Best Drivers for 8600 GT

I'm cofnused though and I don't have the time to test. People are claiming that they give better performance in 3dmark which is good but that doesnt reflect certain optimizations and bug fixes for certain games. such as I love the 163. 75 because it fixes my team fortress 2 glitches. Those old drivers don't probably havethose optimizations for specific games, and though I would like to overclock, the overclocking won't help reduce the bugs.

 

I tried them, don't have time to do proper benchmarking since exams on 5th, 14th-16th November, but these are better then the 163.75 for me.

CSS runs better with better fps, the gfx card stays a bit cooler, 3DMark 06 is higher and allow overclocking

 

Did you or will you try any modern games, bioshock, orange box, coh, anything something recent.

 

The 167.26 drivers

-Play Bioshock in DX10 mode (only 163.44 and higher do this without crashes)

-Allow overclock with shader on separate clocks (only 163.7x and higher do this)

It is possible they are built on an older basis... but they incorporate features of the newest releases.

Note they aren't perfect, (crash on sleep, no HD-DVD playback) but they do perform the best in games.

 

Crash on sleep?

 

I tried UT3 demo since its the only modern one I have installed atm.

I have had no experiences with crashing on sleep. As for HD content, I dont have a HD-DVD drive in my laptop but will try out HD video downloaded from microsofts wmv hd video showcase and see how that works.

 

Alright, guess I will be trying these tonight.

 

Just downloaded and played a video off Microsofts WMV HD Showcase and it runs perfectly fine

 

mobile 156.73 WHQL is out at laptopvideo2go.com. i won't try those, instead go for 167.26. anyone willing tho?!

 

I have a Asus g1s with 8600GT ddr3 card, anyone else has that and know which driver works best? I dont really need it to OC but i just want no crashes and better 3dmark score or more FPS in games than the original driver....

 

Yes but that's not the same as an HD-DVD ;-) KernalPanic probably means that Nvidia's video hardware acceleration for HD-DVD's doesn't work right with this driver.

 

How can I check hardware acceleration??

I dont have a HD-DVD drive or anything like that in my laptop

 

Well, Nvidia has PureVideo which you can download (never tried it myself), and software like PowerDVD has options for hardware acceleration.

I don't have a HD-DVD drive either, but I downloaded a few HD-DVD's from the internet a while ago, just so I could check performance and the gorgious video quality

 

Installed the 167.26 drivers on XP and now overclock does work for me. Driver seems terrific, and overclocking my 8600GT gets me an awesome 5325 3D Marks (06 version, 1280x1024).

 

How high of an OC did you get Cinner?

 

anyone have success in overclocking their 8600m GT with Vista 32bit and Riva Tuner?

 

I didn;t notice any worse or better performance with the new driver on stock (a good thing). However with ntune whever I went to overclock it would overclock, then downlock my gpu to 168/100 or something and wouldn't let me overclock agian. I'm gonna try riva tuner.

 

yup no dice, same thing with riva tuner. First time it worked when I set it to 550 525 but gpu crashed. Second time I tried 500/550 and monitor said it was ok but then the screen blinked like it did with ntune and then it clocks itself to 168/100 and stays tehre until I restart.

 

The new 167.26 drivers are awesome! I am running them on an Asus G1S (8600m gt). So far I had been using 163.44 as it let me use the control panel and it gave me the highest 3dmark (3903). I had tried using older drivers in order to overclock, but the stock 3dmark score of those drivers were 200-300 less than the 163.44 at stock and only rose to about 4100 when overclocking so that's why I went back to the .44s.

With the .26s I am getting 3930 with stock clocks and I am now going to overclock them (I already checked and it WILL work with rivatuner).

 

When will people stop "playing" 3dm 24/7 and play some real games...

