The quality of nVidia's Vista drivers?

Perhaps it's just a 64-bit thing but I have found nVidia's Vista drivers for
my machine's GeForce 7900GTX card absolutely woeful. Every time I install
the latest version (like I just did) I expect more and get less. There are
random screen artifacts consisting of horizontal white or black lines and
also random squares of colour. And every so often the display driver stops
responding and gets recovered.

So what's the deal? Does everyone have the same experience with nVidia's
drivers or is there something wrong with my system?

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________

(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

you are not alone I use a 7600gt and vista 32 bit and the same thing happens
to me. Must be the 7xxx series drivers.
"Qu0ll" <> wrote in message
news:OD$...
> Perhaps it's just a 64-bit thing but I have found nVidia's Vista drivers
> for my machine's GeForce 7900GTX card absolutely woeful. Every time I
> install the latest version (like I just did) I expect more and get less.
> There are random screen artifacts consisting of horizontal white or black
> lines and also random squares of colour. And every so often the display
> driver stops responding and gets recovered.
>
> So what's the deal? Does everyone have the same experience with nVidia's
> drivers or is there something wrong with my system?
>
> --
> And loving it,
>
> -Q
> _________________________________________________
>
> (Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

I'm running 32-bit, but I also have found the latest nVidia drivers to be
hopeless.

My card is a 7600GS, and the driver that came with Vista works beautifully
(although I believe various 3D and OpenGL accelerations are missing -
irrelevant to me).

The performance score for graphics is 5.9, and for gaming graphics is 5.5
(yes, I know they don't mean much really).

However, each time I've tried the latest nVidia driver, the performance
scores have fallen (can't remember how far now, unfortunately, and a
horrible screen flicker occurs when logging on and every so often during
normal use.

The picture kind of shudders and "tears" sideways. It only lasts a moment,
though, and I haven't had any of the pixellation or crashing the OP reports.
Nevertheless, it's still really annoying and distracting.

So, each time I revert back to the original Vista driver and everything
works beautifully.

Something is deeply wrong if nVidia can't get their driver sorted out after
all this time. The one in the box is dated August 2006. What are they
playing at?

SteveT

"Steve Thackery" <> wrote in message
news:...

> I'm running 32-bit, but I also have found the latest nVidia drivers to be
> hopeless.
>
> My card is a 7600GS, and the driver that came with Vista works beautifully
> (although I believe various 3D and OpenGL accelerations are missing -
> irrelevant to me).
>
> The performance score for graphics is 5.9, and for gaming graphics is 5.5
> (yes, I know they don't mean much really).
>
> However, each time I've tried the latest nVidia driver, the performance
> scores have fallen (can't remember how far now, unfortunately, and a
> horrible screen flicker occurs when logging on and every so often during
> normal use.
>
> The picture kind of shudders and "tears" sideways. It only lasts a
> moment, though, and I haven't had any of the pixellation or crashing the
> OP reports. Nevertheless, it's still really annoying and distracting.
>
> So, each time I revert back to the original Vista driver and everything
> works beautifully.
>
> Something is deeply wrong if nVidia can't get their driver sorted out
> after all this time. The one in the box is dated August 2006. What are
> they playing at?

Well even the Vista-standard driver has the problems of artifacts for me but
it's much worse under the nVidia drivers. But perhaps this is a 64-bit
thing (not that that is an excuse).

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________

(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

"BigJim" <> wrote in message
news:. ..

> you are not alone I use a 7600gt and vista 32 bit and the same thing
> happens to me. Must be the 7xxx series drivers.

I can't believe it's this way if there's nothing wrong with the hardware.
It's pathetic.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________

(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

Are you following the official driver installation hints?
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/drive...ion_hints.html

Uninstall the drivers you have, reboot, close ALL applications including
antivirus - exit anything running in the system tray - then install the new
drivers and reboot.




