Gainward Non-HQL certified drivers vs nVidia Reference drivers

[ravanux]

I installed the "performance" drivers that came with my Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 when I first set it up. I benchmarked it in 3dmark 2001 (in Win98SE) at around 5900. Then I installed the latest Detonator (23.11) drivers and the performance dropped about a 100 points. I've run the tests multiple times with both sets of drivers and the Gainward drivers still beat nVidia's. Has anyone else experienced this? I thought the detonator drivers were supposed to boost performance on the GeForce3's.

 

[mellondust]

I have heard that the gainward drivers overclock the card, I have just seen a couple of posts about that but cannot verify it myself. That could explain the difference.

 

[ravanux]

Yeah I heard something along those lines too. I need to install the HQL certified drivers and see how they perform. That way I can see which set of drivers is actually faster (HQL certified vs non-HQL certified vs Detonator) because I can always overclock any of those manually.

 

[Byte]

just use the most stable drivers you can get. I would just use reference and use NVMax, it's the best!

 

[ravanux]

whats nvmax? and where do i get it?

 

[Seyba]

<< whats nvmax? and where do i get it? >>



google is your friend

 

[ravanux]

Word!

 

[Workin']

When you tell the Gainward software to install the "faster" (i.e., non-WHQL) drivers, it also overclocks the card to 200/450 (vs. 175/400 "stock").

Personally, I like the 22.50 drivers better than the 23.xx series because the 23.xx's ignore your vsync settings, so you are stuck always having vsync enabled. The 22.50's don't have that problem.

BTW, many Gainward Ti200's are able to OC to at least 220/510, some will go even higher than that. I run mine at 240/500, which is the same speed as a Ti500, and still well within the limits of my card's stability.

 

[Hauk]

Use the latest Nvidia reference drivers, and use the NVtweak registry hack to add a "Clock Frequency" tab under the Windows Disaplay panel. No need to load a memory resident clocking program such as Gainward's Expert Tool, or NVMax.

Heres the link. Though written in Geforce 2 days, it works the same way for current Geforce products...

NWTweak Registry Hack