171.23 XP-32bit Beta Feedback Thread

Great drivers!

These drivers have been great so far, running Windows XP sp2 with all latest updates. Have been playing a lot of Crysis, and some NWN2, LOTRO and EQ2. The drivers have been stable as a rock and have been running great in the games I've played. Profiles work and no 100% fan bug so far neither. Digital Vibrancy has been working on XP for a long time but I hear it has issues on Vista, not sure about this set as I don't use Vista at the moment.

 

these are very nice drivers, but i prefer the 171.17 in cod4
the .17's seem to have a bit less jumpy effect in playing cod4

so went back to the .17's

 

Hello,

As some of you will know there is a big problem with ut2004 and nvidia 8 series working with windows XP.
On the nvidia forum there is a tread that is now active since the end of 2006 !
We tried all kinds off drivers, but none resolve this problem completely.
Only the new 171.17 drivers are running ut2004 better.
Not a total fix yet !
The new beta driver 171.23 is not solving this matter at all !
You can read here, http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=23904&st=500, and if you know a sollution, please give your reaction !

 

Best driver so far. From the 169.21 i went to this one. Weee! finally AA in HDR works in oblivion when forced in the nv control panel. Now I can once again enjoy rich graphics in oblivion. Last working drivers with aa forced where the 169.75 but I got lower 3dmark score. All the 169.XX where junk for me. Since I could not forced aa. Thanks nvidia!

 

just a quick and dirty 3dmark2006 test...

Omega 169.21 752/1832/900
=========================
3DMark Score 11661
SM 2.0 Score 5291
SM 3.0 Score 5572
CPU Score 2591
Test Results
Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 43.17 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest 45.01 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.82 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 1.31 FPS
HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 55.66 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 55.78 FPS


Beta 171.23 752/1832/900
========================
3DMark Score 11580
SM 2.0 Score 5216
SM 3.0 Score 5555
CPU Score 2584
Test Results
Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 42.73 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest 44.2 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.82 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 1.3 FPS
HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 55.54 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 55.56 FPS

I'm pretty sure the new drivers address some gaming issues, but still I'm impressed how omega drivers are still holding up against newer drivers ;-)

 

this driver is not for SLi... :bang: (abaut 3 % + score at 2x8800GTX vs 1x8800GTX)

 

I concur. My benchmark charts indicate that 171.17 is better than 171.23 for UT3.

 

There's also an XTremeG 171.23 driver now, maybe you can give it a try for higher score and/or stability.

I haven't used Omega or XTremeG drivers much, but i think, if only those switch off some (mostly) useless driver .dll-s and components (i do it manually with SysInternals Autoruns), it alone should result in higher performance.

 

the 177.23 is whql now?, a guy post it here tha yesterday the whql forecware re available, any body try this last drivers, because the .23 that was tested by Alcom is BETA or am i wrong?

 

this drivers are great!!! I tested them with Oblivion, UT3 and COD4. they all run great. UT3 it's a lot smoother. my previous drivers were 169.21.

 

you meen this driver isnt for 6 series SLi. they work great for me. i dought any of the "newest" drivers support older series like that *very well*.

 

It's still a beta, it's just now been given the nod by Microsoft's WHQL lab. I don't know if I'll have time to benchmark the updated one, I'm starting a real job soon.

 

I installed the so-called-whql version from Station-Drivers. WHQL or not, it did not complain during installation "this driver isn't certified, are you sure blabla".

3DMark06 and Crysis scores higher a bit than with 169.61 and Crysis play feels quite smooth (1680x1050, custom very high), DiRT also runs nicely (1920x1200).
Compared to the previous drivers, it looks as if colors would be a bit darker (not so washed-out). I never change the default settings (color, AA etc.), so something must be happened.
Also, in the menu of DiRT, the yellowish background has nicer shades, i mean there was an ugly color gradient or what on my LCD monitor with every driver so far, which now disappeared.

All in all, I like this driver, keepers for me.

 

How about drivers that doesn't make old OpenGL games crash?

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=252621

THANK YOU NVIDIA.

 

-delete-

 

Hi, is the problem with oblivion crashing anything to do with corrupted textures and/or nv4_disp infinite loops occuring? If so (heck, even if not) can you let me know what settings in nhancer you used to get oblivion to work? I love the game to bits but it crashes too often that it's unplayable

I just installed nhancer specifically after reading your post but have never used it before!

 

Moved up from the 169.28 to 171.23, WiC (with latest patch) have a boost of something like 3fps on average, all the same settings. I like it.

Have yet try this with other games (see no significant improvement on Gears of War on default settings that I'm using now), COD4 is already smooth so not much significant boost here either. Will try on Crysis later.

 

sorry... a noob question here... i have an nf430 amd board but using a 8800gt. if i install this forceware171.23, will it screw up my onboard gpu function?( i switch between onboard and pci-e gpu for colour correction) i assume only my 8800gt will be functioning.

 

sorry for the late reply, in nhancer's profiles menu you need to click on oblivion and choose 'duplicate' from below, it will ask whether you want to activate the new profile just choose yes.

Now in the new profile you will be able to change the nvidia aa compatibility mode, which needs to be oblivion aa+hdr, heres a pic:

 

Many thanks! Will try this out later. Do I need to run nhancer and activate oblivion through it or can i not load nhancer (ie profiles are 'automatic'?). I'm using oblivion's enhanced script program so not sure if i need to point the executable to that instead of oblivion.exe...