Card is running fine...should I load the NVidia Detonator 3 driver?

[MichaelD]

Hello out there in cyberland. How the heck are 'ya? Dandy, just dandy.

Anyway, I have a CL Annihilator GTS2. I'm using the drivers that came with the card. I've read lots of stuff about the Detonator 3, telling how great a driver it is. The NVidia website boasts "double the current level of performance". Eh, I highly doubt that. Anyway, I'm wondering if I should go thru the trouble of downloading it. The driver is about 30meg and I download at 3k per second. Yes, you read that right. It would be one of those "download it while I'm sleeping" jobs.

Mostly, I play UT, Quake, Half-life, MDK, N4S and Thief. Dunno if that matters or not.

I'd like to stress that I have no probs whatsoever. No dropouts. No freezes. Most of the world would say "leave it alone", but we're all tweaks on this forum! Well, whaddayasay?

 

[Noriaki]

Yeah..use the newest drivers off nVidia's website.
You will get a good performance increase, I think you'd be quite surprised at just how big a difference drivers can make.

I'd personally avoid leaked drivers though...
6.31 I think are the newest official release...go with those.

But hey if you are happy with the stability you have and don't want/need the performance jump, by all means stick with your current drivers. Later if you get incompatibilities or want the extra speed you can update.

 

[MichaelD]

Hey Nori,

You know, everytime I post, you fire right back. We must have the same work schedule!

I'm a little confused over the driver naming scheme. Clarify a few things for me, please?

1. Leaked drivers are released by "independent companies or coders/hackers, right?
2. Official drivers are released directly by NVidia, 3DFX, etc, right?

3. What's the diff between Detonator 3 drivers and 6.1.2.4.32. drivers? (A little exaggeration there, but you get the idea.

Does NVidia call it "Det3" because it's the "third" official driver? If so, how come they are up to 6-point-whatever?

Thanks for clarifying. I do understand how important drivers are. I remember when I downloaded a newer driver for my Voodoo 3000PCI; it was like getting a new card! Thanks for helping me out. Have a nice day.

 

[MrCadaver]

Hmmmm...I dunno I think I would do it anyway. Everybody I've spoken to has gotten a pretty substantial performance increase with Det 3 drivers (I have as well). I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the increase. I've not heard of any glitches or incompatibilities with the official drivers, so as long as you stay away from beta drivers you should be fine there. Download it overnight if you have to, but I would strongly recommend you get them. Even if in the worst case scenario they don't increase performance but just a smidgen, then what have you lost? Nothing, unless you have a pay-by-the-hour ISP Go for it.

 

[Noriaki]

Leaked are Beta, or test drivers.
nVidia leaks drivers all the time, they are still developed by nVidia, they just aren't "offical" they have no support, and if they break something nVidia won't be held responsible.

Official drivers are drivers that you can get tech support and are usually certified by MS to work in Windows.


As for the Det3 vs version number..not 100% sure...
But I think that when nVidia makes a major change to the drivers or releases a new card or something the Det number goes up...
The version is just that the version.
Det3 is 6.xx and 7.xx...Det2 was 5.xx I think....Det1 was 3.xx don't think there was ever a 4.xx...

I don't use a nVidia card so I'm not 100% sure in that area....

 

[MrCadaver]

Leaked drivers are exactly that - unofficial "leaked" beta drivers. Some of them are ok, and even increase performance *slightly* - but not enough to even bother with them for most people. Official drivers are the actual nVidia drivers, i.e. if you can download them direct from nVidia, they're official.
Det 3 was named so simply because it was the third major revision. nVidia has a history of releasing chipsets with pretty good drivers, then doing a major revision to iron out all the bugs and glitches (so they're rock solid), and then doing a third revision to see how much performance they can eek out of the drivers without losing any stability. Good plan if you ask me. In the case of the Det 3 drivers, the performance increase was dramatic. The 6.31 etc. is just to keep up with actual driver sets (minor revisions and updates).
You won't see doubled performance with a GTS2. Older cards like the Geforce SDR and the Geforce2 MX see close to that kind of increase. With a GTS2 you can probably expect an increase in the neighborhood of 15 to 25 percent. Still pretty impressive for a set of drivers.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks guys. When I get home, I'll download the Det3 drivers. If for some reason I don't like it, I can always reinstall the original drivers...no biggie. I downloaded the Det 3 drivers at work it at work (Zzzzzziiip! 2.2 seconds. T1 line....envy, envy, envy!) It's about 3megs. Should take me about 20 minutes or so at home. Gee, that's a two-beer download! I'll post my "review" (as if it matters!) tomorrow. See 'ya!

 

[Davros]

5.xx = Detonator 2 drivers
6.xx = Detonator 3 drivers (for DirectX 7)
7.xx = Detonator 3 drivers (for DirectX 8, no official release yet IIRC)

For general use, the 6.31 drivers will be just fine. The only problem I have with them is some lockups when shutting down Windows (usually after a few hours of Team Fortress 1.5). The performance of the leaked 7.xx drivers has been a little low from articles that I have read, so I would stay away from them unless DX8 issues force you in that direction.

 

[Quickfingerz]

detonator driver 30 megs???

my detonator 3 6.31 driver is only 2.71 megs.