[USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, WIDESPREAD BRICKS!] nVIDIA GeForce Drivers v364.72 Findings & Fixes

Warning:

Nvidia Users Beware, Latest Driver May Harm Your PC – Allegedly Plagued With Issues

WARNING: AVOID 364.72 (march 28) LIKE THE PLAGUE - it's bricking cards left and right - and rollbacks are not working.

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Download

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is here! This Game Ready driver brings full support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, optimizations and enhancements for virtual reality games such as EVE: Valkyrie, Chronos, and Elite Dangerous, and the latest support for NVIDIA VRWorks. Make sure your PC is GeForce GTX VR Ready before stepping into the Rift!
The new driver also brings the latest support and enhancements for the upcoming HTC Vive headset.

Game Ready

Learn more about how to get the optimal experience for Quantum Break, Killer Instinct, Dark Souls III, and Paragon early-access


Release Notes

 

Now they have to optomize for VR in addition to everything else they have had to write for up to this point. Can't wait to see how screwed up this one is.

 

I hear you, they can't get the basic features working flawlessly for more than a year yet we keep seeing more and more features with every driver. This is where it all gets out of control.

 

Wow, there are no responses with regards to this driver. Noone seems interested anymore! LOL

I remember in the past when a new driver update is posted, you'd get 10s of posts within an hour! I think people have had enough with nVIDIA's Drivers Clowns team

 

G-SYNC working fine on my GTX 980 (Desktop Class)

 

Ok let me be the first to post benchmarks on my 980 GTX

CPU Overclock 4.4 GHz on all cores / GPU Overclock: +100 MHz Core / +150 MHz Memory. Prema BIOS v1.5 / Prema VBIOS v2

3DMark11 GeForce GTX 980 (364.72) CPU 4.4 GHz-GPU OC Core 100-Mem 150 [W10]



3DMark GeForce GTX 980 (364.72) CPU 4.4 GHz-GPU OC Core 100-Mem 150 [W10]

 

I was going to install these on my new commodore (since I've now decided that's the direction I'm going) and post results but I didn't want to make you guys feel like your system was inferior so I decided against it.

Seriously though, I'm not a benchmarker (only ran a BM once) and I dont OC but those are even making me a little jealous. Seems ok then?

 

I just can't be asked to get onto a new driver set from nVidia since this 361.91 driver has been relatively good. So many bad drivers for the last year I just don't want to deal with it yet...

 

haven't had a single issue with them. I suggest you try them but uninstall the old driver using DDU to avoid any issues.

 

I will try these drivers later on, to see if they added (back) support for Gsync in P75x models...as it has vanished in the versions following 362.

 

I just express install new ones when geforce experience notifies me that there is an updated driver. It's been a non-event with zero issues for as far back as I can remember now. Which is fine with me, less time messing with drivers and more time playing my games.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sick of clown town myself. I'm on 361.82 on my desktop and laptops, no urge to upgrade at all.

 

I'd never have such a messy install evem if you paid me to do it. Running DDU takes a couple of seconds. Enjoy your laziness.

 

To each their own. No need to be a prick about it.

 

While he was harsh, I also feel he's right. It's much better to install clean - in fact, there was even BSoDs caused a while back by doing an express install instead of doing a clean install and NVIDIA had to create a hotfix driver to fix this.

 

This reminds me of installing AMD drivers back when I had 7970m's.
It was unacceptable then, as it is for Nvidia now. One shouldn't need to use DDU. But if it's what works for now there's little choice. Just don't expect things to change if you don't make your voices heard in the Nvidia drivers feedback thread.

 

Nobody is forcing you to use DDU, you don't NEED to use it, it's just better to use. Nothing to do with forcing, it's literally just how the technology works. You can either keep your settings and risk certain things breaking or other issues, or have a nice clean install. It's the same idea as a new version of Windows. You can either do an upgrade and hope that everything works, or wipe it and start fresh. There's a reason why companies do mass wipes of their workstation PCs and start a new - it's because it's the better way to go about things.

I'm all for hating on NVIDIA, but I'm not so convinced that having to use DDU is their fault.

 

Nope, that's not "literally" not how technology works. That's just a cop out. Their drivers have sucked for over a year now, especially for mobile. We've seen them prioritise everything but functional drivers release after release.
I haven't had to use DDU on my desktop for some time now. They've at least addressed the issues there and DDU hasn't been a prerequisite for functionality, which is how it should be.

