Latest Nvidia Driver News - Forceware 158.18

Prince_Link · Apr 17, 2007, 09:33 AM

April 17, 2007

On behalf of NVIDIA, the Vista Quality Assurance team would like to thank our user community for participating in the bug report system. The information you provided is valuable and will help us improve the quality and performance of our drivers.

There is a new Windows Vista Beta driver release available to download from NVIDIA, v158.18. This is a new driver which will support GeForce 6, 7 and 8 series graphics boards; it does not support GeForce Go mobile GPUs. Please continue to check with your notebook manufacturer for a new driver for GeForce Go GPUs. GeForce FX users should continue to use the v96.85 driver.

Before installing the new Windows Vista drivers, please make sure to review the installation steps for the v158.18 driver. These instructions will be found after clicking on the 'Download Driver' link on the next page.

Here is a summary of new features and bug fixes this new driver addresses:

New Features

Adds support for GeForce 8600 GTS, GeForce 8600 GT, and GeForce 8500 GT, GeForce 8400 GS, and GeForce 8300 GS GPUs.
Increased performance in 3D applications.
PureVideo™ HD support.
Add support for forcing Vertical Sync in DirectX applications.
Updated NVIDIA Control Panel with improved user interface (Please see the Release Notes for more details).
Numerous game and application compatibility fixes (see below for some of the top issues).

Key Bug Fixes

Fixed numerous "Display driver has stopped responding" error messages.
"This is not Vista" error message appears when installing Windows Vista 32‐bit drivers on a Windows Vista 64‐bit operating system. The error message did not indicate which operating system (32‐bit or 64‐bit) is installed. NVIDIA has fixed the installer error message to better tell the end user which version of Windows Vista drivers and operating system are running.
Warhammer 40k Dawn of War (all versions) has driver error message and does not run.
The gamma and brightness controls in the NVIDIA Control Panel Adjust Desktop Color Settings page do not function or affect the desktop appearance consistently.
GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS, Windows Vista Ultimate Edition: Text in the Ultimate Game:Hold'em flashes at the start of the game.
GeForce 8800 GTX: Elder Scrolls: Oblivion–NVIDIA Control Panel antialiasing does not work when HDR is enabled.
GeForce 8800 GTX: Half Life 2–fog is broken or misapplied. This fix requires the user to update their Valve Source‐based games to the latest versions of the game engines.
GeForce 8800 GTX: Splinter Cell Double Agent–there is corruption in the game.
GeForce 8800 SLI: The system does not resume from S3 mode when SLI mode is enabled.
GeForce 8600/GeForce 7900 GTX SLI: "Display driver has stopped responding" error message appears when changing the resolution, or when resuming from Standby\Hibernate.
GeForce 8800 GTX: The Windows Experience Index tool crashes when trying to refresh the system score in Windows Vista 64-bit.
Please view the driver Release Notes for a list of all of the fixed issues in this driver release.

Windows Vista Limitations

In previous drivers, Vertical Sync (vsync) was listed as a Windows Vista limitations. However, NVIDIA has worked around this issue in our drivers.
Please view the driver Release Notes for a list of all Windows Vista limitations.

Application Limitations

NVIDIA has found application limitations and is continuing to document in our driver Release Notes. Please view the driver Release Notes for a list of all application limitations.

NVIIDIA Vista Graphics Driver Issues

Please view the driver Release Notes for a list of all of known issues in this driver release.

NVIIDIA Features No Longer Supported

Please view the driver Release Notes for a list of all features no longer supported.

GutterPunk · Apr 17, 2007, 10:07 AM

Thanks! I am going to check these out!

Why such a big jump from 101.70 to 158?!

Necrosis · Apr 17, 2007, 12:02 PM

No doubt. huge jump. Hmm..now time to wait for the response. Glad I waited to try the 101.70s!

Update I: now there is 165.01's floating around?

Update II: Vista is 158.18 & XP/64/2K is 158.19

***Zardon*** · Apr 17, 2007, 12:28 PM

id be interested to hear feedback on these drivers. its the first offical vista driver from nvidia since 100.65. everyone get installing.

Incidentally I edited the thread to .18 as its not .14

GutterPunk · Apr 17, 2007, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

id be interested to hear feedback on these drivers. its the first offical vista driver from nvidia since 100.65. everyone get installing.

Incidentally I edited the thread to .18 as its not .14

As you might have seen my complaints about the stupid driver stopped responding and recovered. I played 2 hours of bf2142 no issues! Woke up this morning and wasn't even able to play. After all uninstall / reinstall of drivers with the same issues... it seems to have fixed quite a few issues with my computer. I didn't even get a dreamscene or w/e crash as I normally do!

***Zardon*** · Apr 17, 2007, 12:46 PM

We had an earlier build of this very same driver for a week or so, and this is basically an updated version with a better installer. We think its a mighty good driver. Im going to try it later on a 8800GTX see how it holds up.

Chaos · Apr 17, 2007, 01:16 PM

I will have to give them a go when I get off work, who can give me the best method to completely remove all Nvidia references since I dont have driver cleaner

Zeph · Apr 17, 2007, 01:53 PM

WTF! I want my mobile 7900 GS to work well, now.....

>_<

lairderien · Apr 17, 2007, 02:27 PM

Hi !

I've got a problem with this new driver (178.18). I use my LCD TV for a second monitor and I can't choose the native resolution with the driver (1366x760).

