Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Guest rdg

Fact or Fiction - Drivers get better over time

Recommended Posts

Guest rdg

Hi,I often wondered as I have tried many drivers. I have an 8800GT OC and always had this question in the back of my mind. Do the base algorythms the programmers write really improve? In other words, do they somehow wake up one morning and say "I have a better way to do this, and I can do it it 4 lines instead of 2" thus improving something? Maybe I can make this chip faster so Joe over there can get better frames. I think early drivers to support a new board probably go through that initial "this will work better" stage, but it seems to me that most of the driver updates are to support new boards, or to fix certain games that have some type of anomoly so to speak. I dont know really, it just seems to me if the code base gets larger and they support a wider variety of cards that they wont get better, and maybe not worse, so what is your opinion. As a retired developer, I know what bloated code can do, although this is such a specialty type programming, I dont really have a clue.RegardsBob G

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's not about "base algorithms" anymore, everything is optimized on a per-title basis. So yes, drivers do get better over time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest rdg

That makes sense. But, do they get more bloated, less efficient?ThanksBob

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
That makes sense. But, do they get more bloated, less efficient?ThanksBob
Maybe the question should be narrowed down to:Do they offer better performance in FSX?I've yet to hear that the 180 drivers are any better in FSX than my trusty 175.16 drivers.

Bert

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest rdg
Maybe the question should be narrowed down to:Do they offer better performance in FSX?I've yet to hear that the 180 drivers are any better in FSX than my trusty 175.16 drivers.
Hi Bert, me too! I went through 6 drivers and was very diligent about my testing and I dont have my FSX machine booted right now but I believe I am in the 175xxx too. I use an 8800GT oc board and it is just a fact that there are differences in these drivers.That was my motivation for the post. You have support for this and that, and we added this to the driver. It just seems logical that although most of the nvidia chips for many of the cards have common ground, I am sure there are differences.I have always been a strong believer that whenever you try to combine too much into one thing, something breaks or suffers, especially software. I guess if you really wanted to get to the truth, you would have to talk to the nvidia folks who write them.RegardsBob

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well...here's some more to think about. Untill last summer, I had an E6750 with an 8800gt on a cheap MB. No OC possible. I couldn't use anything newer than 169.25 drivers. All kinds of problems with anything newer. Last summer I got a better MB and faster ram. This MB OCs with jumpers, so I did that, and guess what. Still couldn't use newer drivers. In January I got a Q9550 and a GTX 260 on the same MB, and guess what. No drivers worked really well. In fact the 260 stopped working all together. I stopped using the jumper OC and used the BIOS instead, and guess what. Everything works great with even the newest drivers. The moral of the story is that there are a whole lot of reasons why drivers(or any computer part) work or not.And something else. I will install drivers, run a 3DMark and get a score. A month later I'll run a test and the score will be much lower. Reinstall the same drivers and the score goes back up.What's up with that???Bob


Bob

i5, 16 GB ram, GTX 960, FS on SSD, Windows 10 64 bit, home built works anyway.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest rdg
Well...here's some more to think about. Untill last summer, I had an E6750 with an 8800gt on a cheap MB. No OC possible. I couldn't use anything newer than 169.25 drivers. All kinds of problems with anything newer. Last summer I got a better MB and faster ram. This MB OCs with jumpers, so I did that, and guess what. Still couldn't use newer drivers. In January I got a Q9550 and a GTX 260 on the same MB, and guess what. No drivers worked really well. In fact the 260 stopped working all together. I stopped using the jumper OC and used the BIOS instead, and guess what. Everything works great with even the newest drivers. The moral of the story is that there are a whole lot of reasons why drivers(or any computer part) work or not.And something else. I will install drivers, run a 3DMark and get a score. A month later I'll run a test and the score will be much lower. Reinstall the same drivers and the score goes back up.What's up with that???Bob
We are (picture of a screw). I am sure glad NASA doesnt have these problems!Bob

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...