NVidia Detonator Driver Discussion

[CUViper 0]

yeah, fancy animations like that lobby scene...

 

oh wait, that was the Max Payne engine in use there - doh! Real game!

[EddiE314 0]

I have gaming XPerience, i have noticed a gain in speed after switching to WinXP with the 8.04 drivers.....i happen to thnk 3dmark is a very good benchmarking utility, others would seem to agree.

 

Quote:

.....Don't stick with 3DMark results cause we meant to play games, not watch fancy anymations (hmmm, sounds like Diablo 2 ), so relay more on gaming XPerience than syntetic b*ll $h!t.

[MiracleMan 0]

Yes, I have to agree. 3DMark2000/2001 are a good benchmark, and I use it too. Wadda I mean is 3DMark are ONLY benchmark, not related to real gaming experience, with this everyone have to agree. What we need is good gaming experinece first, and sintertyc benchs second. Even with 2 identical systems, we got diferent 3DMark results. Having 7000 points with texture artifacts doesn't mean you will get 300fps in QuakeIII (actually, anyone still play this?).

 

Well, and about that new Hercules drivers in the post subject

Oh, yes, I almost forgot that! After months using only nVidia Detonator reference drivers, I never come back too see if Hercules released new drivers. After a quick peek at Hercules site, I discovered they released an 12.41 Hercules driver! You may say: "big deal, but what about it?". When I first installed my Prophet II MX, it only worked 100% fast and stable with Hercules 6.50 drivers (WinMe). When I upgraded to Windows XP 2505, I tried the 12.41 reference drivers, and it work very well. So, having the same good working drivers, specialy tweaked to my cart, why not use it? Oh, yes, I installed it, and... they R0><0R!!!1 Without any kind of tweak or overclock, it benched 3DMark 2001 faster than 12.90/14.20/12.41(ref) and Max Payne are faster and stable too!!!

With 12.90, my best 3DMark results under XP (2505/2526) so far, I got 2432, using all tweaks&tricks and o/cing to 210/200. After installed, the 12.41 Hercules drivers gave me 2384!!! Later I will try all tweaks and see how much juice we can squiise!!!

 

SO (again), if u get a very good benchmark results, and your games rox, you are at 7th haven, you are in the bees knees!!

[EddiE314 0]

the problem is that i'm not going to install a 600-700MB game just to run a torture demo on my system, 3dmark is the most logical thing for me to use, i agree that it IS synthetic, but thats all there is.

[MiracleMan 0]

Woa! Did u tried install games just for play and have fun with then? Just kidding

Actually, the focus of most the threads are about personal machines. If u just run computers for personal use, you have to use it more than test it.

BUT, if you are an reseler, you really need quick and simple tools to try and test your products.

 

Then again, if someone are using a computer just for benchmarking, okie dokie, but it's a bit silly, don't you think?

[BanditXL 0]

EddiE314 posted he ussed the 8.04, so I thought I install those too.

Here are my findings:

 

Nvidia 8.04:

-3dmark2000 6955 3d marks (finally an increase in performance)

 

-3dmark2001 wil only run until up until the lobby and then it drops me back to windows wich got me thinking about the max payne engine in the 3dmark2001 benchmark, I started max payne with the same result it drops me back to windows after a few seconds of gameplay. I have tested the same results with these drivers of nvidia: 7.76, 8.03, 7.59. On the other hand I tested these drivers wich worked fine with 3dmark2001 and max payne(I know same engine and stuff): 12.60, 12.90, 14.20 and 14.40 (for some benchmark results look in earlier post of mine).

 

Is there anyone who can verify these findings?

[MiracleMan 0]

Well, for the Max Payne, theres a patch (version 1.01), to deal with this issue. But when it's happen under 3DMark, in my system, when I overclock too much the memory... ;(

[EddiE314 0]

lol, the lobby scence crashed for me too, i have not been able to complete the benchmark with the 8.04's and 8.03's.

