Nvidia Video Cards and Windows Vista

[doofy]

New betas surfaced in the middle of the Crysis driver spam going on at the moment that have some interesting release notes. I don't play FFXI anymore and I'm not re-installing it on one of my Vista partitions just to test drivers, but these recently popped up and might be worth a shot. They provide some decent performance increases in other apps, as well as fix some annoying 169.xx bugs, so they might actually address the FFXI + Vista + Nvidia horseshit. The links are to the international builds, so they're a little larger than the usual US / English packages, but those haven't been posted yet.

ForceWare 169.17 (Beta) International - Vista 32bit
ForceWare 169.17 (Beta) International - Vista 64bit
ForceWare 169.17 (Beta) International - WinXP 32bit

Release Highlights
• Beta driver for GeForce 6, 7, and 8 series GPUs and Final Fantasy XI.
• This driver is only a recommended update for customers playing Final Fantasy XI

[Killgannon]

will try right now, give me 10 minutes

no more lag, getting 29.0 fps with people on the screen.... holy shit yay

[calinz]

This looks interesting... does this make the game run even better on XP as well? I mean like "29.0 in front of the Whitegate AH" better

[ShinseiRyu]

This looks interesting... does this make the game run even better on XP as well? I mean like "29.0 in front of the Whitegate AH" better

Still getting around 13FPS at a fully loaded whitegate auction house on windows XP with 169.17 drivers. Anyone on vista getting full 29FPS there?

[doofy]

This looks interesting... does this make the game run even better on XP as well? I mean like "29.0 in front of the Whitegate AH" better

Still getting around 13FPS at a fully loaded whitegate auction house on windows XP with 169.17 drivers. Anyone on vista getting full 29FPS there?

These won't improve a crappy framerate in XP, they're supposed to address the ~50% fps nosedive that occurs with FFXI (DX8) + Vista + nV compared to the exact same system under XP. Since it seems that Killgannon's problem is solved, I guess they finally fixed it.

[Izzy]

I got these drivers from lv2g, but where are you guys reading these release notes and finding them in the first place?

[Don Katsu]

I don't see the released notes for these drivers

But they work.... they finally fixed it maybe should change the topic to reflect this.

[Don Katsu]

The drivers work but it seems like the game runs like crap with the playonline windowed mode.

[Demosthenes11]

Hmmm, i changed to xp because of this issue...
If i went back to vista, will my fps be even better now?

[Don Katsu]

yes

[Drace]

Haven't had a chance to test them yet, but NVIDIA released yet another updated Beta driver today, supposed to have all of the fixes that the 169.17 drivers had, plus fix a few other issues some people were having with 8 series cards. I'll be testing out both drivers on my Vista/NVIDIA 8 series system tonight ~

Link to today's 169.21 Beta Drivers

English versions:

XP 32 Bit:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/1 ... h_beta.exe
XP 64 Bit:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/1 ... h_beta.exe

Vista 32 Bit:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/1 ... h_beta.exe
Vista 64 Bit:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/1 ... h_beta.exe

Int'l versions:

http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/1 ... l_beta.exe
http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/1 ... l_beta.exe
http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/1 ... l_beta.exe
http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/1 ... l_beta.exe

[Seditedi]

Wow, so happy I'm not on Vista, sounds like a fucking nightmare to use that piece of shit OS.
Don't think I ever plan on upgrading to it. I'd get a Mac before I'd use Vista.

[Pergo]

i just got a new laptop for xmas and i've been noticing some problems with the graphics... after updating the drivers to the beta ones, it seems to work good, but now i only have 1 issue: my char studders when he walks.

when i move in ffxi, i'll take about 3 steps, then pause for about 1/3 of a sec causing me to not have a smooth gameplay at all. the fps doesn't drop or anything, it just studders like i'm running a virus scan or windows update in the background. does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

specs: vista 32bit, geforce 8400m gs, antivirus and firewalls get turned off and it doesn't fix it

[Postal]

Need some assistance... i went to install the new drivers lastnight. When i started it, i got the message that the OS that was detected was not Vista 32bit ( in fact it is )... does anyone know how to fix this???
no dual boot, just plan ole vista home premium 32bit

[Don Katsu]

i just got a new laptop for xmas and i've been noticing some problems with the graphics... after updating the drivers to the beta ones, it seems to work good, but now i only have 1 issue: my char studders when he walks.

when i move in ffxi, i'll take about 3 steps, then pause for about 1/3 of a sec causing me to not have a smooth gameplay at all. the fps doesn't drop or anything, it just studders like i'm running a virus scan or windows update in the background. does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

specs: vista 32bit, geforce 8400m gs, antivirus and firewalls get turned off and it doesn't fix it

It's probably your connection or monitor refresh rate (I'm not sure how this applies to laptops)

[goofytek]

I just built a new computer and I can say, wow the .17 beta drivers work like a charm.

