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GTX 280 runs slower with each driver update...

groch-one

groch-one

groch-one

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Joined
13 Jan 2009
Posts
30
Each time i update my driver, GTX 280 runs slower. I experience micro stutter in Mass Effect, or Dragon Age, barely playable frames in Metro 2033 or Stalker...
Now, when i install drivers 191.07 and below it's like buying a new card! Everything runs like crazy, smooth, fast great fps across board.


Someone has any explanation for that?

Oh yeah i'm disabling PhysX in my drivers every time, but that should improve performance, innit?


I'm running 8200 DC/OC'd 3.2 Ghz (FSB 1600), 6GB DDR2 RAM, X38 chipset, GTX 280 Windows 7 64 Ultimate
 
The explanation is that nv drivers have been pretty rubbish since the 186 drivers according to a good few people on here. It does seem strange though that you can't get any of the newer drivers to run decent. I would also check out your temperatures when running with the new drivers as some have been said to raise the temps of cards.
 
I love 186 drivers, but after each update its more and more stuttering, fps drops and in games i've played fine before!

Makes u think if Nvidia is doing it on purpose making u replace a perfectly good but old card because they need to push their new **** out of the door...

Temps are good, i've Rivatuner managing them, besides i have an AC Xtreme installed and custom copper radiators and hsf's on the chips and memory. Never goes up more than 59 degrees celsius in Furmark (overclock 700/1506/1200)
 
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I have noticed this, both me and my friend have the same system and tri sli 280 and with each driver update the fps seem to decrease a bit.

I will give the 197.25 a whirl in a sec.

On the Nvidia website the 197.13 are newer than the 197.25beta?

GeForce/ION Release 197 WHQL 197.13 25.3.2010

GeForce/ION Release 197 BETA 197.25 23.3.2010
 
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191.xx are good, 195 onwards have been rubbish til the 197.25 betas - I haven't tried 197.13 WHQL yet but reports elsewhere haven't been encouraging and as the .25 betas work ok I've stuck with them.
 
They're taking your GTX280 performance and giving it to Fermi. :D

Widening the performance gap between GTX200s and GTX400s with each new driver. ;) :p
 
Interesting. I noticed this when i had the 8800 ultra and i had to find a driver that would work but was old. this is why i never delete the old drivers. basically if my games are fine and people are not raving about a new driver's performance i dont update.
 
I have tested drivers from 186.18 all the way up the 197.25, I can comfirm that drivers are getting slower and slower,

186.18 is 2000 points better in 3d mark vantage than the 197.25

186.18 is 600 points better in unigine 2.0 than the 197.25

186.18 is 5 fps faster in crysis than the 197.25 and over 10fps faster in D3d9 mode.

I could go on, MWF2 seems better.
 
My findings in Crysis is different - tho I'm running SLI haven't checked single card performance. 197.25 is 7fps faster for me than 186.18 in very high DX10 settings.

Haven't tried vantage lately to check and not benched heaven 2.0 on old drivers.


186.18 and 191.xx have been faster for me in most things tho compared to any other 195+ drivers until 197.25 beta which is the first time I've seen performance return to or exceed the older drivers.
 
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and there i was, thinking my GTX260 is about to bite the dust, even shuttering with heavy multiplayer MW2 scenes (AC130 above + smoke nades + ground war + looking through thermal = shuttering and impossible to snipe)

nice strategy by nVidia, to force people buy ATI cards....... at least do it after releasing Fermi.
 
Yeah was using modded 191.87s on mine til recently - still seem to be the best really, tho 197.25 has some performance increases.
 
I'm running SLI, but tri sli 280, I'm 100% sure that 186.18 are faster than anything new on my system, saying that each system is different so it may well be unique to my system.
 
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