Nvidia: Inferior Open GL filtering quality despite of HQ driver setting

[Fr3ak]

According to current investigations from PCGH, Nvidia's drivers don't always render what you expect them to do. We compared older and brand-new drivers with a Geforce 7 and 8, using Windows XP x86, Vista x86 and x64.

The Control Panel allows the user to disable all the "optimizations” concerning the anisotropic filter - but now it's obvious that these options only affect Direct 3D and not Open GL. Disabling the "optimizations” and setting "High Quality” still results in shimmering textures in our tested games (American McGee's Alice and Prey). The Riva Tuner shows why: the OGL filtering restrictions are still active.

You will find more information in the article which is in English, btw. We have animated Gifs and detailed pics to show the differences in picture quality.

Source (english):
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?article_id=626622

have a look at the pictures:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?menu=...=753713&page=1
("nächstes Bild" means next picture, clicking on the picture will enlarge it)

[w0mbat]

Yeah, nVidia is the home of driver cheating. What should we expect? They wont stop cause many users just dont care.

[Kayin]

Hey, if it wins a benchmark, who cares? Why else are they paying people off to limit the number of SPs a newer game uses? If they had such a superior product it just wouldn't matter.

nVidia: The Way It's Meant To Have Cash Thrown At It Till You Can Get A Good Score On Subpar Hardware.

[STaRGaZeR]

Something that some of us well know, and some others know it but don't want to admit it. Just another confirmation.

[Thund3rb1rd]

since when has geforce cards ever been good at openGL? (aside from any softmoding)
same with radeon for that matter
want good openGL, get a quadro or fireGL

[Kayin]

Actually, nVidia used to be the go-to for OpenGL. It's only with the advent of Vista and no OpenGL in Windows that it's changed. That's what makes this even funnier.

[quadnad]

Yeah, nVidia is the home of driver cheating. What should we expect? They wont stop cause many users just dont care.

So we'll all pretend that Quack (or any of the others) never happened? C'mon, both companies cheat like it's their job. Nobody is innocent.

[Krizby87]

Nvidia probably forgot about those Games and OpenGL to concentrated on DX10. How about comparing IQ on current titles and stop nit-picking at ancient games -_- ?

[Kayin]

Because I still play some of those games?

Or because my ATi card has no issues with any of them? Both of those would be valid reasons. rather be with an honest (for the moment) loser than a cheating winner. That and I like low power consumption.

[Eastcoasthandle]

Reminds me of another recent issue brought to light with their drivers. Trend anyone?

I applaud some reviewers for returning back to what should have never left, IQ. Something has always been wrong when reviewers said IQ was the same when others said it was not. Now you are beginning to see they were right after all!

[G80]

Standard looks better, manual treatment looks washed out

[Cooper]

I see no shimmering in CS 1.6 with HQ on NV compared to crappy IQ on quality settings

[Cybercat]

Reminds me of another recent issue brought to light with their drivers. Trend anyone?

I applaud some reviewers for returning back to what should have never left, IQ. Something has always been wrong when reviewers said IQ was the same when others said it was not. Now you are beginning to see they were right after all!

What trend? That link you posted was a bug that was promptly fixed.

As for this, as someone else pointed out this does affect older games that few people actually play. It could also be a bug, as NVIDIA has more than enough texture filtering capability to drive high quality without a performance hit, but will people around here apply rational thought to it? No, because it's much less exciting and dramatic that way.

Way to jump to conclusions as always, guys.

[realsmasher]

So what's new about this ?

They've allready done it in good old fight with 3dfx 8 years ago.

IQ compares are just not really present in todays reviews, otherwise this would be usual and no news about stuff everyone knows would appear.

[Krizby87]

The fact that forceware 93.71 is free of this issue means that this's probably a bug anyways

[Danylo]

Intel did it with MHz, nVidia does it with fps.

People like numbers.

[3NZ0]

Intel did it with MHz, nVidia does it with fps.

People like numbers.

Intel's netburst architecture was built to clock high, people just happen to think that higher numbers = better.

[weeds]

I say B.S. Thats not happening for me with 8800 GT or 7950GX2 and Forceware 169.21 WHQL XP.

1.)CP set to Quality.______2.)CP set to High Quality.


Just for 's and giggles, low resolution and same spot as their gif here:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?menu=...mage_id=753895

1.)CP set to Quality.______2.)CP set to High Quality.


Even setting the CP to High Performance doesnt show any moire effect.
I tried lots of settings and couldnt get anywhere near the results they show.
Maybe its time for DriverCleaner at PCGH.

[Zytek_Fan]

NVIDIA's The Way It's Meant To Be Played program has raised some questions before, so it's not like it's anything new...

[saaya]

American McGee's Alice

mhhh i love that game

its stupid though, isnt it?
most games arent opengl so whats the point?
and in opengl they tend to be faster than ati cards cause ati never really cared about opengl until recently... so why cheat to get 2% extra when your already 20%+ in the lead?

[NH|Delph1]

mhhh i love that game

its stupid though, isnt it?

Alice rules

On topic: Seems like a bug, more or less, to me.

//Andreas

[Krizby87]

Forgot I still have prey on my computer lol, and like weeds said, I found no moire pattern like in the screen shots in the article, I'm using FW 169.21 btw.

[Cybercat]

I say B.S. Thats not happening for me with 8800 GT or 7950GX2 and Forceware 169.21 WHQL XP.

1.)CP set to Quality.______2.)CP set to High Quality.
http://thumbnails.keepmyfile.com/42/...6079278a79.gif
http://thumbnails.keepmyfile.com/42/...60817432fd.gif

Just for 's and giggles, low resolution and same spot as their gif here:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?menu=...mage_id=753895

1.)CP set to Quality.______2.)CP set to High Quality.
http://thumbnails.keepmyfile.com/42/...6003bab664.gif
http://thumbnails.keepmyfile.com/42/...6012fa2970.gif

Even setting the CP to High Performance doesnt show any moire effect.
I tried lots of settings and couldnt get anywhere near the results they show.
Maybe its time for DriverCleaner at PCGH.

Once again this issue is laid to rest before it can even pick up.

Chalk it up to another Europian website with a vendetta against NVIDIA.

[Fr3ak]

lmao

2 weeks ago I was accused to be a Nvidia fanboy, because the Nvidia cards I tested were better overclockers than the HD38x0 cards and now it's a "vandetta against Nvidia"? I did not do this test by myself, but I believe in what my collegues test. There is no reason why we should fake any benchmarks or pictures.

It might be a bug or just occurs on certain hardware configurations.

[Eastcoasthandle]

Once again this issue is laid to rest before it can even pick up.

Chalk it up to another Europian website with a vendetta against NVIDIA.

How is this put to rest when the pics are exactly 988.55k (1012272 bytes)? If anything it can be said those are 2 of the same pics using:
-another driver (beta perhaps)
-some third party fix as mentioned in the article.

In reality we have no way to verify what drives were used in those pics by weeds. Therefore, you jump to conclusions as all reviewers should examine IQ under a microscope.