Video Driver and fps
by Steve Acaster · in Hardware Issues · 10/14/2008 (1:36 pm) · 5 replies
How often do people upgrade their video drivers?
I'm running a Nvidia 7900GS, not the most state-of-the-art piece of hardware but works fine on my system. Whenever new drivers appear (sometimes even beta drivers) I happily download.
I just installed Nvidia's new 178.13 drivers over 175.19 and noticed a bit of drop in fps, nothing too drastic, say 15-20 fps off of a standard 190-200fps (fullscreen - gets better performance). I reinstalled 175.19 to check, and that little missing bit of fps comes back.
Now I think I've noticed a bit of a trend over the past year in driver performance for older model cards like mine. A trend were it's going down a little bit over time.
Nvidia's 178.13 is used to power their whole GeForce range -- that's a WHOPPING 88 different products, ranging from the uber high tech GTX280 and 9000 series way down to the mundane 6100. My 7900GS is a respectable if unexciting 36th on the list.
Makes me think that when they produce a video driver for a huge range of products they are favouring the newest DX10 compatible series 8 and 9 cards at the expense of older models. Commercially that probably makes perfect sense.
So, my question - before - this thread turns into a statement - is how often do users of older (as in pre GeForce 8800) graphics cards update their video drivers? Are you always slapping the newest driver in place like myself, or do you stick with what you've got? Do you update them at all?
I'm running a Nvidia 7900GS, not the most state-of-the-art piece of hardware but works fine on my system. Whenever new drivers appear (sometimes even beta drivers) I happily download.
I just installed Nvidia's new 178.13 drivers over 175.19 and noticed a bit of drop in fps, nothing too drastic, say 15-20 fps off of a standard 190-200fps (fullscreen - gets better performance). I reinstalled 175.19 to check, and that little missing bit of fps comes back.
Now I think I've noticed a bit of a trend over the past year in driver performance for older model cards like mine. A trend were it's going down a little bit over time.
Nvidia's 178.13 is used to power their whole GeForce range -- that's a WHOPPING 88 different products, ranging from the uber high tech GTX280 and 9000 series way down to the mundane 6100. My 7900GS is a respectable if unexciting 36th on the list.
Makes me think that when they produce a video driver for a huge range of products they are favouring the newest DX10 compatible series 8 and 9 cards at the expense of older models. Commercially that probably makes perfect sense.
So, my question - before - this thread turns into a statement - is how often do users of older (as in pre GeForce 8800) graphics cards update their video drivers? Are you always slapping the newest driver in place like myself, or do you stick with what you've got? Do you update them at all?
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#2
10/14/2008 (2:01 pm)
I usually update them if i'm noticing an issue or something, but if most things seem to be fine I will leave it alone. I'm never more than a few versions behind though typically. I don't run bleeding edge cards either. 
#3
10/14/2008 (4:29 pm)
I usually update video drivers when ever I become aware of new ones. But then I don't actively seek that knowledge so I'm usually a release or two behind. 
#4
All I know is that I have some kind of weird drive issue where I installed new drivers, they bluescreened my machine on boot, then when I uninstalled them all of a sudden I was getting double framerates. Literally, exactly double.
And then a few weeks ago that just went away.
So what I take from both our experiences is that I really, really want open source video drivers!!!!
10/18/2008 (11:13 pm)
It's not necessarily the case that there is a nefarious activity happening. It could be that they are doing more error checking, to make it more stable. Or something like that. Code does tend to grow.All I know is that I have some kind of weird drive issue where I installed new drivers, they bluescreened my machine on boot, then when I uninstalled them all of a sudden I was getting double framerates. Literally, exactly double.
And then a few weeks ago that just went away.
So what I take from both our experiences is that I really, really want open source video drivers!!!!
#5
Can't make any real recommendations though, it's been a few years since I've bothered with it.
Currently I do the same as silentMike, update when it comes to my attention (which reminds me, there's a new(er) ATI driver release I need on this PC).
10/19/2008 (5:46 am)
Older hardware that I still use for gaming I usually make a point of hunting down some 3rd party unofficial drivers, I've always found that it tends to be more targeted at getting the most out of the older hardware, supports some things the official drivers only give to newer hardware and tends to be much lighter.Can't make any real recommendations though, it's been a few years since I've bothered with it.
Currently I do the same as silentMike, update when it comes to my attention (which reminds me, there's a new(er) ATI driver release I need on this PC).
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