nVIDIA Vista news

[Cookie Monster]

Dear NVIDIA Customer,

On behalf of the NVIDIA Vista Quality Assurance team, we would like to thank you for your participation and assistance in improving our products.

We are writing to let you know that there will be a new Windows Vista Beta driver release available to download from NVIDIA in the next few days. This is a new driver which will support GeForce 6, 7 and 8 series graphics boards; it does not support GeForce Go mobile GPUs. Please continue to check with your notebook manufacturer for a new driver for GeForce Go GPUs. GeForce FX users should continue to use the v96.85 driver.

The Vista Quality Assurance homepage has up to the date information on when the driver will be available to download, so please continue to check this website: http://www.nvidia.com/object/vistaqualityassurance.html.

Here is a summary of new features and bug fixes this new driver addresses:

New Features

GeForce 7 series SLI support
GeForce 6 series SLI support
GeForce 7950 GX2 support (both GPUs are now operational)
Key Bug Fixes

Improved OpenGL performance
Improved NVIDIA SLI performance at high resolutions
Brief corruption (flickering, boxes) on screen at Windows Vista login, CTR-ALT-DEL (Task Manager), or other function that requires Vista User Account Control
Playback issues when playing TV/DVD/video in Media Center with Aero enabled
Outputting via TV-Out shows only a black and white display
HDTV output does not keep HDTV resolution after restart
Adjusting Video Color settings from the NVIDIA Control Panel are not getting applied.
Change Flat Panel Scaling page does not correctly work in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Brightness, Contrast and Gamma values remain the same in Adjust Desktop Color settings once closing and opening the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Corruption on DVI monitor while going to hibernation from standby
Call of Duty 2 has no performance gain when SLI is enabled
Madden NFL 07 while playing the screen will freeze, but the game will continue to run and you hear the in-game sounds.
General application compatibility fixes

Products Supported
GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS
GeForce 7 series
GeForce 6 series
When the driver is available, please view the driver Release Notes for a full list of bugs fixed, known driver issues, products supported, and operating system and application limitations. NVIDIA will continue to provide new drivers that will fix more known driver issues.

 

[ebeattie]

Ok, so are we EVER going to see any XP drivers that dont suck from NV for us 8800 GTX owners??

 

[Captante]

Still no 8800 SLI support for Vista I see... at least it looks like they finally fixed the scaling issue.

 

[BernardP]

What I would like to know regarding this "bug fix":

Change Flat Panel Scaling page does not correctly work in the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Is the flat panel scaling fixed or not for XP in the 8xxx series driver? They say it is now fixed in Vista.

 

[PingSpike]

I want it fixed in XP as well, and since this sounds like a vista driver only I don't think it is yet. I've been holding off buying until that feature works for the 8800s in XP. Its nice that its fixed in vista and everything, and hopefully a XP driver will be released shortly afterwards that is fixed as well.

 

[SexyK]

Originally posted by: Captante
Still no 8800 SLI support for Vista I see... at least it looks like they finally fixed the scaling issue.

Umm... 100.65 (which has been out for a couple of weeks now) supports 8800 SLi in Vista... Sli doesnt work on DX10 software yet, but there is none, so that's not really an issue.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: SexyK

Originally posted by: Captante
Still no 8800 SLI support for Vista I see... at least it looks like they finally fixed the scaling issue.

Umm... 100.65 (which has been out for a couple of weeks now) supports 8800 SLi in Vista... Sli doesnt work on DX10 software yet, but there is none, so that's not really an issue.

Exactly..

 

[Tegeril]

So what would you call Supreme Commander? That said, it runs fine on a single 8800GTX totally maxed at 1920x1200.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Tegeril
So what would you call Supreme Commander? That said, it runs fine on a single 8800GTX totally maxed at 1920x1200.

IIRC the game might have 2 code paths (d3d9 and d3d10) but it still needs a patch to enable the D3D10 path..When will that probably happen? After the important D3D10 update that MS will make at mid to late March..

 

[Aikouka]

Brief corruption (flickering, boxes) on screen at Windows Vista login, CTR-ALT-DEL (Task Manager), or other function that requires Vista User Account Control

That's what I like 😛. That was one of the most annoying issues with UAC that I had as the flickering on my auxiliary monitor bothered me to no end (anal-ness is "FTL").

 

[chizow]

Bleh, still no scaling fix in XP. NV is kinda forcing people's hand to adopt Vista early by simply focusing solely on Vista drivers. Not horrible solution I suppose; if they can get Vista performance/compatibility similar to XP performance/compatiblity I wouldn't mind the desktop face lift. 🙂

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: chizow
Bleh, still no scaling fix in XP. NV is kinda forcing people's hand to adopt Vista early by simply focusing solely on Vista drivers. Not horrible solution I suppose; if they can get Vista performance/compatibility similar to XP performance/compatiblity I wouldn't mind the desktop face lift. 🙂

More likely nVidia's spending all their driver resources to Vista development for a few months because things like 6/7/8-series SLI being completely broken at Vista launch is more serious than broken DVI scaling in 8-series XP drivers. I don't know for sure if nVidia will switch some people back to XP development, but my guess is yes, in the next few months.

 

[chizow]

There's a lot more broken in XP than just the scaling, they just don't impact the games I play. 🙂 They'll probably release an update to fix G80 scaling in XP and then start phasing out support of XP. Last update for G80 in XP was 1/10 or so, since then we've seen 4-5 Vista releases. They've already cut support for cards older than the 6-series in Vista; its pretty clear they're trying to get away from having to update 3 drivers simultaneously. Even if they do get back to G80 drivers in XP, I wouldn't expect to see it before the launch of the mid-range G8X parts.

 

[DeathReborn]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Brief corruption (flickering, boxes) on screen at Windows Vista login, CTR-ALT-DEL (Task Manager), or other function that requires Vista User Account Control

That's what I like 😛. That was one of the most annoying issues with UAC that I had as the flickering on my auxiliary monitor bothered me to no end (anal-ness is "FTL").

UAC is the first thing I turned off as it's not only annoying to be asked "are you sure" every time I do something but it's also a potential security hole.

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: chizow
There's a lot more broken in XP than just the scaling (...). Even if they do get back to G80 drivers in XP, I wouldn't expect to see it before the launch of the mid-range G8X parts.

I am staying with XP until my next comp, but am also planning to get a 8600 Series card in a few months. No way I am getting forced into Vista by NVidia. If they don't provide a fully functionnal 8xxx driver for XP, I am certainly not the only one who won't buy a 8-Series card because of this.

For me, scaling is make-or-break because I want to be able to scale a 22-inch widescreen @ 1280x800, since the native 1680x1050 is too small for my eyes. And no 22-inch widescreen can do 1280x800 by itself (1280x768 only...wrong aspect ratio). So scaling through the video card is mandatory.