Ok you all you Nvidia Heads..help me out here....best driver for TNT1??

[oldfart]

I put together a PC for my Nephew for Christmas. Mostly from stuff I had lying around from past projects. The specs are:

Biostar VX chipset mobo
MMX P233 @ 233
64 meg EDO
TNT-1 16 meg PCI
ISA sound
Hard drive, CD, blah blah
Win98SE

What should I use for drivers? There is a mind boggling variety to choose from. Some say use the 6.31, others 5.xx, others say use 3.xx. This is for mostly DirectX types games such as Motocross Madness, Tony Hawk and such. No shooter games or anything. I need what will give the best DirectX performance and it has to be stable.

Thanks!!

 

[vss1980]

If you want an easy life just get the latest detonators off the nVidia web-site.

Unfortunately, its hard to just say, download version x.xx and you should get the best speed, because it doesn't quite work like that.

Basically, after version 3.xx the drivers started to become a little more tuned towards the Geforce line-up so theoretically, the best speed would be found from either the 2.xx, 3.xx, and possibly the 5.xx driver sets. Unfortunately there are over 100 of these different driver sets (that is including leaked ones). Sometimes the card manufacturer's drivers are a little faster, and they should by now have the best driver with the best optimisations for a TNT.

 

[Compellor]

The 2.08 detonators were the best for the TNT 1. They are over a year old but are considered the fastest and most stable. You can still get them at Rivazone:

RivaZone

 

[oldfart]

Sigh...my point exactly. For a 3DFX card, whats the best drivers? The newest ones! For a Radeon? Same thing (not always the case, but generally true). I have the 6.31's in there now, and they seem pretty decent. I'll try the latest version of the 3.xx and 5.xx and see. I dont have a good benchmark to try. 3DMark is a little extreme for that system.

 

[oldfart]

Wow, 2.08...Ok. I'll give them a shot as well.

 

[ahfung]

Latest drivers have better compatibility with games and hardware.

I doubt the tiny performance difference will be worthy of the hassles. Afterall TNT1 isn't fast enough be it with 2.08 or 6.xx.

Seriously, if you do care about the performance, you'd have bought a MX in the first place.

 

[oldfart]

Um...thanks afung. If anyone has any USEFUL information, please feel free to keep it comming.

 

[BW]

Hey mayby try and overclock that 233. I have an old 233mmx that will do 333mhz.It will still play anything i throw at it with a ok 3d card. I replaced it with a k6-3 450 and an mx for my son.The mmx@333 plays as well if not better than the 450. Its not really useful info but thouht ide let you know.

 

[oldfart]

BW, thanks. That Biostar mobo is about as overclock friendly as an Intel board. It will do 233 @ 233.

I have another setup I just put together for my kids with a K6III+ 450. Its on an old ASUS P/I-P55T2P4 HX chipset mobo. I just finished it a few days ago and the thing totally rocks! Very fast and stable. Check it out:
ASUS P/I-P55T2P4 HX
K6III+ 450 @ 6 x 75
128 meg EDO
Voodoo 3 2000 PCI
Promise Ultra66
WD 15 gig UDMA66 7200 rpm
Soundblaster ISA

I wish the Biostar mobo could use one of these chips. The PC project for my nephew has a very low budget ($0). I put it together with stuff I had kicking around for the most part. Its come together pretty well, and will do just fine. Trying to pick the drivers for the TNT is the last thing left.

 

[jpprod]

I use 5.30 detonators on TNT, at least in Deus Ex they give a nice boost compared to older revisions.

 

[vss1980]

Well, I am using the 5.45 detonators - theoretically these aren't the best for my TNT2 (the 2.xx or 3.xx should be), but these are the fastest and have not had any compatibility problems yet.

EDIT: Try the manufacturers web-site!!! Even if their drivers are only version 3.xx for the card, they are theoretically the best ones for the card - reference drivers are usually slower than manufacturer release drivers of the same version.

 

[BenSkywalker]

YGM

 

[oldfart]

Thanks Ben and everyone else. General consensus says 5.xx looks best. I'll compare the 5.32 and 5.45 and see how they look.

 

[Mem]

Don`t forget the 5.22 drivers,I never had problems gaming wise with these on my old TNT card,anyway you have plenty to choose from.Btw you get most from Click here for drivers

 

[oldfart]

Thanks. It seems again 5.xx is the way to go. I'll play around with the varous versions tonight.

 

[Killrose]

When I had my V550 I used the 3.68 driver. Everything looked much better than the 2.08 and though I did'nt notice an increase in speen in QIII (GL) it did look much better. I play combat flight sims (D3D)and they seemed to pick up a noticable amount of speed. I also was able to overclock my memory with no artifacts over the 2.08

 

[oldfart]

Ok, I tried out 6.31, 5.45, and 5.32. I ran some 3DMark tests in 640 x 480 x 16, and played the demo version of Motocross Madness 2. The 3DMark scores were about the same in every version. I could not really see much difference between any of them in MCM2 either. I'm gonna use the 5.45. Most people say 5.xx, and since 5.45 is the newest version of it, that's what I picked.

Thanks for the help!