Forceware 182.46

[4speed]

Great set of drivers- With these 182.46 I have seen better and faster game play with COD. Thanks for your effort Dox & welcome back!

[FrenchTouch]

Let me rephrase what you just wrote.

1) You don't believe in what I'm saying.

2) You think I'm on drugs.

3) You are asking me if I'm on drugs to explain my previous post.

Is this what you are trying to say? Well, to take a wild guess, I'm thinking you want me to provide more info?

I can't explain in technical terms what I am experiencing. I just write what I see with my own eyes.

Here are some other facts that may put some clues to the big picture.

1) My card can play other games at 1440 x 900, but unfortunately some games produce massive stuttering with this resolution and drivers that are installed at the time. I then notch down to 1280 x 800 under these circumstances. If 1280 x 800 still produces stutters and jitters, which hurt my eye, I then move to 900 x 600. I don't often try other resolutions as my native res is 1440 x 900, so I try to keep the ratio for widescreen.

In my example stated above, I am using one of the games that I've had difficulties getting to show visually appealing in 1440 x 900, which is COD world at war. I was amazed at how well the same driver set (182.05) could have such a vast impact on my rig depending on which set of tweaks were applied to it. Dox created 3 sets for 182.05. Since I've always used balanced, I've never tried quality. The performance set was too visually ugly for my tastes, even though it improves the FPS.

Anyways, I'm not saying that the improvements were solely based on fps gain. I'm just emphasizing that the quality set reduces the stutterings and slowness of my gameplay, even when I set the resolution to my native.

I'm not sure if I've explained it well enough. But either way, there is nothing for me to defend here, because I'm just sharing my personal experiences on this board. Take it or leave it kind of thing.

Perhaps trying 182.05 balanced and then try 182.05 quality? Give it a shot yourself, even though diff drivers work better with different cards. Who knows, it might be just your thing.

Well, that's what's called an explanation !!! Sorry for my rudeness ;-) Anyways, thanks to you ! You make me curious about quality option since i've always used balanced one before ;-)

[^nox]

Well take this into consideration.

Call of Duty - World at war

182.05 Balanced

960 x 600 res

Mid High settings

This is the resolution I'd normally play that wouldn't make me dizzy from the low fps and stutterings

182.05 quality

1440 x 900

Mid High Settings

This is the resolution I play now. I'm actually getting better performance than when I was on balanced and the settings I mentioned above.

I did try 1440 x 900 once with 182.05 balanced, but it was unbearable.

I really recommend giving the 182.05 quality a try out with your current games, takes a few minutes and you can check it out.

Also, in the windows nvidia control panel, I used to set texture filtering quality to high performance, now with 182.05(Dox's Quality set) I set it to high quality. Not sure what this does necessarily, but thought I'd mention anything I've changed from default.

Basically to answer your question. The change is enormous. Higher resolutions being playable just makes the graphics UNIMAGINABLY better.

Thanks Frank for the fast reply. I will give it a shot ! Thanks again man ! :)

[frank604]

To FrenchTouch:

No worries FrenchTouch, I know my writing is usually brief here. Also, I hope that my comments have helped you in any way.

To Nox^:

Yeah Nox, let me know what you think of the 182.05 balanced vs 182.05 quality vs 182.46 :)

[Guest chomi_24]

@ frank

I did got curious while reading your post so i uninstalled this driver (got some issues on it anyway) and try the 182.05 dox quality settings (before i've used 182.05 performance) what did you know, really great image quality here w/o noticable drops of FPS although i can't still play GTA IV on my native resolution (1280x800) but the image was great.

thanks for the input...

[frank604]

Yeah Chomi,

Dox did a great job with those tweaks. I'm not sure anyone without a powerful gpu can play with their native res for gta iv, which kinda sucks for most of us laptop users who don't have sli or are using 8series or older. But yeah, most other less demanding games should be now better to play :) Glad my feedback helped you.

[boban984]

WOW

just WOW

Playing FAR CRY 2 with 182.05 dox i got about 22-23 average frame rate , with 182.46 i am now getting 32-33 FPS.

Setting : 1440x900 no AA , High Details

BTW i have MSI GX701X lappy with 9600M GT 512ddr3

JUST WOW.

I CANT BELEIVE my eyes

Edited April 1, 2009 by boban984

[Guest Stene]

Hi,

I wrote here once but no answer :) I wanted to ask about 8400M GS 128mb in HP Pavilion, I have official 179.48 drivers,but COD 5 lags on 1280x800 and normal details, it doesnt even help to run 1024x768 and low details - lags almost the same.

I really wouldnt like to screw up my installation of windows so I wanted to ask ,,if to use 182,05 quality or 182,46 from DOX and if it would help in COD ?

