NVIDIA Driver and General Help Thread

[Crian]

EDIT: Wrong title I meant v185 drivers

Hello everyone. NVIDIA has just recently release v185 of their geforce drivers now with ambient occlusion that can be enabled via the nvidia control panel. This is (I think) similar to the SSAO effect in-game in ETW.

I've enabled the ambient occlusion from the nvidia control panel but personally i cannot spot the difference in-game. I'm guessing there is, even if it is minor but I don't notice it unfortunately. Overall though, my game seems to be running a wee bit faster (or is it just my imagination )

Anyway what I want to know is has anyone tested if the nvidia AO works in game and how it looks like? The SSAO in-game is such a system hog plus it doesn't look too good either so I hope someone more knowledgeable can offer better insight into this.

[johncage]

wait till your soldiers fire, then peer through the smoke and see if there's any shading on the character models. that's a tell-tale sign of active ambient occlusion.

[jmbuehler]

wait till your soldiers fire, then peer through the smoke and see if there's any shading on the character models. that's a tell-tale sign of active ambient occlusion.

Ditto to that. When comparing the same scene with AO on and off, you will see that croners on walls are self-shadowed, same goes for tree branches and buildings. I haven't yet tested the graphic fidelity and fps drops provided by AO vs SSAO, but in theory the former is superior to the latter in terms of image quality.
Unfortunately none of the drivers except 181.22 seem to suppoert SLI atm, but as soon as this is available on the 185 series, I will give it a shot and post some comparison shots.

[SirVulf]

what do you mean none of the drivers except 181.22 support SLI? You're talking for a specific set of GPU's... right? I've had SLI work with my GTX280's pre-180's...

[jmbuehler]

what do you mean none of the drivers except 181.22 support SLI? You're talking for a specific set of GPU's... right? I've had SLI work with my GTX280's pre-180's...

Very true, there are some 17x series drivers out there that allow you to use SLI in Empire, but even going back as far as 181.22 is already quite a bad compromise between Empire SLI/stability and the need for newer drivers for other games. Apart from that the 18x series brought about a very significant performance improvement, so I should rephrase my previous statement to : Atm the most modern driver to support SLI in Empire appears to be 181.22, with the exception of 185.20 Beta, which doesn't play nice with my TH2Go setup.

[jmbuehler]

Anyone tried this driver yet? Any reports on overall stability and SLI support for Empire?

Vista 64: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...5.68_beta.html
Vista x86: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...5.68_beta.html

XP 64: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_185.68_beta.html
YP x86: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_185.68_beta.html

[SirVulf]

Anyone tried this driver yet? Any reports on overall stability and SLI support for Empire?

Vista 64: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...5.68_beta.html
Vista x86: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...5.68_beta.html

XP 64: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_185.68_beta.html
YP x86: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_185.68_beta.html

No difference in ETW. I tried those, 181.22, 182.06 and now 180.84... all plays the same.

[No_Limit]

New in Release 185.68:
* Optimized performance for the PC game The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.


SLI Support Yes, performance as 181.22 and all the other 181.xx 182.xx 185.xx, double performance only with Windows 7 Driver 181.71 on my Vista x64 system.

[jmbuehler]

New in Release 185.68:
* Optimized performance for the PC game The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.


SLI Support Yes, performance as 181.22 and all the other 181.xx 182.xx 185.xx, double performance only with Windows 7 Driver 181.71 on my Vista x64 system.

Hehe, still havent quite worked up the balls to go with your driver solution, but it definitely sounds interesting. I think it only works for SLI solutions on a single card tho, such as your GTX295. With my three GTX280s, I am currently standing in the rain...

[Brusilov]

Hehe, still havent quite worked up the balls to go with your driver solution, but it definitely sounds interesting. I think it only works for SLI solutions on a single card tho, such as your GTX295. With my three GTX280s, I am currently standing in the rain...

Well, I've only got two GTX280s and I guess I am sheltering under your umbrella..... I'm still using 181.22 (I think as I've been uninstalling / reinstalling so many times).

Rather than keep posting new threads on Nvidia drivers do you think it would be sensible to have one stickied thread on Nvidia Drivers (and to even things out an ATI drivers thread)?

[No_Limit]

New in Release 185.68:

* Optimized performance for the PC game The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

SLI Support Yes, performance as 181.22 and all the other 181.xx 182.xx 185.xx, double performance only with Windows 7 Driver 181.71 on my Vista x64 system.

