Nvidia and the new drivers?? What are your opinions ??

[Rabbitrunner51]

I wanted to start a new thread on this subject...as I said some things about them on another post ( Gaming section..anyone played BFvietnam..ect.)

I have the Nvidia FX5900 card and it is a very good card..and I have been a little confused as to all these new driver updates put out lately by Nvidia...the latest being the 56.65 driver which is even another one higher than is called for when I play a certain game ( BF Vietnam )
The newest drivers have some added control structure built in which is ..to me something I have little knowledge about and how to adjust them as relayed....ala> sysopt main page article on these ( check it out )
While some cards ..both Nvidia and ATI have some people doing certain tweaks to and adjusting for best performance....I often wonder about doing this for certain games that might require it...
I generally just leave it alone and may up the antilaising and or antiscopic filtering some to 2x>>>8x depending...
The settings for the Nvidia cards have a basic auto setting for best performance ..which does not apply any of the extra goodies and is probably best for most games as the card is good enough not to have to fuss with for quality and best graphics...

One basic question I have is; say your in a certain game and the speed and or game operation slows down or has slight freezes and stoppage ( the ole stop and start ...run good and freeze again in places ..ect.. Does this mean a adjustment would fix this somewhat or is a certain game taxing enough for the card not to perform well.... Its hard sometimes to tell..as there are some games that seem to have quirks in them...not asociated with the card or problems with...
The reason I am bringing this up is I experienced ( mainly for the first time ) a slight slow down and freeze issue with a certain game ( BF Vietnam ) and do not know if its the card or the game itself
I apologize for being long winded on this .... but I am sure there are others who might have more experience and knowledge about these things than I....Thank you for your comments as always...

[Rob R.]

You missed a critical component to troubleshooting this...did you experience this while playing single player or multiplayer?

If it was single player than hardware or drivers would be where you want to troubleshoot.

If it was multiplayer then you'll need to play single player and see if you have the same problem. If not, it's either the game server you're playing on or it's your internet connection.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Try turning Antialiasing, Vsync and Anisotropic Filtering off and see if you still get jerkovision, if so then you need to lower the in-game detail settings. If not, then up the above card settings gradually until you find your best quality/performance balance

--Jakk:t

[Rabbitrunner51]

Jak...i have reset the settings to the basic..which is for best performance .....have not tried this yet...( had to go to bed ..ZZZ)

I will let you know.... also, do you have a Nvidia card or ATI...

The game is basicly ok ...but its obvious to me that this game with all its detail..sound and other enhancements...gives any card a run for the money...a little taxing I would say...

Rob,...I only played single player to begin with ....can't wait to play online...want to get a feel for all the maps.. Thanks!

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Originally posted by Rabbitrunner51

I will let you know.... also, do you have a Nvidia card or ATI...



Both ;)

--Jakk:t

[Rabbitrunner51]

I loaded the latest 56.68 drivers and then played some of BF Vietnam without the basic settings at default and mostly it helped some and played quite a few games with no apparent problems..

When I started playing online it was great for awhile and then ..just recently ( its like 5:30 in the am here now ) ,I started to get alot of freezes and hang-ups which seems common for this game ..esp.. online as the whole process of the game and the thousands of players....really seems to tax your system....
The graphics and everything are real good ...just kind of a hassle that only certain servers seem to run well....quite a few..just hung there and froze after entering the game....quite quirky to say the least...but its so fun to me that I put up with it....
I know you are not fond of this game..and that is your right...I respect that..as there are alot of games I do not like ..that others play or rave about...
It would be interesting to know if ATI cards like the 9800 Pro or XT have any of these problems.....
There is so much to take into account..when analizing factors of why some things happen..could be I have something running in the background which slows or interupts processes..I don't know.

All in all the FX5900 is a good card and have no problems at all in other games.... maybe I could up the bus speed on it some..I just might try this...as there are programs to do this and ZI am told ot just increase bit by bit and test OP. of to see if it makes a difference... Hope things are jolly good in merry ole England....

[Rob R.]

nVidia cards may not be the best with AA and AF turned on, but they are certainly more than fast with them turned off. You really shouldn't be having problems with BF: Vietnam with those options turned off like Jakk suggested.

What are you running the game at? Do you have it full out eye candy at 1600 x 1200??

[Bigjakkstaffa]

You picked up the BF:Vietnam patch yet or not?

--Jakk:t

[Rabbitrunner51]

No..I didn't know they had a patch. I will go look for this now....
Hopefully ,some of these issues will get better....

Rob, I should clarify that the operation of the game and the graphics are not all bad....as I mentioned....on single player...the new drivers improved things quite a bit....I am pretty critical or things generally and expect some perfection ..esp. in the movement of..which is the most important part.

I noticed in the mutiplayer...quite alot of slow downs and freeze times with some servers and think the server may be the issue ..although when you see 30-40 players playing a map or mission ...they all can't be having these problems...The game just plain froze a few times on differerent maps.

I appreciate the replies to help with this and again will keep you posted as I really try and listen to others advice,which is always welcome...Thanks!

[Rabbitrunner51]

OK guys.., I have re-set the bios mode to 128 ( default is at 64 ) and have the antlaising and antiscopic up to 2x and it runs fine now.....Who knows ...maybe that was it.... all screens are better resolution and no slow downs.... The card had to warm up for a minute or two and then its going great... much better ( this is on mutiplayer mode )Also, I didn't have the memory set to max settings..as this must have helped also... I set all modes to 1024X768 with 32 bit , which is what i use for everything anyway.
My card comes with a thing called resident changer..and I think that was set wrong also...just don't have it loaded anymore...