New Official Drivers! 71.89whql

Get 'em while their hot!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_71.89.html

Most notable in this release is SLi overclocking and lower idle temperatures compared to previous ForceWare drivers. The driver package weighs in at just under 20MB so grab them if you need them. Here are the release highlights:
Support for the GeForce 6200 with TurboCache™, NVIDIA PureVideo™, and NVIDIA SLI™. Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 1.5 support. Resolved problem with overclocking not working when running GPUs in SLI mode.

For the more adventurous a new set of beta drivers was also released recently, the 76.44 WHQL.

Just DL'd these and my idle temps didn't change at all. Still 55C. Oh well, it's nice to have the latest drivers anyway.

I just installed them as well, but I am a bit busy and need to read the release notes later.

futuremark approved!!

Just DLed these. I'll post my benchmark scores after I run some 3DMark, PCMark, and Aquamark tests. I hope they're better than the .84 drivers, which tended to make the screen go black in Doom 3, but leave the game still playing.

i hope you have better luck with those drivers than i have they dropped my aqua scores by 10,000 points 3dmark by 4,000 i went back to the 66.93 they seem to work the best.

Thanks Mate,

Dl'ed them as we speak

i got a stupid bug after i installed.. though i loved how the idle temps went down...

the bug is..

just randomly every hour or so,, the screen reset back to 640-480 and 4 bit color,,, and i have to restart the pc to make it back,,,, just went back to 71.84

Idle temps went from 68C to 56C

Alright. I ran some benchmarks and filled out one of my reference papers for benchmarking (PM me if you'd like the excel sheet). Here's what I received (with the video card overclocked to 415/1050 and the CPU at 2205):

3DMark 2000 -- 18,634 (went down 3320 pts.)
3DMark 2001 -- 20,700 (went up 87 pts.)
3DMark 2003 -- 12,623 (went up 1197 pts.)
3DMark 2005 -- 5445 (went up 657 pts.)

PCMark 2004 (Graphics) -- 7433

Aquamark3 -- 64,833 (went up 894 pts.)


I, like others also noticed a temperature difference. From 65 idle to 54 idle.

Also, in Doom 3 the 71.84 drivers tended to make the screen "power on then off" as if it were changing resolutions, but would never go back to showing the game. However, the game would continue to play; you could still hit escape and access the menu and walk around, use weapons, etc. These new 71.89 drivers seem to have fixed this issue.

~C.P.

lowered my idle temps from 56c to 51c. 3dmark03 went from 14109 to 14119

The results have been good, though if you guys want more power I suggest you try out the latest betas, as they carry the same temp fixes plus another 1-2% performance!

I loaded the new Nvidia ForceWare Driver 71.89 over the weekend. All my games worked OK (Doom3, Unreal Tournament and Farcry) but I found a major problem. My short video's clips in .wma format had little red sparks during playback. Now this really sucks. I re-installed Forceware Driver 67.66 and the .wma videos were perfect. I will pass the info along to Nvidia. Would someone else please verify this on their PC. See if your .wma video's have little red sparks using 71.89.

Thanks
Dan Spears
Atlanta, Ga.

Intel Pentium 4 3.0C GHz Northwood (Overclock 3.3 GHz)
Asus P4C800 Deluxe (Bio’s 1016)
Corsair 1 GB XMS PC-3500C2 Platinum (2/512 MB) @ 2-3-3-6
eVGA GeForce 6800 GT (Overclock 400/1100) (Forceware 67.66)
Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Gamer
2 Western Digital 120 GB (7,200 RPM / 8 MB Cache)
Antec True Power 550 Watts
CD-R Burner – Lite-On 52x24x52x LTR-52246 (Black)
DVD Burner – Pioneer 16x DVR-108 Dual Layer (Black)
Swiftech MCX-4000B Heatsink with Thermaltake Smart Fan II @4600 RPM
Chieftec Black Dragon Tower Case (Clear Plastic Window w/80 mm Antec)
Antec Blue LED Case Fans (4/80 mm) (Front 2 input & Rear 2 output)
Round Vantec 133 IDE Cables (Black)
Klipsch Promedia Ultra 5.1 Speakers
Sony 19” GDM-F400FD CRT Monitor (1024x768 32 bit)
Windows XP Pro SP2

I don't see the problem of the red sparks in WMV in the 10 videos I just watched. Are you overclocking? Are fastwrites enabled? And do you get these issues with MPEG or AVI videos as well, or just WMVs?

I have noticed that when I leave a game, the monitor brings up a "check connection" box, which is built into the monitor's firmware and comes up when there is no signal from the PC. It only flashes for a second or two, but it's like it's redetecting the monitor.

I used these drivers during my 9 hour LAN party last night and had no gameplay problems though.

i notice weird color artifacts in videos as well.

I'm not having the video problem. I didn't notice a decrease in idle temps either. They did however, fix a texture flash glitch in SWAT4, as well as finally allowed me to overclock in SLI.

I like these drivers alot. They seem to have better gameplay for me than older drivers, even better than my long time favorite 66.93. I have yet to run 3dmark03 or 3dmark05 but the scores aren't important to me anymore, I already got 11k+ with my 6800nu with no pipes unlocked so . Also MY temps are about 10°C which is nice.

hmm.....havnt noticed any changes here with the new drivers....

games seem to play the same and my temps are still at 55°C....no change...

i have yet to do any bench tests though so maybe i'll see an improvement there....

No problem here I have to say my score's in 2001 went down alittle tho.

my scores went up like 15 pts is 03 with my cpu at 2.3 i will bump it up to 2.4 and run them again and see what i get...