NVidia BFG 295 - Best Drivers?

[buchtis]

Morning all,

Just got a brand spanking new BFG 295 and i'm wondering which are the best drivers performance wise for it. I've seen the whole fiasco with the newest drivers killing cards so i'm a bit wary incase I manage to **** mine up.

Thanks.

 

[Fridge_Raider]

The previous release was 196.21, and those are the latest ones currently on the Nvidia driver downloads page (aside from beta drivers).

 

[buchtis]

Are they the best ones to get performance wise though? I heard the newer ones actually gave worse performance than some of the older ones.

 

[MonkeykingZX]

how much did you pay just out of curiosity?

 

[buchtis]

Didn't pay a penny. This is through the BFG RMA process where my old BFG 285 had overheating issues. They cocked up with the RMA for and I had to wait a week till it got sorted so as an apology they sent me a 295 instead.

 

[cmndr_andi]

When you say you "just got" the 295, does that mean it is still within the DSR return time? Or is it a replacement card?

Edit: Ah, replacement for a 285 - good job Gotta love BFG.

I would also stick with the 196.21 - they are the most recent, proper, non GPU-cooking drivers.

 

[Fridge_Raider]

I guess it depends what you're playing. The release notes indicated SLI and multi-GPU support for various stuff like Mass Effect 2 and Bad Company 2, which is what I've been playing. Unfortunately I can't say whether they improve or not as I'm normally an early adopter of drivers so had those on before the games were released (though luckily I managed to avoid the duff ones they put out by being busy).

 

[MonkeykingZX]

Didn't pay a penny. This is through the BFG RMA process where my old BFG 285 had overheating issues. They cocked up with the RMA for and I had to wait a week till it got sorted so as an apology they sent me a 295 instead.

nice enjoy your new card

 

[buchtis]

When you say you "just got" the 295, does that mean it is still within the DSR return time? Or is it a replacement card?

Edit: Ah, replacement for a 285 - good job Gotta love BFG.

I would also stick with the 196.21 - they are the most recent, proper, non GPU-cooking drivers.

DSR return time? Sorry I don't have a clue on what you're talking about. Basically they picked it up from me (285), cocked up the RMA for and sent me a 295 as a replacement.

@Monkey

Thanks, will do!

 

[Leeroy123]

i am still using the 196.75 driver, for the 295 its the best driver ive used yet. Although nvidia have took it off there site for now due to people saying it stopped there fans or some crap. Working great for me.

 

[sk3lph]

Same for me - 196.75 driver stopped the stuttering in AVP and BC2 also runs a lot smoother on my system so after making sure my temps were ok I'm also sticking with 196.75.

 

[lay-z-boy]

Try the latest driver from nv, if that fails, the 188 series drivers are very good.

 

[Rroff]

191.87 Quadro w/ inf mod and latest physx and SLI profile updates IMO.

 

[Kelt]

Someone here mentioned the 191.87 Quadro drivers, I put them on the other day, best drivers for me so far.

 

[Rroff]

Someone here mentioned the 191.87 Quadro drivers, I put them on the other day, best drivers for me so far.

Thats what I meant above (edited) I posting on my phone and got the number wrong heh.

 

[buchtis]

So should I download the 'Quadro' drivers then? Will they give me best performance? I'm also worried about some PB enabled games i.e COD 4, will I get any kicks for disallowed drivers or w/e it's called?

Thanks.

EDIT:

Just looking on NV's site, which Quadro driver do I download? Gives me this:

Product Series:

Product:

Not sure what to select there.

 

[Rroff]

The Quadro drivers are WHQL so should work with PB - I've not been kicked from any PB enabled servers while using them so far.

You will need to download an inf mod as well so the drivers recognise a GeForce card - by default they only work on nVidias "professional" series cards.

Theres a thread on these forums somewhere documenting how to install them.

 

[buchtis]

Think I just ruined my computer. Installed my 295, was working fine on COD4 maxed out at 1680x1050 and so was CS:S, however when I loaded Call Of Pripyat it started artifacting and locking up. I though i'd download Furmark and stress test it as I assumed it was my power supply which is a '900 watt' eBay job for about £60.

About 2 seconds into the Furmark test the computer switched itself off and now I can't get it to come back on. There wasn't any burning smells or anything like that.

 

[kylew]

Think I just ruined my computer. Installed my 295, was working fine on COD4 maxed out at 1680x1050 and so was CS:S, however when I loaded Call Of Pripyat it started artifacting and locking up. I though i'd download Furmark and stress test it as I assumed it was my power supply which is a '900 watt' eBay job for about £60.

About 2 seconds into the Furmark test the computer switched itself off and now I can't get it to come back on. There wasn't any burning smells or anything like that.

Lesson learnt, don't buy dodgy PSUs.

Not got another PC you can try your bits in?

 

[buchtis]

No mate. I unplugged the kettle lead at the back and plugged it back in and it's working now. Might be because I cocked up the settings in Furmark, but i'm running it now and have been over the last 10 minutes on a 1280x1080 resolution and it seems to be aOK. Any ideas why it's artifacting on COP and not COD4/CSS?