Best Drivers?

[birdie]

Anyone have a 6600GT AGP video card and if so what are the best drivers that you have found that work the best?  Thanks!

[congo]

81.85 whql works fine

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.85.html

[birdie]

Thanks!

[birdie]

The driver works for everything but when I try to watch a video with media player my computer re-boots.... I tried a couple other drivers and the same thing.  The only way to fix it is to install the original driver that came on a cd with the card I think they were the 66.81

[congo]

That's odd. I wonder if it's your version of media player.

Have you got any other DVD software to use?

Edit: Sorry, you said video..........

[Robban_Sweden]

Congo, don't you have any stuttering problems?

I have the same graphics card and the same driver but I have stuttering problems and it's so d...n annoying!

Even if I have framerates at well over 40 it stutters when I make a turn or something like that.

My specs is 3.0 GHz, 1.24 GB RAM and 160 gig harddrive.

Update: I have noticed another problem with this new driver. I have tons of flickering that I didin't have before with the same settings.
I have to reduce mip mapping quality to about 4 to get rid of it.
Before I had it at maximum and graphics quality in the graphics cards own setting at "good quality" and then the flickering would hardly be recognized, but that doesn't work anymore.
I really hate this some times.

[congo]

I didn't notice stuttering but I did actually notice the flicker and reduced the mip mapping to 4, I didn't think about the driver causing this problem, as I had been fiddling with my graphics settings, but you may be right!

Stutters in sharp turns have always been evident on every card I've ever had in FS9, nothing new here for me anyway.

[Robban_Sweden]

Installed the new 81.95 driver but it makes no differens.
It flickers like he...ll over 4 in mip mapping quality.
I guess I have to options; either to go back to an older driver again or to stick with 4 in mip mapping.
It's to bad because I like the illusion of distance that comes with high mip mapping quality...

It's just to bad that the FS 2004 is this heavy to run smooth, because it's just so realistic if you max all settings.
But if you do that and fly over New York or something it will get down to under 20 in framerate (in my case), and that kind of ruins the whole experience, don't you think?

[Fozzer]

It's a funny old do....
...but I've generally found that after trying various driver versions, the most reliable drivers are those than came on my Graphics Card original installation C.D..... ...!

Some of the later versions from nVidia often gave peculiar effects... ...!

Up grading to the latest versions of Direct X (DX 9c) always seemed the best option to improve the graphics.

Paul......!

[Robban_Sweden]

I did just that.
Installed the driver that came with the graphics card and *BAM*, the flickering stuff is back to what it was before. Now I can have higher mip mapping quality again without getting hypnotized or brainwashed looking at the surroundings  :)

I always thought that newer drivers would improve the graphics, but looking back now it haven't done that at all.

I seem to have learned my lesson...  :)

Now I'm joining the group that says that the original drivers are often the best.  :)

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]I did just that.
Installed the driver that came with the graphics card and *BAM*, the flickering stuff is back to what it was before. Now I can have higher mip mapping quality again without getting hypnotized or brainwashed looking at the surroundings

[congo]

[quote]Now I can have higher mip mapping quality again without getting hypnotized or brainwashed looking at the surroundings

[Robban_Sweden]

Drivers can make or break a system. I always update to the latest and usually have no problems however from time to time there is a crappy driver release. I keep a copy of the latest driver that works the best on hand to revert back to and always remove/re-install the AGP driver when upgrading the video drivers.

As for FS2004 flickers... that is sometimes caused by the Mip quality level being set too high... a display setting of 4 is usually best and eliminates most flickering with any driver release. I run a ATI x800pro AIW and I never go over 4.

I know that's the case with the flickers, but I think it's to bad you can't have this setting higher because the overall experience of distance and surroundings is much better if the mip mapping quality is high.

But like all other settings in FS2004, it's a trade-off between good looking graphics and performance.