 

To be perfectly frank, I've never had to use DDU on my laptop either, inclusive of 350.12, 353.06, 355.60 and 359.00 drivers either.

To the others:
DDU is helpful if problems exist. It is by no means required, and if it is "required", then something is wrong with the one providing the driver. Let me be perfectly clear: I've never, not once, in my entire life, even RUN DDU for any reason. I don't even remember if I've ever downloaded it. Have I recommended it to others who have had issues? Yes, without a doubt. It's an extremely useful tool; one which should not be bypassed. It's SAFER to use it prior to every single reinstall. Key word: *SAFER*. Not "Mandatory".

If you insist on using DDU, then by all means. Go ahead and recommend it to people too. Hell, I won't even stop you if you were to say "With the way drivers have been going, I suggest DDU prior to every install". I think you'd be right. But note the "suggest" in that sentence. Don't tell people something is mandatory when it isn't, or try scare tactics. Let people make judgement for themselves. If someone keeps having issues and refuses to use DDU and DDU is the solution? Then sure. Let them rot in their own obstinacy... they deserve it. But be fair about things. We're already a small community, one which has in particular watered itself down since laptops went down the crapshoot a couple years ago, and we don't need to start wars amongst ourselves for no reason.

Obstinate: "stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or chosen course of action, despite attempts to persuade one to do so."

 

Well-said, and diplomatically put. To be honest, I only ever started using DDU since I began visiting NBR about a year and a half ago; before that, I'd just express install drivers on my sister's Samsung RF411 and nothing bad ever happened. Even then, I have express-installed drivers on my current system, and experienced no real issues. Certainly not the BSODs that people have been talking about.

Or maybe GPU/driver stability and raw performance are inversely related. The more powerful/expensive the GPU, the less reliable it is (dumb logic, but honestly, that's how it looks like to me). My 860M has never BSODed unless I overclocked it way beyond its limits. On the other hand, I see desktop 980s, 970s, etc. crapping out every other day.

 

@D2 Ultima very eloquently put as usual

It was around the end of 2014 that we saw alot of these problems. Before then I'd never needed once use to use a third party tool to make Nvidia drivers play ball.

 

It's interesting to note, that most of us use Custom=>Clean Install of Nvidia's installer packages, downloaded directly from Nvidia, and this works most of the time.

What is different in recent history is that Nvidia has bumped up the issuance of new drivers to the point where we are updating drivers every few weeks, and sometimes a couple of times in the same week.

The odd's go up for the Nvidia Custom=>Clean install failing, with Nvidia testing times shortening between releases, and as fine as Nvidia's regression testing goes, there are combinations of hardware and software and situational exceptions that can cause things to not be cleanly removed and re-installed.

Pressing DDU into service is to improve the odds of a successful install the **First* time.

I haven't had a Custom=>Clean Nvidia Installer install fail for quite a while, but I have seen many people have that problem over the last year post here and many other places, including Nvidia's own driver feedback support forums.

So it occurred to me to switch to using DDU before Nvidia driver installs as the added time to use DDU is small, and the time required to fix a failed driver install by repeating and debugging to root cause is much longer overall.

I still use the Nvidia Install Custom=>Clean install, with DDU run first, it's better to have 2 cleaning procedures working for you.

I'll continue using DDU until Nvidia hits a good stride in driver releases without so many install problems reported in their Driver Release Feedback threads.
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...lay-driver-feedback-thread-released-3-28-16-/

 

that's what I do as well, as @Mr. Fox says "2 are better than 1"

 

How about 3? I had an issue with a driver about a year ago, don't remember which one, but I had weird artifacts during gaming. DDU'd then clean installed a couple of times and it didn't help. I then ran DDU, rebooted and ran CCleaner, rebooted and then clean install. Worked like a charm. I don't do it all the time but if I have a really bad experience or a driver that just sucks, I do it. Of course I don't change drivers too often anymore so it's not as much if an issue.

 

Yes, that's a good point! - if 1, 2, or even 3 cleanup / integrity checks don't work - keep going until you resolve the problem.

I use ccleaner + spybot + Norton Utilities, and sfc in a Run As Windows cmd window, and finally boot on the Windows installer to use Repair... - which usually is finally enough.

The key thing is to never give up, and don't let software get the better of you

There is a limit to what I want do every time I do an Nvidia driver installation, which is pretty much every time Nvidia puts a new driver up for download - so I can get support for new games.

