NVIDIA & Vista Driver News

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
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No doubt NVIDIA’s lack of Vista drivers for their hardware has been a heated topic since the launch of the 8800 series. Well we have a lot of good news tonight direct from the mouths at NVIDIA. NVIDIA has released their “NVIDIA Windows Vista Driver version 100.54” tonight to developers, testers, and reviewers. So obviously it will likely be found online any minute for your download.

Full News Post Here.
 
How can their lack of drivers be a heated topic for people? Vista hasn't been officialy released yet.I just hope the 64 bit drivers will be good.
 
How can their lack of drivers be a heated topic for people? Vista hasn't been officialy released yet.I just hope the 64 bit drivers will be good.

Meh, I don't think anyone's expecting XP quality drivers immediately, but they expect their games to run full screen, etc. Vista has been officially released to those w/ MSDN subscription (business customers, so I suppose the argument could be made that gamers shouldn't be pissy), but not for regular old retail sales. I'm sure nVidia will step it up (I'm running the 97.52s on my 7900GT and they seem to work fine other than the performance issues, so hopefully the new ones will be up soon -- I have faith in nVidia, ATM).

amro
 
How can their lack of drivers be a heated topic for people? Vista hasn't been officialy released yet.I just hope the 64 bit drivers will be good.

Hehe, you have not been reading around here much...
 
I have an MSDN subscription and would very much like to try out the 8800 GTX on Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit.
 
It's probably because all of the people that bought and received their copies of Vista already want drivers to go with it.

It's also why Nvidia is probably pushing these drivers out the door in a hurry. The last thing they want is a vista benchmark being ran with crappy drivers where an 8800 is getting slaughtered by something stupid because their drivers aren't out or fully working for a given program.
 
Thank goodness!

Although the 100.3x drivers havent been all that bad, just missing some control panel functionality that we're used to seeing in XP.
 
I'm one of those early adopters and I can say I'm definitely feeling the pain. :( My new build is basically awaiting for Vista's release and of course, new drivers from nVidia. I don't even bother powering up the system trying to get SLI working, because all that work will be useless when Vista is released. Then comes working with beta drivers and so on.:confused:
 
First off, for the people (inscape01, amromousa, and kmeson) arguing about the infamous Vista availability debate - please stop NOW before this spirals off topic.

Anywho, to get back OT, what will the difference be between this 100.54 driver and the one releasing on Jan. 30? And will either of these be WHQL Cert.?

Thanks
 
I knew nVidia wouldn't let us down. 48 hours after the Vista launch, we have WHQL, full DX10 drivers for Vista in the hands of reviewers, and to us within a few days. Somehow, "I told you so," doesn't quite fit here. ;)
 
I will concede I am in no way as wise as an entire board of directors... so I'm sure they have a good reason for doing what they do at Nvidia.

Maybe Nvidia wants to provide the best possible product to the customer.

Though to my knowledge ATI has had Vista drivers for quite some time now...

Even when Nvidia bought out Voodoo... ATI was there... and had been long before Nvidia, since 1985.

With AMD recently acquiring ATI and Nvidia taking forever to release any Vista compliant drivers with 2 dx10 compliant cards already on the market... I think I will drop Nivida off my list of upgrades, as I am an AMD user, and frankly want to give ATI a chance.

I think Nvidia has had plenty of time... I'm not amused.
 
First off, for the people (inscape01, amromousa, and kmeson) arguing about the infamous Vista availability debate - please stop NOW before this spirals off topic.

Anywho, to get back OT, what will the difference be between this 100.54 driver and the one releasing on Jan. 30? And will either of these be WHQL Cert.?

Thanks

Didn't really mean to argue so much as state that the picture painted in the post wasn't 100% spot on. As you said, neither here nor there.

The front page says beta for internal testing, so most likely they didn't pony up for WHQL certification, but again, it doesn't make any difference since the ones out now are WHQL and they have major issues (I'm not talking features, just bugs). As for the difference, I don't think anyone but those working at nVidia and those close to nVidia know right now (nVidia might not even know as they may have to drop features to meet the release deadline or something). We'll all find out soon. :) [My guess would be these are considered stable, will go through WHQL and be certified/released soon -- maybe one or two builds later to get an extra fix in or something?]
 
