I've been wondering if there are more powerful drivers out there for say my 6800 GT than the inhouse nVidia ones. I've been trying it out with various games and what not, and I like it, but hey, I'm always looking for more powerful. (please don't suggest buying a 7800GT, trust me, the day I got the cash, I will, but in the meantime, I gotta make due).

Just curious

I sure wish I could run that riddick game with the SM 2.0++ mode on for those nice shadows. heheh

I get my drivers from here, especially since there's no other way to get 4 MX drivers that work with... anything :p

Hmmm, I just tried the new 81.98 drivers from the nvidia website (was released on dec. 15th) and I'm amazed at the difference. I didn't expect it to be better, but now I CAN run Chronicles of Riddick with Shader 2.0++ on at 1280x1024 with 2xQ antialiasing nicely. I read they had added Direct 9.0c and OpenGL 2.0 features, so I'm guessing that must be it right there.

I must say... I'm happy about the unexpected result.

You can try the 82.xx beta drivers on betanews. Only problems with them I've had is Steam's GUI breaks.

[QUOTE=The Mega-ZZTer]You can try the 82.xx beta drivers on betanews. Only problems with them I've had is Steam's GUI breaks.[/QUOTE]
Steam hates drivers. Period. My video card STOPS WORKING while running CS:S sometimes. It sucks.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Steam hates drivers. Period. My video card STOPS WORKING while running CS:S sometimes. It sucks.[/QUOTE]

Indeed. CS:S sometimes will start stuttering and lockup. If I don't hit the Windows key and tab out immediately, it'll take the entire system down. Usually I am quick enough and manage to get back to windows, so it crashes properly, and I can just relaunch it.

And that's the only game that ever crashes (besides RO, but that's cause it's programmed like crap).

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]Indeed. CS:S sometimes will start stuttering and lockup. If I don't hit the Windows key and tab out immediately, it'll take the entire system down. Usually I am quick enough and manage to get back to windows, so it crashes properly, and I can just relaunch it.

And that's the only game that ever crashes (besides RO, but that's cause it's programmed like crap).[/QUOTE]
Then you'll be glad to know RO is coming to Steam.

Steam games are the ones I've had the most trouble with. Darwinia crashed twice on me earlier, and I keep getting a glitch in HL2 where my HUD and weapon go away, game freezes, and stays like that for a couple of minutes. Seems to always come back though.

That, and before I upgraded to the 81.xx drivers just recently, GTA:SA kept crashing. Don't remember which driver version it was, but I was most unhappy. Works fine with 81.xx though.

Hmmm. Could a new driver be blocking things like soft shadows in Fear? My first guess would be not, but this is trully making me confused. I was testing various games with the 82.xx beta drivers and well... I am running F.E.A.R. on Maximum settings, with everything enabled, at 1600x1200. And its running smoothly and amazingly.

Is that even possible on a :

AMD 3700+
2 GB Ram
6800 GT

?

Its all kinda fishy, but in the end if you told me it was possible I'd shrug and say I'm not surprised with the major performance boost I've seen in some games.

Dude, 7800GTX's have problems with FEAR's soft shadows. You don't need to be enabling them, trust me.

i have soft shadows on FEAR. of course i don't run at max settings, but i still use them