{"id":4929,"date":"2009-04-10T02:31:51","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T02:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=4929"},"modified":"2009-04-10T02:31:51","modified_gmt":"2009-04-10T02:31:51","slug":"nvidia-18250-driver-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/nvidia-18250-driver-test\/","title":{"rendered":"nVidia 182.50 Driver Test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--pagetitle:Introduction & Setup--><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Introduction<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>With the release of the GTX275, nVidia has also released a new official driver, version 182.50. The release notes state \u201coptimized single GPU and SLI support for upcoming PC games\u201d and \u201cnumerous bug fixes\u201d. I can only guess <em>Chronicles of Riddick Dark Athena<\/em> is possibly one such title.<\/p>\n<p>So then, this article will be an exact copy of <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=4612\" target=\"_blank\">my last article<\/a> except I\u2019ll recycle the 182.08 results and compare them to the new 182.50 driver.<\/p>\n<p>As usual, the charts are color coded for your convenience: <span style=\"color: #ccffcc;\">green<\/span> means the 182.08 driver is faster, while <span style=\"color: #ffff99;\">yellow<\/span> means 182.50 is faster. Also <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">MS<\/span> is transparency multi-sampling while <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">SS<\/span> is transparency super-sampling. For more information about this, please <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=3188&amp;page=3\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Hardware<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (reference 3 GHz clock). <\/li>\n<li>nVidia GeForce GTX260+ (896 MB, nVidia reference clocks). <\/li>\n<li>4 GB DDR2-800 RAM (4\u00d71 GB, dual-channel). <\/li>\n<li>Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R (Intel G33 chipset, F7 BIOS). <\/li>\n<li>Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Software <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Windows XP 32 bit SP3<\/li>\n<li>nVidia Forceware 182.08 &amp; 182.50, high quality filtering, all optimizations off, LOD clamp enabled. <\/li>\n<li>DirectX November 2008. <\/li>\n<li>All games patched to their latest versions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Settings <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>16xAF forced in the driver, vsync forced off in the driver. <\/li>\n<li>AA forced either through the driver or enabled in-game, whichever works better. <\/li>\n<li>Since I\u2019m on XP, all DX10 titles were run under DX9 render paths. <\/li>\n<li>Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games. <\/li>\n<li>All results show an average framerate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Direct3D (0xAA & 2xAA)--><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><\/span><\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Direct3D (0xAA &amp; 2xAA)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>The first set of benchmarks requires reduced AA levels in order to keep performance at acceptable levels on my GTX260+.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4931 aligncenter\" title=\"chart-d3d-0xaa-2xaa\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/chart-d3d-0xaa-2xaa.png?resize=304%2C255\" alt=\"chart-d3d-0xaa-2xaa\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/chart-d3d-0xaa-2xaa.png 304w, https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/chart-d3d-0xaa-2xaa-300x251.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4934\" title=\"graph-d3d-0xaa-2xaa\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-d3d-0xaa-2xaa.png?resize=635%2C461\" alt=\"graph-d3d-0xaa-2xaa\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-d3d-0xaa-2xaa.png 635w, https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-d3d-0xaa-2xaa-300x217.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Far Cry 2<\/em> and <em>Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl<\/em> experience a small performance drop, while <em>Clive Barker\u2019s Jericho<\/em> is slightly faster with the new driver. The other games are within the margin of error.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Direct3D (4xAA)--><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Direct3D (4xAA)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The next benchmarks consist of slightly less demanding Direct3D titles, and hence can be run at 4xAA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4932\" title=\"chart-d3d-4xaa\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/chart-d3d-4xaa.png?resize=263%2C186\" alt=\"chart-d3d-4xaa\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4935\" title=\"graph-d3d-4xaa\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-d3d-4xaa.png?resize=637%2C373\" alt=\"graph-d3d-4xaa\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-d3d-4xaa.png 637w, https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-d3d-4xaa-300x175.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Aside from <em>Call of Duty 4<\/em> being a tad faster, all tested scenarios fall within the margin of error.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:OpenGL--><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">OpenGL<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lastly I\u2019ll check to see if nVidia\u2019s 8xMSAA performance has improved in OpenGL.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4933\" title=\"chart-ogl\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/chart-ogl.png?resize=325%2C221\" alt=\"chart-ogl\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/chart-ogl.png 325w, https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/chart-ogl-300x204.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4936\" title=\"graph-ogl\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-ogl.png?resize=635%2C403\" alt=\"graph-ogl\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-ogl.png 635w, https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/graph-ogl-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sadly it appears the lackluster performance compared to ATi hardware in <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=1261&amp;page=6\" target=\"_blank\">OpenGL with 8xMSAA<\/a> continues.<\/p>\n<p>Note that <em>Chronicles of Riddick<\/em> is the original <em>Escape from Butcher Bay<\/em> game. Be sure to keep checking our main page for an upcoming review of the next installment in the series, <em>Assault on Dark Athena<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Conclusion--><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Conclusion<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Based on the 14 games I tested today, the performance of the two drivers is basically identical. It\u2019s probably still worthwhile upgrading to 182.50 if you\u2019re planning to play any titles being released in the near future.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Please join us in our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/abt\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Forums<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech', 'Twitter']);\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the latest updates from ABT, please <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?feed=rss2\" target=\"_blank\">join our RSS News Feed<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=4929\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=top title=\"Author: BFG10K\" src=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/article-image.png\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7814,7],"tags":[553,647,281,121],"class_list":["post-4929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-technology","tag-553","tag-647","tag-281","tag-nvidia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}