*(Un)Official* Windows 7 display drivers discussion/questions

[JWest]

Hey guys, I'm new to these forums but certainly not new to notebook gaming (I'm active on the notebook review forums. You can see my "Notebook Gaming Guide" here). Anywho, I'm participating in the Windows 7 beta. I'm working on a macbook pro here, so I cloned my old Vista 64 partition, wiped the windows side of the HDD clean an installed windows 7 fresh.

So far, it's running great, save for one thing. I'm trying to find video drivers that work best for me. I found that I can install Vista drivers on windows 7 (again, 64 bit) and they seem to work alright, but I can't seem to overclock too well anymore. I used to be able to push my 512MB 8600M GT up to 600/850/1400 (core/mem/shader) without any problem. Now, I can overclock, but it only runs fine for about 5-10 minutes before the screen begins to scramble and I have to reset the driver through the device manager. What's peculiar is that normally if I clock to high, the card starts bugging out almost immediately, or at least shows some signs of instability. Now, my temps are fine (usually under 75) and my performance in games is solid, it just goes static after about 5 minutes.

Anyway, I started this thread to discuss the best drivers for windows 7, so if anyone has answers for me or wants to post about their driver experience, here's the thread to do it!

UPDATE: Found the problem. I forgot to disable powermizer :)

Edited January 12, 2009 by JWest

[JWest]

Ok, it seems I can OC, just not as far. I'm getting about 585/700/1345 rather than 600/850/1400 (on the 177.92 drivers BTW). The mem clock seems shockingly unstable (at a full 150 MHz drop), but at least I know it's running alright.

Edited January 12, 2009 by JWest

[JWest]

WHOOPS. Found the answer. Turns out I just forgot to disable powermizer. That's why I couldn't OC anymore :)

Anywho, it's all working fine- Vista display drivers seem to be doing the trick. I'm OCing back to 600/850/1400 with no problems so far.

Edited January 12, 2009 by JWest

[Cc7]

My Windows 7 Beta testing experience..

The good: The OS is stable. Desktop response is super fast, uac is much better, laptop connected wirelessly on first boot (no need to install driver), Bluetooth and HDsound also worked on first boot. All and all driver support is much better than when vista came out (just use vista drivers.. hmmm) Xp and Vista program compatability is good.

The bad: CPU and GPU temps run 5*c hotter idle (or more). I take a 40% hit in SM3 score (3 drivers tested.. other 3dmark06 scores are on par with vistas best score) The desktop shake a window effect is worthless to me. My HDD scores also take a very big hit in performance (partly do to the partition being at the end of the disc I imagine) Uninstalling the video driver from windows update via add/remove failed miserably (had to do a near complete manual clean up of files and reg).

Final thoughts.. Windows 7 is very useable but disappointing. Less than what I would expect from a vista SP2 beta.

[Hidavi]

What driver are you using, OP?