It's a matter of playing the odds and doing enough each time to assure success on the first install.

 

Giving my 2c, after installing the latest driver, Realflight (a DX9 simulation game) refuses to play in full screen mode but will run fine in windowed mode. Going full screen results in a black screen that occasionally flashes and the game must be force closed. I can confirm that the driver is the issue cause after installing 359.12 again, it is fine. Other than this, I haven't had any other issues with the driver and everything else worked great.

 

so there's no any major driver issues?

 

is 359.12 the one most people revert back to at this point. Using 8.1 with 980m's and I haven't had time to try any other drivers since I set this machine up. Just wanted to see which one is recommended with my specs. I thought I saw somewhere that 359.... Something was a good one.

 

Had some issues with these drivers:
Using a Lenovo y510p with a single nvidia GT 750m card on Win 8.1.
Installed these, booted up. Noticed that in the GPU-Z monitoring tab, the values were going back and forth between 0 and what they normally should be. Tried to reboot and could only see a black screen after the Bios logo. Couldn't get into safe mode even with the windows installer/repair on a usb. (I think this is known bug in the nvidia drivers from windows automatically installing the driver and then me installing the new driver on top of that without restarting.) I also want to add that I accidentally uninstalled the intel drivers and reinstalled the latest ones before installing these drivers.

Gave up, installed a fresh copy of windows 10.Driver installed fine and games were playing fine but then when I checked GPU-Z, i was still getting the strange 0 Mhz values. Reinstalled windows but this time didnt bother updating the intel graphics drivers from their website. I just used the ones that windows installed. Installed these drivers again and so far no issues.

So I'm guessing the main issue is the Intel graphics drivers interacting funny with the new drivers.

 

You know what, I express install too, never had much of any problem. What few I did were easily fixed by going back and doing it again with the full smash. I wasn't always this way, when I was young little differences that only a benchmark can prove mattered to me and every "I" would get dotted, every "T" crossed. Nowadays with PC's the benchmarks don't matter to me, I only care if it makes my world better. Otherwise it isn't worth it to me, I've got things I'd rather do. It's not because I'm stupid or lazy, I once owned my own local shop and built custom PCs for a living, I've been self employed my entire life. For me the bottom line is that my time is valuable and I have other interests where I would rather invest it, with these drivers I'm time ahead by letting fly and turning around and doing clean up after on the rare occasion it's required. You know what else? I skip driver releases. Yep, true story. A new driver comes out and if I have no problems or it brings no new functionality or the promise of new performance that can be felt I don't install it. Seriously, don't lose any sleep at all over it.

Where I'm going here is to say the lazy remark served no master. I understand the passion that brings these kind of remarks out of someone, when you're deeply into something it can seem like the most important thing in the world. Been there, we've all been there. Still, there is no reason not to be polite to people simply because that passion isn't shared.

 

*claps* Succintly put.

 

I didn't mean to be impolite, was just stating a point. Maybe I should've re-worded it. But the truth is, 99% of the issues that I see reported on the nVIDIA Forum is due to not having a proper clean install which when done had solved the user's issue that he had.

A lot of times, we think "hey, it installed perfectly, no need to do anything else" But somewhere down the line, there is a high chance that the user will face an issue and he probably wouldn't know or think that if he had done a proper clean install using DDU he might have not faced this.

From now on, I will not suggest to anyone to use DDU. It's their system, let them do whatever they think is best.

 

So what is the general consensus after using this driver set for a few days now guys? Should I come over from the holy grail of nVidia drivers for mobile - the golden 361.91 set - or should I try these out? I really don't play any of the games which have been optimized for since my current set but always like to be on a newer driver if I can. It has been so hard to pull the trigger on a new driver since it seems like nVidia is having a really bad go at drivers over the past while and this golden 361.91 set is just so crazy stable. What do you all think?

 

been using them since they were released, very stable.

 

I'm not the forum police and was in no way implying that you shouldn't have your say. The process of getting a clean install and the tools used to do it have changed over the years but the concept is sound if you want the best possible odds of not having any install issues crop up. I don't think too many would argue that and I wasn't. There was nothing wrong with what you said and even if there was someone like you (knowledgeable and passionate) would come along soon enough to correct it. I think I was just saying to take er easy and relax a little bit, get some zen going on and then start typing. Certainly what I was not saying is to quit giving your opinion, you're a good poster who has provided valuable resources to this forum. Just please, breath a little before you post a response to the heathen.

