v174.74 Windows Vista 32bit | NVIDIA (incl. >40 ODM/OEM INFs)

[Guest Guest]

wow with 169.28 i got 3405 3DMarks (06)

and when i installed this (174.74)i got 3534 3DMarks

imo that is very big im provement i can now run crysis all medium(previously all medium execpt shaders(low):-)

[WetSawdustDemon]

Just out of curiosity, because these drivers have OEM inf's does that mean that they will be released by Dell, HP and the like later on?

[Pk77]

For me one of the best Driver, no problem at all, and better performance.

[Guest Guest]

For some reason this driver increased my SM2.0 Score by a lot, but my HDR/SM3.0 score decreased by 200. Duno if I am going to keep this driver.

[Smoke]

Thanks for all. This driver is wonderful. :) :)

F3SC 8400M G

3d mark 05 score

Orjinal 7.15.11.0134->1755

With Your Driver->1907

Vista Aero Score 3.1->3.5

Vista Game Score 3.9->4.3

Edited April 6, 2008 by Smoke

[Guest halo]

in the first page, I read that the original inf support the Go7600 card, but when I downloaded this version from nvidia website it doesnt recognize my card. Can anyone enlighten me should I use this version or not ?

thanks alot

[cheshbench]

I have a Go 7600 too - use the modded inf.

I've complained that these drivers gave me rundll errors, but after installing Vista SP1, they seem to have gone... I hope they'll never come back to haunt me :)

[Guest CompactDestruction]

Looks like the Vista drivers are really maturing. Using these on my Aspire 5920G with Geforce 8600M GS and they work better than the 173.65- Aero is smooth as butter and temps are about the same. Good release.

[Dacco]

No problems at all with this driver, running a ispiron1720(T7500+4Gig.32bit vista). Upgraded from the official release 174.31. :)

[MAReames82]

This is a really crappy driver I would not use. It causes choppy video playback in Windows Media Player when in windowed mode. Back to 169.25 I go.

[cheshbench]

I have a Go 7600 too - use the modded inf.

I've complained that these drivers gave me rundll errors, but after installing Vista SP1, they seem to have gone... I hope they'll never come back to haunt me :)

Ahh forget it. Rundll errors galore. Gonna try out a registry cleaner now.

[cheshbench]

OK, I downloaded and installed ccleaner and let it get rid of all the useless registry junk... there doesnt seem to bee any rundll errors... then again, they came up randomly anyway, they might welll pop up next time I restart, or next next time. If it happens, it happens seconds after the desktop pops up.

Did cleaning the registry work for others?? People are reccomending it, but did it actually work??

[Redmist]

I only just realised that this series supports custom resolutions !

One very happy HDTV owner! :)

[cheshbench]

OK, I downloaded and installed ccleaner and let it get rid of all the useless registry junk... there doesnt seem to bee any rundll errors... then again, they came up randomly anyway, they might welll pop up next time I restart, or next next time. If it happens, it happens seconds after the desktop pops up.

Did cleaning the registry work for others?? People are reccomending it, but did it actually work??

dang it! more dll errors. HELP

[Guest Jack]

just instald......working perfectly for me :) !!

[pkzild]

Yea on my 8600m GT 256mb on Asus G1s-b2 the idle temperature is 69-70 degrees... and the fans running real loud...

[Guest jlpek]

Hello,

I'm looking for the *.cat (nvsz.cat) file for my nvsz.inf file in order to enjoy the WHQL certification of this 174.74 !

Could you please help me ... i've a feeling that I 've misunderstood the April 1st gift :)

Anyway thanks for all

jL

[®®®]

There are no WHQL files for the OEM INFs.

I've never seen a release in 8 years using NVIDIA drivers where an OEM INF pack (rare anyways) comes with WHQL certifications. At least i cannot remember one.

[Redmist]

With these drivers, I can't disable flat-panel scaling for playing older 4:3 games on a 16:10 monitor. I was so glad that nVidia had fixed that in the 169 drivers but now they've broken it again. :)

EDIT: Fixed aspect ratio scaling still works so 1400x1050 is an option on my 1680x1050 display.

Edited April 9, 2008 by Redmist

[Guest doomed]

They work fine in windows and in games, but in 3d studio max they are horrible !! sad enough :/

[Guest LyNx8]

Hi, I installed this driver update - I had a problem with sound. There was crackling noise while scrolling the webpages!!! Uninstalled this driver - crackling got away .... :)

[Guest a1]

this is a1 again reporting on dis driver. (dell m1530)

well if you see ma last post i said the performance increase is good from by original dell drivers.

However, i also get the run32dll error on startup. which is pretty major as this causes system instability. :)

Having this problem all the time on every startup so have rolled back to my previous dell driver.

I think this problem must be related to fact it isnt optimised for dell laptops and isnt 100% for it. maybe its like 75-85% with the unified nvidia architecture.

so yeah maybe i will try some early 174s or maybe even the 169s.

[Guest Guest]

best driver for me so far, trumps the 169xx series, great fps increase with ut3 and pes 2008 and seems stable so far. Additional 50 3dmarks more from 169.44

[mikey19]

Hi everyone,

so I have a toshibal p100-st9752 with geforce go 7900gtx.

i had a clean install of 169.04 and was able to overclock the 7900gtx to 514Mhz cpu only with ntune.

well after installing this driver, the ntune panel is still there, but i cannot overclock anymore!! when i change the slider, and click apply, the slider moves back to 500 / 600 :)

I have been reading and seen how ppl are overclocking with this driver.

what is going on?? :)

thanks

[TheNetAvenger]

"Powermizer" is commonly known as the SmartDimmer feature, which is in Vista :)

However, these fast few versions of 174 either don't have it or it isn't working...

:)

The old PowerMizer features in Vista are handled through the built in Vista Power Options. Using 'Balanced' is the default and the best solution, as it doesn't compromise on performance, but will let the CPU scale back when not being used, and also the Video card to run at lower speeds when performance isn't needed.

So for example with just the desktop running, many of the NVidia video drivers will run at 100/300mhz or 100/200mhz instead of the full clock rates, as the Aero interface doesn't require much from the GPU to do what it does, and this gives great performance with less heat, etc.

If you are a desktop user and don't mind your GPU running full speed as you get plenty of cooling, you can flip your power settings to 'High Performance', and this will keep the CPU and GPU running at 100% all the time. The only real good reason to do this is if your Video card is on the lower end of the spectrum and you find Aero not as fast when it is in PowerMiser mode. Additional features like the animated Video Wallpaper, etc will run more smoothly on lower end cards. On upper end cards the difference is non-existent, this is why NVidia clocks the GPU back as the extra mhz is not needed.

So there are no 'specific' Powermizer controls for NVidia in Vista, as it is built into Vista already.

The only problem with this is that on the latest version of the drivers (174.xx) with some GPUs it either doesn't scale back at all, even with Balanced or Power Saver selected. (The Sager drivers for example run at full mhz no matter what). On other versions of the driver with some GPUs won't run in powermiser mode unless you select 'Power Saver' from the Vista power options. This is not the right way the drivers should work, as 'Balanced' should provide powermizer features, not just 'Power Saver'.

So the last two issues are why people are seeing high temperatures and the mhz clock not changing as expected in Vista. NVidia hopefully is working to correct this, but everyone should voice their concern in a calm technical manner, so that NVidia can get Powermizer turning on properly for all GPUs with this series of drivers.