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

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

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

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.

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

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

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