Video Improvement

[Michael Carter]

Since adding the additional video card to my FS system, the graphics have improved dramatically.

I used the driver disc that came with the new card. Upon loading it, it removed the old ATI drivers that the X1950 GT was running with.

Now with no settings changed, the graphics have really gotten much better. Even at FL altitudes you can still make out cities and towns, roads, and the landscape patchwork is clearer and sharper.

In addition to the better graphics, the frame rate remained the same with no hit at all.

Can new drivers really do all of that?

[tomenglish2000]

They most certaintly can!
New drivers can improve the efficiency and open up locked parts of a card.

You may also find now that you can get a little bit more from the card without lowering frame rates.

Unfortunately this means you will have to tweak your display settings to get a new ballance.

I remember when I had a GeForce 4, they upgraded the drivers to enhance texture handling and shading. I found I could move my textures slider from about mid to Max without changing the frame rate because the better drivers could take it in their stride.

Tom.

[Michael Carter]

The settings on the card were already maxed out in every catagory. That's what the eye-popping was about. I hadn't changed a thing and it looks so much better.

What sort of parts of the card could be unlocked or used that weren't being used before?

[Bob Reed]

New drivers change the way the card handels textures and floating point math and all the chip set commands. Can make a huge differance.

[Michael Carter]

It sure did!

[tomenglish2000]

What sort of parts of the card could be unlocked or used that weren't being used before?

I believe that sometimes there are extra pixel shaders and pipelines etc that may not be available due to compatability with some drivers, so new drivers allow these to be used. Also note that most GPUs in a specific series (ie GeForce 9) will all have the same core. NVidia will turn a few parts off make them the cheaper models.

Same for Intel processors. Most CPUs in a series (ie Core i7) will be the same die, but with different parts disabled (usually by blowing tiny fuses so you cant unlock these!). This keeps production costs low as they only ever have to make 1 die instead of 10 different designs.

Tom

[Michael Carter]

That's interesting to read.

So my E4400 could be a completely different processor with subtle on-die changes that can't be made but are there?

[Rodney]

In your case I would bet that the cd that came with the card was the current version when the card shipped. What is on most web support sites is an updated version that is not normally driven by customers, rather internal company testing. So what I always do is the clean install (remove all drivers and ancilary programs) from the supplied cd, configure it and look for any issues. I don't jump on the "Hey there are new drivers for XXX out, anyone tried them?" band wagon, rather I do look at the change notice to see if the issue I'm having has been fixed by the latest driver. If so it gets loaded and I don't look back. But it is always good to hear the simplicity of the way things should work, as not everyone has the same set-up.

[Michael Carter]

I'm very pleased with the way things look now. I was pleased with the way things looked before too, but didn't realize they could get any better.

I'll just leave it as it is for now until I buy the next video card.

[phil.]

does anyone know where i can find the latest driver update for the Geforce 8800 GTS ? i bought the card in 2007 and never updated this. Maybe an update will improve framerates.
Phil.