Dual Boot

Post by **Vice** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:01 am

Just wanted to post an alert about some serious problems with the latest drivers from Nvidia (which may or may not effect SW3DG games on some system configurations). Apparently, the recent 257.15 and 257.21 WHQL drivers from Nvidia are introducing numerous problems in a variety of games and across numerous system configurations for many gamers. Problems include blue screens (BSOD's), freezing, and the most common, stuttering. The stuttering can range from short hesitations every second or so up to full second freezes every few seconds, depending on the game and system configurations. Missing textures, artifacts, and other rendering flaws also seem to be occuring. I've personally encountered the stuttering issue today when I tried to update my video drivers, so I rolled back to an old version.

Until Nvidia fixes these issues, rolling back to an older driver should resolve the issues in the meantime (worked successfully for me). I have personally found the 191.XX set to be stable and offer excellent performance. Up to 197.XX also seems to be reliable. I'll try to post again here as new solutions/updates become available.

[Edited on 6-29-2010 by Vice]

GORF · Post by **GORF** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:54 am

POST

since the 400mod. gpu.s have been out , the drivers have been bad.

Drivers and bios should only be updated if there is a problem.
if your system is working ,dont try to fix it

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:13 pm

LOL.....If it ain't broken do not get a new one.....

:P:P:P:P

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 3:32 pm

Thanks for the heads-up, Vice. But like Gorf and Maars, I'm of the opinion you should never fix something if it ain't broke ... and my old nVidia driver works just fine.

Nigel_Strange · Post by **Nigel_Strange** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:31 pm

In my experience the latest good driver is 190.38.

From what I understand, the newer drivers are written to optimize Vista and Windows 7 features (which I don't have), introducing new inefficiencies to XP users like myself.

Since the new drivers do not support my environment, I do not support the new drivers.

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:46 am

Usually it's not a fix but an improvement. That's why in the first year after getting my 7900GTX I upgraded several times. Then the new generation of cards popped out and drivers where obviously dedicated to them...and I stopped caring for it since my rig was working good.

Nigel_Strange · Post by **Nigel_Strange** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 2:17 pm

One thing I can't stand is that some games require that you get the "latest" drivers. I ran into this recently and found that the game still failed, so I reloaded my older drivers to restore my system.

Any tech support person is going to sing the same song, though, and it is rubbish.

ryuu · Post by **ryuu** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 2:21 pm

the reason for this is that they have tested the software assuming the "latest drivers" and have it working, however, the proboems are usually a clash between the game and windows.
windows is the enemy of the ninja-pirate-dolphin-ant-duck-cheep cheep-robot mushroom men

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 2:30 pm

The Alien kind certainly seem to be that way......LOL.....Alienware that is.......

:P:P:P:P

Lord Kharn · Post by **Lord Kharn** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:28 am

Sounds like a shader problem to me. I say this because my Alien has 2.0 and not 2,0b so I can't play The Witcher, or Fallout 3. They installed fine but I got all the flickering and crashing mentioned. Not like I'm missing anything though, since I already beat them on my last Trash-shiba (Toshiba).

BTW I hate Nividia since their graphics cards melted my last two laptops, and shrugged their shoulders. I asked for a refund but they were like "Sucks to be you!" I swore to never buy another Nividia card again. This has "FORCED" me too purchase and Alienware with dual ATI 4870's, since everyone else was using cheapo-nividio's at the time-o... My drivers seem to work flawlessly other than the shader. Can't say the same for my DVD drive that took a crap because Dell is making Alien use "refurbished" (aka broken) CD/DVD drives. I can play data, but not DVD... Very aggravating. I'll be sending it in for a repair when I get back from Iraq... lol.

Post by **Vice** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:27 pm

Just tested the latest drivers from Nvidia, version 258.96 and problems remain. It seems they may have fixed some of the flickering problems and possibly some stability issues, but the the hesitations/pausing/stuttering still occur badly. In fact, they seem to occur while you look around in a game's environment, as though the scene has to be placed into video memory or something and that's where the process is horribly slow. Once a scene is mostly 'cached', much of the stuttering goes away. But these drivers still do not work well and would not be recommended until they are finally fixed. I'll continue to post updates here as new driver versions are available from Nvidia.

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:33 pm

Think I already mentioned this ... relative to the VSync thing. The tweaking program I use lets me adjust the number of frames the computer "looks ahead" ... supposedly, certain settings reduce flicker ... and other settings can keep your mouse cursor from lagging.

Edit: Almost forgot why I mentioned the above ... just wondering if the new nVidia drivers re-set (or disable) video settings like the one I just mentioned (which has other names, too, adding to the confusion).

[Edited on 7-20-2010 by Marvin]

DennyMala · Post by **DennyMala** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:14 am

Well, I'm on the opposite of Lord Kharn position. ATI failed me a couple of times while NVIDIA never did.

Consider that NVIDIA don't produce the entire componet for the PC but only the core GPU; I used the ASUS product and all is really fine. There are other productor on the market that to me offer way less safety.