"Qu0ll" <> wrote in message
news:O$...
> "Steve Thackery" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>
>> I'm running 32-bit, but I also have found the latest nVidia drivers to be
>> hopeless.
>>
>> My card is a 7600GS, and the driver that came with Vista works
>> beautifully (although I believe various 3D and OpenGL accelerations are
>> missing - irrelevant to me).
>>
>> The performance score for graphics is 5.9, and for gaming graphics is 5.5
>> (yes, I know they don't mean much really).
>>
>> However, each time I've tried the latest nVidia driver, the performance
>> scores have fallen (can't remember how far now, unfortunately, and a
>> horrible screen flicker occurs when logging on and every so often during
>> normal use.
>>
>> The picture kind of shudders and "tears" sideways. It only lasts a
>> moment, though, and I haven't had any of the pixellation or crashing the
>> OP reports. Nevertheless, it's still really annoying and distracting.
>>
>> So, each time I revert back to the original Vista driver and everything
>> works beautifully.
>>
>> Something is deeply wrong if nVidia can't get their driver sorted out
>> after all this time. The one in the box is dated August 2006. What are
>> they playing at?
>
> Well even the Vista-standard driver has the problems of artifacts for me
> but it's much worse under the nVidia drivers. But perhaps this is a
> 64-bit thing (not that that is an excuse).
>
> --
> And loving it,
>
> -Q
> _________________________________________________
>
> (Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

"Dominic Payer" <> wrote in message
news:61F07ADA-8008-44CD-A5C2-...

> Are you following the official driver installation hints?
> http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/drive...ion_hints.html
>
> Uninstall the drivers you have, reboot, close ALL applications including
> antivirus - exit anything running in the system tray - then install the
> new > drivers and reboot.

Yes, that's exactly what I have been doing and I still get lots of artifacts
(mostly horizontal white lines) and these appear whether or not I am running
Dreamscene. Playing videos on YouTube for example is particularly
problematic.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________

(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

Qu0ll wrote:
> "Dominic Payer" <> wrote in message
> news:61F07ADA-8008-44CD-A5C2-...
>
>> Are you following the official driver installation hints?
>> http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/drive...ion_hints.html
>>
>> Uninstall the drivers you have, reboot, close ALL applications
>> including antivirus - exit anything running in the system tray - then
>> install the new > drivers and reboot.
>
> Yes, that's exactly what I have been doing and I still get lots of
> artifacts (mostly horizontal white lines) and these appear whether or
> not I am running Dreamscene. Playing videos on YouTube for example is
> particularly problematic.
>


Hmm, I have always found that with NVidia drivers (going back 6 years
here) that newer is not always better. For my older cards I usually
gained something but lost something else. That is why I always download
the archives and keep them until absolutely sure a newer version is
actually better. IE Keep the last known good one.

Partly I think this is because no single manufacturer implements the
hardware, so you get variations in component performance - but that is
of course just opinion.

Sorry to hear some are having problems, mine have been fine except for
one beta I tried, but none have managed performance to match XP. I have
a couple of 7600s and a 7950, and a 7900 OC that is fried

Qu0ll;506246 Wrote:
> "Dominic Payer" <dcp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:61F07ADA-8008-44CD-A5C2-61308C853DD5@xxxxxx
>
>
> Yes, that's exactly what I have been doing and I still get lots of
> artifacts (mostly horizontal white lines) and these appear whether or
> not I am running Dreamscene. Playing videos on YouTube for example is
> particularly
> problematic.
>

It definitely sounds like a hardware problem, more than likely with the
display card's memory. I had this issue YEARS ago on my 386's Trident
TVGA9000. Replacing the memory chips on that card solved the issue.

Doing the same isn't so easy anymore, so try putting the display card
into another PC to see if the problem happens there too. At the same
time, try a different display card card in your machine.


--
dzomlija

____________________________________
Peter Alexander Dzomlija
Do you hear, huh? The Alpha and The Omega? Death and Rebirth? And as
you die, so shall I be Reborn...

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"Charlie Tame" <> wrote in message
news:...

> Hmm, I have always found that with NVidia drivers (going back 6 years
> here) that newer is not always better. For my older cards I usually gained
> something but lost something else. That is why I always download the
> archives and keep them until absolutely sure a newer version is actually
> better. IE Keep the last known good one.
>
> Partly I think this is because no single manufacturer implements the
> hardware, so you get variations in component performance - but that is of
> course just opinion.
>
> Sorry to hear some are having problems, mine have been fine except for one
> beta I tried, but none have managed performance to match XP. I have a
> couple of 7600s and a 7950, and a 7900 OC that is fried

OK thanks Charlie for the info. Are you using 64-bit Vista? I am trying to
establish whether the problems I am experiencing are typical of a 7xxx
series nVidia GPU and 64-bit Vista or if there is some underlying hardware
or software problem. It seems that at least one other person has a similar
experience to me but this is hardly indicative of the general population.
So I am hoping more people will reply with positive and negative reports on
their 64-bit Vista nVidia situation.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________

(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)