I will concede I am in no way as wise as an entire board of directors... so I'm sure they have a good reason for doing what they do at Nvidia.

Maybe Nvidia wants to provide the best possible product to the customer.

Though to my knowledge ATI has had Vista drivers for quite some time now...

Even when Nvidia bought out Voodoo... ATI was there... and had been long before Nvidia, since 1985.

With AMD recently acquiring ATI and Nvidia taking forever to release any Vista compliant drivers with 2 dx10 compliant cards already on the market... I think I will drop Nivida off my list of upgrades, as I am an AMD user, and frankly want to give ATI a chance.

I think Nvidia has had plenty of time... I'm not amused.

Friend's running a ATI x1950 pro w/ the latest cats, Vista x86 -- MCE craps out after a few minutes w/ horrid artifacts so he's using his 360 as an extender in the mean time. Neither are perfect, both are working hard, I'm sure. :)
 
Maybe some of the whiners will STFU.

Good to hear this is becoming finalized :D
 
How can their lack of drivers be a heated topic for people? Vista hasn't been officialy released yet.I just hope the 64 bit drivers will be good.

Actually, it has released to system integrators and VLK users. In fact, Microsoft has quit selling VLK licenses of Windows XP…
 
I never quite fully understand why people keep bringing up the fact that ATI has Vista Drivers. They dont have any DX 10 parts with a completely new Architechture and unified design. When you have to start from scratch in every way it has to be a huge mountain to climb. Nvidia has has DX9 drivers for Vista for ages, so has ATI. I think the big thing that ATI should be bitched about is a DX10 part...
 
First off, for the people (inscape01, amromousa, and kmeson) arguing about the infamous Vista availability debate - please stop NOW before this spirals off topic.

Anywho, to get back OT, what will the difference be between this 100.54 driver and the one releasing on Jan. 30? And will either of these be WHQL Cert.?

Thanks

Didn't know there was a debate, point understood.

Likely there will be very little difference between these and those released on Jan 30 (or there abouts). From a software dev standpoint a week isn't much time to iterate. It's likely this release is a RC designed to catch any show stoppers. Perhaps if a show stopper scenario were shown in an optimized path it might be 'detuned' to safer code. Another option is this limited release is to allow ISVs enough time test on their products, provide feedback, and create their own FAQ in anticipation for deluge users who may run into problems.

It's anyones guess. IMO nVidia will have their act together and we'll get a good driver. Creative otoh I'm not so optimistic.
 
I take it this will be drivers for both 32-bit and 64 bit? Im currently debating which version to get...
 
Just loaded Vista Ultimate tonight,used the 'Beta' 100.30 drivers, their working good but would like to compare them to the 100.54's. Anyone have a link yet to them, maybe???

Thanks,
SR
 
So it said this driver will work for 7 series as well... are future driver updates expected to close the performance gap between WinXP with 7 series (ie 7900gt) and Win Vista with the same card, or are they focusing on optimizing for 8800 only? I couldn't really tell from the wording of the article :confused: although it would be nice if the former was the case.

*I plan on buying Vista through school as soon as it comes out as I am graduating this semester :) ** and I would like to be able to migrate to Vista on my main gaming rig.
 
I'm happy enough with the driver release schedule. But I will be disappointed if there isn't even a DX10 tech demo that we can all run on the 30th (launch day).

We've already put out a few Vista systems (quietly) and so far so good. A friend has Ultimate up and running with the 100.30s and BF2142 is running fine on his 8800GTS. I'll be putting on Home Premium tomorrow evening.

But I really, really want to see DX10 functional on launch day. The whole deal rides on the eye candy working out of the gate, and adoption will be really slow if there isn't an immediate "wow" to show everyone.

As to the 32bit / 64bit question, my advise to everyone is buy 32bit until 64 proves to have drivers for all your hardware. There's no better answer out there since MS didn't force everyone to run 64 which is really pissing me off. It's going to end up pushing full adoption back another year or two.
 
I take it this will be drivers for both 32-bit and 64 bit? Im currently debating which version to get...

Microsoft has stated in order for drivers to be official for Windows Vista it is required to have x86 and x64 drivers, which means they can carry an official Vista logo.

It is all part of their ensuring that consumers know what they can and can't use on Vista.