On the other hand I think ATI produces them too.

tk7223 · Post by **tk7223** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 10:09 pm

Well...I am using 258.96 on Win7 x64.......

Been playing Champions online, WOW, Star Trek online, and EL.......no graphic issues on any of em.

But this is a fresh install...and I have very little overhead running to conflict with my games.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:12 pm

What 3D card? That seems to be where the big difference is. Seems the problems escalate the older the video card is. For example, many of the problems seem to be most common on the 8X and 9X series of video cards, moderate problems with the 2X and 3X line of cards, few or no problems with the latest 4X line of cards.

tk7223 · Post by **tk7223** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 7:05 am

I am running EVGA brand 8600GT x2 in SLI with 258.96 directly from Nvidia. I never had any other driver installed previously, just got it downloaded directly once I had fresh install of Win7x64. The only other drivers I had to load after OS install where for my Zboard and AMD coproccessor. Everything else, Including sound, got auto done by Win7.

Post by **Vice** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 3:30 pm

Interesting, you're one of the fortunate ones I guess. Perhaps it has something to do with certain common motherboard/GPU combinations or something. I tried them on both my laptop (Win7 64-bit) and desktop (Win7 32-bit) with the same problem. Hopefully they'll get it sorted in the next release. The 197.X set is still proving solid in the meantime.

NewPlayer · Post by **NewPlayer** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:13 pm

This is interesting, as I have a dual boot system using one Intel SSD divided into two partitions.

Drice C:=Win7 32bit
Drive E:=WinXP SP3.

Graphics card is Asus GeForce 9600GT x2 with SLI enabled and 120Hz monitor @1680x1050.
EL graphics set to max â€“ no 3D cockpit â€“ resolution at Optimised Max Vsync. 258.96 drvs on both systems.

Under XP I get occasional graphics stuttering. Not bad enough to make the game unplayable but very noticeable and off-putting.

Under Win7 not a murmur. Super smooth graphics with FPS of anything from 54 upwards depending whatâ€™s happening on screen.

@tk7223
As a matter of interest, what settings do you use in the Nvidia Control Panel for EL?

tk7223 · Post by **tk7223** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 9:20 pm

Originally posted by NewPlayer

@tk7223
As a matter of interest, what settings do you use in the Nvidia Control Panel for EL?

I use default settings with no specific profile for any of my games - in Nvidia control panel. I use 1440x900 60Hz with everything on highest settings for EL. I have not run any check for FPS but never had any issues with frame stuttering.

NewPlayer · Post by **NewPlayer** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:20 pm

Ok - well I use different profiles for my games depending usually on age of game and type of graphics it uses - i.e directX or openGL etc. I find it makes a difference and can sometimes improve a games looks. Anyway, glad to hear you're not bucking any problems.

BTW, you probably already know, but when you press the tilde / scroll key in EL various numbers are displayed at the top left of the screen. The very first number is your FPS reading.

[Edited on 7-25-2010 by NewPlayer]

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 4:15 pm

Just wanted to say (admit) that Vice was correct on this issue. Also ... shouldn't this thread be in Tech Support?

Post by **Vice** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 5:17 pm

We'll leave it here for now, it's really an Nvidia problem and not really something I can offer support for game-side. In some games on some system configurations, the problem has been called 'micro-stuttering', where the game seems to skip frames every few seconds or several times a second. Obviously such a problem can really throw off your aim in a FPS and hurt overall framerate performance. With others, long pauses up to 2 full seconds where the game just seems to 'hang' for long intervals. There also seems to be problems with the Nvidia control panel. And enough Nvidia users have reported burned out video cards from some kind of problem with the drivers disabling/limiting cooling fans that I won't even touch a '256' series driver until they fix the problems. 197 series drivers have proven reliable and are still pretty current (spring), so that's what I'll stick with for now.

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:12 pm

Those are some big problems. I mentioned this thread to another player who has just switched over to nVidia. I think I'd better send another email and emphasize more strongly that he should read this thread!

Post by **Vice** » Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:06 pm

Here's an update. Manuel over at Nvidia says that a new driver set should be out (likely beta) within the next 10 days. It will hopefully fix the micro-stuttering and long pauses, control panel issues, overheating video card problem, and various game compatibility issues. Not sure how much longer WHQL drivers will be, but hopefully this will make the '256' series of drivers functional for most Nvidia users.

Post by **Vice** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:46 pm

Ok, I have some good news to report on the Nvidia driver issue. They just released a beta driver today, 260.63, which is available for download on their site in the Beta and Archived driver setion. This driver has apparently fixed the severe stuttering issue for SW3DG games. I have not finished testing the drivers with other games, and there does seem to be some reminaing issues with various other titles, but for SW3DG games, this driver is turning out to be a good performer. You may want to wait until the final driver is released and is WHQL certified, but if you've been trying to use one of the newer drivers sets above 197, this may work correctly for you.