Updated from 163.44 -> 167.26
OS: Vista Business 32bit
GFX: 8600 GT DDR2 256MB

CSS
Overall: AA/AF off 163.44 < 167.26 ; AA/AF on 163.44 > 167.26

detail setting


1280x800 0aa/0af
16344

16726


1280x800 4xaa/16xaf
16344

16726


Fear
Overall: 163.44 >= 167.26
1024x768 max cpu / max gfx

16344


16726


UT3 - Using UT3bench

Overall: 163.44 <<< 167.26

1280x800 2 Tex Detail / 2 World Detail 0aa/0af

HeatRay-Flyby

16344
AVG: 47.05
% Over 30fps: 86.53
16726
AVG: 50.66
% Over 30fps: 97.88

HeatRay-Bot

16344
AVG: 38.84
% Over 30fps: 74.21
16726
AVG: 43.97
% Over 30fps: 94.71

Detail:

Code:

Dumping FPS chart at 2007.10.23-20.48.10 using build 3464 built from changelist 198460
Bucket:  0 -  5  Time:  0.00  Frame:  0.00
Bucket:  5 - 10  Time:  0.18  Frame:  0.04
Bucket: 10 - 15  Time:  1.00  Frame:  0.25
Bucket: 15 - 20  Time:  1.08  Frame:  0.43
Bucket: 20 - 25  Time:  4.99  Frame:  2.39
Bucket: 25 - 30  Time:  6.22  Frame:  3.67
Bucket: 30 - 35  Time:  8.14  Frame:  5.63
Bucket: 35 - 40  Time: 10.47  Frame:  8.38
Bucket: 40 - 45  Time: 10.84  Frame:  9.74
Bucket: 45 - 50  Time:  7.52  Frame:  7.56
Bucket: 50 - 55  Time: 11.03  Frame: 12.45
Bucket: 55 - 60  Time: 11.21  Frame: 13.66
Bucket: 60 - 99  Time: 27.33  Frame: 35.81
2804 frames collected over 59.61 seconds, disregarding 0.01 seconds for a 47.05 FPS average, 86.53 percent of time spent > 30 FPS
Average GPU frame time: 0.00 ms

Dumping FPS chart at 2007.10.23-22.07.42 using build 3464 built from changelist 198460
Bucket:  0 -  5  Time:  0.00  Frame:  0.00
Bucket:  5 - 10  Time:  0.00  Frame:  0.00
Bucket: 10 - 15  Time:  0.29  Frame:  0.07
Bucket: 15 - 20  Time:  0.00  Frame:  0.00
Bucket: 20 - 25  Time:  0.56  Frame:  0.27
Bucket: 25 - 30  Time:  1.26  Frame:  0.70
Bucket: 30 - 35  Time:  3.02  Frame:  1.96
Bucket: 35 - 40  Time: 13.73  Frame: 10.24
Bucket: 40 - 45  Time: 11.26  Frame:  9.41
Bucket: 45 - 50  Time: 11.39  Frame: 10.57
Bucket: 50 - 55  Time: 13.73  Frame: 14.32
Bucket: 55 - 60  Time: 22.34  Frame: 25.12
Bucket: 60 - 99  Time: 22.42  Frame: 27.35
3017 frames collected over 59.55 seconds, disregarding 0.00 seconds for a 50.66 FPS average, 97.88 percent of time spent > 30 FPS
Average GPU frame time: 0.00 ms

Dumping FPS chart at 2007.10.23-20.53.08 using build 3464 built from changelist 198460
Bucket:  0 -  5  Time:  0.00  Frame:  0.00
Bucket:  5 - 10  Time:  2.26  Frame:  0.48
Bucket: 10 - 15  Time:  3.64  Frame:  1.25
Bucket: 15 - 20  Time:  5.64  Frame:  2.55
Bucket: 20 - 25  Time:  5.99  Frame:  3.46
Bucket: 25 - 30  Time:  8.27  Frame:  5.96
Bucket: 30 - 35  Time: 17.64  Frame: 14.56
Bucket: 35 - 40  Time:  5.99  Frame:  5.75
Bucket: 40 - 45  Time: 12.74  Frame: 14.04
Bucket: 45 - 50  Time: 12.76  Frame: 15.46
Bucket: 50 - 55  Time:  7.50  Frame: 10.06
Bucket: 55 - 60  Time: 15.90  Frame: 23.80
Bucket: 60 - 99  Time:  1.68  Frame:  2.63
2315 frames collected over 59.64 seconds, disregarding 0.03 seconds for a 38.84 FPS average, 74.21 percent of time spent > 30 FPS
Average GPU frame time: 0.00 ms


