Hello, I recently installed the above, ran PC Pitstop to compare against previous results and found a 25% hit compared to previous testing. I restored previous set of drivers and got the performance back? Is this a reliable site for making these comparisons? Is it measuring a parameter which has any real significance? It measures megapixels/sec. Or is it just that the new drivers are specifically tuned for WinXP and that NVidia arent that bothered about Win9X performance? I have GeForce 3 Athlon 1.4GHz, Anyone else had similar experiences?
Thank for any info,
PS I recently installed DirectX 8.1, unfortunately I didnt do a test afterwards.
Without knowing what version of the Detonater drivers you tried, it's pretty hard to determine. The latest (That I know of) is version 23.11, which I currently have installed over my previous version (21.81). This version gave me approximately a 9% speed boost in 2DMark2001, which is a video benchmarking program. I wouldn't normally consider PCPitstop a benchmark.
#5. "RE: NVidia Detonator XP drivers Win98se" In response to mcnallyjp (Reply # 2) Thu Dec-13-01 10:02 PM
Went off and got a couple of test programs, and ran them. Interesting results. I used 3DMark2001 and Q3Bench. Results attached. Although not by huge amounts the older drivers ie 21.83 outperform the new Detonator XP 23.11. The difference is not as large as in the tests performed at PC Pitstop but I had expected an increase in performance with the newer driver. I either need to do some kind of tweak to optimise the 23.11 or stay with the 21.83 in Win98. (Hoping for XP Pro from Santa Claus ). Might get hold of a few more test programs though, just for the hell of it. Anyway I havent done any 2d testing!
#3. "RE: NVidia Detonator XP drivers Win98se" In response to mcnallyjp (Reply # 5) Fri Dec-14-01 05:55 AM
I'm overclocking both my CPU and my GeForce DDR video card, so that may account for the disparities between our results. To achieve accurate scores, you should always have exactly the same applications running while you benchmark. I only benchmark after a systemm reboot. In general, I try to use the latest official reference drivers from nVidia. I never use the drivers from the cards manufacturer (Hercules). DirectX version can also make a difference, I'm using DX8.1.
Direct comparisons between non-identical systems are basically pointless anyway. I'm sure you must get much better 3DMark2001 scores than I do (My best ever score is 3248, yours probably is around twice that.) I just looked at your scores, a 7 point spread between versions is statistically insignificant. I went from 3057 to 3248 by upgrading from v 21.81 to 23.11, almost a 9% improvement.
Hi Trebuchet, You are quite right about comparisons between non-identical systems. However, I was looking for feedback from others such as yourself, who had tried the new drivers. I did get them direct from NVidia, as a registered owner I received a newsletter which alerted me to their release. When I benchmarked I did as you recommend and rebooted, I also turned off all other applications including ZA, AVG etc. I have had a look in a 3D forum and seen one or two others are experiencing similar things. No solutions have yet been proposed but I will keep my eyes open and see if any tweaks etc. come to light. Meanwhile, I will reinstall the 21.83 as they were performing better in my system. I am not particularly bothered about getting peak performance from my set up but like to keep things ticking along, updating where necessary and/or desirable. Thanks for taking the time to reply,
Note - I think I need to do some work on formatting stuff for uploading!