Thx

[frank604]

Hi,

I wrote here once but no answer :) I wanted to ask about 8400M GS 128mb in HP Pavilion, I have official 179.48 drivers,but COD 5 lags on 1280x800 and normal details, it doesnt even help to run 1024x768 and low details - lags almost the same.

I really wouldnt like to screw up my installation of windows so I wanted to ask ,,if to use 182,05 quality or 182,46 from DOX and if it would help in COD ?

Thx

Just install and find out yourself. Only takes about 3 minutes to change drivers. Everyone's results will vary with the same drivers. Taking the to wait for a reply that won't even match your results is just lazy IMHO. You cannot screw up your installation of windows by changing drivers as long as you follow the simple steps posted in the FAQ and in these threads.

I play COD 5 and personally I enjoy the performance of 182.05 'Quality'. But then again, the results will vary with your rig. After installing the drivers, try your native resolution but with minimal effects on. Then see if its playable. Then if it is, turn on one effect at a time and see where your breaking point is. If the native resolution with minimal settings is still unplayable. Consider going down the resolution tree with minimal effects on. Then bump on an effect one at a time.

The kryptonite to slower gpus are shadows and shaders. If I want to improve the performance over effects, I usually turn off the shadows and then look to turn off the shader effects.

Also google how to prime your windows to make it more efficient to play games. ie, turning off resident virus scanners, disabling startup programs, disabling background programs, disabling unnecessary windows services that clog up your ram. Doing so, you can optimize for a better game play.

Hope this helps :)

Edited April 1, 2009 by frank604

[JarlaxleBaenre]

Hi

Recently, I've come across a big problem. I thought these 182.46 drivers would help, but hell no. Previously I used DOX's 180.43. While playing some games (e.G. Mass Effect or Burnout) on my XPS M1530 (2,4ghz, 4GB ram, 8600M GT, Vista64) I'm encountering some serious graphic slowdowns. Game is completely unplayable for a 4-5sec. And that happens like every 60sec. That is really ruining all the fun.

Help !

[FrenchTouch]

9600M GT user here, big performances driver, better 3dmarks score than nvidia 179.28 or 179.48.

Now the problem is that i can cook eggs on my lap since this driver heats wayyy more than any others i've tried before. And i've tried many ;-)

BTW, nice installer Dox !!!

600/1500/950 : 6513 points and 84°C !!!

Edited April 1, 2009 by FrenchTouch

[frank604]

9600M GT user here, big performances driver, better 3dmarks score than nvidia 179.28 or 179.48.

Now the problem is that i can cook eggs on my lap since this driver heats wayyy more than any others i've tried before. And i've tried many ;-)

BTW, nice installer Dox !!!

I did notice that the 182.46 does have a few celcius higher idle temp compared to the 182.05 (main reason why i went back to 182.05).

Under load, I noticed 5-10 celcius increase compared to 182.05

Strangely, there are mixed results with some people having lower temps with 182.46.

[frank604]

Hi

Recently, I've come across a big problem. I thought these 182.46 drivers would help, but hell no. Previously I used DOX's 180.43. While playing some games (e.G. Mass Effect or Burnout) on my XPS M1530 (2,4ghz, 4GB ram, 8600M GT, Vista64) I'm encountering some serious graphic slowdowns. Game is completely unplayable for a 4-5sec. And that happens like every 60sec. That is really ruining all the fun.

Help !

Your specs should run those game flawlessly. Bummer your having problems as mass effect is a great game to play over and over :)

Few things you can do to investigate the issue. I don't believe your error is driver based since mass effect runs flawlessly on every dox driver from what I've used (180.43 till now).

1. Do you have a resident virus scanner on in the background?

2. Did you use 'gpuz' to log your gpu temperatures during gameplay? Log to file and see if there are any overheating.

3. Did you do a clean install?

4. What other background apps are running?

5. Have you overclocked?

-Frank

[FrenchTouch]

I did notice that the 182.46 does have a few celcius higher idle temp compared to the 182.05 (main reason why i went back to 182.05).

Under load, I noticed 5-10 celcius increase compared to 182.05

Strangely, there are mixed results with some people having lower temps with 182.46.

Back to Acer 179.52 and :

600/1500/950 : 6428 pts and 80°C

Sometimes, I think about a world where drivers might improve performance without heating more, i know i'm just a poor dreamer ;-)

Concerning Dox 182.05, bad expérience for me. I had huge persistent fps drops while gaming and needed to reboot for example cryostasis or fallout 3 to recover my normal framerate...Never understood why.

Edited April 1, 2009 by FrenchTouch

[JarlaxleBaenre]

I know I should run them smoothly and they do (well... most of the time)

1. No scanning during gameplay (I'm not that dumb)

2. Already checked temps, no higher than 90'C.

3. Of course.

4. Nothing that would slow down my notebook in this precise, repeatitive way.

5. Yup, but I've tried to get back to stock clocks - same thing.

[Dox]

sometimes you have to swollow your pride and drop the downclocking Frenchtouch :)

[Guest Stene]

I installed 182.05 quality , on 8400M GS and COD 5 is much smoother,,,unfortunately Burnout Paradise lags ,well its running very smoothly but very often freezes like for a second,,,,you think 182.46 helps?