My Specs:
Intel Quad Core Q6600 Overclocked to 3.2ghz
4gig of Ram
BFG 8800GT 512meg OC2
Windows Vista Home Prem 64Bit

I started with .21 then .25 Drivers, I installed FFXI and updated everything, and man, my FPS was 29-30 only looking at the wall haha. When outside or looking at mobs, it was fine normally 20+. But when there are other players around you, FPS took a big dive. Sitting at a DA or Cerby Camp killed my FPS down to about 5fps. Very unplayable. I tried the lastest .28 drivers and it didnt seem to make a difference. So i looked up and found the .17 beta drivers and installed them. And wow, they fixed all my lag, i get a nice 25-30 FPS everywhere for normal places, but of course a FPS dip down to about 12-20ish FPS for areas like DA and Besiged. But much much better. I would at least try .17 or even stay at the .17 drivers if you only play FFXI.

Thats my 2cents.

[Wasted24]

Need some assistance... i went to install the new drivers lastnight. When i started it, i got the message that the OS that was detected was not Vista 32bit ( in fact it is )... does anyone know how to fix this???
no dual boot, just plan ole vista home premium 32bit

Getting the same exact problem. Looking for a fix right now ill post if i find one.

What video card are you using postal?

[Wasted24]

:D Found a fix:

Apparently those drivers are only for desktop computers. And im guessing that you have a laptop and the go version of an NVIDIA card, Postal. You need to use a modded inf file to get these drivers working on a laptop. You can find the modded inf file for v169.17 32bit Vista here: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=16428.

After you download the inf file and the driver from laptopvideo2go, go to computer > OS (C > NVIDIA > WinVista. In the WinVista folder create a folder called 169.17 and extract the driver data into there. Then replace the inf file in the 169.17 folder with the modded one and run setup.exe.

If your experiencing this problem on a desktop computer and not a laptop, try running Vista in safe mode and installing the driver (no modded inf file should be needed).

Hopefully this helps all you laptop users out there who were as frustrated as me. FFXI runs perfect for me now.

PS: anyone else with a laptop running 64bit Vista heres the modded inf for that too: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=16431

[Postal]

:D Found a fix:

Apparently those drivers are only for desktop computers. And im guessing that you have a laptop and the go version of an NVIDIA card, Postal. You need to use a modded inf file to get these drivers working on a laptop. You can find the modded inf file for v169.17 32bit Vista here: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=16428.

After you download the inf file and the driver from laptopvideo2go, go to computer > OS (C > NVIDIA > WinVista. In the WinVista folder create a folder called 169.17 and extract the driver data into there. Then replace the inf file in the 169.17 folder with the modded one and run setup.exe.

If your experiencing this problem on a desktop computer and not a laptop, try running Vista in safe mode and installing the driver (no modded inf file should be needed).

Hopefully this helps all you laptop users out there who were as frustrated as me. FFXI runs perfect for me now.

PS: anyone else with a laptop running 64bit Vista heres the modded inf for that too: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=16431

Good find Wasted :D thanks

[Izzy]

:D Found a fix:

Apparently those drivers are only for desktop computers. And im guessing that you have a laptop and the go version of an NVIDIA card, Postal. You need to use a modded inf file to get these drivers working on a laptop. You can find the modded inf file for v169.17 32bit Vista here: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=16428.

After you download the inf file and the driver from laptopvideo2go, go to computer > OS (C > NVIDIA > WinVista. In the WinVista folder create a folder called 169.17 and extract the driver data into there. Then replace the inf file in the 169.17 folder with the modded one and run setup.exe.

If your experiencing this problem on a desktop computer and not a laptop, try running Vista in safe mode and installing the driver (no modded inf file should be needed).

Hopefully this helps all you laptop users out there who were as frustrated as me. FFXI runs perfect for me now.

PS: anyone else with a laptop running 64bit Vista heres the modded inf for that too: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=16431

Good find Wasted :D thanks

This all was posted in a thread in Advanced Discussion like 2 weeks ago.