whose motherboard software do you use dfi or Nvidia?

mikerand

Member
Jan 18, 2001
42
0
0
i have a DFI LANParty NFII ULTRA mother board. when i compared the nvidia software drivers on the dfi website with those on the nvidia site (nforce 2) the ones at nvidia seemed newer.

which should i use?

also i have heard the microsoft drivers for ide support are better then the ones included with the nvidia driver.

Is this true? does this mean i should say no to using nvidia's when it asks me whether i want to use their driver in the process of installing their driver package?
 

Ionizer86

Diamond Member
Jun 20, 2001
5,292
0
76
The newer ones, the nVidia ones. I heard that the nVidia IDE drivers are a tad faster, but I'm not sure. Ask around a bit.
 

Alex

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 1999
6,995
0
0
id use latest nvidia ones and i heard the same thing about the nvida SW IDE drivers...
 

Maddscientist

Senior member
Jun 26, 2003
475
0
71
Dido Heard Nvidia was faster but just a rumur...not real world tests or benchmarks....Good idea for anandtech to test out eh?
 

AngryGames

Member
Jul 6, 2003
171
0
0
I use the 3.13's from NV site on all the DFI boards that use the NF2 chipset.

I ALWAYS avoid the SW-IDE driver personally because it has locked up every system I have put it on. Well, the LP-B board it did not lock it up, but the rig would never shut down, and the performance is minimal. Especially if you put a SATA drive on the board =)

for the LP-A, i use just the standard NV chipset drivers but without the SW-IDE, and normally run RAID as hdd's are very cheap now =)
 

Ronstang

Lifer
Jul 8, 2000
12,493
18
81
Originally posted by: AngryGames
I use the 3.13's from NV site on all the DFI boards that use the NF2 chipset.

I ALWAYS avoid the SW-IDE driver personally because it has locked up every system I have put it on. Well, the LP-B board it did not lock it up, but the rig would never shut down, and the performance is minimal. Especially if you put a SATA drive on the board =)

for the LP-A, i use just the standard NV chipset drivers but without the SW-IDE, and normally run RAID as hdd's are very cheap now =)
What exactly is the SW-IDE driver? And now that I'm a little late to the show and just installed that driver on my new LanParty mobo just the other night how do I removie it?

 

LucJoe

Golden Member
Jan 19, 2001
1,295
1
0
Software IDE driver. It replaces the IDE handling built into windows (I think). I run it on my 8RDA+ just fine, if you don't have a problem with it (lockups or failure to shut down that AngryGames mentioned) then it's probably smart to leave it in as it supposedly increases performance a little.
 

Ronstang

Lifer
Jul 8, 2000
12,493
18
81
Originally posted by: LucJoe
Software IDE driver. It replaces the IDE handling built into windows (I think). I run it on my 8RDA+ just fine, if you don't have a problem with it (lockups or failure to shut down that AngryGames mentioned) then it's probably smart to leave it in as it supposedly increases performance a little.
Yeah, well I'm having some problems that I can't track down. Browsing my files in explorer is extremely slow. Sometimes it take several seconds to open a dirrectory and this is getting quite annoying as it should be instantaneous. I don't kow if the SW driver is the problem but noone seems to have any advice so I need to try something.

 

johnjkr1

Platinum Member
Jan 10, 2003
2,124
0
0
I could never get that updated SW IDE driver to shut down on my pc either angrygames...and that was after a clean format
 

AngryGames

Member
Jul 6, 2003
171
0
0
do you have Norton anti-virus installed?

after a recent update, all teh computers in my place got suddenly VERY slow when right-clicking something, or slow at other times when trying to open something. I am quite sure (for me, cannot say for you) that A/V was the cause, as I put two more machines together and before i put Norton on it, they both were...normal.

after norton...both have this problem. Doesn't really harm anything, just slightly annoying to wait 10 seconds for a dialogue box to come up or a page to load =/
 

MichaelD

Lifer
Jan 16, 2001
31,528
3
76
I run only the official NVidia unified driver in my NF2.

Typically, if you're installing newer drivers, you:

1. Disable NAV first
2. Uninstall the old drivers
3. Reboot
4. Disable NAV AGAIN b/c after a reboot it automatically rearms itself :)
5. Install new drivers
6. Reboot
7. Enjoy NF2 goodness

I have never had a problem w/this method. IMO, it's when people start trusting "this ultra-mega IDE driver that Joey Numbnuts at XYZ-Overclockers.com made" over the ones that the manufacturer makes for it's own products, that they start having probs. :)

If the ECU in your Toyota Celica went tits-up, would you replace it's firmware with one from an Eclipse? Of course not. Again, MHO. :)