nVidia promised us drivers once a month, what happened ?

My last 2 cards prior to this gtx 480 were ati/amd. Driver releases were fine and drivers were stable. I have no problem with nvidia drivers but I have to say once a month is not enough. The latest nvidia driver is 3 weeks old now, we've had plenty of new games released since the last driver. I remember nvidia being a lot better at releasing new drivers a couple of years ago.

 

Explain?

 

PRO TIP: With Nvidia you don't need a new driver for a new game.
Game profiles get updated automatically when available.

Automatically, as in downloaded from Nvidia website to your system, without you even lifting a finger.

 

Ummm....no....

Unless you install the "nvidia updated", nothing happens automatically.

 

You must be one of those people who like to tweak... and meddle

I am talking ordinary situation, Nvidia 275+ driver default installation.
And yes, you have to have a PC... and Internet

I mean would you seriously complain about nothing happening automatically,

if you purposely chose not to install default driver installation component called Nvidia Update

 

BETA drivers are as good as whql. Actually they are the same, only difference is that beta are not digitally signed, and micro**** is to blame for that one.
You can use BETA drivers no worries, they wont blow your system (lol).

 

I think they should start calling them 'Release Candidates' versus BETA drivers. Save the BETA moniker for Developers or CUDA programmers.

 

I think it's more likely the fact it's been holiday season.

 

To be release candidate they'd have to have sent them/be planning to send them for whql testing.

Nvidia have been pretty slow to release official drivers since the gtx 8800/9800 days, when I had my gtx 295 I remember waiting more than 4 months for an official driver (and atleast half as long for a beta). For a single card it wouldn't be a concern but as I was running a dual-gpu card it mattered more, I remember having to play fallout 3 with the sky constantantly flickering for months unless I disabled a gpu.

 

That's right...but sent/planning to send is semantics as far as an end user is concerned.

 

But then, beta vs RC is as well. also it would look pretty silly to have release candidates out every couple of weeks but no whql for months.

 

Well maybe NVIDIA should refer to the betas as previews or something then.

Oddly, when I installed the 290.53 betas I didn't get the red uncertified driver warning window, you know the one asking if it is OK to proceed like I normally do? In fact, checking with DXDiag 64-bit it shows that these drivers are 'WHQL Logo'd' which would explain it!!! So are some beta drivers actually certified for a small number of cards, e.g. in this case the 290.53 drivers are certified for the GTX 580 and some others?

 

No, I'm one of those people that want my computer to be completely stable, with everything functioning as designed.

Had I ever installed "nVidia Update"....I'd have gone back to ATI/AMD long ago. Some nVidia drivers have turned my POS GTX460 into the WindowsME of graphics cards.

 

Really? When and where?

But even if we assume that this isn't complete bollocks (which it is) then we have the following for the 2011:

Hey, look, it's even more than once a month! Who could've thought?!

 

Just FIVE certified drivers in a year is pretty poor though IMO, dr rus.

 

True, those borked fan drivers from a few years back were certified after all so Microsoft did a real good job of approving those!

There are some people will only use certified drivers though so I'd imagine it must be very frustrating for them waiting for WHQL drivers, especially if they play the latest games. Skyrim came out in early November 2011 and the last betas included impressive optimisations for it but there hasn't been any certified drivers released with those tweaks in. Won't be until late January/early February according to ManuelG on the NVIDIA forums. That means almost quarter of a year will have elapsed before any certified drivers are released that support Skyrim properly. Basically if you're a gamer then you have no recourse but to use betas. Some game publishers will tell you to use WHQL drivers if you have problems with their games as well, refusing to support beta ones, although this happens less frequently now. Also, Futuremark prefer certified drivers for their 3DMark benchmarks I believe.

But the question I ask is that if AMD can deliver monthly certified drivers plus beta/previews ones too then why can't NVIDIA? I recall a survey done last year to determine who had the most stable drivers and, if I remember correctly, that honour went to AMD (much to my surprise!), perhaps because they have more certified drivers? Are NVIDIA cheapskates who refuse to pay for certification?

As you say though it doesn't really mean much but personally I'm kind of sick of beta this and beta that (I'd argue that many games of late are released as betas but that's for another thread!). Even EA's own Origin, which has been out over a year now, is still a beta/pre-release. Beta to me is an indication that something is unfinished and potentially buggy/unsafe so I would prefer certified drivers and software myself for my hardware.

 

They want to fix this TDR first before moving on to WHQL and I agree with them on this one.. Or better yet they should release a separate driver for those experiencing these TDRs and for us unaffected regular release


Btw about that beta warning i didnt have that too in a while, kinda weird.. Last time i saw that waring was when i installed some 28x.xx laptop2go beta driver.

 

Yup, drivers ARE certified for me according to DXDiag and I never had the usual warning during installation as I did have with previous (these really are) beta drivers. I suspect that these drivers were partially certified but NVIDIA released them as betas to get the Skyrim fix out as quickly as possible rather than wait for all cards to be approved. I believe they've done this before.

 

NVIDIA has digitally signed the drivers providing a security catalog that eliminates that red warning pop-up during installation. As far as I can tell the 290.53 drivers are still beta, just as NVIDIA has labeled them.