About these drivers, I had to go in and fix the SLI for ROTTR again with inspector but had no discerned issues.

 

Actually, nothing you said has changed a thing I have said. That most certainly is how it works. With that said, there has only been one driver that I was aware of that actually REQUIRED you to use DDU (technically it required just a clean install not necessarily DDU) otherwise you get a BSoD, and NVIDIA released a hotfix very soon after. Every single thing I said is true. Clean installs are ALWAYS better than dirty installs/upgrades, that is how technology has ALWAYS worked, and is true for drivers, operating systems, etc. With that said, I have a friend who installs NVIDIA drivers without using DDU/clean installs and he doesn't ever seem to have any issues.

The bottom line is it's extremely common knowledge that clean installs usually cause less issues than upgrades, and clean installs are preferred whenever possible.

You are picking such a weird thing to get angry about when it honestly just isn't a problem at all.

I think you should watch this video:

 

Awesome. This is the reason. I've built and nodded and overclocked so many of my own PCs starting in the early 90s it's insane. I just don't have the time to worry about 5% here or there any more. Rather spend that time playing games. Been using the express install for so long I've never seen it cause a problem once. I think there was one driver release that was broken for everyone no matter what process you used. I don't count that one obviously.



Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

Way to absolutely miss the point. I never suggested DDU may not be preferable or has it's place. Let's be clear, that's not what I'm getting at.

If you think it's acceptable to have use have to 3rd party uninstallers each time for Nvidia drivers to work properly, that's fine. I'll hold them to a standard and keep ancipating they get back to having a solid installation package like before.

Everything that can be said has in other's and my previous posts. I thought we all moved past that in this thread a very long time ago. Save your antagonism.

 

I think you're missing my point, because I'm making a couple points in my post.

I said you don't HAVE to use DDU, nobody is forcing you to, and only one driver kind of required it due to a bug but even still that's a bit of a cop out since a clean install without DDU would have done fine and they even hotfixed it quickly after. I don't know where you're getting you HAVE to use DDU from, I haven't used DDU in months nor have any of my friends, we all just do clean installs. I have installed pretty much every NVIDIA driver on both my laptop and desktop with absolutely no issues without using DDU.

 

Guys!

 

I play Binding of Isaac Afterbirth for like a day and a half and this thread has done the opposite of what I asked >_____>

 

If this bickering continues, warnings will be going out. Its not even on topic conversation. If you want to debate the ways to install drivers, make a new thread.

As for the drivers themselves, I did a custom -> clean install of them and they seem pretty stable. My screen flashed black earlier and Chrome crashed but I didn't get a TDR and I think it was Chrome that screwed up.

Here's my 3DMark



http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/11496045?

3DMark11



http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11139706

Monster Hunter Online Ranking Mode



Catzilla



FFXIV - Heavensward



Note: This driver broke yet another Square Enix game. FFXIV benchmark will not go fullscreen. Same symptoms as the Final Fantasy games and Sleeping Dogs - goes fullscreen then flashes immediately to a black screen and back to a window.

 

I'll just put this here. Not sure how much stock I'd put in the reports though.

http://wccftech.com/nvidias-latest-game-ready-driver-allegedly-killing-gpus-plagued-issues/

Since I don't really need the profiles I've gone back to 362.00 just incase

 

UGH!!!!!!

That's it, I'm switching to AMD. This is pathetic. My P377SM-A should be able to run Polaris just fine and if not, my desktop can certainly handle Vega!

Someone mentioned 361.91 being the best driver right now?

The sad thing is that some of those numbers are significantly higher than whichever drivers I was using previously (I don't even keep track anymore).

 

I have an msi gt80 2QE titan sli with 980m sli, recently i updated nvidia drivers to 364.72 but they cause me some crashes, there is a way to bring them correctly working ?

 

I thought 362.00 was a golden driver as well. It didn't last long before the nVIDIA clowns team messed it up with newer drivers.

 

Well I will drop down to 362.00 then but that MHO number... man... I gained about 2200 points!

 

let's see your results with 362.00

 

Good Choice.. When I was upgrading drivers last week, wanted to use 364.51.. Glad I stayed away, have been on 362.00 and my 970M runs great on it..

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

 

I installed 362.00 last night and for some reason now my CPU is realm heating up. Nothing else changed. But playing Crysis 3 just to compare each driver I am running much hotter on the CPU, went from the high 60 low 70 mark to in the 80's. Cards run fine tho. It's weird.