NVIDIA 1.88 Detonator Reference
Drivers: One User's Experience
What about Direct3D?
Direct 3D is a different animal with regards
to the 1.88 Detonators. Running 3DMark 99 Max proved to be a clean experience. Not only
was the performance up, but also there were no glitches or artifacts that I could find.
Very nice, indeed.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (with the DirectX
6 patch) ran very well, though I did notice that with the weather enabled (rain), the
reflection of cars' headlights/taillights didn't seam correctly rendered upon the wet
streets; the colors were a bit "off," perhaps "garbled" a bit. Also,
while it's very possible that it's an art issue within the game itself, the sky seemed to
have a blatantly noticeable line - a horizontal line, like a seam, but not a tearing seam
- through it in certain spots. This is why I'm guessing it's a game-related issue, and not
a fault of NVIDIA's driver.
For the most part, Direct3D is near-sublime.
NVIDIA put a mean polish on this aspect of the 1.88 drivers.
How 'bout the 2D?
This is an issue for me. From the 1.7x drivers
and on, I've noticed a lot of random artifacting, specifically with and/or between ICQ
99a, IE 5, and a few other miscellaneous applications. The effect is usually little bits
and pieces of windows being left behind, either on the desktop, or within another window.
Minimizing the respective window seams to clear up a "boo-boo," but it's
annoying nonetheless.
I've also noticed my Start button become
"garbled," morphing into a "smudge" of color. The same has happened
within certain miscellaneous windows, but not often. As I've seen these issues mentioned
by other users, I'll assume that they are indeed driver-related issues. (This is becoming
VERY annoying, and is not what I've come to expect from NVIDIA's drivers... *hint, hint*)
So far as speed goes, while the overall 2D
quickness is still there, it just doesn't seam as "zippy" as it once was - as
with the 1.09 Detonators. (In my opinion, these drivers were superb, with respect to their
balance of speed, stability, and image quality.)
Some users have reported having problems with
switching resolutions and/or color depths. I haven't experienced any resolution problems
yet, but I'll keep my eyes wide open. One thing I'm curious about is the supposed
"fix" for the 1280x960 resolution. While I've heard that it now works in
full-screen mode, I've yet to see it work for me. (E-Mail me with any ideas, please.) I use a
MagInnovision DX700T whose maximum resolution is 1280x1024x32, so... Perhaps it was only
"fixed" for the TNT2?
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Wrappin' it up
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