Video driver ?'s

[Politically Incorrect]

I have been using a GeForce 5200 for a few months and have been pleased, with Extreme Landscapes scenery package add-on and almost everything maxed out I'm still hitting a average of 32 FPS.
I'm using the 53.04 drivers which work great, but just tried to use the Omega 53.03, and the Nivida  60.72.
both crashed my system! Install them and reboot to the "blue screen of death"! And when I would get it to start up, in FS9 there was no improvement using either! Drop in frame rates and image quality! Flickering screen, moving icons on the desktop (literally moving them from one place to another) just plane awefull.

Seems the only drivers that work without crashing the computer, offerng excellent frame rates and image quality are the 53.04???
I did un-install the drivers, used Driver Cleaner 3.1 and made sure all traces of previous drivers were gone before installing.
Has anyone else had any difficulties updating thier drivers in the 5200? If so how did you go about doing it?
And which do you recommend trying?

For now I think I'll stick with what is obviously the best driver yet, Don't see the point in upgrading to a new "number" since that is all you get  :'(  

[congo]

It's known that certain system configurations seem to be happy with certain drivers. If you are getting good results, stick with it.

Driver upgrades, with a few exceptions, have very little effect in the overall performance of your PC.

A one or two percent increase is a help, but you won't notice it, and typically that's all you gain with a successful driver upgrade. And then there are the un-successful ones.................

There is hardly any difference between ALL the drivers when you view a performance chart of the test results. This could vary on a particular machine though.

As far as the blue screens and such, well, something really didn't agree with your system, and it may well be, without trashing the software, Driver Cleaner. It DOES remove files and especially if you use the .dll cleaner that is part of it. I only use Driver Cleaner now if I have probs. I had the blue screen thing after using it once.

Your icons get moved because they don't fit on the screen when the new driver boots up into a different screen resolution , that's all.

Your frame rates are too high for that card, which suggests that you haven't got your quality settings up high enough either in the game, (but you say it's all maxed out!) or more likely in the driver settings themselves.

You'll find that you can increase image quality further, which may enhance your FS experience. Start backing off the settings if the FPS gets dodgy. (that's really a personal preference thing)

I'd like to know what screen resolution you run the game in, and what  anti-aliasing and Anisotropic filtering settings you have set in your driver settings. The reason is that I hear a lot of fantastic claims about the nv5200 cards that just don't add up. (they simply are not a powerful card!)

Maybe the Extreme Landscapes scenery is boosting performance, I'm not familiar with it.

[Iroquois]

32fps is good for FS. Remember that cinema movies run at only 16-20fps and TV programs and DVD movies run at 30fps.

They say that the FX5200 isn't very good. Remember that it's on par with a TI4600. Not eveyone can afford a FX5950 or a Radeon 9800. The FX5200 is a rock stable low cost card that still offers decent preformance.

An important thing to remeber is how FS works. It draws more on CPU and system ram more than anything else. It takes a lot of complex mathamatical calculations to simulate an aircraft in flight.

When it comes to drivers, use what ever works best. I'm using 61.12 with DirectX 9.0c. 60.86 WHQL have been released at Guru3d as well. nVidia will probably be posting these up themselves soon.

Congo is right about the frame rate settings being too high. I have mine locked at 25fps. I get smooth preformace most of the time except at busy airports or area with high quality scenery.

[congo]

The FX5200 is not on par with the GF4 TI4600, it falls well short of any GF4 TI card, and is roughly half the card that the TI4600 is.

On my rig, my TI4200 scores 12,000 3d marks and the FX5200 scores 7000 3d marks, same settings.

The FX5200 replaced the GF4 MX440's ...... not the GF4 TI series!

[Politically Incorrect]

I'd like to know what screen resolution you run the game in, and what  anti-aliasing and Anisotropic filtering settings you have set in your driver settings. The reason is that I hear a lot of fantastic claims about the nv5200 cards that just don't add up. (they simply are not a powerful card!)

Maybe the Extreme Landscapes scenery is boosting performance, I'm not familiar with it.

Screen resolution set at 1024x768,
Antialiasing (set in card setting) 2xQ
Antiscopic (set in card) 2x

Extreme Landscapes is made by Abacus it covers the whole US, takes 2gb for a full install, but the scenery is amazing! It also comes with a Piper Dakota and some pre-planed flights, bought it through PC Aviator. Great stuff! I'll go and take some screenshots and post them in the "Freeware Screenshots forum" to show you what the 5200 w/5304 drivers, and the B-25J Mitchell Briefing Time looks like  ;)

edit: Posted shots in "Payware" made sense since the scenery and aircraft are payware, DUH!  ;D

[congo]

Thanks fretnstuff,

Is there any reason you use 2xquin rather than a 4x AA?

I found if the anisotropic filtering is set higher the blurriness goes away a lot, especially in distant scenery.
FPS takes a hit though, but it can be a worthwhile tradeoff if the rig will handle it.

Briefing time isn't exactly FPS friendly either!  

[RAAF_Tony]

On your last post Congo you talk about AA and AF.  I have a FX5900XT running the latest Omega drivers.  The AA and AF are both set as 'application controlled'    should I tinker.  Locked my fps at 32.  At high needs times I sometimes drop to 9 or 10fps.

Also I have two sticks of 512MB  DDR PC2100 DIMM CL 2.5 RAM.  Is this RAM old or OK?  I only run a 2Gig P4.  I can only get 4X AGP.

[Politically Incorrect]

Thanks fretnstuff,

Is there any reason you use 2xquin rather than a 4x AA?

I found if the anisotropic filtering is set higher the blurriness goes away a lot, especially in distant scenery.
FPS takes a hit though, but it can be a worthwhile tradeoff if the rig will handle it.

Briefing time isn't exactly FPS friendly either!  

Those settings I have been playing with, seems at times when I have it set at 4X it makes bad flickering when opening and closing windows, but doesn't seem to flicker when flying just going from one window to another???
Which is the reason I been wanting to try different drivers, but have now been discourage do to the hassel and crashing