Windows 7 Driver 181.71 on my Vista x64 system

Game Settings


Nvidia Settings


i7 CPU Utilization


enabled weather effects= 3 Core

Windows Vista x64 Driver 185.81


enabled weather effects= 2 Core

The best Performance Driver for ETW on my System 181.71, scroll through the units no longer increases

[I-the-gamer]

Windows 7 Driver 181.71 on my Vista x64 system

You can use a Windows 7 driver on a Visat x64 machine? Please enlighten me on this, as i have a simliar system (i7 940@2,93; GTX295), and the 185.68 has absolutely horrible performance in Empire.

[Brusilov]

I tried 185.20 beta but it messed up my GTX280s in SLI mode - I think you (jmbuehler) posted that an early beta of 185.20 was different to the later version which I thik I got to download.....

[jmbuehler]

I tried 185.20 beta but it messed up my GTX280s in SLI mode - I think you (jmbuehler) posted that an early beta of 185.20 was different to the later version which I thik I got to download.....

Well, some users reported an fps gain going from 181.22 to 185.20, but as far as I can remember, they were running 8800GTXs in SLI. I am in the same boat as you concerning the GPU model, so maybe the 185.20 doesn't play nice with the GTX2xx series. I was able to get SLI up and running with these drivers, but as soon as I switched to my native resolution of 5040x1050 the image went garbage, even in desktop mode.
There is an interesting solution floating about using Win7 drivers and inserting them into the Software Shell of a previous complete driver installation via the device manager, but the user No_Limit tried this out with a GTX295. Not sure if it'll work with several GPUs, and I currently can't be asked to nuke my otherwise smoothly running system.
Apart from that the only fps gain I'm interested in is on the campaign map, but it seems this stuttering persists even when I get 45+ fps. Battles run fine at a constant 35+ fps.

Well, I've only got two GTX280s and I guess I am sheltering under your umbrella..... I'm still using 181.22 (I think as I've been uninstalling / reinstalling so many times).

Rather than keep posting new threads on Nvidia drivers do you think it would be sensible to have one stickied thread on Nvidia Drivers (and to even things out an ATI drivers thread)?

Yes I think it would, and so did the Sticky-Man apparently. Hope all nVidia threads will be merged for the ultimate Nvidia vs Empire carnage.

Double posts merged. - Thanatos

[Patton]

I can't speak to the sli mode but on a single GTX 280 try this driver IF you can find it. It was given to me by my Alienware tech support contact. For me it really didn't clear up many graphics glitches and I can't run the card full bore. Have to use shader 2 nothing fancy checked and only half the resolution capability of my monitor. Those are the conditions. But you are welcome to try it and see what you think again IF you can find it.
Driver 182-47 (it's a beta) I also have loaded and run EVGA precision tool ( works on all Nvida cards not just EVGA's) and set the fan speed at 100 to shut down some ctd's caused by overheating ( I don't have liquid cooling). The 200 series heat problem and these current drivers is well documented. When in ETW the temps can reach as high as the 70's C and that is with the fan runing at 100 percent. The game really cranks hard on the graphics card it seems. Again let me say I am not free of some of the game probs that they are working on I am sure.
Peace

[Brusilov]

If you go into the Nvidia site and click the location as the UK (or GBR) then there is an additional drop down option of beta or archived drivers.

For some reason if you have the USA as a location (I think it's the default) you don't appear to get this option.

Edited: There is no 182.47 but a 182.46 (beta) and 182.50 (archived) driver.

[jmbuehler]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Downl...t-107705.shtml

Don't really see what they are meant to improve, the only noteworthy addition is support for OpenGL 3.1

[newromansc]

i have nvidea 7025 drivers, 2.40 ghz for my cpu and 3006 MB of ram. why is that when i start empire its very slow and has high lag? even at the beginning of the logos this happens. is this a steam issue or a cpu issue?

[Brusilov]

i have nvidea 7025 drivers, 2.40 ghz for my cpu and 3006 MB of ram. why is that when i start empire its very slow and has high lag? even at the beginning of the logos this happens. is this a steam issue or a cpu issue?

I think because 7025 is onboard graphics (http://www.nvidia.com/object/main_mobo_gpus.html) rather then being a graphics card as such. Can you confirm your system specifications?

[newromansc]

its a graphics card trust me