NVIDIA driver slowdowns

[Draenin]

Check your video settings like Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering and so on to make sure that's not slowing it. Also, check to make sure vsynch is off. Your card is clocked rather high to begin with, so you may want to take that down a bit. My current card has issues with resources sometimes when I have it clocked at default (500 MHz core and mem) so that might be something influencing it. There's a possibility that your card was clocked so high by default that it's overworking itself.

[spydrct02]

I've underclocked it in the past to something like 50/100 from 350/500 (core/memory (both 2D and 3D)); Like in my last post, underclocking it to that extreme didn't even affect performance and still gave the same level load time. Vertical sync is not on, nor Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering. Even with them on, it doesn't reduce performance any. In 3D games that are graphically intensive (lack of a better term), yes, they do affect performance, and that's normal in any card.

[ReBorn_Spirit]

I would like to say something about the original comment. About "newer" drivers, really...

Is it newer then your video card?
Did you even read in breif what that newer driver does compared to the old one?

My thing about Video drivers is rather simple actually
I have a GeForce 5700LE (AGP 8X)
which basically means, I can use the NVIDIA driver version 7*.** and it would make absolutely no difference in comparison to a 9*.** driver.

But yes, The newer NVIDIA drivers are actually slower, too many instructions and extra things to go through first is all.

**In English, Don't fix what is not broken.

[spydrct02]

So you're trying to say it does or doesn't make a performance difference on your system? You've said both.

The newer drivers have bug fixes for various games, new Antialiasing modes, and better image quality. I get higher FPS in 3D games with the newer drivers than the older ones (with all visual settings set the same).

I don't believe in your "don't fix what is not broken" quote, by the way. We would all have 50 MHz computers if everybody lived by that.

[spydrct02]

He/she mentioned their video card in an earlier post:

Originally Posted by ReBorn_Spirit

I have a GeForce 5700LE (AGP 8X)

It wouldn't hurt if the other people that explained (or lack) their experiences here would make a screen recording too (Darlene, zephirot, Magadal).

[ReBorn_Spirit]

Originally Posted by spydrct02

He/she mentioned their video card in an earlier post:


It wouldn't hurt if the other people that explained (or lack) their experiences here would make a screen recording too (Darlene, zephirot, Magadal).

There is another reason actually the newer drivers "might" be slowing down. I've been experiementing with some video card overclocking features, yes I know all about how Nvidia doesnt really support doing this. I do know my Video card is actually rather slow and I should upgrade it to something with atleast a 400mhz core on it, instead of the current 250mhz. I managed to overclock mine to 350 mhz, it seems to reduce alot of the lagg on Graal. But I wasnt lagging when others could barely move. Minor details are making differences for me, but anyways I would suggest we find out how fast our video cards actually are. Knowing how fast they are with some people that say the newer Nvidia drives cause slowdowns, might reveal something.

First of all I went here to find video card overclocking tools.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/
The one I'm actually using now is here
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815

You can try it and see if it helps to correct your video lagg, just read the agreements a little. Overclocking your video card could void your warranties (Mines expired warranty anyways). At the very least you can use the utility to see how fast your video card is. Just get the strange feeling the older drivers did something these newer ones do not do by default.

**Running any processor or video processor, can cause it to overheat and actaully slow down again. Keep this in mind, you might have to experiment a little with your settings to get it just right. Alternatively, the drivers update listed above can auto detect the best settings someone else things would be best (Sometimes its not and can go above that).

** This is a qoute from another website that talks about the same/simliar tweak.
"This tweak is intended for use with GeForce/Quadro cards and ForceWare 55.xx - 9x.xx 3D Stereo drivers. NVTweak is not fully compatible with Windows 98/Me or driver versions older than 55.xx. If you do happen to run this tweak with older software, you could get errors at startup! To enable full compatibility, you will need to disable the options that are causing issues with your current setup." This may hold very true to others on graal as well.

[spydrct02]

Originally Posted by ReBorn_Spirit

There is another reason actually the newer drivers "might" be slowing down. I've been experiementing with some video card overclocking features, yes I know all about how Nvidia doesnt really support doing this. I do know my Video card is actually rather slow and I should upgrade it to something with atleast a 400mhz core on it, instead of the current 250mhz. I managed to overclock mine to 350 mhz, it seems to reduce alot of the lagg on Graal. But I wasnt lagging when others could barely move. Minor details are making differences for me, but anyways I would suggest we find out how fast our video cards actually are. Knowing how fast they are with some people that say the newer Nvidia drives cause slowdowns, might reveal something.

I've said in earlier posts that both overclocking and underclocking make no difference on my card. Take a look yourself:

Both were using ForceWare driver 66.00, and in 1600 x 1200 resolution. Both 2D AND 3D were adjusted.
(core/memory)
88/125: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkOYlqCh1T4
350/500: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ventNucK7Z4

I'm pretty sure Gerami's card has higher clocks than mine. He does get a bit better performance on the newer drivers than I do, but when I use older drivers, I get similar performance to his. What would be interesting is if Gerami would underclock his to my clock speeds and see if he gets my results.

**Running any processor or video processor, can cause it to overheat and actaully slow down again.

Getting my card up to 96 degrees celcius (204.8 Fahrenheit, I think) doesn't slow it down in any game I've played. I do think that's a little higher than "normal" temperatures under full load, but still, it makes no difference. My video card doesn't reach those temperatures while running Graal anyway--maybe like 76c. My idle temperature was 72c last time I checked, and my room was 78 Fahrenheit.