GeForece 185.85 driver on Windows 7 - seeing increased performance

My RAID0 volume started going south on me Friday morning so I took the opportunity to wipe things clean and install Windows 7 Ultimate x64 RC (release candidate). I figured I might as well check out Windows 7 on my way towards reinstalling Vista, but I think I'm going to leave things alone for now. Note that I installed the GeForce 185.85 drivers for Windows 7.

I'm a bit surpised at how much faster Crysis seems to start, exit, and play. Whereas I was playing confortably with 2x antialiasing before on Vista Ultimate x64 with SP2 beta, I am now playing at 8x just as comfortably. I can even play at 16x quite well, though the frame rate dips to what I consider sub-optimal in certain scenes. I also tried the 8xQ and 16xQ modes but Crysis locked up solid, so those two modes are out. I'm playing at 1920x1200, "Very High" settings across the board, though I am noticing that the "textures" quality always displays "Custom" after I apply the "Very High" setting.

Do you think this increase performance is more attributable to the 185.85 driver set as compared to the 182.xx driver set I was using under Vista? Or do you think it is Windows 7 that attributable? The nVidia notes for 185.85 indicate that changes were made that improve permance in Crysis Warhead by up to 22%. I installed but have yet to play Crysis Warhead under this newer environment.

I've seen many posts here recommending that new owners of G200-based cards use the 182.xx driver set. What are the reasons? I'd to keep an eye out for any such troubles as I move forward with the testing of additional apps.

Thus far, Windows 7 has installed like a charm. No issues, no trouble installing my applications, etc. I think I'm going to leave it alone and use this release candidate for a while instead of going back to a Vista.

Just realized I forgot to back up my GRID profile. Oh well... guess I'll need to redo the first 5 years of my career!

 

Thread moved to:

Videocards - NVIDIA Drivers Section
http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21

 

Windows 7 is a blast! Really nice...

Intresting reading here: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-7-Build-7127-RTM-Branch-100-Screenshot-Gallery-111791.shtml

According to them the 7100 build will be the Gold one... And the new 7127 build is for the RTM branch so literally, they are both Final, just for different branches. No more new stuff, now its only minor bug hunting left...

Sweet

 

Yup... I'm enjoying it thus far (7100). I need to install a few more games and apps before I can be sure that it's ideal for me at this time. So far it's a winner though!

 

i like it aswell, have had some minor problems

1, failed to start up windows
2, GPU running really hot for some reason in some games
3, Video hitching on Youtube, VLC etc


4, kinda annoying toolbar, gotta sort it out

 

7 is great for gaming but it decided to delete half my music collection so im bk on vista with a data recovery mission lol also it bloats internet explorer 8 ... not good IMO.

 

That was a well reported problem in the Windows 7 beta (build 7000).

Microsoft releases fix for Windows 7 MP3 corruption issue
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/ne...es-fix-for-windows-7-mp3-corruption-issue.ars

Good luck getting your music back. :frown:

 

I got my videos hitching on Youtube and others, the solution is very easy to this. Just install DX9 and some codec packs and everything is gonna be fine ;]

 

185.85's work great for me as well on Win7.... but i still cant run 100hz at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200... in fact if i try to run a game in DX10 mode it automatically defaults to 60hz!

 

I have to say, I much prefer the RTM build (7127) to the RC (7100). I don't know if it's just me but 7100 was not very friendly to my machine, I had some strange hardlocks and temporary freezes for some reason.

 

i would say its booth, as described in this article ( http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/04/25/engineering-windows-7-for-graphics-performance.aspx ) MS reworked how graphical apps work in Win7 but to take advantage of that your driver needs to suport wddm 1.1, thats where 185.85 takes the scene

 

Played both Crysis Warhead and Crysis last evening. Warhead is actually playing the same for me (roughly the same FPS) despite the alleged performance increase per nVidia.

Rather, it continues to be Crysis where I see the improved framerate. I'll continue playing Warhead at 4x anti-aliasing, "Enthusiast" settings, 1920x1200. Crysis, however, is bumped up to 8x anti-aliasing, with "Very High" settings, 1920x1200.

RaTTrap: Thanks for the info... taking a look through it now.

 

It's "good" to see someone else has the problem with video "hitching"...I have been seeing this problem in the last few builds and even see it when streaming to my Xbox 360...I sure hope they can iron this out...