NVIDIA GeForce 306.23 WHQL Download & Discussion

thanks darren

 

Yup... got same error, seems only with OCing..

Using bf3 btw

GTX 670 windforce

 

As far as I can tell, these drivers still enforce the 1ghz clock limit on the 500 series and below.

 

I do not know why, but every mmo I play I have the same issue: low gpu use at populated areas. RIFT sometimes became unplayable (12 fps at some events). GW2 is better, but has the same issue, I can play at 120 fps most of time (vsync on - 120 hz monitor) with both gpus use at 85%, but in some events the fps drops to 25-35 with both gpus use at 20-30%. Why the gpu use drops when the graphics card should keep it up? I dont have this kind of problem playing BF3 for example, why it happens only in rift and gw2?

 

It's CPU limited in those scenes.

 

A verified bug results in Override AA being disabled in 306.23, sorry about that. Should be fixed in the next release.

 

I tried to reproduce this in said dungeons but couldn't. I got no fps drop (vsynced a 60) with a GTX 680 and the new WHQL drivers. I ran through both of them all the way.

 

Ah, it happens. Not so bothered personally as I don't play the game like I used to and there's always the in-game FXAA to fall back on for now if I return to it. Good that you've confirmed it and will fix it a.s.a.p. Thanks for letting us know.

 

I don't know what it is they changed in these drivers but omg everything's running smooth as butter for me now... esp SWTOR, god it had a lot of dips in all previous drivers I used... weird... anyways

 

@ Andy B - Have you had a chance to look at The Book of Unwritten Tales with SLI yet to see if you can fix the missing text in the menus? As I said earlier forcing the profile to Single GPU does not fix it; the only way to see the text in the menus is to disable SLI completely from the NVIDIA control panel which is not ideal.

This is the only game I've game I've come across which doesn't work properly in SLI or Single GPU mode. Is it possible to add a flag to the driver that in effect makes the game think SLI really is disabled? The developers know about it but do not seem interested in fixing it (understandable I guess given that very few people playing the game will have SLI/CFX).

Thanks.

 

Doesn't this happen only in SP after the latest BF3 Update? Maybe this is a BF3 bug introduced by that patch?

If the GPU utilization gets better, OC stability may decrease so the clock has to be lowered by a few MHz. My stable OC is stable with any driver from 301.42 upwards. BF3 is very demanding in terms of OC on Kepler cards, it's one of the best stability checks.

This can probably be fixed by modifying the Diablo III Profile in Nvidia Inspector until a new working driver is released. I don't see that effect with 602.23 and MSAA/TrSSAA/AO forced. These are the best working AA Compatibility Bits for MSAA/TrSSAA atm:
http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9447281&postcount=3181
For SGSSAA, 4412C1 still is the best choice.

You can force the highest P-State and lock the clock by using the Nvidia Inspector workaround or flashing a voltage unlocked BIOS which also disables the boost and sets the clock to a fixed value. Using NVI is the safer choice of course. See here for BIOS options.

I'm not getting this specific error but some other confirmed instabilities since the latest BF3 patch. Is BF3 running fine if you downgrade to 301.42?

 

Thanks for the info.

I'll add a different flag and see if that works but I'm not playing the game much, if at all, these days so I'm not unduly bothered if it doesn't.

 

Thanks for the information. I'm going to try and go back to the 304.79 drivers as I had those on my system to several weeks and I never had a single problem.

@AndyB: Do you know of any issues with the 306 driver set with Battlefield 3 ? It would be good to know if you have or have not as the case maybe !

Thanks for your time

 

It maybe only for 500 series of cards. I made a thread on the WoW tech support forums and the only people who have replied so far have been people with a GTX 580/570 and a GT 555.

 

Hey everyone -

In regards to the BF3 crashing - I've been working with Manuel on this. Its started with the 306.02 driver and looks to continue with the 306.23 branch. I had BSODs and the directx error:



In order to fix this I reinstalled Windows 7 to completely get rid of any traces of 306 - I dont know if it was properly removing itself when I reinstalled older drivers so I tossed in the towel on that install and wiped it. Anyways, Precision 3.0.2 gave me issues holding the OC, I had been using 3.0.3 recently or afterburner 2.2.3, but never both at the same time. On the new install I went back to 305 driver with precision 3.0.1 (3.0.1 was always rock stable for me and my overclocks) and have played multiple hours of BF3 the last few days without a problem.

I don't think the reinstall was necessary but with all the crashes I wanted to get it back to basics.

After extensive testing I can confirm the problems with the 306 drivers crashing existed as soon as I pushed the Power slider to 132% even with my clocks at default. I posted a thread previously with my extensive testing on these, I'm currently back on 305 with precision 3.0.1 running +132%/+180 core/+400 ram and have been stable in BF3 since. fyi my card is water cooled.

My complete thread on this is here http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=368296

So there is definitely something going on with 306's. You guys may want to try to roll back to Precision 3.0.1 to see if there was something in the driver not compatible with it. I know most people are running either Precision or Afterburner if not for overclocking for fan profiles or just to track temps.

If 306.xx with Precision 3.0.1 is still crashing, I'd suggest rolling back to a 305 or 304 branch set. Also, I really noticed this since the Armored Kill patch - so it may have something to do with it, however for me 305's and 3.0.1 are stable now even in AK maps.

THIS MAY NOT AFFECT EVERYONE - but I've gathered about 25+ examples across multiple forums and have provided them to Manuel - the crashes are all identical, so it's pretty conclusive there is a problem.

 

No craches on my end and im using the latest version Precision.

 

Do have BF3 premium and running Armored Kill maps?

 

Same here, no problems with EVGA GTX 670 FTW under water @1280MHz with fixed voltage and 145% power target running BF3 and AK. Don't wanna say there is no problem though.

 

Yep same here, BF3 is fine (pagefile off) and i played at higher OC then usual, even Crysis2 dx11 MP didnt break at sweat at 930mhz/2260mhz @ 1.074v.

I monitored with MSI afterburner (onscreen display enabled)


Maybe its Kepler specific?

 

There have been about 5 people with Zotac cards, 680s and 580s. But someone else had an Asus so I don't want to just point to a firmware issue on the Zotacs as we can't confirm this at all. Yours has a modified bios to allow for 145% so, again speculation, maybe something with the reference bios on some cards and a change that was made in the drivers... I just don't know... but when I got beeps indicating my GPU wasn't initializing that was the last time my card saw the 306 branch driver! And that hasn't happened since!