NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally!

**NetRyder** · January 5th, 2007

Officially released today!
WHQL certified, with OpenGL support and the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Download:
ForceWare 97.46 (x86)
ForceWare 97.46 (x64)

Edit: Frontpaged.

**kcnychief** · January 6th, 2007

About Dang Time! Woo!

**madmatt** · January 6th, 2007

Now I can buy an 8800. Or wait for the R600... Decisions, decisions.

**LordOfLA** · January 6th, 2007

R600 is delayed again last I heard, unlikey to be out before June I'd guess.

kop48 · January 8th, 2007

Have anyone read the release notes for this? They should have left the 'Beta' label on them - they should be ashamed to call these full-featured. Looks like no Vista for me still... My Macbook's Intel 945 Graphics runs Vista better than my NVidia GF6800GT!

**ray_gillespie** · January 8th, 2007

If they're not full-featured then I believe the appropriate term is 'alpha'

I'm only playing hehe. What's the problem with them?

kop48 · January 8th, 2007

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Window...ease_Notes.pdf
Here are all the limitations with this 'RTM' driver. Not only is there STILL no support for their DX10 flagship, the 8xxx series GPUs, they don't even support their main selling point - SLI. Also, in the day and age of high-end graphics, they don't support AA!

Limitations in This Release
The following are features that are not currently supported or have limited
support in this driver release:
• Refresh Rate Precision
The current driver programs the hardware timing for a 59.94 Hz refresh rate
to be the same as the timing used for a 60 Hz refresh rate.
• Pan & Scan
This driver does not support the Pan & Scan feature. (Pan & Scan is the
process of panning across the desktop in order to display a desktop on a
monitor with lower resolution).
• DirectX Antialiasing
The NVIDIA Control Panel does not offer full antialiasing support for
DirectX applications. NVIDIA Control Panel antialiasing should be set to
Application-controlled to ensure compatibility with all DirectX applications.
• Full-featured HDMI Support

The following are known problems that will be fixed in a future driver
version:
• There are some known image quality issues.
• Noise and pixel corruption occur under Clone or Dualview modes.
• Only stereo audio is supported; 5.1 surround is not supported.
• INF Support for Restricted Timings
This driver version does not support the use of Restricted Timing settings
(R&T strings) in the INF to control mode validation and/or mode setting for
custom mode/adapter/monitor combinations. This capability is planned for
a later driver release.
• Display rotation
The NVIDIA Control Panel does not include display rotation controls.
• Overscan/Underscan Support
The ability to display the entire desktop on a TV is not supported—the
desktop will be masked instead.
• Advanced Timings, Custom Resolutions
This driver does not support adding arbitrary resolutions and timings.
• Mode Filtering for Custom Policies
This driver does not support defining advanced timings and resolution
settings.
• SDI
This driver does not support the Serial Display Interface (a standard for
driving high color depth displays).
• Genlock/Frame Lock
This driver does not support the ability to synchronize multiple display
outputs with an external signal.
• NVIDIA SLI Technology
This release is intended to serve as a functional preview for application
porting purposes, and not as a performance driver.
• NVIDIA TurboCache
The driver is capping Shared System Memory at 255 MB on systems with 1
GB of system memory, and at 271 MB on systems with 2 GB or more of
system memory. An upcoming driver will increase this amount of memory.
Optimum performance will not be achieved with low frame buffer
TurboCache graphics cards.

Features Not Yet Available in the NVIDIA Control Panel
Support for the following control panel features is under development and not
yet available under Windows Vista:
• Display Category
• Run display optimization wizard
• Change resolution attributes
• Move CRT screen position
• Manage custom timings
• Run multiple display wizard
• Change flat panel scaling
• Rotate display
• Adjust desktop color settings
• Video & Television Category
• Adjust video color settings
• Run television setup wizard
• Adjust television color settings
• Adjust screen size and position
• 3D Settings Category
• Set SLI configuration
• Set multi-GPU configuration

**madmatt** · January 8th, 2007

Threads merged.

kop48 · January 8th, 2007

Originally Posted by madmatt

Now I can buy an 8800. Or wait for the R600... Decisions, decisions.

