nvidia 78.01 drivers faster than 81.85!(not by much)

[the Chase]

Not a huge difference but 100 or so 3D Marks less and 2 fps less on average for Bf2 at 1164x864 and most settings med/low. Not anything to stress out about and a good trade off for SLI/dual core rigs I'm sure. But for me trying to salvage every last fps for this demanding game(Bf2) I'm sticking with the old drivers for now.

 

[Crescent13]

I got about 8 more with 81.85 in 3dmark05 than I did with 78.01. I have 6600GT, and a64 3200+ winchester.

 

[Polish3d]

True 81.85's are a little anti-climatic.

 

[CPlusPlusGeek]

The 81.85 advantages are in games, nvidia isnt trying to optimize for 3d mark

 

[Fadey]

I get about 4 - 5 fps better in F.E.A.R with 81.85... i get 61 average at 1280x960 2xaa and softshadows on..

 

[chinkgai]

81.85 has dual core enhancements

if you have single core and 78.01 seem faster to u, keep them.

if you have dual core, u NEED dual core enhancements offered in the 8x.xx series.

97000ish with 7x.xx drivers and 110000ish with 8x.xx drivers (aquamarks)

a very nice boost in all 3d apps actually with the dual core enhancements

 

[Gstanfor]

The driver is definitely faster than 78.01 for me. (i'm single core 3200+ socket A & 6800GT).

However it does share some annoying properties with 78.01, both drivers let me overclock the core less than is normal for my card, and both drivers cause triangle artifacts on the sea serpent in 3dmark05 and weidness (blacked out luna) in the last part of the Luna demo.

The trend of slower running FX era demos continues also - whatevr nVidia is doing in the 80 series drivers appears to impact the performance of early Cg programs.

Back to 81.84 for me.

EDIT: on the 3dmark05 performance, I found it to be quite good, the animation is much smoother, which would suggest nVidia is working on their vertex shader performance. The final fantasy bechmark also animates more smoothly.

 

[imported_Amuro]

I gained over 1000 points in 3dmark05, going from 78.01.

 

[Genx87]

I am just happy the stuttering problems from the 70 series drivers and 6800 series and NF3 chipsets appears to be fixed. No stuttering noticed in 3 hours of playing DOD:Source