180.48...What a difference!!!

I just tested out Grid with the new 180.48 drivers and it runs very smooth, I used to have these very little stutters every 15-20 seconds or so but now its perfect. The only thing is my max temperature went to 79C when playing for around 45-50 minutes... and also my temperature when idle in windows stays at lowest 49... it used to be 48 no big deal but im just wondering how can drivers make a game so much better? I thought it was my 2.5ghz that was making it stutter....i was wrong... Does anyone know if these drivers are known to make the computer a little more hotter then previous drivers and if its normal?

 

drivers play an enormous role in overall gaming performance. i had a similar experience when upgrading from 179.13 to 180.48.

as for the temps, i wouldn't fret about 1°C.

 

Yeah big bang two is awesome.

 

big bang 2?

 

Big Bang II = nickname of v180.XX driver series, i believe.

 

i just checked my driver, and its 167.55 - forceware version,


do i need to upgrade? this is the driver that came with the m15x
got it 1 month prior.

 

oh, boy are you in for a treat. upgrade to v180.48 (don't forget CCleaner and Driver Sweeper), and give your favorite games a spin. and then sit back and be flabbergasted by the increase in fps

 

I skipped the 180.48 and went straight to 180.70 from 179.13 - i can't see that much difference in Far Cry 2 and Need For speed Most Wanted stutters a lot more.

Any point in going to 180.48? Probably not ...

 

erm, i'm guessing these still don't work with xp

 

180.70 is already out!!

 

higher suffix does not equal better performance mate

 

I'm currently running 179.14.

I've actually got stable performance on it... every 180.XX driver I've tried so far has given me problems (usually in-game crashing... including BSOD. I havn't seen one of those in a long time)....

anyone else had similar problems with the 180 drivers? and does anyone have any idea if the 180.48 drivers suffer from these problems at all?

I'd just like a heads up before I go crashing my system.

 

only problem i have with 180.48 is that Far Cry 2 crashes when i Alt+Tab...

 

BSODs and such problems existed in earlier releases of the 180.xx series of drivers, now they are all fixed i believe

 

whizzo- Everyone I know (XP and Vista users) has crashes on Far Cry 2 w/ Alt+Tab. That game has so much potential if they spent a bit more time on basic fixes. Everyone is getting crashes from memory issues about once an hour too. That's a topic for another forum tho. I've been running 180.48 and no major complaints so far.

 

how do i upgrade the bios, where do i upgrade it, like the procedure of it all...

 

this is a video card driver....not a bios...

 

where should i download it, sorry im a little retarded with drivers...

i checked the alienware website, and they said that some features may not work if i upgrade without their recommended drivers....

any sites?
like i keep reading about all of these different companies making different drivers...

 

Check this site out Chutney Remix

www.laptopvideo2go.com

it should have the latest drivers with instructions on how to update.

 

I updated from 179.13 (the lst ALienware release for Sli) and found that Oblivion was awful, very sluggish and seemed to "think" every time I moved in the game.

I also had problems with video's not playing correctly...

It seems the 180.48 was primarily designed for single GPU systems?

No fair... Ho Hum, guess i'll wait for the final release?

OB

P.S. ChutneyRemix, you get graphics drivers from here, there also FAQ on how to install them and troubleshooting if you have any problems.
Laptopvideo2go

 

AnandTech did a review and noted that 180.XX will kill Oblivion performance.

 

Oh, thanks for the head's up. I didn't know that, which explains why Oblivion was rubbish...

Was there any indication as to why this occurs?

How about Half Life 2?

OB

 

Aren't there a set of Big Bang 2 drivers that are whql certified? Should be good for us Blu-Ray people. The Oblivion performance hit is a bit of a bummer. Might wanna keep some old drivers around for when the addiction hits again.

 

I'm hoping that the final "Big Bang II" drivers are backwards compatible, I don't see whay anyone would release drivers that can't "play" old games and stuff and not make them look better than the original in quality...

OB

 

I wont even go in to my 180 problems seeing how they were all 64bit, but I am somewhat reluctent to go messing with frivers for 32 bit now that I am stable again.

 

+rep.
thanks.

I might upgrade later tonight.

 

thanks for the link guys, but which driver is for me?

btw, oblivion is one of my main games, so i dont want a hit on that right now, and will everything work with these drivers? like the touch, etc...

 

my 8700gt is born again with 180.48

3DMark Score 5491 3DMarks
My windows grapics score is now up to 5.9 from 4.2 on 143.17.

 

Just for those having Oblivion problems: I retried with the 180.XX drivers on Vista x64, and a modified SLI profile (force no Vsync, some other tweeks) and it still runs fine. Just want to say that if you did have a customized Oblivion profile make sure that the driver didn't overwrite it.

And if you dont know what Im talking about: SLI profiles are made for every game and they are hackable with the program nHancer. I found for me that I get the best SLI performance with forcing Vsync off and setting the SLI mode to Alternate Frame Rendering. Try to Google "Oblivion SLI". If you need more information from me PM me (although that is about as much as I know )

 

3D Mark 06:

179.14: 5217
180.48: 5192

... ouch.

and the driver almost seems to stutter... at least with 179.14 when it ran slowly, it would run consistently slowly, not... super-slow, normal speed, super-slow, normal speed.

><

 

Double posting ><

Note: Re-ran 3D Mark 06, ended up with 5199, still stuttery.

 

"i killed all the background prog's with task manager"
it was still stuttery but much better than the 143.17 driver​