Doesn't support 8xxxs yet. Sorry for the double thread.

**kcnychief** · January 15th, 2007

What have been people's experiences using these drivers?

kop48 · January 15th, 2007

hmmmm

http://www.anandtech.com/displays/sh...px?i=2904&p=14 <- why there isn't a driver for Vista for 8800s

http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21 <- more video card enthusiasts post at this forum.

**Khayman** · January 15th, 2007

Originally Posted by kcnychief

What have been people's experiences using these drivers?

no problems so far, fixed some thigns. made games run better

kop48 · January 18th, 2007

Originally Posted by Khayman

no problems so far, fixed some thigns. made games run better

What was fixed that you noticed? I had 100% CPU usage on the NV drivers when I installed RTM at random times.

**Khayman** · January 18th, 2007

Had some flickering in games before, that went. UAC dialog pops up faster and smoother (yes i still run UAC

), smoother windows animations in general. Not noticed any cpu spikes either

**Aprox** · January 18th, 2007

Just so you guys know Vista x86/x64 100.30 drivers for the 8800's were leaked earlier this week. With a simple .inf hack they work with other cards too. People have been waiting for these X series drivers for months now. Preliminary responses from people is that they are a big buggy, not everything works... but they are leaps and bounds better than anything else. Performance wise they are right at XP levels.

x86 Vista Driver:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1554

x64 Vista Driver:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1555

kop48 · January 18th, 2007

Originally Posted by Khayman

Had some flickering in games before, that went. UAC dialog pops up faster and smoother (yes i still run UAC ), smoother windows animations in general. Not noticed any cpu spikes either

hmmmm that sounds like some of the bugs that were annoying me. UAC flicker drove me nuts, especially since my Mac's Intel graphics chip could handle Vista better than my Nvidia. Does this mean the kop48 is about to switch to Vista? Only time will tell.

Seriously, though, that WPF Yahho thing is pretty sweet. It'll be cool to see more of WPF applications mature. The only thing left for me to install Vista is that Creative actually release some decent drivers for Audigy.

**kcnychief** · January 26th, 2007

Looks like official drivers are coming on the 30th

http://www.techspot.com/news/24190-n...on-Jan-30.html

kop48 · January 27th, 2007

It says the driver isn't up to par yet for anything that's NOT Series 8 chipsets.

kop48 · January 30th, 2007

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=85202

100.54 drivers.

Still no SLI, not much performance improvement, doesn't seem to fix many game bugs.

SLI should be in a few weeks apparently.

**Electronic Punk** · January 30th, 2007

Yeah, think I am running 100.54 at home but haven't had much of a chance to play.

Its the same version, apparently, that will hopefully be the same version that NVIDIA will release but maybe WHQL signed (but definately still beta)

January 5th, 2007	Top \| #1
NetRyder Tech Junkie Joined: April 2002 Location: New York City Posts: 13,256 Reputation: 4260 Power: 298	NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Officially released today! WHQL certified, with OpenGL support and the NVIDIA Control Panel. Download: ForceWare 97.46 (x86) ForceWare 97.46 (x64) Edit: Frontpaged. http://kunal.kundaje.net

January 6th, 2007	Top \| #2
kcnychief █▄█ ▀█▄ █ Joined: April 2005 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16,949 Reputation: 4941 Power: 305	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! About Dang Time! Woo! XBOX Live Gamertag: kcnychief

January 6th, 2007	Top \| #3
madmatt Bow Down to the King Joined: April 2002 Location: New York Posts: 13,312 Reputation: 4090 Power: 297	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Now I can buy an 8800. Or wait for the R600... Decisions, decisions.

January 6th, 2007	Top \| #4
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,031 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 213	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! R600 is delayed again last I heard, unlikey to be out before June I'd guess. If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

January 8th, 2007	Top \| #5
kop48 OSNN Addict Joined: June 2006 Posts: 209 Reputation: 40 Power: 75	The so called 'RTM" Nvidia Drivers Have anyone read the release notes for this? They should have left the 'Beta' label on them - they should be ashamed to call these full-featured. Looks like no Vista for me still... My Macbook's Intel 945 Graphics runs Vista better than my NVidia GF6800GT!

