Thank God Almighty!!!The ORIGINAL nVidia BRAND NEW 43.45DETs are here!!!

[dbal]

YES!!! It's Damn true!!! :Q

nVidia after almost FOUR (4) months of anticipation has published in their site, the brand new detonators version 43.45 with full DX9 support, a new display properties user's guide dated 3/2003 and generally has waken up from the past months' long hibernation (or coma to state it better??)...
I am downloading right now and can't wait to test performance and stability....ALL impressions and experience from your dets are mostly awaited...!

 

[Genx87]

Keep us posted

 

[dbal]

First impressions...
1. No significant performance gains while benchmarking with my GF2Ti (not so reliable to test DX9 drivers I know....)
2. The set is not even WHQL candidate...Seems that even nvidia is tired of Microsoft...
3. At last, there is a dissociation between the english language version and the international one, since the size grows dramatically from 8.5 to 22MB file u had to dload even if u wouldn't ever care to learn Lithuanian from NVIDIA...
4. The driver interface now is much more clearer and friendly to use.
....and waiting for feedback!

 

[Megatomic]

I'll give them a shot and report back later. I'll be testing them on a GF4 Ti 4200 128MB AGP4X card installed in an nForce2 mobo. OS=WinXP Pro SP1 DX9.0a.

 

[chizow]

Det 50's are expected once the FX parts hit mainstream. I don't know why you guys are expecting constant driver updates for your year-old (or older) cards though.

Chiz

 

[Haden]

dbal, I wonder why you mentioned Lithuanian (maybe you are one?),
I'm not offended or smth just curiuos.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: chizow
Det 50's are expected once the FX parts hit mainstream. I don't know why you guys are expecting constant driver updates for your year-old (or older) cards though.

Chiz

nVidia cards aren't like ATi cards. One driver for all, as they say.

Det 43.45 will run the oldest TNT. Not great, but it'll run.

 

[stockspeedsrule]

Originally posted by: chizow
Det 50's are expected once the FX parts hit mainstream.

I don't know why you guys are expecting constant driver updates for your year-old (or older) cards though.

Maybe because people with their R8500s (& older cards) are getting near monthly updates.


Anyways, should I install directx 9.0a first or after having updated the drivers. And how do I make sure I have completely removed previous driver left overs, am using XP Pro SP1 with a ti4200. thanx in advance.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: stockspeedsrule

Maybe because people with their R8500s (& older cards) are getting near monthly updates.

And why is that? Because there are still significant problems with Radeon cards that need to be addressed. The GF line has not drastically changed since the GF2, so driver, performance, and compatibility progressed more naturally. The 8500 was ATi's first ArtX designed chip, and was a radical change in architecture from their previous designs. Given ATi's historically poor driver support, their learning curve took much longer and is still ongoing. Would you prefer a card that underperforms for a year and exhibits problems continuously but gets a driver release montly, or a card that works perfectly out of the box and gets a driver update semi-annually?

Chiz

 

[T9D]

..

 

[merlocka]

Gosh, I still remember the day when nVidia "branded" their TnT drives as "detonators". That was like what, version 3.xx?

Man, it's been a long time.

As far as 43.45 go, I like the additional "Performance & Quality" menu in the nVidia Media Center icon.

Haven't tested them, need to fix refresh rates again. Man that's annoying.

 

[WyteWatt]

Has anyone tested to see if 4x FSAA or 8x AF or when both are turned on there is any performence increase like in unreal 2003 or any games please?

Thanks

 

[nemesismk2]

With these drivers not being whql will hit futuremark's 3dmark03 pretty hard because they recently stated no scores using none whql drivers will be submitted to the orb. The last whql drivers released by Nvidia were the 40_72 drivers and that was ages ago.

If Nvidia isn't going to release whql drivers then 3dmark03 is going to be dominated by ATI.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: merlocka
Gosh, I still remember the day when nVidia "branded" their TnT drives as "detonators". That was like what, version 3.xx?

