New Detonator Drivers

vac

" Release Highlights for DetonatorTM XP v21.81:


Performance increases of up to 50%
Highly optimized DirectX® and OpenGL® pipelines
New OpenGL 1.3 ICD with NVIDIA extensions
NVIDIA’s patented Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) – all products supported in single driver binary "

Well i can't remember what Detonator drivers i used before these but i did do a bench mark before i installed the new ones on 3dMark2000, i got 3418 points, after i installed the new drivers i got 3013. I know this won't be the case for everyone but its after annoying me

Ive got a DeForce DDR 256 btw.

Just want to hear the comments off the people who did download them..

GenX

The new detonator drivers ( v4) are better when using low resolutions eg up to 800x600, not good for most users. From trial and error i think the new drivers are not that good,as made out to be, personally im using 12.41s from Hercules for me GeForce2mx


GenX

Straker

I've noticed ~30% more OGL performance with the XP drivers under Win2K. (I'm talking about appilcation performance... not games)

po0k

I got em last nioght, mentioned it in mIRC too, but no-one seemed to take any notice. prolly all asleep at 3am
Installed em today, ,kinda a rush job, just changed adapter driver to standard VGA and rebooted then installed, didn't uninstall the old ones foirst, prolly should have. It went all cocky. Got unstable.

Was previous;y using 12.41 which I find great. Am now back with them again.
I imagine that 12.41 is teh last version for Win9x machines? Detonator XP kinda gives it away that they're designed for *pure* 32-bit OSes eg; Win2K and WinXP.
I hope they release an update for teh OpenGL client for them though, some games would use it.

Also, what programs were you using? TrueSpace? maya?

CLABS GeForce256 SDR

Straker

Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak
Also, what programs were you using? TrueSpace? maya?

Lightwave, Rhino3D, & Deep Paint 3D.

Superman

overall there good they made max payne run alot more smoother on my ****ty p2 400, but granted i have a geforce 2 pro 64mb, i have win 2k

its worth getting one because for £150 it can keep your computer steady for the next 8 months

saik

500mhz celeron
224 mb cas 2 66mhz sd ram
i440bx 2x agp
sb live!
elsa geforce 2 mx


i cant get tony hawks 2 to work with 12.41 or det 4 drivers,
in addition to this the nvidia control panel just doesnt work under these versions :?
things greyed out / empty, antialiasing section has a slidey bar which doesnt seem to have any effect
cant turn vsync on or off
open gl section is ok,
i noticed a minute speed increase in q3, 148 fps instead of 145 but like that isnt close to ~10%
are my drivers borked or is every1 experiencing these problems?

po0k

I don't bother with 3DMark anyhmore, and besides you should be using DirectX 8 anyways with 3DMark2001 to properly test the det4 drivers.

I don't really like em, I found the 12.41s to be very stable, like 6.50, so i'll be sticking with them for a bit.

might wait till i get Win2kPro before I install em again.
what's the story with using two MS OSes? Do they both use the same drivers or do they have seperate setups?

MiCr0

http://gamershq.madonion.com/compare.shtml?2008616

Straker

Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak
what's the story with using two MS OSes? Do they both use the same drivers or do they have seperate setups?

Separate setups is best. Like yourself I still use the 12.41 drivers with Win98SE, especially after finding the 14.XX's to be slower.

JustHalf

*sigh*

[FCA]SyxPak said this:
I don't bother with 3DMark anyhmore, and besides you should be using DirectX 8 anyways with 3DMark2001 to properly test the det4 drivers.
Read what you've just said. To avoid being pedantic, I'll assume you meant 3DMark2000 by 3DMark.

Why not use it with DirectX8? And why not use other benchmarking packages? Do you think Det4's are only ever going to be used in Direct3D applications?

And also said this:
Was previous;y using 12.41 which I find great. Am now back with them again.
I imagine that 12.41 is teh last version for Win9x machines? Detonator XP kinda gives it away that they're designed for *pure* 32-bit OSes eg; Win2K and WinXP.
I hope they release an update for teh OpenGL client for them though, some games would use it.
Er, http://www.nvidia.com/us/ie/pg000006.htm
And what the hell do you mean by "pure" 32-bit OSes? The XP here is marketing crap.
BTW, the Det4's have a full OpenGL 1.3 Installable Client Driver, which wasn't in Det3's.

saik:
Sounds like you're using WHQL-certified drivers. Download the non-WHQL-certified drivers and you should be able to overclock the card.

Superman:
I'd suggest upgrading to keep your computer running smooth!

BTW Vac, these cards seem to benefit the GeForce 3's the most. I wonder if Asus has released a Det4 based deluxe driver

elexes

hehe
sock it to em JustHalf .

po0k

Sheesh........

I tried the Det4's, I've read the marketingbull, I've read the feature list of tehm.
I know they ahve OpenGL 1.3, in fact I mentioned the new verison was iminent only a few weeks ago on the CS boards when someone with a GeForce was wondering why tehy were getting crap FPSes in CS when running uder Directx6.

What I emant by not bothering with 3DMark was I don't use Benchmarking apps any more. No pont. If my machine doesn't run a given app at a comfortable speed then i'll tweak and fiddle till it does, or close to.
I've tried these new drivers and I didn't like em, left my machine unstable and under performing.
I'll accept that part of that instability may have been down to my install being borked, but non-the less, I wasn't happy.
And yes I know ow to properly install the dets, god knows I've posted enough times on the subject.
What I'd like would be a seperate OpenGL Client installer, as opposed to the XP stuff included, which if you red the site it says these drivers give added enhance ments for XP..yadda yadda bull.
I'll be getting Win2k soon enough so maybe then i'll use em, but for now I'll stick with teh 12.41s, cos the do the job for meh.

