Nvidia 177.79 Drivers and the 8800GT

FloatingFatMan · 08-08-2008 06:03 AM

Has anyone had any problems with these drivers under Vista x64 (or any other OS in fact)?

I tried them a couple of days ago, seeing as with the latest (leaked) PhysX drivers, the 8800 cards now support PhysX, but have found a problem that makes CoH unplayable.

DirectX games are fine, but CoH is totally messed up. From the loading screen onwards, the bottom right quadrant of the screen is shunted up to the top left quadrant. I can't see the login box, and when I try logging in anyway, I can tab to the password box, enter the password, and hit enter; but then it crashes.

Safe mode lets me see MOST of the screen, though it's shunted up by about an inch, and the mouse co-ordinates are off by about that much too.

It's definitely these drivers as when I revert back to the 175.19's, everything is fine again.

Has anyone else come across this? I've even tried the WHQL candidate version of these drivers, rather than the beta's, and the same happens. I'd REALLY like to try these as they enable PhysX!

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Sapphic_Neko · 08-08-2008 06:08 AM

mm not tried, and now i'm afraid to!

Mister · 08-08-2008 06:32 AM

I've got both 177.79 and the physx drivers running on xp and i'm having no problems in fact my fps has increased slightly. Also using a 8800 GT

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FloatingFatMan · 08-08-2008 06:47 AM

So they're fine in XP? Hmmm....

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Londoner · 08-08-2008 07:00 AM

[ QUOTE ]
So they're fine in XP? Hmmm....

[/ QUOTE ]

Fine in xp here with a gtx 280 but the phys x bit in CoH is still greyed out.

The nvidia physx maps for UT3 look alright though

FloatingFatMan · 08-08-2008 07:05 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So they're fine in XP? Hmmm....

[/ QUOTE ]

Fine in xp here with a gtx 280 but the phys x bit in CoH is still greyed out.

The nvidia physx maps for UT3 look alright though

[/ QUOTE ]

That'll be because it's AEGIA PhysX, not Nvidia PhysX. The PhysX engine in CoH will need to be updated for that option. Tried setting the particles to max settings though (the one that warns about needing a PPU)?

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Swissy · 08-08-2008 07:18 AM

Am using Ultimate x64 but because of the nvlddmkm driver issue, I'm leaving my drivers at 169.25.

Don't fix what isn't broken

Londoner · 08-08-2008 07:18 AM

[ QUOTE ]
That'll be because it's AEGIA PhysX, not Nvidia PhysX. The PhysX engine in CoH will need to be updated for that option. Tried setting the particles to max settings though (the one that warns about needing a PPU)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hang on i'l have a look, right there is not a lot of difference in the look of things between high and very high.

Overall though things do seem to look better with these drivers, but that might just be wishfull thinking im not sure

FloatingFatMan · 08-08-2008 07:27 AM

You'll need to try a mayhem or safeguard mission (preferably mayhem), as those are the main places where the PhysX engine is used. There should be a LOT more debris from destroyed objects.

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Coolio · 08-08-2008 08:15 AM

Not forgetting to crank the maximum particle effects up in the CoX graphics options.

Nuff Said...

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FloatingFatMan · 08-08-2008 08:22 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Am using Ultimate x64 but because of the nvlddmkm driver issue, I'm leaving my drivers at 169.25.

Don't fix what isn't broken

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, but I want to get the PhysX stuff working for other games, so I HAVE to update the drivers if I want that... Hence I'm asking if anyone with Vista x64 Ultimate has tried these drivers with success!

@FloatingFatMan

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Tainted_Greek_EU · 08-08-2008 09:48 AM

I will be installing later today to try them out.

EDIT:downloaded both gimme a sec installing and will let u know.

Tainted_Greek_EU · 08-08-2008 10:08 AM

The drivers are not working and exhibit the behaviour you described with CoH

Tested on

Windows Ultimate 64bit,2x8800GTX ultra sli

On top of that i got a bluescreen once i tried moving the CoH screen between monitors.

