Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: jihad on September 10, 2001, 03:02:00 PM

Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: jihad on September 10, 2001, 03:02:00 PM
Get in line, nVidea released them today, downloading at a blazing 1.45kbps.   :(
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: Lephturn on September 10, 2001, 03:14:00 PM
Please, please... if everything is working fine for you now, DO NOT update your drivers.

nVidia has a habit of putting out lots of hosed up drivers.

The hardware is only so fast.  The new drivers will not likely make any noticeable difference.  Unless you currently have a problem you have been unable to solve, I recommend you just keep your current drivers.
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: highflyer on September 10, 2001, 03:26:00 PM
On the contrary  ;)

Nvidia says that with these new drivers a Geforce 3 should be increased speedwise (bus optimizations) by 30-40 percent  ;)

Its worth checking out.

Also it is no bother to delete a few files, and reinstall the older ones if these show no promise  :D
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: 214thCavalier on September 10, 2001, 03:58:00 PM
Aha  :) and if you really ,REALLY want em go here quick ftp://ftp1.detonator.nvidia.com/pub/drivers/english/Windows/21.81/

COS WHILE THE NVIDIA SITE IS CRASHING AND TIMING OUT FOR THE LAST HOUR I JUST GOT EM HERE AT 12K / SEC  :)

oops caps  :)
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: whels on September 10, 2001, 03:59:00 PM
Quote
Originally posted by highflyer:
On the contrary   ;)

Nvidia says that with these new drivers a Geforce 3 should be increased speedwise (bus optimizations) by 30-40 percent   ;)

Its worth checking out.

Also it is no bother to delete a few files, and reinstall the older ones if these show no promise   :D


pre release test have shown a 10 to 40% increase in preoformance with Det4.
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: highflyer on September 10, 2001, 04:10:00 PM
a simple I agree wheels  ;)  :D
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: mason22 on September 10, 2001, 04:25:00 PM
I'm gonna agree with Lephturn on this one.

However, if you DO own a G3, then go ahead tryem out for us   :D

My ultra is sittin purty with 14.10's from herc untill i see the Nv's are ok.
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: SKurj on September 10, 2001, 04:43:00 PM
Use Cavalier's link, 120k/sec fer me

40 secs total

SKurj
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: Tac on September 10, 2001, 05:19:00 PM
I see no big difference with the det 4's in AH as far as fps goes.. I guess only 7fps gain.

However, when using the DX8 AH, its HORRIBLE. Type and the fps drops to 12, fire guns, you lose 5 fps (and im using no tracers!), move views it drops to 10 fps when the view is centering back to front..

In all, dx8 AH does not work well at all with the det4's for me. And yes AA is off and all that good stuff.
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: Lephturn on September 11, 2001, 07:18:00 AM
10-40% speed increase?  I'll believe that when I see it.  No driver is going to give you 40% more frames out of an existing card unless the previous ones were completely screwed to begin with.

Always remember... speed isn't everything.  If nVidia is claiming the benefit of these newer drivers is speed, stay away from them!  Extra speed doesn't come from thin air... they likely had to sacrifice something to get it.  Normally that something is stability, consistency, and/or image quality.

I say again... unless your current drivers are busted or you really want to be a ginea pig, keep the drivers you have now.  Only those with a GeForce 3 should even consider it, and only then if you know what you are doing and are willing to spend some time re-installing drivers.  Oh, and don't believe the tests you'll see on the web where they run Quake 3 and some benchmark program and call them stable.  They can still cause problems in AH, so my advice is to wait for a while and see how others do with them in AH on your OS before you mess with them.
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: Rocket on September 11, 2001, 08:00:00 AM
With my Asus V7700 I found out quickly to stay away from reference drivers and stick with factory released drivers. Saves a TON of problems in the long run.  
I am runnin great with the Asus 12.90 drivers with the exception my monitor wakes up all screwed up and I have to reboot to fix it.  I had to tell the monitor to never sleep.  Funny tho it works great if I turn it off.. just sleep mode screws it up.

S!
Rocket
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: AcId on September 11, 2001, 08:23:00 AM
Leph,
   You do have a valid point, However, I don't agree with your Quote."Extra speed doesn't come from thin air." To a point thats true, but I bet I can write 2 different drivers giving you differing speeds, there is a term out there called "code optimization"   :D I'm sure your aware of it, and it can be done without loosing quality. I'm not defending Nvidia, I just didn't agree with that one remark.   :)

But then again what if D-O-G really spelled cat?
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: Lephturn on September 12, 2001, 02:01:00 PM
While "code optimization" can account for some... these guys optimize as much as they can in the first couple of driver iterations.  I was careful to say "likely" in that sentence too btw. (Can you tell I'm in the software business?)  ;)  I also mentioned that you couldn't get a speed increase like that unless the previous versions were screwed up pretty bad.  Honestly, "code optimization" is normally geek-speak for re-designing to avoid the problems encountered in earlier versions.  It's not really "optimization" all.  When you see a big speed increase in a piece of software, they either fixed a bug that was crippling them, or they did some sort of re-design to build a faster product.  Im' in the QA/QC side of the software business, so I've been through this before.

