Best Detonators

[ray_gillespie]

Hi people.
A few questions about NVIDIA graphics drivers. From experience and what people say, some drivers are definately better than others. However, how does this relate to types of NVIDIA graphics cards and different games. For instance, is it possible that one set of drivers will perform best on HL2 with a GeForce 6800 Ultra, but poorly with a GeForce 4 Ti4200? (relative to each card obviously.)
Is the performance of a set of drivers based more on individual games or individual cards? For instance, if someone with a 6800 finds the 71.89 drivers are best on Doom 3, and I have a Ti4200 (which I do incidently), am I likely to find the same result with my older card on the same game? Or would I be more likely to find that those drivers work well with the 6800 card on most games, but poorly with my card on most games?
Sorry for the confusing post, in short I am trying to work out which drivers to use for HL2 and also Morrowind using my Ti4200 card. Can anyone shed any light here?
Thanks in advance.

Ray.

 

[ming]

I'm not sure whether Nvidia are making any improvements to the drivers for the older cards as they want people to move over to the new cards. From my own experience on the Ti4200, I haven't seem any major improvements at all since their 42.xx drivers.
As for playing HL2/CS Source, you're likely to get an average of around 25-40 fps on most of the maps.

 

[ray_gillespie]

Thanks for the help. Which drivers should I use for stuff like HL2 then? At the moment I just tend to use the latest ones, unless I find them unstable or they have poor performance.
BTW You're right my FPS was probably around 25-40 for HL2, it was smooth enough to play, but it wasn't exactly slick, especially in the city levels towards the end.

 

[ming]

I'd probably say use the latest ones because they may have improved something minor, but as mentioned already there isn't any real benefits for us TI4200 owners for gameplay.
If you really want to get better fps, then you'd need to seriously think about upgrading which is what I've done recently. But I'm still waiting for the CPU to arrive. Got a 6800GT card for it so should see a much higher fps in CS Source.

 

[Electronic Punk]

The problem is older drivers don't take into account new releases like Counter-strike: Source and NVIDIA will still respond to bug reports of older generation cards not working with certain games so I would have to say newer drivers are still good. NVIDIA have been unified for a long time now so one driver fits all and will continue to do so with the Geforce 7800 range

As far as which driver is best? I usually tend to go for the latest possible release (currently checking out 77.40) date wise as I provide feedback when things don't work and sometimes when they do, here is how the releases break down:

At the moment there are three major versions: 7(+)x.yz, 75(+).yz and 8x.yz (no releases), now a higher y release doesn't really mean a better driver and y could have several releases come out at the same time where each version has a new feature the other didn't and eventually they will be combined once tested in a later y release. Generally the higher the z release, the more stable and complete the driver will be.

Hope this helps, or utterly confuses you

 

[ming]

At the moment there are three major versions: 7(+)x.yz, 75(+).yz and 8x.yz (no releases), now a higher y release doesn't really mean a better driver and y could have several releases come out at the same time where each version has a new feature the other didn't and eventually they will be combined once tested in a later y release. Generally the higher the z release, the more stable and complete the driver will be.

Hope this helps, or utterly confuses you

Yeah, what does the (+) mean?

 

[ray_gillespie]

Thanks for the help guys. I'm a little more confused now, but I you've also answered my questions pretty well

As for upgrading, I really need to do so, but my whole system is equally outdated so I'll have to upgrade pretty much the lot, which is gonna £500. Which I can't spare at the moment sadly!

 

[Electronic Punk]

well 71.xx are still what would be rel7, but rel75 would be 75.xx

Basically 71.89 could be both alot more stable and alot newer than 71.90 etc.