Man, it's been a long time.

As far as 43.45 go, I like the additional "Performance & Quality" menu in the nVidia Media Center icon.

Haven't tested them, need to fix refresh rates again. Man that's annoying.

Didn't they release a 2.xx series? And the Big Jump was the "Detonator 3.xx"?

- M4H

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2
With these drivers not being whql will hit futuremark's 3dmark03 pretty hard because they recently stated no scores using none whql drivers will be submitted to the orb. The last whql drivers released by Nvidia were the 40_72 drivers and that was ages ago.

If Nvidia isn't going to release whql drivers then 3dmark03 is going to be dominated by ATI.

Actually, they've revised their original statement. Any and all results will be publishable, however, they will be clearly denoted whether or not they are WHQL.

Chiz

 

[nemesismk2]

Did everyone read this bit in the press release? It really made me laugh!

"While listening to Catalyst driver Guru Terry Makedon speak at Lanwar 18, he stressed the importance of WHQL certification as one of the most important keys to over all system stability. ATI for example, has been committed to releasing only WHQL drivers and have been making their regular driver release targets. Every driver released from ATI, so far this year has been WHQL certified. This pales in stark contrast to many other companies who continue to release Non-WHQL drivers on a regular basis."

What this means is that if ATI's drivers weren't WHQL they would be even worse? Yes ATI's drivers can actually be worse than they are now, a scary thought indeed. If ATI's WHQL drivers with their well known problems can get WHQL status then doesn't that mean that WHQL is pointless anyway?

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: nemesismk2
With these drivers not being whql will hit futuremark's 3dmark03 pretty hard because they recently stated no scores using none whql drivers will be submitted to the orb. The last whql drivers released by Nvidia were the 40_72 drivers and that was ages ago.

If Nvidia isn't going to release whql drivers then 3dmark03 is going to be dominated by ATI.

Actually, they've revised their original statement. Any and all results will be publishable, however, they will be clearly denoted whether or not they are WHQL.

Chiz

Futuremark only did that because it was mostly Nvidia owners who purchased 3dmark 2001, I say all Nvidia owners shouldn't purchase 3dmark03 and we'll soon see Futuremark back down even further.

 

[Megatomic]

My Comanche4 benchmark went down by 2 fps with all the same settings (as close as possible) with the same CPU/memory/video card speeds. The old score was almost 56fps, this one was almost 54fps (I can't remember the exact fractional portions of the scores).

I'm going back to 30.82.

 

[FuManStan]

What's funny is that only until recently WHQL has been disregarded as worthless by many

 

[Soulkeeper]

anyone with a GF4 seeing performance gains of any kind ??

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2 If ATI's WHQL drivers with their well known problems can get WHQL status then doesn't that mean that WHQL is pointless anyway?

i suppose it could if you don't know what you are talking about.

 

[BenSkywalker]

On the WHQL topic- if you include on overclock utility then your drivers are rejected from WHQL certification. I recall a time when you wanted to make sure you didn't get WHQL drivers.

 

[BFG10K]

2. The set is not even WHQL candidate...Seems that even nvidia is tired of Microsoft...

From what I hear nVidia cannot get WHQL certification because their drivers do not meet the minimum level of colour precision required for DirectX 9.

 

[SickBeast]

From what I hear nVidia cannot get WHQL certification because their drivers do not meet the minimum level of colour precision required for DirectX 9.

Haha...owned.

I thought that Nvidia was supposed to have the best drivers? Looks like I'll be sticking to ATI for quite some time...

 

[BFG10K]

Well I'd probably say that nVidia still have the edge in driver quality but they've slipped quite far in the last 12 months, especially in light of the recent image quality fiasco. In contrast ATi have really rocketed skyward and I'd say they're almost as good as nVidia now.

I also enjoy the regular monthly releases of official WHQL certified drivers from ATi and I much prefer this to the leaked beta driver strategy from nVidia.