I guess a more accurate statement would be that speed improvements of the 50% range nVidia was touting won't come out of code optimizations alone.  My fear was that lots of folks would believe what they were implying and mess up AH with buggy new drivers.

Here is a clip from the little press release nVidia sent out via email:

 
Quote
Detonator XP also includes:

Performance increases of up to 50% in Microsoft DirectX and SGI OpenGL
applications.

Although carefully worded it gives the impression of a huge speed increase.  A false impression for all but GeForce 3 owners I might add.  I want to make sure folks don't go slapping these new drivers in their nVidia cards and expecting a big improvement.  Every time nVidia puts out a "faster" set of drivers, I spend a crapload of time helping people "fix" their machines by going back to the older ones.  I'm just trying to save myself (and others) a bunch of extra work.  :)  I learned this the hard way... just passing on the wisdom so you all don't have to learn it the same way.  :D
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: SOB on September 12, 2001, 03:34:00 PM
I'm gonna install them tonight.  I've got the same GeForce 3 card as Tac, but what the hell, I'm a sucker!   :)


SOB
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: maddog on September 13, 2001, 10:19:00 AM
Installed new drivers.... ran 5400 on the onion test (3dmark?).. on p3 933, 512MB... AH looks good and fast.... not getting any TAC problems   sorry(Geforce3)
maddog
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: SKurj on September 13, 2001, 11:22:00 AM
I get at least a 25% framerate increase in beta AH, errm between stutters caused by every line of text to appear on screen.
My 3dmark2001 score went from 1984 to 2256..

And now back to 12.41's so I can use the beta..

oh yeah, Powercolour GF2 MX 32mb (with crap ram on it)

They work fine with standard AH though

SKurj

[ 09-13-2001: Message edited by: SKurj ]
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: bloom25 on September 13, 2001, 08:18:00 PM
Skurj, were you running the new beta14?  Text stutter was fixed for me and several others.
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: SKurj on September 15, 2001, 08:27:00 AM
cc Bloom that was 13, 14 is fine


SKurj
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: SOB on September 15, 2001, 08:57:00 AM
Running Beta 14 now with the new drivers and my Asus GeForce 3.  Makes quite a difference, I'm very impressed!   :)

One thing I noticed yesterday is that I couldn't seem to get FSAA enabled.  I checked the boxes OK in the windows properties, but it didn't make a difference in AH.  Maybe just a quirk, I didn't really mess with it that much.


SOB
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: highflyer on September 17, 2001, 01:50:00 PM
The new drivers did just as promised =)

I have a score of 4126 in 3dmark 2002 now, and IL2 runs silk in open GL (excellent settings @ 1024x768

aces is around 55-75 fps
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: hazed- on September 17, 2001, 07:51:00 PM
i bet the 40% increase isnt meant as your games are 40% quicker either!

its probably an improved score for some windows graphic application.The web site claims the new detonator XP give a 50% increase.no way would they suddenly realise theyve been running a card at 2/3rds capacity.
although i hope it does . my GF2 MX dual display could use a boost  :D
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: highflyer on September 17, 2001, 10:07:00 PM
hehe hazed Read  /\
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                 |
                 
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: SKurj on September 17, 2001, 10:12:00 PM
SOB, i found after installing 21.81's i errm somehow had FSAA on and took a frame hit and things did look better on a GF2 MX


Turned off FSAA of course and now all is good

SKurj
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: Defiance on September 18, 2001, 02:18:00 PM
Hiya's,
Det 4's here on my gt2 and they increased fps

Dunno the % but they're higher for sure most definately

Det 4
Beta 14
Dx 8.1
TB 1.4
256 DDR
C/Labs 32 meg gt2

Have Fun

Def

And in beta with mipmapping and other option on AH is MORE AWESOME  :)
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: Lephturn on September 20, 2001, 01:07:00 PM
I don't have to say it right?
 http://www.maxreboot.com/article.php?sid=1836&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 (http://www.maxreboot.com/article.php?sid=1836&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0)
Title: Detonator4 - 21.81 drivers.
Post by: Ash on September 24, 2001, 05:21:00 AM
Lephturn,

 How did I ever doubt you   :rolleyes: ! Going to switch back to 12.41. Do I have to remove the 21.81, or can I just write over the 21.81s.

Thanks,
Scot