GeForce ForceWare 260.89 WHQL Download & Discussion

yea that spike is odd, well i tested a bit everything ran the same, played cod5 waw tdm 2-3 maps and benched heaven 2.0, RE5..

i think im gonna enable it again, i dont have such dpc spikes as with 460gtx time to time when in idle..

 

I get judder and it's not HT that's the issue, I've taken 1 card out too so it's not SLI. I'm running 480's. 258.96 were ok, nothing like the judder I'm getting and it's random.
Help!

 

HPET is your platform clock, the cpu keeps count and is the timer every thing on the pc syncs to.

I also have it disabled lol

I'd need to look it up as I forget the finer details (ADD), but long story very short:

GFX drivers don't always keep in sync with HPET, so they get outta sync and then you get performance issues when gaming.





LOl that prob didn't help at all, but was all i cud remember

 

Gone back to 258.96 WHQL. Tooo many annoyances with this one.

 

Great drivers to my system, FIFA 11 app crash solved

 

Nope. Just this one. I'm using the last WHQL release 258.96. Working perfectly fine.

 

The way I'm understanding is similar to what you're saying. HPET apparently doesn't play nicely with all devices so what seems to be happening is the graphics card is sending interrupt requests and the HPET is making it wait. This means the frames are still being created and thats why the FPS/performance remains the same but the speed they are actually being output at is not a consistent time interval which creates slowdowns, speedups, and stuttering. This problem is probably amplified even further by SLI since there has to be requests from multiple cards processed before a frame can be drawn out. It also means the latency of the video cards is probably much much worse than what the Latency Checker is actually telling us.

The easy way to think about it is if you are running something at 60 FPS, the frames should come out at 16.6 milliseconds apart. That creates smooth framerate. In the HPET case it is more like they some of them are coming out faster than that and some are coming out slower than that. You still have 60 FPS but the smoothness is gone because you could have 4 or 5 frames pop out in that 16.6ms and then a huge delay or any number of outcomes. It is even possible that frames are simply being lost because the video card has to drop them after waiting too long. They are being rendered, but never rasterized/output. This could easily trick FPS meters into thinking the FPS is not changing.

Disabling HPET should not actually show an increase in frames or benchmarks, it should only effect the actual visual output we are seeing. It is simply forcing the frames to be drawn at more consistent speeds since those unnatural delays are not occurring or are less prevalent. Thats my take on it based on what I understand of the interrupt clock and the way HPET is working.

Anyways just to comment on the drivers again, I upgraded from the beta to the WHQL and my flickering textures and slight texture inconsistencies have vanished completely. Kinda strange if the drivers are the same, but I'll take it.

 

Nothing wrong with this driver. Works fine!!

 

I wonder, is it for "older" cards a must to upgrade to newer drivers?
Some games are feeling smoother with 197.45 and others with these last Whql's.

Are the new "things" they put in the drivers also for better performance with older cards or are they just compatible and that's it?

Off course Nvidia is focus on the newer cards with these drivers but on some point the development in drivers for old cards will stop, and there are only compatible. (and even that stops )
So is it (without my meaning and opinion of performance etc) necessary to upgrade if someone is happy with 197.45 on his/her 8800GT for example?

Grtz.

 

Thanks for this post, will turn it off, and see if i notice an increase in smoothness from the games that say 60fps, but feel sub 30.

 

they save fine for me also

 

This is a screenshot from my rig, doesn't mean much to me because I don't understand it, but Zerocool & Hunter started drooling after I posted this in another thread.

Apparently it's got something to do with HPET..idk

 

^
yep i get 5-6us with it disabled (up to 53 when i move the mouse) otherwise 85-110us with HPET enabled. But i noticed with it disabled i get some high spikes up to 250-300us time to time, so im back with it enabled.

 

OK , I've had HPET disabled for a couple of months abd haven't noticed any thing unusual.

I should mention that ever since disabling HPET, I've been able to turn on Threaded Optimizations in NCP BF2 profile without the game stuttering .

 

Work perfect for me, had to switch back to DVI, the HDMI has been washed out since I got the 470 Card. Beautiful IQ and colors with DVI.

Win 7 Ultimate 64, PNY GTX 470, Asus CG 5270 PC

 

I haven't noticed anything unusual with it enabled and if I enable threaded opt. for Fear combat it still stutters - i play it in winxp so hpet isn't the issue here:nerd:
lol nvm it doesnt matter..




So are these drivers 100% identical to betas or are there any small changes?

 

Identical for me to the beta's, can't find a single thing that is different so far.

As for the HPET thing, seems to have sorted the Virtua Tennis2009 issue, but that game is so buggy that it could just be playing nice till i have people round, so it can show me up lol, but PES2011 does seem smoother too.

 

99% , the 1% difference is the WHQL stamp

 

good stable driver only lose in IQ what i also thinked before with the beta, the 258.96 WHQL are much crispier, i stay with the 260 ones, but the IQ is not sharper than the 258.96 WHQL ones, strange but its true:S

 

do others get video stutters with these? (dxva)