The error was related to TripleHead2Go device cause i am on 3 monitors so anyone using TripleHead2Go be careful of the BSD

FloatingFatMan · 08-08-2008 10:37 AM

Well... Thanks for verifying that for me TG! It's a relief to know it's the drivers and not my card, and bit annoying that I'll have to do without PhysX support for a while longer.

I do hope it's something they fix soon, because those drivers are WHQL candidates!

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Blue Rabbit · 08-08-2008 11:30 AM

I downloaded the latest NVidia drivers a month ago and had to perform a rollback as the game became unplayable for me. This under XP. Haven't tried since then.

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FloatingFatMan · 08-09-2008 06:06 AM

OK, I've tried the 177.66 beta drivers, and THESE work perfectly. PhysX is enabled, and CoX is pulling 65fps.

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Tainted_Greek_EU · 08-09-2008 01:10 PM

[ QUOTE ]
OK, I've tried the 177.66 beta drivers, and THESE work perfectly. PhysX is enabled, and CoX is pulling 65fps.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tried those and my PC got BSD instantly the first time i ran CoX.

The weird thing is i open CoX in screens 2,3 its just crashed the game.In screen 1 i got BSD.

VERY weird...

TormDK · 08-09-2008 06:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]
OK, I've tried the 177.66 beta drivers, and THESE work perfectly. PhysX is enabled, and CoX is pulling 65fps.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds nifty, I'll give it a go as I'm running Vista 64bit also on a 8800GTS 640mb card.

Tuarus · 08-11-2008 08:54 AM

tried these this morning with my 8800GT but the physX was still greyed out.

Am I missing a step or something?

Mister · 08-11-2008 08:59 AM

to enable physx in cox you actually need a physx card

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Londoner · 08-11-2008 09:02 AM

[ QUOTE ]
tried these this morning with my 8800GT but the physX was still greyed out.

Am I missing a step or something?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah you fell in the same hole as me, FFM pointed this out to me

[ QUOTE ]
That'll be because it's AEGIA PhysX, not Nvidia PhysX. The PhysX engine in CoH will need to be updated for that option. Tried setting the particles to max settings though (the one that warns about needing a PPU)?

[/ QUOTE ]

After doing that there was a lot more debris in mayhem missions, but also some strange things happening, items and enemies fading in and out of view etc.

Necrotron · 08-11-2008 02:28 PM

I ruddy hope this is an isolated problem... I just got everything set up as I like it on 177.79. You'll have my verdict in a few moments! (sounds.pigg failed a checksum and now it's checking everything...)

[ QUOTE ]
to enable physx in cox you actually need a physx card

[/ QUOTE ]

Bit o' background here. nVidia bought Ageia ages ago, and recently got PhysX running on their graphics cards. Any 8000 or newer can do that. I've been waiting for some useful GPGPU stuff for a long while.

Some crazy modders got it running on the new Radeons as well, though it was very slow, nothing more than a quick hack. That said, nVidia are open to other companies using PhysX, even if they're Canadian and red (ATi).

(If you care about such things, the GPU will split the workload between graphics and physics to give you the best FPS that it can - it's already designed to balance a good ten thousand things at once.)

EDIT: Damn and blast. It's exactly as FFM said, all up in the top left corner.

EDIT THE SECOND: Dagnabbit, even fudging the registry to get CoH in windowed mode doesn't help!

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FloatingFatMan · 08-12-2008 06:15 AM

Try the 177.66 beta drivers. They still enable the PhysX features, but also work properly in CoH.

@FloatingFatMan

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Megaforce · 08-12-2008 08:16 AM

i cant seem to find the 177.66 beta drivers anywhere, all i can seem to find in uk english is 177.79

FloatingFatMan · 08-12-2008 08:21 AM

They have them over on guru3d.com. Look in their downloads section.

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