New Nvidia 185.85 WHQL drivers released...

[Biker]

Get them here:

Windows XP x86

Windows XP x64

Vista x86

Vista x64

Windows 7 x86

Windows 7 x64

[mikeyakame]

I've just installed the Win 7 x64 driver, and so far so good. GPU downclocking on G200 still works as per 185.81, so NV don't seem to have broken that again

WinSAT Graphics/Gaming Grahics are up 0.1 as well. 6.5->6.6 on my GTX 280.

Only games I'm playing are The Last Remnant and Xmen Origins: Wolverine at the moment, and these both play fine so can't offer much about game performance!

[Biker]

Tested briefly on Win XP x86...

So far so good as well

Initial impression is that Nvidia Control Panel is more sluggish than 182.50 whql.... can't really compare to 185.68 beta as they would never install properly and even messed up my desktop resolution (could not change res from default)...

...and now for some gaming...

Edit 1: Much improved scrolling on the Campaign map in Empire: Total War (still buggy as hell with useless AI, before you ask )

Edit 2: Crysis Warhead is giving playable framerates (25+) @ 1920 x 1200 with 4x AA ...an improvement.

Edit 3: GTA IV is working well and a couple of buggy textures are no longer glitching...

[Bo_Fox]

What about ambient occlusion? Is it "awesome"?

[Sly Fox]

What about ambient occlusion? Is it "awesome"?

Wondering the same thing. It worked well in Crysis, but I'm skeptical of just enabling it in games it wasn't designed for.

[Biker]

What about ambient occlusion? Is it "awesome"?

No idea.... i'm on XP

[Warboy]

I'll install it soon, I've been running 185.81 and been playing Fallout 3 Broken Steel.

[dan7777]

just installed drivers and i can see 2-3 fps in crysis wars and yes ambient occlusion is awsome confirmed.

[Zaskar]

just installed drivers and i can see 2-3 fps in crysis wars and yes ambient occlusion is awsome confirmed.

Did you enable it in the games individual nvidia profile or in the nvidia global settings? Im finding that the individual settings area isnt working properly in Win 7 with these drivers (games that are supported arent detected, so if you try to add a game that is "supported" it chooses that pre designed profile, then after closing disables)

[stasio]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=211130

[Biker]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=211130

Yes yes yes. I am well aware of that, but I thought that the first released WHQL Windows 7 Nvidia driver was kind of news worthy... if it needs to be moved, it will, eventually.

[Xello]

What's the deal with this Ambient Occlusion? Does anyone know of an article yet with some in depth analysis on the potential benefits and performance hits?

I also just noticed an added "SLI64xQ" AA mode, this is going to interesting

[deathman20]

I've just installed the Win 7 x64 driver, and so far so good. GPU downclocking on G200 still works as per 185.81, so NV don't seem to have broken that again

Ooooh a fix Running on 185.81's currently and still have the downclocking issue. Hopefully this will fix it.

[safan80]

These drivers still run both my gpus at full 3d speed (in my case 666) when playing media files under vista x64 reguardless of player or viodeo format. Xp x64 does not do this though.

[Peakr]

Nice improvements in Riddick - Assault on dark athena. Vista64.

[Winzeler]

These drivers make my screen shake when I'm flashed or partially flashed in Counter Strike - Source.

[Sr7]

What's the deal with this Ambient Occlusion? Does anyone know of an article yet with some in depth analysis on the potential benefits and performance hits?

I also just noticed an added "SLI64xQ" AA mode, this is going to interesting

Demo comparison screenshots in a few games:
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_am...sion_home.html

Siggraph presentation:
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/s...2008-HBAO.html

DX Sample:
http://developer.download.nvidia.com...#ScreenSpaceAO

They went from having low, medium, high options in the control panel to just on or off in recent drivers :\

[PurpleMonkey910]

Im having trouble installing on windows 7, when i uinstall the old drivers & reboot windows uses wddm & then i have to reboot again, then install these drivers none of my games run?

Drivers work fine on my Vista HDD though

[tool_462]

Well I was getting BSOD's with 185.81 in Win 7 on GTX 275 but 185.85 only gives me "Your display driver stopped working" and crashes whatever game I am playing at the time, so I guess thats a "fix" of some kind

[cx-ray]

On my system right clicking the desktop to bring up the menu takes almost 3 secs now and another 4 secs to launch the Nvidia control panel. Even though I don't do it that often this is completely unacceptable for a 4.2Ghz i7, X25-M SSD, GTX280 SLI system on Vista 64. The latest beta 185.81 showed no such behavior...although right clicking the desktop still took about 1 sec to bring up the menu.

Anyone else experiencing the same?

[Jaco]

On my system right clicking the desktop to bring up the menu takes almost 3 secs now and another 4 secs to launch the Nvidia control panel. Even though I don't do it that often this is completely unacceptable for a 4.2Ghz i7, X25-M SSD, GTX280 SLI system on Vista 64. The latest beta 185.81 showed no such behavior...although right clicking the desktop still took about 1 sec to bring up the menu.

Anyone else experiencing the same?

right clicking the desktop to bring up the menu goes instantly here.
Launching the nvidia control panel takes about 4 seconds , yes.
(3.8Ghz i7 , GTX260 , Vista64 , 185.85)

[randomizer]

I'm still on 180.84. The world is passing me by I swear.

[GeorgeStorm]

Well, Both right clicking and the control panel are almost instant for me. Switched last night to these drivers.
And im only on a 3.57 e7300, :p

[Xello]

On my system right clicking the desktop to bring up the menu takes almost 3 secs now

These drivers make my screen shake when I'm flashed or partially flashed in Counter Strike - Source.

Suffering from both of these issues also. [edit] - CSS flash bang shakes fixed by switching to single-gpu mode.

[B]Demo comparison screenshots in a few games[/url]

Yeah i found that stuff, the Wow screen is the most impressive, definitely seems more vibrant. I found some posts on another forum though of people claiming 150fps > 50fps drops on Cod4, and something similar on CSS, which obviously isn't tolerable.

So far for me though i don't seem to be getting any performance hits, and in FO3 this option seems to get a tighter grip on the sky box's HDR, an improvement for sure, i reckon i'll have the AO on by default.

[cx-ray]

Just found the below on the Guru3D forum for the menu lag. I haven't tried it yet myself though.

Originally Posted by HeavyHemi
I just found this fix over on the EVGA forums. As always back up your registry before doing any modification. I performed this myself on Vista 64 Ult and it worked perfectly to eliminate context menu delay. What I did was first delete the context key then create the command key. No reboot required to test.

Navigate to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex

Delete: NvCplDesktopContext key and all is good, now right click is fast as ever. If you need the Nvidia Controle Panale

all you have to do is select it from Programs and Features.

Ok now the fun part; for all of you who want the context menu this is how you add it back without the delay:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

then Right click on Shell and add new Key: Name that key Nvidia Control Panel

Then Right Click on that new Key and add a new Key: Name this Key Command

Then with the new key Command selected in the right hand pane double click the Default Value Key and type:

c:\windows\system32\nvcplui.exe

This will fix your Context issue....

This is how the key will look: (By the way you can copy all of that out and past in a text document and rename to .reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Nvidi a Control Panel]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Nvidi a Control Panel\Command]
@="c:\\windows\\system32\\nvcplui.exe"