nVidia drivers - WHQL release schedule?

machinist · 17 Feb 2012 at 11:34

We haven't had a WHQL driver release from nVidia since October last year!
Aren't they supposed to release every quarter/3 months?

James J · 17 Feb 2012 at 12:55

Due end of this month with a beta about a week after which has fixes not included in the whql.

machinist · 17 Feb 2012 at 13:09

Excellent, I'm hoping for some tweaks to improve speed in Skyrim

James J · 18 Feb 2012 at 12:27

machinist said:
Excellent, I'm hoping for some tweaks to improve speed in Skyrim

Not sure if Nvidia will try and squeeze any more performance out of the game mate. The 290.53 drivers had an upto 25% speed increase on it and the 1.4 patch really speeds things up also. Which drivers and what card are you using?

machinist · 18 Feb 2012 at 12:50

I only use WHQL drivers, so I'm still on 285.62 paired with a Geforce GTX 560 Ti

James J · 18 Feb 2012 at 13:01

Ah sadly you are missing some big performance increases then from the 290.53s. The new WHQL should have the same optimisations in them though

kedge · 18 Feb 2012 at 14:25

machinist said:
We haven't had a WHQL driver release from nVidia since October last year!
Aren't they supposed to release every quarter/3 months?

A whql driver can be just as troublesome as a beta imho

bru · 18 Feb 2012 at 15:07

Ive just read this thread and my friend was reading over my shoulder, and as i was reading that Machinist only uses WHQL drivers my friend said "thats why ATI drivers suck so much".
Now apart from me laughing at him for a few minutes and then going on to tell him that ATI are now AMD, we got down to the point about driver releases and with AMD's fairly regular release schedule, which he argued that is why the AMD drivers have so many issues whereas the Nvidia ones don't. Now i said this isn't the case and both companies drivers have issues and its an old stigma that has dogged ATI/AMD from way back that their drivers are pap.

after the argument and my friend had gone home Ive looked at my machine and realized that I'm running the Nvidia driver version 280.26 and everything works fine Ive not had any issues at all. So even though Ive just argued the opposite point it makes me wonder is it AMD frequent release schedule that causes the "AMD drivers are pap" stigma or is it really just nonsense.

Borsch · 18 Feb 2012 at 15:27

James J said:
Ah sadly you are missing some big performance increases then from the 290.53s. The new WHQL should have the same optimisations in them though

Yes, but he also misses the memory leaks that come with 290.53

James J · 18 Feb 2012 at 16:51

Borsch said:
Yes, but he also misses the memory leaks that come with 290.53

Think you'll find thats the 295.51.

Use the wink when you get the facts right son.

Colasanto · 18 Feb 2012 at 16:54

I was on 290.53 and then had one driver crash and was like "oh" then upgraded to 295.51 beta and all has been fine since.

I don't bother with WHQL anymore really, I'm always on beta drivers with pretty much zero issues. If a constant issue is present, can always revert.

TheRealDeal · 18 Feb 2012 at 17:15

Personally i like amds monthly release schedule over nvidias eratic releases of betas. I dont change driver every month though especially if all my games are running good. The good thing with amd is a whql driver is there each month if you need them. I just changed from 11.10 to 12.1 for the sake of it though and everything i am playing is great as usual. I think pebkac is the main reason for driver problems on both sides. I just cant see myself being so lucky over the years to not suffer with many driver problems.

Borsch · 18 Feb 2012 at 17:31

James J said:
Think you'll find thats the 295.51.

Use the wink when you get the facts right son.

My bad

I should have known that too, as I switched from 295.51 to 290.53 with which I currently have zero problems, not even the "driver recovered error".

Rroff · 18 Feb 2012 at 17:38

bru said:
after the argument and my friend had gone home Ive looked at my machine and realized that I'm running the Nvidia driver version 280.26 and everything works fine Ive not had any issues at all. So even though Ive just argued the opposite point it makes me wonder is it AMD frequent release schedule that causes the "AMD drivers are pap" stigma or is it really just nonsense.

The AMD regular release schedule isn't the cause of AMD driver issues... but neither is it of any real benefit if you look at it purely objectively... it might be if they kept up the effort behind the scenes but they don't.

Personally the nVidia driver release schedule doesn't really bother me - its very rare I've been waiting for a driver to support new games, usually there is atleast one driver thats completely solid even if not the highest performing - even if some of the newer drivers have issues.

While I think that ATI/AMD drivers being terrible is a thing of the past people seem to ignore the scale/relevance of the problem(s) when comparing nVidia and AMD drivers. AMD drivers generally are much more robust these days than they used to be but they don't have as timely updates for new products as nVidia and when they do have problems they tend to affect a larger number of customers. nVidia driver issues tend to typically affect fairly limited numbers of their customers and are usually dealt with in a more timely fashion and/or atleast taken more seriously as the threads on their forums show.

Final8y · 18 Feb 2012 at 18:21

Rroff said:
The AMD regular release schedule isn't the cause of AMD driver issues... but neither is it of any real benefit if you look at it purely objectively... it might be if they kept up the effort behind the scenes but they don't.

Personally the nVidia driver release schedule doesn't really bother me - its very rare I've been waiting for a driver to support new games, usually there is atleast one driver thats completely solid even if not the highest performing - even if some of the newer drivers have issues.

While I think that ATI/AMD drivers being terrible is a thing of the past people seem to ignore the scale/relevance of the problem(s) when comparing nVidia and AMD drivers. AMD drivers generally are much more robust these days than they used to be but they don't have as timely updates for new products as nVidia and when they do have problems they tend to affect a larger number of customers. nVidia driver issues tend to typically affect fairly limited numbers of their customers and are usually dealt with in a more timely fashion and/or atleast taken more seriously as the threads on their forums show.

The difference in that point is that there is better feed back on the NV forum, but lack of feedback on a forum does not mean issues or not taken seriously, its just that you don't know if it is.
But yes it would be better if there was better feedbaclk on the AMD forum but there are other ways to find out what's going on if you really need to.

James J · 18 Feb 2012 at 19:58

Borsch said:
My bad I should have known that too, as I switched from 295.51 to 290.53 with which I currently have zero problems, not even the "driver recovered error".

Lol no worries mate. Aye I also had the memory leak issue with the 295.51 and submitted TDR reports to manualG at nvidia due to them plus numerous other bugs I've encountered or heard of from other users.

machinist · 22 Feb 2012 at 08:14

Finally, it's out! 295.73 WHQL driver now available

James J · 22 Feb 2012 at 10:24

Good drivers as well, well worth a look

craarc · 23 Feb 2012 at 15:46

i always check on guru3d for drivers they have just about every release and modded gpu driver on there