Dumping FPS chart at 2007.10.23-22.05.12 using build 3464 built from changelist 198460
Bucket:  0 -  5  Time:  0.00  Frame:  0.00
Bucket:  5 - 10  Time:  0.18  Frame:  0.04
Bucket: 10 - 15  Time:  0.53  Frame:  0.15
Bucket: 15 - 20  Time:  0.76  Frame:  0.31
Bucket: 20 - 25  Time:  1.84  Frame:  0.95
Bucket: 25 - 30  Time:  1.99  Frame:  1.26
Bucket: 30 - 35  Time: 10.60  Frame:  7.97
Bucket: 35 - 40  Time: 17.48  Frame: 14.80
Bucket: 40 - 45  Time: 18.05  Frame: 17.59
Bucket: 45 - 50  Time: 20.57  Frame: 22.21
Bucket: 50 - 55  Time: 14.98  Frame: 17.78
Bucket: 55 - 60  Time: 12.20  Frame: 15.80
Bucket: 60 - 99  Time:  0.82  Frame:  1.14
2621 frames collected over 59.63 seconds, disregarding 0.01 seconds for a 43.97 FPS average, 94.71 percent of time spent > 30 FPS
Average GPU frame time: 0.00 ms

edit: correcting typos 164.33 -> 163.44 thanks KernalPanic for pointing out so I don't look like a complete idiot...

 

Core 660, memory 860. Very high Which is great because I've been playing Bioshock, COD4 and Company of Heroes at 1440x900 instead of my regular 1280x800 and it's very playable.

 

It took a new XP install for me to get overclock to work with these drivers...

 

No I can overclock just not as high as it should be going. The max I can overclock is 500/500 while others have done 500/550 or 525/500 or more..

 

doesnt the ut3 demo crash with mem at 500 when you select the number of bots/opponents

 

I don't know I've been trying the cod 4 demo and orange box games.

 

I suppose it depends on the definition of "real games".
You tend to think of classic games where you get 140+ fps on mid-range hardware as "real games", some of us prefer games like Bioshock which actually stress hardware and use DX10. It's a matter of preference.

3dmark06 is far from perfect, but if you take into account its drawbacks (processor skew) it isn't horrid either... granted, your benchmarks are also interesting, but have their own skew as well. (we just have to find them)

ANY one test is not a real indicator... but 3dmark06 results tend to affect most other games as well. Anything which boosts 3dmark06 results by large amounts tends to affect most other games.


Notes for dcp...

-Did you patch the Vista hotfixes? (KB938194,KB940105,KB938979) You require them to best make use of the new drivers.
-Did you patch DX? (august or later)
-I assume you mean 163.44... 164.33 doesn't exist as far as I know.
-Either you typoed some results, or you didn't bench the new drivers... I'm gonna assume you typoed and the lesser results are the new drivers in your case.
-I'd like to try a couple of these benches... any more specifics so I can reproduce them?

 

Ok so I know rivatuner had a problem that it would be off by 40 but now after i clock higher and higher the difference between the hardware monitoring clock and the clock I set it to becomes bigger. So which do I trust? Is the monitoring correct or the clock slider which I am setting?

Like when I set it to 500 monitor says 540 but when I set it to 520 monitor says like 564. Memory seems fine usually it says what I set it to.