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January 8th, 2007	Top \| #6
ray_gillespie OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: March 2002 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 1,692 Reputation: 1420 Power: 154	Re: The so called 'RTM" Nvidia Drivers If they're not full-featured then I believe the appropriate term is 'alpha' I'm only playing hehe. What's the problem with them?

January 8th, 2007	Top \| #7
kop48 OSNN Addict Joined: June 2006 Posts: 209 Reputation: 40 Power: 75	Re: The so called 'RTM" Nvidia Drivers http://us.download.nvidia.com/Window...ease_Notes.pdf Here are all the limitations with this 'RTM' driver. Not only is there STILL no support for their DX10 flagship, the 8xxx series GPUs, they don't even support their main selling point - SLI. Also, in the day and age of high-end graphics, they don't support AA! Limitations in This Release The following are features that are not currently supported or have limited support in this driver release: • Refresh Rate Precision The current driver programs the hardware timing for a 59.94 Hz refresh rate to be the same as the timing used for a 60 Hz refresh rate. • Pan & Scan This driver does not support the Pan & Scan feature. (Pan & Scan is the process of panning across the desktop in order to display a desktop on a monitor with lower resolution). • DirectX Antialiasing The NVIDIA Control Panel does not offer full antialiasing support for DirectX applications. NVIDIA Control Panel antialiasing should be set to Application-controlled to ensure compatibility with all DirectX applications. • Full-featured HDMI Support The following are known problems that will be fixed in a future driver version: • There are some known image quality issues. • Noise and pixel corruption occur under Clone or Dualview modes. • Only stereo audio is supported; 5.1 surround is not supported. • INF Support for Restricted Timings This driver version does not support the use of Restricted Timing settings (R&T strings) in the INF to control mode validation and/or mode setting for custom mode/adapter/monitor combinations. This capability is planned for a later driver release. • Display rotation The NVIDIA Control Panel does not include display rotation controls. • Overscan/Underscan Support The ability to display the entire desktop on a TV is not supported—the desktop will be masked instead. • Advanced Timings, Custom Resolutions This driver does not support adding arbitrary resolutions and timings. • Mode Filtering for Custom Policies This driver does not support defining advanced timings and resolution settings. • SDI This driver does not support the Serial Display Interface (a standard for driving high color depth displays). • Genlock/Frame Lock This driver does not support the ability to synchronize multiple display outputs with an external signal. • NVIDIA SLI Technology This release is intended to serve as a functional preview for application porting purposes, and not as a performance driver. • NVIDIA TurboCache The driver is capping Shared System Memory at 255 MB on systems with 1 GB of system memory, and at 271 MB on systems with 2 GB or more of system memory. An upcoming driver will increase this amount of memory. Optimum performance will not be achieved with low frame buffer TurboCache graphics cards. Features Not Yet Available in the NVIDIA Control Panel Support for the following control panel features is under development and not yet available under Windows Vista: • Display Category • Run display optimization wizard • Change resolution attributes • Move CRT screen position • Manage custom timings • Run multiple display wizard • Change flat panel scaling • Rotate display • Adjust desktop color settings • Video & Television Category • Adjust video color settings • Run television setup wizard • Adjust television color settings • Adjust screen size and position • 3D Settings Category • Set SLI configuration • Set multi-GPU configuration

January 8th, 2007	Top \| #8
madmatt Bow Down to the King Joined: April 2002 Location: New York Posts: 13,312 Reputation: 4090 Power: 297	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Threads merged.

January 8th, 2007	Top \| #9
kop48 OSNN Addict Joined: June 2006 Posts: 209 Reputation: 40 Power: 75	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Originally Posted by madmatt Now I can buy an 8800. Or wait for the R600... Decisions, decisions. Doesn't support 8xxxs yet. Sorry for the double thread.