[Dox]

its amazing how one person's oppinion on my 182.05 quality affects everyone else decisions to use it :o

[frank604]

its amazing how one person's oppinion on my 182.05 quality affects everyone else decisions to use it :o

Placebo effect maybe? As for my intentions, just wanted everyone who hasn't tried 'quality' to give it a go if they haven't yet. Great resources provided by you are a waste if nobody tries them out, imho. Instead of being static on using 'balanced', it might provide insight to change away from balanced. But I have to admit, they are in my opinion your greatest drivers that i've tried for my rig at least. :)

[FrenchTouch]

sometimes you have to swollow your pride and drop the downclocking Frenchtouch :)

you mean drop the overclocking, well i'm not ready for doing such a crazy thing yet i'm an OC junkie. I used to be at 660/1650/975 so i find my actual clocks pretty moderate ;-) Though i'll think about your advice and try to detoxify me ! (or will rather buy a cooling pad don't know ;-))

[frank604]

I know I should run them smoothly and they do (well... most of the time)

1. No scanning during gameplay (I'm not that dumb)

2. Already checked temps, no higher than 90'C.

3. Of course.

4. Nothing that would slow down my notebook in this precise, repeatitive way.

5. Yup, but I've tried to get back to stock clocks - same thing.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you in any way. Just wanted to see if the regular problems were occurring on your pc.

Your answer to 1. infers that you aren't performing a manual scanning during gameplay; however, if its a residual scanner, where almost all virus scanners perform, it will be in the background and scan every file accessed automatically. That is the reason for me asking. Sorry if this is common knowledge to you.

I'm assuming you have checked your temps by logging it to a file? If you only check after closing the game, the gpu can drop down 5-10 celcius as soon as your game exits. That is why logging it to a file, you can check the temperature history during your gaming session. You can see if you are peaking over the threshold.

Have you defragmented your hard drive? I use diskeeper 2009, windows defragger is just ugly.

Have you tried minimal effects? Could it be possible one of the effects is lagging you? Try turning them all off and see if the problem persists? Turn them on back one at a time.

Sorry, I'm not a professional, but these are the usual things I do when trying to figure out why a game isn't performing correctly. And please don't take offense to anything I write, its just that there isn't any information about your issue's scenario.

[Guest ShnikeJSB]

I did notice that the 182.46 does have a few celcius higher idle temp compared to the 182.05 (main reason why i went back to 182.05).

Under load, I noticed 5-10 celcius increase compared to 182.05

Strangely, there are mixed results with some people having lower temps with 182.46.

32-bit Windows...

Back to Acer 179.52 and :

600/1500/950 : 6428 pts and 80°C

Sometimes, I think about a world where drivers might improve performance without heating more, i know i'm just a poor dreamer ;-)

Concerning Dox 182.05, bad expérience for me. I had huge persistent fps drops while gaming and needed to reboot for example cryostasis or fallout 3 to recover my normal framerate...Never understood why.

32-bit Windows...

I'm pretty sure now that there is a problem with these drivers and 32-bit Windows... How many more instances do you need as proof, Dox???

[JarlaxleBaenre]

No, I'm not performing any manual scans and I'm also sure that there is no auto-scan (sorry for being too hard on You ;-P )

And yes, I logged temps with GPU-Z (can't even imagine working without that utility) and they never crossed 90'C line.

HDD - defragmented (using perfect disk) and cleaned (CCleaner and jv16 PowerTools) regularly.

What "minimal effects" do You have in mind ?

[frank604]

The usual big ones. Post processing, shaders, shadows. Just set everything to low in terms of textures. Turn off any visual effects.

Try lowering the resolution. If the problem persists with low res, and with no effects turned on. It could be a background program. I suggest to terminate unnecessary background programs that you don't need for windows and the game to function. See if this works, then you can narrow down which background program it is.

If you look at the processes in your task manager, kill the processes you don't need. First processes you should kill are any that are related to a virus scanner or adaware. For me, I don't use a complex virus scanner as they hog memory and I don't download anything from an untrustworthy site. I use a simple virus scanner that doesn't stay in memory and that doesn't have a resident scanner that hangs around in the background.

Hope this helps.

[Guest Stene]

This is drivin me crazy, I installed 182.46 and Burnout is unplayable,,runs smoothly but freezes,,,for second or two every approx. 10 seconds, I installed back 182.05 quality,,,Burnout still freezes but not so much and COD is beautiful,,,I dont know what to do I killed all processes,,,