Is there any solution ? (I don't want to use powerstrip wich is not very easy to use)

for the moment I uninstelled the 178.18 and put back the 101.46 (with this one I can choose 1366x760)

ps : excuse my bad english

et merci pour votre site

Prince_Link · Apr 17, 2007, 02:50 PM

resolution issues are usually a result of some stupid changes to the resolution section in the inf.. can usually be fixed by replacing that section with one from an older driver...

lairderien · Apr 17, 2007, 02:54 PM

ok thanks a lot, I'll search this way.

Erroneus · Apr 17, 2007, 02:57 PM

Woav great news, bough a 8800 gts 640 (for under 290$) last weekend and didn't have the time to install it, which is great now there is a new driver

lairderien · Apr 17, 2007, 03:31 PM

okay, I've just take a look in the nv_disp.inf about resolution 1360x760 and here is what I found :

Quote:

;;MODEMOD # The following lines define mode tables that are enabled once the INF is processed
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 640 480 60
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 800 600 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 848 480 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 960 600 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1024 768 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1152 864 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1280 768 60
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1280 800 60
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1280 960 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1280 1024 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1360 768 60
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1600 1200 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1920 1200 60
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 1920 1440 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C51} S * 2048 1536 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {C61} = C51
;;MODEMOD {C68} = C51
;;MODEMOD {G70} = C51
;;MODEMOD {G71} = C51
;;MODEMOD {G72} = C51
;;MODEMOD {G72GL} = C51
;;MODEMOD {G73} = C51
;;MODEMOD {NV40} = C51
;;MODEMOD {NV41} = C51
;;MODEMOD {NV43} = C51
;;MODEMOD {NV44} = C51
;;MODEMOD {NV45} = C51
;;MODEMOD {NV48} = C51
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 640 480 60
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 800 600 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 848 480 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 960 600 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1024 768 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1152 864 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1280 768 60
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1280 800 60
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1280 960 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1280 1024 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1360 768 60
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1600 1200 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1920 1200 60
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 1920 1440 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G80} S * 2048 1536 60 70 75 85 100
;;MODEMOD {G84} = G80
;;MODEMOD {G86} = G80

could you please just tell me what should i modify ?

I think , I must install the driver by the config panel after that.

thanks.

clicker666 · Apr 17, 2007, 03:39 PM

Performance in 3D Mark is down by about 60 points, nothing huge. Oblivion is running HDR (I don't know if AA + HDR, I'm using NTune and don't really know much about it yet), full everything 1680x1050 at almost 60 FPS constant. STALKER is same res, everything on max, grass shadows off, AF on full, AA slider 1/4, getting between 40-70 FPS. (I'm in the beginning outside, haven't really played much yet)

Perhaps someone else with a similar config could relate their experiences, I don't really see a difference in performance though.

***Zardon*** · Apr 17, 2007, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaos

I will have to give them a go when I get off work, who can give me the best method to completely remove all Nvidia references since I dont have driver cleaner

The drivers work well (vista), however there is a new installer method in which the installer deinstalls the old drivers, reboots, and installs the new ones. It seems to work pretty well and gives an alert, but it might throw some people off track a little.

Also when i rebooted, I got an "update" from microsoft in vista saying there was a single 47 meg update. I have auto updates off (but alerts on as I like to check what is updating), and it was an nvidia driver from march. so be careful there guys.

mkk · Apr 17, 2007, 04:30 PM

Nice to see the classic layout back.
Does flat panel scaling work for anyone?.
Similar fullscreen video playback performance issues as with the leaked beta.
Gamma setting still lowers itself every time you hit apply as seen on next panel startup.
No sign of advanced timings reappearing.

***Zardon*** · Apr 17, 2007, 04:47 PM

only issue ive seen in a few hours is sometimes rebooting these drivers incorrectly detect the resolution of my 1080P HDTV, and put the resolution at 720p rather than 1920x1080. a reboot fixes it. not ideal but ill see if its a glitch which will resolve itself over time.

Lowfat · Apr 17, 2007, 06:14 PM

These drivers are suppose to be a huge performance boost.

Played a good 3 hours of stalker today on Win XP using a 8800GTS 640. About to try them on Vista 32bit with a 8800GTS 320.

Golbeze · Apr 17, 2007, 06:38 PM

Hmm, have to give these a go and see how they do on my system. The new installer method sounds interesting. I'll download, game a bit with Oblivion and Morrowind and report back.

GutterPunk · Apr 17, 2007, 07:02 PM

Reports are that the display has stopped responding error hasn't been truely fixed

. I would hate to go home to this error again.

Prince_Link · Apr 17, 2007, 07:11 PM

the installer method isn't exactly new,.. some Forceware 80 drivers used to have an installer that did that as well (it was only with the quadro drivers...)

crlorentzen · Apr 17, 2007, 07:26 PM

Okay cool...but when do we lowely XP users get a new version? Unless nVidia is silently dropping support for all cards before 8800 series.

GutterPunk · Apr 17, 2007, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crlorentzen

Okay cool...but when do we lowely XP users get a new version? Unless nVidia is silently dropping support for all cards before 8800 series.

the current xp drivers are sexy imo!

Necrosis · Apr 18, 2007, 04:35 AM

Huh I thought the 158.19 were the XP drivers???

Erroneus · Apr 18, 2007, 05:10 AM

They are.