dox driver ONLY sucks

Hey guys
on my old vista i had the latest nvidia driver for my laptop (179.48 or smth). I uninstalled it with drive sweeper and then installed the latest dox driver 185.68. My g50vt-a1 was never really overclockable as others.. so my max clocks have been 560-800 or 850-1465 (high would mean artificials + crashing @3dmark06). So at this clocks everything worked fine.

Now i re-installed vista (my hdd gor damaged) and found out following stuff:

1. If you directly install dox drivers without any other driver, u wont have hibernate mode (i tried it out.. after installing the normal 179.48 driver i got the hibernate mode back)

2. Gameing looks . I first thought it have been my AA or AF setting but no its the driver. U always have some black baars at far disstance objects.. just as u had a rly low AA / AF.

3. Its not overclockable as good as it should be. As i said i had no problems with 560-800-1465 before.. but now i cant even use 550-800-1465.. artificials like hell and mostly crashing.

Also after crashing i get this error(check right down.. the windows error msg):


Gonna use drive sweeper to remove the dox driver, then i will install the normal nvidia driver (and finally i will have hibernate again), remove that one again with drivesweeper, install dox again , try if it works now..

I re-install vista twice now and when i installed the normal driver first or afterwards, all the problems above were gone. Also that ty look wihch looks like u have fu**ed up AA / AF settings :/

If anyone has some other solution or knows that its not the dox driver, tell me plz

@edit: i will try it with the newest original nvidia driver now.. not sure if i should better use that one, or the one which game with my notebook when i bought it (179.xx .. so an older one).

 

Avoid DOX's drivers if you want to ensure your GPU long live.
But I have DOX's drivers installed to my laptop before. I sense it brings nothing great, so, I reverted it back to normal driver.
BEST Geforce driver today is 186.03. Grab it from Nvidia website.

 

why do the dox driver kill my gpu´s life?

and ye downloaded that drive

 

I would suspect it has something to do with the fact DOX's drivers get every ounce of oomph out of the card, so it runs it at full-steam. Hence the heat. As for shortening the life of a card, that I'm not 100% sure on. Care to elaborate more?

PS: nice background!

Jason

 

Heat = Electronic Applications killer.
DOX's driver mostly or more likely do increase heat of a GPU.
So, the GPU lifespan may shorten.

 

thank u :>
if rainmeter wouldnt cause so much lag it would look like this:
http://beasty.wippiespace.com/stuff/desktop-vista.jpg

How ever, i installed the 186.03 now. can i somehow check if it already installed physx and if yes which version? I only have the physx enable/disable tab but no informations there.

Oh one thing:
Still no hibernate mode
On the last vista installation it appeared after i installed the nvidia driver (older version). Hmm strange.

Will check if the qualitiy is now as it should be when i play a game.. and if my oc works now again.
Gonna report soon

@edit: okay gaming quality is fine now.. checking OC

 

Have you check your Power Option in the Control Panel?
If you're not sure your physX version, just download the latest standalone version from Nvidia website.

 

Not if you undervolt the GPU and thus reduce heat emissions.

I undervolted my gpu without problems to 0.89v and reduced the temps by about 10 or more degrees.
Although I do agree that DOX drivers generally keep the gpu on the hotter side.
Having said that, I also think Nvidia official drivers have improved greatly while not increasing the heat emissions of the gpu, which is a great thing and ultimately, since there isn't so much of a difference between the drivers performance wise anymore, I'd also recommend sticking with the official drivers.

 

How do I undervolt the GPU?
It is hard or easy? I tried rivatuner kind of stuffs, it don't allow me to change the temperature(it said function not available for the GPU).

 

power plan options -> cant find anythign with hibernation

and now a really minus for the nvidia driver:

even with the overclocked gfx card i get lower results than with the non overclocked gfx card + dox driver

non overclocked = 8500
new nvidia driver + overclocked = 8400 (normally it should be 8800-9100)

@edit: just changed some stuff @nvidia control panel to performance,installed physx and change AA to 2x instatt of 4x.. now i ran 3dmark06 again.. and the results were even lower.. 8200
think i will try the 179.x driver then.. cause in my worst days and without any overclocking the results havent been so low (and remember.. my gfx card is overclocked oO).
both gfx scores lowered about 200points each. cpu is always the same.

temps are the same as with dox driver.. 87C max temp after 3dmark06 run

 

Strange... Because it is proven the latest nvidia driver is the best driver ever currently. So, you just use the old driver I think, since you said it is better with it. I suggest you to use your stock driver without overclock and do the 3Dmark06 test. After that, Update the driver to 186.03 without overclock and the 3Dmark06 test again.