 

I noticed this behaviour too. I set me core clock to 660 but hardware monitor has it around 720, which is very high so I'm guessing the hardware monitor is not correct.

 

Dang, 660? I'm afraid to go to 600 lol.

At 575/750 I'm getting 4500 in 3dmark so I'll leave it at that. I get 3930 with no OC.

 

what about UT3? I wanted to bench Bioshock and Hellgate London too but there isn't a fair way to bench them except to tell you my subjective opinions and to show you some random Fraps SSs with fps counter on.... anyway if you want to know, I noticed some framerate increase in Bioshock running@1280x800 all medium and Hellgate London, it ran about about the same in DX10 mode, same ****ty(the game issue)... and about the same in DX9 mode.. if you want to know the setting I will capture SSs for you later...

To be honest, 167.26 increased my 3dmark score too. But my own tests (no matter you like/believe them or not) showed different games had different results. FEAR and HGL "subjectively" shows no actual improvement, CCS with AA/AF on ran slower. UT3 and Bioshock "subjectively" were the games ran faster with this 167.26 as you can see. So what I am saying? A driver can increase our E-P mark score but can do absolutely nothing in another games.

3dmark is another "game" at best because we cant really tell how games will run based on the its results.

I had installed every patch from windows update plus I had manually installed all the hotfixes I found (I had installed the 3 u mentioned...HGL forced me to install some of them actually.)

Vista has DX10 built-in, but I had installed all the DX9 april+ updated because FEAR forced me to..

Yes, that was totally 163.44

Yes please do that, seriously. That can really help to prove how useful/useless 3dmark is... I had posted all of my testing conditions I think. What else you wanted to know just let me know.

 

DCP, im sure your post will be extremely helpful...and if no one else says thankyou I will even though they dont help ME personally. Great real game performance there.

 

HYBRID Drivers???

In case anyone notice, I am well aware that I have not created any Hybrid forceware packages in a while.....the reason for this is that since 163.71 or so there is no difference in performance from mine or the normal driver. The only thing I can do to benefit others is to package the driver with my instructions for getting the correct output to an HDTV through HDMI without getting overscan....but heck all I have to do is post the directions up for that! So here they are:


FIRST, copy the following line into the .inf file under the section "[nv_ControlPanelSettings]" place on top of the other lines that end in "2":

"HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvCplApi\Policies",SedonaDisable, %REG_DWORD%,2"

Ex:
HKLM,Software\"NVIDIA Corporation"\Global\NvSvc,"Nvcmd:1,Register,Persist:1",%REG_SZ%,"nvshell.dll"
HKLM,Software\"NVIDIA Corporation"\Global\NvSvc,"Nvcmd:2,Register,Persist:1",%REG_SZ%,"nvwdmcpl.dll"
HKLM,Software\"NVIDIA Corporation"\Global\NvSvc,"Nvcmd:3,Register,Persist:1",%REG_SZ%,"nvmccs.dll"
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvCplApi\Policies",SedonaDisable, %REG_DWORD%,2
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvCplApi\Policies",ContextUIPolicy, %REG_DWORD%,2
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvCplApi\Policies",TaskbarUIPolicy, %REG_DWORD%,2
HKLM,"Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvCplApi\Policies",CplGroupUIPolicy,%REG_DWORD%,2

NEXT:

Windows XP HDTV HDMI Overscan Fix

1. Uninstall current forceware driver and run guru3d driver sweeper in safe mode

2. Install new Forceware

3. Open nvidia control panel, select advanced, when asked to go to monitors native resolution select yes

4. View - Use classic control panel

5. Right click on desktop, Nvidia, display

6. Change to clone with monitor as first display, tv second (Resolution may change)

7. Right click your tvs icon - device adjustments - fixed aspect, apply - centered output, apply

8. Close control panel and reopen

9. Screen resolutions section, uncheck "hide modes...", change resolution to 1024x768 (tv picture may change)

10. Right click your tvs icon, HDTV Overscan Configuration, Underscan, apply (resolution should change to 1768x992)

11. Click Overscan Compensation button (should exit control panel and beep)

12. Reopen control panel

13. Go back into Overscan configuration, underscan, apply (Resolution should go back to 1768x992)

14. Change resolution to 1680x1050

15. Go back into Overscan configuration, Native, apply (resolution should change to 1920x1080)

16. Change resolution to 1768x992 from screen resolutions section

17. Right click your tvs icon, uncheck treat as HDTV, apply, right click, device adjustments, display adapter scaling (picture on tv should change)

18. Change resolution to 1680x1050

19. Swap display order so tv is primary display (resolution should change to 1920x1080)

20. Screen resolution section, add, I accept, add resolution of 1680x1050, change resolution to 1680x1050

21. Swap displays back so tv is secondary

22. Control Panel User Interface section, New Nvidia control Panel, apply, right now

23. Close the control panel and restart PC!


NOTE:
There are some versions of forceware that wont work with these instructions. Most drivers 163 and above will work as well as some before then.

 

Thanks swoley, even though I dont use hdmi im sure others will appreciate this post

 

Note dcp, I am not attacking your results... only clarifying.

We disagree on 3dmark06's usefulness and it appears only to a degree.

I am glad for your benchmarks and methods and I think I'll give them a go.

One thing, can I get some links for where to grab the benchmarks you used?
(are they demos/freeware?)

One of the nice things about 3dmark06 is the ability to simply download it and its the same for everyone.

 

ty swoley2k

KP, for the UT3 test, I was using the demo + ut3bench. You can download them both from the net. I don't know if F.E.A.R demo has the performance test built-in or not. I tested it using the retail patched. Bioshock and CCS were also retail. For HGL, I think someone in the HGL thread has some spare invitations maybe you can go check it out.

 

Getting a 8600 GT on my new laptop, make it short, for XP, what drivers are best (OC will be done of course)

 

The 167.26 drivers that were leaked not too long ago are pretty sweet. In XP Home on my Macbook Pro, I can actually run HL2 at native resolution on both the notebook's LCD and my external Samsung with 4xAA and 8xAF with no major slowdowns. Seems NVIDIA is getting into its groove with optimizing drivers for the 8-series chipsets.

 

i dont see any 167.xx drivers on laptopvideo2go

 

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15610

 

bump, anyone?

 

Did not work for me (XP worked though).

 

Yeah, that's exactly what I use, Riva tuner 2.05, and these latest drivers, 167.26... Overclocks quite nicely actually, with a definate bump in 3DMark06 scores and games running great. Vista 32, on a Toshiba X205-SLi1.... granted, it's got two 8600's, but, overclocks fine.

 

I don't understand what could be my problem. I just did a fresh install of Vista 32-bit and downloaded/installed the 167.26 driver (so there can't be a conflicting, older driver issue), and overclocking doesn't work (with Rivatuner 2.05). It does in XP with the same driver, but not in Vista. I can downclock however

 

I don't know why my riva tuner V.2.05 can't monitor my GPU temp,it only monitor my FPS !!!!

 

While I should check this out before taking World of Conflict back.

 

Im just going to say that I really love the 167.26 drivers....I overclocked to 500/480 (not stopping there, but was the last checkpoint) and got to 4023 on 3dmark. Huge difference over my last drivers at 3400.....

 

For some reason, 3DMark06 always crashes on any type of overclock on my 8600gt, even just to say 500/400...I reinstalled 167.26 several times, then just now uninstalled that and bumped up to the new 169.01 and it does the same thing.

Im on Vista 32 bit

I have the latest Rivatuner as well...

Stock marks on the 169.01 are 3320 which I thought was a little low.

Any thoughts?

 

Seems right to me. I'm getting near 4k with these drivers and overclocking.

 

what overclock mate?

 

530/500 with 169.01 driver.