[/END RANT]
Not meaning to argue with anyone, and I acknowlage taht i may have rushed that post, like i'm rushing this one.
I could never afford Secretary school like Occy

JustHalf

Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak
I tried the Det4's, I've read the marketingbull, I've read the feature list of tehm. I know they ahve OpenGL 1.3, in fact I mentioned the new verison was iminent only a few weeks ago on the CS boards when someone with a GeForce was wondering why tehy were getting crap FPSes in CS when running uder Directx6.

There's next to no point in installing Det4's with DX6.

Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak
What I emant by not bothering with 3DMark was I don't use Benchmarking apps any more. No pont. If my machine doesn't run a given app at a comfortable speed then i'll tweak and fiddle till it does, or close to.

Benchmarks give you a good way of testing your tweaks.

And what you said in the second clause was unforgivable:
"and besides you should be using DirectX 8 anyways with 3DMark2001 to properly test the det4 drivers."
because 3DMark2001 uses Direct3D extensions from DirectX 8 - it doesn't test OpenGL performance.b *cough cough* Quake III, Doom III *cough cough*

Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak
I've tried these new drivers and I didn't like em, left my machine unstable and under performing.

Fair enough. They seem to benefit the GeForce3 the most.

Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak
What I'd like would be a seperate OpenGL Client installer, as opposed to the XP stuff included, which if you red the site it says these drivers give added enhance ments for XP..yadda yadda bull.
I'll be getting Win2k soon enough so maybe then i'll use em, but for now I'll stick with teh 12.41s, cos the do the job for meh.

If you have a GeForce3, then it's probably a good idea to install the new Dets. Otherwise, give them a go and test them out.

And on the XP side: I'd assume they'd only include these in the XP/2000 build, and that these changes have little or no detrimental affect to performance on 2000. There's no reason they would.

Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak
Not meaning to argue with anyone, and I acknowlage taht i may have rushed that post, like i'm rushing this one.
I could never afford Secretary school like Occy

What?

astrofool

the older the card the less the benefit, sometimes a decrease.

What's good coding for one game, might be bad for another, so don't take one result as the determination factor.

I think for 3dmark2001 u have to have DX8 installed to run properly?

these drivers are good for the gef2 onwards, they improve the memory management for most setups. A dodgy windows install can be just as detrimental to the score, esp. if u changed driversw without uninstalling the old set.

sutty

These drivers are ment to give a 50% increse for Ge-force 3's. People with Ge-Force 2 (more than likely not pro's) will see a 10-15% increse. You really should only see the increses with programs that use DX8(a) ie: 3D Mark 2001. Although you may get a increse in older apps. I'll go and Download them now and do some tests. I'll put it up here.

JustHalf

Ran both 3DMark2000 and 3DMark2001, for Asus 12.60 drivers (for v8200 Deluxe) and the reference 21.81 drivers (AKA, Detonator XP). In both cases, the setup was:

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1GHz @ 1.333GHz
Abit KT7A-RAID
392Mb PC133 RAM (most tweaks - no interleave, though)
40Gb Quantum Fireball AS
Windows 2000 Professional (Service Pack 2)
Asus v8200 Deluxe (stock speed : 200/460)
Full quality Direct3D settings

3DMark2000 results
Asus 12.60 drivers: 8569
nVidia 21.81 drivers: 8571

3DMark2001 results
Asus 12.60 drivers: 5533
nVidia 21.81 drivers: 6196

As you can see, there is next to no difference in the 3DMark2000 results... 2 3DMarks are easily explained away as benchmark variance. The improvements in 3DMark2001 scores are astonishing.

This lack of a common increase implies that those driver features used in 3DMark2000 have not been accelerated, and that those in 3DMark2001 but not in 3DMark2000 have. Specificially:

* 32-bit colour
* Pixel shaders
* Vertex shaders

I would write and investigate more, but as this isn't a professional test I couldn't be arsed. When I have my own tech site, *then* I might do it.

BTW, I found that with the Detonator 4's I had to raise my I/O voltage to get 3DMark2000 to complete - from 3.5v to 3.6v. The reason it was at 3.5v was because the card didn't like running at 3.4v

JustHalf

Just to note... these are Direct3D tests only... I'll check out OpenGL performance on Wednesday (when I'll be getting some good quality RAM).

po0k

Cool.
I wasn't trying to argue with you, cos I know from previous posts that you know your stuff.

I never said (possibly replace with "intended to say" ) that they give bad performance in Win2k or Xp, in fact quite the opposite.

I would like to get the new OpenGL client seperate cos I have Dx8 drivers that work well with my card ( a CLABS GeForce256 SDR ) and have no need for the 21.81s (yet). I'll be getting Win2k soon enough, and then I'll probably install them 21.81s for that OS.
IMHO they suck for 1st generation T&L and TNT series, the reason there's an 'upto 50% performance boost' is because 9as you probably know allready) the GeForce3 has a programmablke Vertex shader, and that was a seling point for it.

Also about

There's next to no point in installing Det4's with DX6.

I know.
I was referring to the fact that HL is a Directx6 game, hence no hardware T&L accelleration through D3D, only OpenGL, hence the ppls crappy FPS ratings on otherewise good systems.

Just half, could you post a quck feature list of OpenGL 1.3 or a way to just install it on its own, with out the DetXPs?
Sound, thanks

BTW, I'll be doing most of my posting from NUIG anymore sweeeeeet

po0k

www.opengl.org

am, there doesn't seem to be anything about 1.3 at first glance, they seem to be only announcing the feature list of OpenGL 1.2 .....
strange, maybe SGi have something......

JustHalf

Click here. 296 pages of goodness

po0k

.pdf
nice, pity I'm studying Elec. Eng., and not I.T., I could get all codie in a bit on this stuff
Thx for hunting it down thoiugh