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8800gts driver woes on windows 7

marc2003

marc2003

marc2003

Soldato
Joined
6 Feb 2004
Posts
20,878
Location
England
i just picked up a 2nd hand 8800 gts off the MM but am getting terrible stuttering in game with windows 7. using the same driver package is absolutely fine on vista. to rule out any conficts with my old ati card, i even did a clean install of 7 - still the same stutter. the person who sold me the card said it worked fine in 7 for him. :p

any ideas chaps? some older drivers to try?

i'm using the latest WHQLs but have also tried a couple of betas and they totally borked my colours as well as not fixing the stuttering.
 
I've got an 8800GTS and have never had a stuttering problem with any of the Windows 7 driver releases from nVidia and I've tried most of them including the latest. The only problem I did have was when they added the Stereoscopic add-on, which seemed to be enabled by default in some of the first releases. Uninstalling the add-on soon fixed the problem, but in the latest version it seems to be working correctly.
 
i've tried uninstalling that thing but no joy. then i tried some older drivers and that actually has a slider called "digital vibrance" which when set to 0 fixes the awful colours. i'm pretty sure i couldn't find that in the newer drivers. at this rate i'm going to have to go back to vista.... :p

i'm only testing really old games and even tried turning the settings down low but still no joy - (on vista i could max out the settings/AA/AF no problem at all)

edit: tried 2 more games...

flatout2 refuses to start with some directx errror. it's fully upto date and it worked fine in 7 with my x1950xt.
launched san andreas and was greeted with a nice BSOD. god i just remembered why i've avoided nvidia all these years! :D
 
Last edited:
marc2003 said:
i've tried uninstalling that thing but no joy. then i tried some older drivers and that actually has a slider called "digital vibrance" which when set to 0 fixes the awful colours. i'm pretty sure i couldn't find that in the newer drivers. at this rate i'm going to have to go back to vista.... :p

i'm only testing really old games and even tried turning the settings down low but still no joy - (on vista i could max out the settings/AA/AF no problem at all)

edit: tried 2 more games...

flatout2 refuses to start with some directx errror. it's fully upto date and it worked fine in 7 with my x1950xt.
launched san andreas and was greeted with a nice BSOD. god i just remembered why i've avoided nvidia all these years! :D
Click to expand...

Before you start, download the latest version of 'Driver Sweeper'.
Uninstall anything with reference to nVidia unless you know it's specifically not for graphics. Reboot into safe mode and run 'Driver Sweeper', selecting the option to remove anything nVidia GFX based. This should remove any old drivers or files that are hanging around. If you had an ATI card in there previously it may be worth running this on the ATI settings too. Before rebooting check C:\ drive and see if an nVidia folder exists. If it does, delete it.

Once the sweeps have completed, reboot and Windows 7 should automatically attach the standard Windows 7 driver (which is OK to start with). Test apps/games and see what happens. If all works well, then install the latest nVidia driver and see if anything has changed. I played WoW for a month or more on the default Windows 7 nVidia driver. It's not like XP where the nVidia driver didn't support 3D out of the box.

If the above doesn't work, then it's reinstall time.
 
i'm already on a clean windows install, i mentioned that in the first post. and if the card was playing up, how come it's fine in vista with all settings maxed out but stutters like a [female dog] even on low settings in 7? :confused: (i even tried xp and that was fine also)

i've actually just re-installed windows yet again - i thought i'd try the RC as i was using the RTM but stiil no joy. so far i've installed 7RC, 7RTM, xp and vista. that's 4 windows re-installs since last night. :D

i'll try the default windows 7 driver and see what happens... :p
 
Marc, I'd only used the 8800 GTS for about a week under Win7, I just went with the default drivers that came with Win7. Played Half Life 2, Ep 1 at 1920, full everything, no stuttering.

What's the rest of your spec?
 
Which GTS is it? If its a 320Mb one then it may well stutter at high res with full details and AA/AF

Is it in the top PCI-E slot and have you checked its running at x16 speed :)
 
Wakinglimb said:
Marc, I'd only used the 8800 GTS for about a week under Win7, I just went with the default drivers that came with Win7. Played Half Life 2, Ep 1 at 1920, full everything, no stuttering.

What's the rest of your spec?
Click to expand...

i have 4gb ram and a FSP 500w PSU. my cpu is pretty weak by today's standards admittedly. it's only a celeron but before you laugh it's basically a single core e2160 and runs @ 3.6ghz so it's more than enough for the old games i want to play. hl2/ep1/ep2 are some of the ones i've been trying. and i'm only playing @ 1280x960.

besides, i'm not even sure my hardware comes into it when it works fine in vista. :confused:

i tried the windows 7 default drivers but still no joy. i guess i'm stuck with vista if i want to game. shame as 7 is much nicer to use. :p
 
Last edited:
MeatLoaf said:
Which GTS is it? If its a 320Mb one then it may well stutter at high res with full details and AA/AF

Is it in the top PCI-E slot and have you checked its running at x16 speed :)
Click to expand...

shouldn't have any problems at the lowly resolution i'm playing at. see my post above. also it's a g92 512mb gts.

i suppose some might argue that my cpu is too weak to power it but again i'll emphasise the fact it works fine in vista. :D

i'm getting a new cpu anyway as i'll want to play a few newer games but i'm stuck with what i have for a good few weeks. :p
 
Could it be the games, that don't like Win 7 opposed to the driver? Might be worth installing them again but using Vista SP1 compatibility mode.
 
Happy said:
Could it be the games, that don't like Win 7 opposed to the driver? Might be worth installing them again but using Vista SP1 compatibility mode.
Click to expand...

the same games worked fine with my ati card on windows 7. :)

anyway, i've given up hope now. i've re-installed windows/drivers/updates so many times that i've now lost the will to live. :D

back on vista now and everything is working fine. maybe i'll try again when i get a new cpu in a few weeks time. :)
 
It does sounds like a software issue rather than being your CPU, just wondering if anyone else has seen any issues gaming on a single core CPU in Windows 7. Does Win 7 doing more "background stuff" than Vista, as with the exact same card (I sold it to Marc), HL2 I managed to max everything out, no problems. But I have a Q9300, so it might be that?
 
Can't be the drivers either, as Nvidia drivers are perfect, they work flawlessly, they don't have problems those, so if you are experiencing probs, its down to user error im afraid. :p
 
well the plot thickens. i see microsoft have a trial version of windows 2008 server R2 out for download so i've installed that to get my windows 7 eye candy and now games are working perfectly (well touch wood. i haven't installed everything yet). :D

just some random incompatibility with my system and windows 7 i guess. :/
 
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