Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Nvidia GeForce 178.13 WHQL - Bugged?

Video Card Benchmark Test



I installed and did some video card benchmark tests with the Nvidia GeForce 178.13 WHQL drivers and while it performs fine in video card benchmark test results and doesn't detract from what the previous version offers, it doesn't bring anything new to the table either. Gameplay with F.E.A.R., like the Nvidia GeForce 177.92, is smooth but the framerates in my video card benchmark tests took some slight hits.

While the video card benchmark test results are fine though unremarkable, what bothers me is that with this version, Digital Vibrance can now only be set in 33% increments. This is a big thing as I usually set my Digital Vibrance to 4-9% --- any more than that and even the slightest bits of light brown in images become vibrant orange spots on my monitor.

The Image Sharpening slider has also been disabled.

This is the second time in three years that Nvidia has released a bugged WHQL GeForce driver. The video card benchmark test results are ok but these bugs really hurt this new Nvidia GeForce version badly.

UPDATE: I take back what I said about this driver being "unremarkable." I ran some games and hell, its IQ --- for a stock Nvidia driver --- is off the charts. With IQ like this, who cares about Digital Vibrance and Image Sharpening? It's a keeper! Now to see what magic Tweakforce can do on it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ei, one of the images there reminds me of Da....... Whoops. Almost broadcasted the name.

Ildamos said...

Nothing wrong with it. Yes, that's Daryl our friend. He used to work at Nvidia in the past life when the rest of the barkada were all cats.

See this post of mine regarding that pic and Daryl: http://imbacore.blogspot.com/2008/04/reunion.html