[gogeta4194 0]

ok check this out... i decided to uninstall xp and put 2k on it to see if there was a difference in how the drivers work...it sure fooled me...ok my tnt2 m64 card will only work with 6.3.4-6.1.8 drivers but they will work for about a minute then freeze..anything driver below will just freeze when 2k loads up..any driver higher will just load the vga drivers and wont load the monitor..same thing it did in XP..! y does this happen to me??? all i want is just for this card to work so i can play my Unreal Tournament,Fifa 2001,and GTA 2.. oh yea i forgot when i goto screensavers and click on the 2d flower box or anything that has opengl it freezes.. i even tried to disable drect3d and directdraw and still no difference..please someone save me b4 i lose my temper and seriously blow up my computer

[EddiE314 0]

i think it may be safe to assume that it's the video card, it was a good one too, but i can hear a GeForce calling you name, especially that GF2MX for $90 at pricewatch.com.

[Brian Frank 0]

Yeah, I'd stick with Nvidia right now. My Voodoo 3 ran slick as ice in Beta 2, but since 3dfx cards have been dropped from XP, I had to get a GF2 card. The MX200 runs like hell--slower in Win2k, but runs flawlessly in XP. I'm probably gonna get my money back and get a regular MX tho. In case I don't get XP right away when it comes out, that is.

[FatFish 0]

The Detonator 4 Drivers will be out soon.. the version is 20.80

And it is supposed to work well in XP

[EddiE314 0]

Go NVidia!!!

 

 

BUMP

[Brian Frank 0]

Looks like it's mostly a big boost for the lucky dogs with the GF3's, but I'll still be able to grab them shortly after I get my GF2Pro:D

[EddiE314 0]

compare the performance of the old Det3 5.xx series to the 12.xx's or the 14.xx's, there's a nice boost in performance, i'm sure after some time the Det4's will get better no matter what NVidia card you have....and hopefully it will solve some people's XP+TNT2 problems.

[EddiE314 0]

Detonator 3 & 3DMark2000 Benchmarks (8/14/2001)

 

-------------------------

 

Settings for Benchmarks:

 

Pentium III 667(133)

256MB SDRAM PC150 CAS2

3D Prophet II MX 32MB AGP (No Overclocking)

1024x768x32bpp@85Hz, No-AA, VSync-OFF,

Triple Frame Buffer, 16Bit ZBuffer Depth

Windows XP Professional RC2, Build 2526

 

-------------------------

 

8.04 - 5555

 

8.05 - 5518

 

12.41 - 5309

 

14.10 - 5188

 

14.40 - 5180

[Mike Zamarocy 1]

Ok, I can understand all the speed freaks into benchmarks. But I wish someone would also start telling me what the differences are between the driver sets. WHAT is the 12 series, what is different with the 14 series, and then why suddenly new 8 series appear? Which are best for DX8? Which are best for D3D? I don't really play much in OGL, as I got into Rainbow6 Urban Ops, and now the new Operation Flashpoint - all D3D games.

 

Currently, as I have a Leadtech board (2-GTS), I found they had 12.60 based drivers and am using those for Win2K. But it seems my desktop and applications are very slow. I am using an Intel PIII 933 on a genuine Intel D815EEA mobo.

[EddiE314 0]

i beleive the 12 and 14's are geared toward DX8, while the 8's are geared toward DX7, i could be wrong though, i found the 12.41's and the 12.90's to be very good, the 12.90's are a little faster that the 12.41's.

[DosFreak 2]

If you go to www.m3dzone.com you can download the .pdf's for the drivers. They tell which set is for which...although the 8 dets are missing from the .pdf's.

[EddiE314 0]

Detonator 3 and 3DMark2000 Benchmarks (8/17/2001)

 

-------------------------

 

Settings for Benchmarks:

 

Pentium III 667(133)

256MB SDRAM PC150 CAS2

3D Prophet II MX 32MB AGP (No Overclocking)

1024x768x32bpp@85Hz, No-AA, VSync-OFF,

Triple Frame Buffer, 16Bit ZBuffer Depth

Windows XP Professional RC2, Build 2526

 

-------------------------

 

8.04 - 5555

 

8.05 - 5518

 

12.41 - 5309

 

14.10 - 5188

 

14.40 - 5180

 

14.61 - 5243