January 15th, 2007	Top \| #10
kcnychief █▄█ ▀█▄ █ Joined: April 2005 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16,949 Reputation: 4941 Power: 305	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! What have been people's experiences using these drivers? XBOX Live Gamertag: kcnychief

January 15th, 2007	Top \| #11
kop48 OSNN Addict Joined: June 2006 Posts: 209 Reputation: 40 Power: 75	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! hmmmm http://www.anandtech.com/displays/sh...px?i=2904&p=14 <- why there isn't a driver for Vista for 8800s http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21 <- more video card enthusiasts post at this forum.

January 15th, 2007	Top \| #12
Khayman I'm sorry Hal... Joined: January 2002 Location: England Posts: 5,514 Reputation: 1210 Power: 194	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Originally Posted by kcnychief What have been people's experiences using these drivers? no problems so far, fixed some thigns. made games run better "I'm on the server side. I don't know what side you're on"

January 18th, 2007	Top \| #13
kop48 OSNN Addict Joined: June 2006 Posts: 209 Reputation: 40 Power: 75	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Originally Posted by Khayman no problems so far, fixed some thigns. made games run better What was fixed that you noticed? I had 100% CPU usage on the NV drivers when I installed RTM at random times.

January 18th, 2007	Top \| #14
Khayman I'm sorry Hal... Joined: January 2002 Location: England Posts: 5,514 Reputation: 1210 Power: 194	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Had some flickering in games before, that went. UAC dialog pops up faster and smoother (yes i still run UAC ), smoother windows animations in general. Not noticed any cpu spikes either "I'm on the server side. I don't know what side you're on"

January 18th, 2007	Top \| #15
Aprox OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: August 2004 Location: California, USA Posts: 2,735 Blog Entries: 1 Reputation: 2036 Power: 142	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Just so you guys know Vista x86/x64 100.30 drivers for the 8800's were leaked earlier this week. With a simple .inf hack they work with other cards too. People have been waiting for these X series drivers for months now. Preliminary responses from people is that they are a big buggy, not everything works... but they are leaps and bounds better than anything else. Performance wise they are right at XP levels. x86 Vista Driver: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1554 x64 Vista Driver: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1555

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January 18th, 2007	Top \| #16
kop48 OSNN Addict Joined: June 2006 Posts: 209 Reputation: 40 Power: 75	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Originally Posted by Khayman Had some flickering in games before, that went. UAC dialog pops up faster and smoother (yes i still run UAC ), smoother windows animations in general. Not noticed any cpu spikes either hmmmm that sounds like some of the bugs that were annoying me. UAC flicker drove me nuts, especially since my Mac's Intel graphics chip could handle Vista better than my Nvidia. Does this mean the kop48 is about to switch to Vista? Only time will tell. Seriously, though, that WPF Yahho thing is pretty sweet. It'll be cool to see more of WPF applications mature. The only thing left for me to install Vista is that Creative actually release some decent drivers for Audigy.

January 26th, 2007	Top \| #17
kcnychief █▄█ ▀█▄ █ Joined: April 2005 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16,949 Reputation: 4941 Power: 305	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Looks like official drivers are coming on the 30th http://www.techspot.com/news/24190-n...on-Jan-30.html XBOX Live Gamertag: kcnychief

January 27th, 2007	Top \| #18
kop48 OSNN Addict Joined: June 2006 Posts: 209 Reputation: 40 Power: 75	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! It says the driver isn't up to par yet for anything that's NOT Series 8 chipsets.

January 30th, 2007	Top \| #19
kop48 OSNN Addict Joined: June 2006 Posts: 209 Reputation: 40 Power: 75	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=85202 100.54 drivers. Still no SLI, not much performance improvement, doesn't seem to fix many game bugs. SLI should be in a few weeks apparently.

January 30th, 2007	Top \| #20
Electronic Punk The Last High Joined: December 2001 Location: London Posts: 18,510 Blog Entries: 51 Reputation: 3652 Power: 349	Re: NVIDIA drivers for Vista RTM. Finally! Yeah, think I am running 100.54 at home but haven't had much of a chance to play. Its the same version, apparently, that will hopefully be the same version that NVIDIA will release but maybe WHQL signed (but definately still beta)