DH Editorial: A look at nVida's new Forceware

***Zardon*** · May 23, 2006, 06:51 PM

Read the editorial here
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It can be safely said that when ATI released Catalyst Control Centre it received less than a stellar reception by many of the companies core enthusiast gamers. Load times were slow, memory overheads were high and many felt it was perhaps a step in the wrong direction. Currently while ATI still back this .net based driver interface as the way forward many enthusiast users feel the memory overhead is still high and it is slower in operation that the older standard style Control Panel. There has been heated debate on our forums since the inception of CCC with .net framework and if you visit any active tech based forum there will still be debate on the matter. "Are nVidia going to go down the same road" was a question often asked?

PoopyTheJ · May 23, 2006, 06:58 PM

Very good review and I must agree that nvidia's soultion is preferable to ATI's for the Control Panel interface.

mkk · May 23, 2006, 07:05 PM

A nice look at it. I'm pleased to see a few things in the new control panel working better there than it did here for the minutes I tried it, so I'll have to give it another go later. It's certainly moving in the right direction for control panels.

[hobo]eclipse · May 23, 2006, 10:56 PM

sweet just wrestled with a bad file system after an install while OC'ed (bad me!) thought was all a loss, had to reformat, but then i see this.......SWEET! installing now!

*EDIT*

OK am i missing something here? i still get the old CP? downloaded the x64 edition from hereand it is here on the regular nvidia site?? also in the slide out menu in the old CP i now have a tab that says SLI multi-GPU, no option in it just info?

looks nice and i enjoyed the pics you put up, kinda bummed im not seein it, it is BETA though

BWX · May 23, 2006, 11:30 PM

Nvidia 1 - Ati 0

ViRuS2k · May 24, 2006, 12:39 AM

If only ati would get a clue.

Erroneus · May 24, 2006, 12:53 AM

But you got to wonder why they havn't gone over to .net yet, isn't it going to be a requirment in Vista?

Kombatant · May 24, 2006, 01:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erroneus

But you got to wonder why they havn't gone over to .net yet, isn't it going to be a requirment in Vista?

No, it's not going to be a requirement for Vista. I like the new nV control panel, it certainly resembles the way I'd design a control panel if asked to.

Good editorial Allan, I agree totally with your pov.

BWX · May 24, 2006, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ViRuS2k

If only ati would get a clue.

One of the reasons why I voted Nvidia with my wallet.. ATI needs to get clue before I invest in another one of their video cards.

Between the slow, ram hungry .net CCC, the dysfunctional vivo software, and the absent control panel features- I wonder why they don't wake up and start including some of the features customers have been begging for.

mike2h · May 24, 2006, 03:09 AM

thx for the work Z. give them a couple of releases to get the whole pkg fine tuned, then get the zp guys working on it & we should have an awsome driver set!

Erroneus · May 24, 2006, 04:28 AM

What the he... Why are ATI then using .net, if it's not a requirment for Vista. It's bloody slow, come on ATi, create a proper controlpanel then

IamLakota · May 24, 2006, 04:41 AM

Nice article Z,..I hope Ati reads it and learns from it and makes some changes to the way their driver/CCC works.

~~Alien1~~ · May 24, 2006, 04:53 AM

The new NV panel is not so fancy as the ATI CCC of course

But the menus are stylish and simple without confussing drag menu options and that will please a lot of ppl
and the second is that it is not a resource hog like CCC

Nvidia is taking the right direction

Also the new enhancements in Purevideo is making it very competive to Avivo

bug77 · May 24, 2006, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erroneus

What the he... Why are ATI then using .net, if it's not a requirment for Vista. It's bloody slow, come on ATi, create a proper controlpanel then

They did. They just decided we need a 'better' one instead.

I wonder if you can use Coolbits to get overclocking options in the new panel though...

BWX · May 24, 2006, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bug77

I wonder if you can use Coolbits to get overclocking options in the new panel though...

Was wondering the same.. or do you need to switch back to old CP to do that? If so, that would suck.. I use the auto OC feature in NV CP as it is..

bug77 · May 24, 2006, 07:34 AM

I don't o/c my video card at all (well, XFX did it for me), I was just wondering.

Sandok · May 24, 2006, 07:35 AM

ATI has really been losing support and I can't even fathom to defend them anymore... NV is become the ATI I loved back when the 9800 Pro and all were being released... The new ATI is going downhill from everything to driver presentation (not the drivers itself) to the cards (big bulky and loud).

Both companies still have their reasons to exist but ATI is starting to look less appealing, especially with the CCC. Great read Zardon!

BWX · May 24, 2006, 07:58 AM

I think ATI cards still ROCK.. they are sweet.. but I can't afford one and I don't like the software.. If the software was better and they were priced a little more competitively, I would have had to get an ATI.

bananaman · May 24, 2006, 08:10 AM

very intersting piece Z. A well rounded article that makes me slightly concerned about ATI - although being a single card user I dont have the same issues

Zoolook · May 24, 2006, 08:36 AM

There is a slick CCC replacement, it's called ATT - Ati tray tools, you don't need to have control panel or CCC installed, just driver and ATT, it's fast and supports most of the things you need coolbits for on Nvidia hardware.

bug77 · May 24, 2006, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoolook

There is a slick CCC replacement, it's called ATT - Ati tray tools, you don't need to have control panel or CCC installed, just driver and ATT, it's fast and supports most of the things you need coolbits for on Nvidia hardware.

Yes, everybody seems to get it right, except for ATI.

***Zardon*** · May 24, 2006, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoolook

There is a slick CCC replacement, it's called ATT - Ati tray tools, you don't need to have control panel or CCC installed, just driver and ATT, it's fast and supports most of the things you need coolbits for on Nvidia hardware.

Does ATT control crossfire, does it offer rendering modes for crossfire ?

BWX · May 24, 2006, 09:03 AM

I actually always had problems with ATT.. my AA, AF, and other settings never "stuck"..

I actually had to quit using it altogether and use a combination of ATI TOOL, Omega's w/o installing ATT, and then refresh lock for my custom resolution that I NEEDED to use with my CRT.. (no other program worked right for that)..

Then when I started to mess round with my first Vivo card (X800XL), to my dismay the included ATI software was totally useless for me and I had to use third party tools such as media player classic to view my TV in- and get audio direct form sound card w/o lag It was a real mess. I spend countless hours trying to get it all to work with ATI software, never got rid of the audio lag.

***Zardon*** · May 24, 2006, 09:07 AM

out of curiousity bwx how are you finding nvidia? I know you were with ATI for a long while there. Any transitional problems? have you tried the new beta forceware set ?

bug77 · May 24, 2006, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Does ATT control crossfire, does it offer rendering modes for crossfire ?

Probably not, but it's still a better UI.

BWX · May 24, 2006, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

out of curiousity bwx how are you finding nvidia? I know you were with ATI for a long while there. Any transitional problems? have you tried the new beta forceware set ?

Nope have not tried the beta Forceware because i am sending this card out to EVGA for a step up to a 7900GTX very soon.. like this week. I should have done it yesterday..

But all in all I am happy with the ease of use of the NV driver control panel. Coolbits auto OC's... (when games start)... Game profile settings work great. No bulky .net control panel.. everything