX) and this wouldn't be the first time that I found a newer nVidia driver to run a little slower than an older one did. Are all of the people reporting higher performance using 9-series or 260/280 cards?

Yes, I had the previous driver set up the same;This weekend I'll do more test runs in my EGLL hell scenario and see if I can't pull up the performance of the 180.48's. I may do a defrag too. I really like the Image Quality on this new driver though.I do have relatively older hardware (8800GTX) and this wouldn't be the first time that I found a newer nVidia driver to run a little slower than an older one did. Are all of the people reporting higher performance using 9-series or 260/280 cards?

Running an 8800 GT here, I've seen a small perf. increase with this driver compared to the previous 178 set. Of course, 8800 GT uses the newer G92 chip rather than your G80-based 8800 GTX so it's possible for me to see an increase and you not.

Just install. If you experience difficulties, uninstall the old driver from the system control panel, reboot, then reinstall the driver. The only need for further cleaning is if you're changing graphics card vendors (i.e. going from Nvidia to ATi or vice versa).

I ended up getting a program called DriverCleaner because just using the Add/Remove way left bits of driver info. After screwing around for 3 days with it, I got DriverClean and then installed the 178 driver. Now everything works great. I think I'll wait a bit on the 180 drives!Greg

Note that these drivers appear to cause application crashes on some systems after a period of time, and this impacts not just in FSX. The earlier certified release 174.28 do not have that issue. In case you have issues with 180.48, your mileage does vary. You may be lucky :)

I installed them when they first were released on a fresh Vista 64/SP1 OS with the DirectX Nov.08 update and a GTX 280. With the ten or so games/sims I tested them with, I did not have any issues, they