I have been using Vista at work for a little over a month now and I am very happy with it and it runs very stable. I have had computer on for several weeks without rebooting and absolutly no crashes. I don't mind being the early adopter, it is what I do. As a technician it is better that I find out what bugs there are before my clients do.

I have recently bought an 8800GTX and I am very excited about DirectX 10 technology.

Only problem is still that without application that run on DX10 technology there is no need for it at this time anyways. I would just benice if I could use the 8800 on my computer at all. Just a no go untill we have these drivers.

I have waited this long for them, I think I can wait till the 30th to have them.

Although there are drivers for both x86 and x64 drivers for 64 bit still need a lot of work. Where you would think that x64 would run better in all actuallity x86 has noticable better performance at this time.

Most of which have to do with memory addressing to the best of my knowlege, someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

I'm curious when games will start useing 4GB RAM anyways.

Also as listed above, I agree that if you don't have 64 bit drivers for all your hardware I would definitly wait, it would suck to play a game and not be able to hear the sound cause you didn't have x64 drivers for your audio card.

It is nice to know that these drivers are surfacing and that we will have them soon. It will be nice to see what ATI has to offer too. IMO they will both be great Nvidia just has a head start on the drivers and will probably be more stable than ATI's for a little while.

Crysis looks to be on my Christmas wishlist. Take care everyone, just wanted to add my two cents.
 
Wow a Vista a driver, we still need proper support under XP aswell. Ohwell...

And if you plan on going 64Bit I wouldn't buy Nvidia. I am still battling it out on 3 different machines running 3 different 8800GTX's all running Windows XP Professional X64.
 
I may be moving to Vista a lot sooner than expected. If they can pump out some drivers on par with what they have for XP I see no reason to stick with XP Pro.
 
Got the 8800 GTS; now I just need Vista.

Hope the drivers are/will become significantly better than the XP x64 pro drivers... As they blow. Even UT2004 has problems running with smooth framerates.
 
Hmmm, well buying Vista 32bit OEM amd 64 bit OEM seperatly is cheaper than buying Vista retail to get both versions as far I can see. So i guess its not a huge deal to get 32bit and upgrade to 64 in a couple of years maybe.
 
Hmmm, well buying Vista 32bit OEM amd 64 bit OEM seperatly is cheaper than buying Vista retail to get both versions as far I can see. So i guess its not a huge deal to get 32bit and upgrade to 64 in a couple of years maybe.

A key works with both versions. You can always just buy a legit 32-bit version and....obtain ;) a 64-bit media later; the license/key with work with both versions, and you aren't breaking any rules as long as you only have it installed on one system.
 
In the release notes for any of the 100 series drivers is there any mention of SLI working?
 
It is my understanding you when you buy Vista that you get both 32 and 64 bit. It is up to you to decide which version you will use when you consume your key. Again someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Has anyone found these on the internet yet?, I'm sure someone (tester/reviewers) have posted them on the net?
 
It is my understanding you when you buy Vista that you get both 32 and 64 bit. It is up to you to decide which version you will use when you consume your key. Again someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Retail is both. OEM is one or the other. The people (such as myself) who got Vista Business from PowerTogether.com got a retail copy, but only the 32-bit disc.
 
It is my understanding you when you buy Vista that you get both 32 and 64 bit. It is up to you to decide which version you will use when you consume your key. Again someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Retail is both. OEM is one or the other. The people (such as myself) who got Vista Business from PowerTogether.com got a retail copy, but only the 32-bit disc.

Most of the retail versions are only going to have the 32bit DVD in it. There will be a slip of paper in the box that tells you how to get 64bit DVD if you want or need it. Ultimate dition on the other hadn will have both x64 and x86 discs in the box (or so I've read).
 
I would also imagine that there are many game developers out there are waiting for these new drivers to test their dx9 and dx10 titles with and continue with their work with vista compatibility. Not having them could be costing them money due to delays. I'm just speculating though.
 
A key works with both versions. You can always just buy a legit 32-bit version and....obtain ;) a 64-bit media later; the license/key with work with both versions, and you aren't breaking any rules as long as you only have it installed on one system.

Really?? I didnt realise that. In that case i'll be going with 32bit to begin with. Thanks
 
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