 

Hmm. I was pretty sure DOX 185.20 yielded the highest 3DMarks in my machine..haven't tried the new NVIDIA ones, though.

Also, I didn't have the heat issues with DOX drivers, in fact it even felt cooler..though right now I'm using DOX 180.84 (had to use these, yields the most fps in GTAIV :cool)

I'd try the newest release by DOX, but then I can't as of yet since my LCD screen is busted and I have to use external displays, so it's a pain..anyway, I think DOX drivers need more credit or something, since Dox himself puts a lot of effort into these modded drivers, although I also know that he does push the drivers to the limit..but then again, yeah, undervolting the GPU would help (can't do that in mine, have vBIOS problems with NiBiTor. )

 

i will disable overclocking now , run the 3dmark test.. then stock driver + 3dmark test.. lets see which one is better.

 

Don't use Dox drivers if you don't like it. Everybody knows they might heat it's specified when you install them.

 

Yep! But some people do exprienced artifacts with DOX's drivers too.
However, DOX's driver boost performance for some users.

 

The guy is doing this for free. I mean it's normal that they're not 100% perfect sometimes. But franky i used many of Dox releases during months. No problem at all. It really depends on your gpu.

 

I edited my gpu's bios.
The same technique which is used to overclock the gpu can be used to undervolt the gpu.

Also, with the gpu undervolted ... I can also overclock my gpu to 600/1500/800 (from 500/1250/800) on 0.89v and everything runs stable without any issues while retaining lower power consumption and by extend heat emissions.
The temperatures likely increased by 2 or 3 degrees because of the higher clocks ... but they still remained by about 7 degrees lower compared to the stock voltage.
So ... undervolt and stock clocks brought my temps down by about 10 to 13 degrees.
Undervolt and increased clocks reduces the temps by about 7 to 10 degrees.

Right now I keep my clocks on stock settings while undervolted.
Have no reason to overclock for now since my 9600m GT can handle most things with relative ease.

Also keep in mind that our gpu's differ.
If you overclocked your gpu, bring back the clocks down to their stock settings before you undervolt the gpu.
Then after undervolting and confirming the voltage in question is stable (whichever it may be for your gpu) try overclocking.

 

I use Dox drivers and my GPU idles at 40-45C which is the same idle temp as when I use official Nvidia drivers. I actually get better performance from using Dox drivers.

 

so these are the results:

stock driver (179.14):



newest driver (186.03):


both without any OC.

and i belive this was with the older dox driver (182.05): not sure..


this was with 182.05 + overclocking (also cpu OC from 2.5 to 2.8)


So i will try now the 182.05 dox driver.. think that one worked out the best.

I also dont reconize any heat changes with all these drivers.

But still one thing which is strange:
No hibernate button.. and i´m 100% sure when i installed the stock nvidia driver on my older vista installation i became a hibernate button (didnt had it before too).

hm

 

The result show DOX have the better performance obviously.
But sometime gameplay is another story. You need to test everything to confirm. Example: Just like ATI GPU is good for benchmarking but Nvidia GPU is not good for benchmarking. However, Nvidia GPU can perform better while real gaming due to its forcewares(up-to-date) are coded to play games(most games are Nvidia supported). So, when you're playin Nvidia supported games, you may have some performance boost.

 

hmm i mostly play old games (cs 1.6,wolfenstein: enemy territory,.. or other games which run fine with my hardware anyway).

I can give it another test when wolfenstein2 is released as this will be the only new game i might play active.

So i made another benchmark with the 182.05 and it clearly gives the best score. Also the temp isnt higher than with the others.

just one thing: when installing it says (performance installation: might give graphical glitches). What does that mean? That i get artificials and glitched easier when haveing performance mode? If yes, that might be the reason why i cant OC(flashing) as high as others can do with their 9800M GS ?
And still no hibernate :/ If ANYONE got a solution on how to get hibernate plz tell me.. i´m used to it for 6 months already and now its gone

thx

@edit:
cmd: powercfg /hibernate on

working now

 

remind me since when did 3dmark become an objective benchmark tool?

 

Newsflash, dox drivers are made to improve REAL gaming performance..not 3Dmark scores.

ps been using dox close to a year now and no problems so far.

 

But that is due to different optimizations between the two brands.

Dox drivers use everything that standard nvidia drivers do but he cuts out unnecessary parts that reduce performance. Thus, if you get a higher 3DMark06 score with a different driver (unless its due to CPU score variance) the odds are that you'll get better performance unless the driver makes something incompatible.

