nVidia promised us drivers once a month, what happened ?

I get that warning every few drivers. It's never been a consistant thing for me.

 

You would get that warning whenever there is no security catalog included with the graphics driver.

 

Betas and quadros have always been better than the WHQL's,they offer better performance and always have done,in the old days of nvidia drivers they needed to be tweaked to get the best out of them,the nvidia team has got a lot better at releasing better drivers over the years without the need for tweaking them,infact tweaking them nowadays usually gives you a performance hit.You want quality not quantity,id rather have 1 or 2 good drivers over 4 months than 10 completely average drivers that need to be tweaked cause of bugs and ****ty profile fixes.

 

I know it is off topic, but can someone from you guys pin point me to thread or tell me how to install this new drivers? Since 28x or so (can't remember) version of drivers, i can't install them. I get driver failed error, older ones installs just fine (current driver 266.58). I need new one for FPS limiter, otherwise, I'm qute fine with this one. Any suggestion?

Btw, i use old 9800GT GPU. Thanks.

EDIT: Also, i need it for Windows 7, in order to use 0-255 dynamic range for videos..., older drivers can't do that (for some strange reason, you can apply, but it has no effect), and those 2xx have problems with custom resolutions and high refresh rates...

 

@tweakpower - It looks like 285.58 is the last supported driver for the GeForce 9 cards under XP and 285.62 for Windows 7: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk

I don't know why they are failing to install but you could try redownloading them from that link and reinstalling them. Although, I don't normally recommend it, you could take a backup or checkpoint and use Driver Sweeper after uninstalling the current drivers then try reinstalling the new ones again. Only use it as a last resort though.

 

Yeah I've did that, no luck again. For support i think you are right, but nVidia said different. Look.

Name Version Release Date
GeForce 290.53 Driver BETA 290.53 21.12.2011
Release Highlights:
This is the second beta release from the R290 family of drivers. For more information, read the 290.53 driver article on GeForce.com.
This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs.
New in 290.53....

Well, it seems nVidia misleading customers, if that is true.

 

I really don't see the problem.

nVidia want their customers to have a working product for the latest games. If they have to WHQL it, it takes over 2-3 weeks before MS gives them that WHQL stamp.

Pretty much all of those BETA Drivers could have been WHQL, but it's simply not worth the time waiting on MS.

 

Whether it's right or wrong, certified drivers are looked upon as safer and more stable than betas, particularly by less informed people who probably make up the bulk of PC users. Even these forums have people asking when the next WHQL release is due when there are new betas available so not everyone wants to use or feels comfortable using betas. Like it or not, beta implies unfinished or incomplete and usually come with a disclaimer which doesn't help sell their quality!

I don't have a problem with them personally but I do find it strange that NVIDIA don't release more certified drivers when their competitor does without fail each month plus also manages a few betas/previews too.

 

I look at Nvidia betas as the equivalent of the last WHQL, just with additional fixes, improvements, etc. Graphics drivers are typically released much more frequently than any other components, so it would complicate their work and release output if they were to certify everything that comes out (plus, its expensive). The slightest modification to a WHQL driver (ie, add a new card in the INF) will break the WHQL certification. So it would then become a 'beta' just for that. I normally go by the policy that todays beta is better than yesterdays WHQL, since its basically just an improved version of the last WHQL. On rare occasions things may not work as intended and an occasional glitch or malfunction may occur. But dont mind at all, I just revert to last working driver and/or patiently wait for the next one.

 

What some old 3dfx drivers?Or maybe some Millenium Matrox,S3 chrome or Hercules drivers...or maybe some good old Nvidia drivers going back over the last 10 years...you will find them all here on the AoA site.
http://files.aoaforums.com/D135-Video Card Drivers.html

 

It's not as if that when there is a big gap in-between driver releases that NVidia suddenly forgot they were supposed to make drivers for their GPUs.
Everything becomes better quality when it is released on a "when it's done" timeline. When you start forcing due dates with these things the quality goes kaput.
The more patient you are, the better the outcome. Unless you want to start dealing with the same problems ATi uses have to (don't hurt me).

Valve adopts a similar "when it's done" approach. And while that has earned them the "Valve time" joke, they arguably have the best track record for making awesome A+ games consistently. Something most companies can't say these days.

 

I thought a new beta driver was set for release this week?...

 

nVidia is busy trying to understand why tegra3 stills worse than iPad2 in graphics, and what they will do when iPad3 comes out ...

they are worried about AMD 7000 series too ...

 

hehe same here! though I use the newest beta drivers atm..

 

Do you have any expirience with Radeon drivers? I have both GeForce and Radeon and I can tell that I've spent most of 2011 on Catalyst "hotfixes" and "previews" which tend to be released less than a week after the last WHQL release. These "hotfixes" and "previews" usually fix bugs from the latest WHQL release and add new features. Why would anyone use WHQL after such beta release I don't know.

There was several cases when NV added WHQL certificates to drivers previously released as beta - I never even bothered to redownload them after that because - what's the point?

Let's say that NV will went AMD's way and will re-release every beta as WHQL (this is what AMD actually does - they're basically re-releasing all the preview/hotfix drivers as "official" a month later). That'll be like getting 285.79 WHQL two days before the release of 290.36 beta and that 285.79 WHQL will be absolutely identical to 285.79 beta released three weeks ago. Why would NVIDIA spend time and resources for such meaningless task? That WHQL won't be used at all -- half of GeForce owners won't redownload them and another half will upgrade straight to the new beta.

The only reason why there is WHQL drivers is because partners/OEMs need them. For the end user they provide no benefits at all.

 

cool, doesn't have anything to do with the software team though ...

 

I think they're also trying to iron out the last of the TDR issues, as many are still suffering from it.

 

please keep on topic. Thanks.

deltatux

 

What exactly is the topic? "What happened?"
The topic itself is stupid.
His reply was no more intelligent. Hard to blame him.

 

Someones may have posted this but ill say it anyway. I think they mean any type of driver release, meaning beta or official.