 

With DOX, greater performance,FPS, and speed but much heat is produced. And in SLI mode, I dont want to discuss the heat produced. So, if you dont want your GPU to heat up then use Nvidia official drivers but if you are power and overclock hungry then go with Dox drivers.

 

How well do these drivers fair in actual gameplay? Don't trust synthetic benchmark tests too much. DOX himself said that his drivers are not optimized for 3DMark06. They are, however, designed to raise the MINIMUM fps, thus resulting in smoother gameplay.

zakazak, this is Off Topic, but could you please post a link to that wallpaper?

 

On my wifes Asus the 186.03 gives better FPS and 3DMARK06 scores. I tested Dox 182.05, 182.46, and 185.85.. The 186.03 wins.. Every computer is diffrent though..

 

You may simply need to turn hibernation back on.
Run an elevated command prompt (Start - type "cmd" - right-click on the entry and click Run as administrator) and type in "powercfg -h on" minus the quotes.

 

You also need to remember that the 18x.xx drivers are far more powerful than any 179.xx and before. They generate much more heat, and are far more demanding on the GPU. Of course, the performance is substantially better, but you will not be able to overclock as high as before unless you do some cooling modifications.

 

The recent/latest DOX 185.85 works well compared to the old 1 for me.
It doesn't mess-up the temperature.
I got extra 1-5FPS for each games and extra 40points(LOL) of benchmark with it.
I really impressed with it.

 

dox drivers suck, they toasted at least two of mobile cards in sony and gateway. never ever use DOX drivers!!

 

I don't think you want to go there, WankelRotor.

 

dox drivers do suck indeed..i had lower performance in all benchmarks AND games and my gpu tempereature goes up for 5° C for nothing.

using 185.85 stock drivers and i love em. u can see my OCED 8600m GT in my sig and the highest temperature i get with over 3 hours gaming is 71°C only!

also now my laptop starts always with my 19" tft screen withotu me changing it everytime.

realy..avoid dox drivers...

 

@.@?
I know previous DOX drivers(before 185.85) are quite sucks. LOL. Increase temperature for nothing indeed.
The DOX 185.85 is really awesome and marvelous. Previously, I always avoid DOX. Now, I love 185.85 DOX(old dox sucks).

 

no i said [using 185.85 stock drivers and i love em.] means im using original nvidia 185.85. dox last Xp drivers were 182.20 if im not wrong.

im not gonna use any dox drivers EVER again. had problems ins everal games.. + laptop not starting with the 19" TFT attached to it (it works with 185.85 stock) n some other stuff.. + temperature..is much lower now lol..read my sig

 

TS cannot appreciate other people's effort.....
dox drivers are not meant for every notebook...it is quite specific..and the performance increase depends heavily on your GPU hardware capabilities
if you cant see any effect..then the drivers are not for you...

 

Why does everyone always type DOX in all caps? That's like typing my name or your name in all caps. It's annoying. Just type Dox normally the way his name he meant to type it.

 

All I use are Dox drivers. If you look at his posts, he says they are not good for synthetic results (like 3dmark06 and all of those benchmarking programs). Who cares about synthetic results anyway?

 

Not really.
I got a better FPS in REAL games and better Score in 3DMark06 with DOX's Optimised Geforce Driver 185.85(older version I gain heat only).

 

Sigh........I bet most people with Dox drivers problem probably just didn't uninstall their previous drivers properly.

Lots and lots of people on notebookreview have used Dox and gotten great performance gains. Even if the occasional problem occurs, it still doesn't mean that Dox drivers are awesome.

And @WankelRotor

Drivers won't fry your GPU. Stop trying to overclock them like hell or go clean your fans.

 

Driver toasting a video card. what's next? lol

 

Running Dox 185.85... reasonably cool and comfy (warmer than some, but works fine...) best OC, best FPS... no problems with hibernate.

The drivers are fine... at least for my setup.

Note please that moderate changes in GPU temps are not the problem.
You can larger temperature fluctuations by sitting in a warmer room or climate than Dox drivers usually change your GPU temps.
Reminder, your GPU if manufactured properly is reasonably resistant to temperature as long as it isn't extreme.

For those of you running over 95C for extended periods of time, yeah that's an issue... above 90C, is borderline, but OK.

At these temps, (especially below 90C) your GPU's life is not noticeably changed.

For those of you thinking the drivers blew up your GPU, your problem is not the drivers, its between seat and keyboard.

 

I'm still using 182.46 Dox and haven't found a compelling enough reason to change yet, I agree that GPU failures are primarily thanks to overclocking and not the drivers.