Why do newer drivers not work on 7950AGP?

[migwell]

Beyond the drivers supplied with this card, which I bought and installed in May, I have not been able to get ANY updated driver to work properly. I got the card so that I could play the latest games, with the latest drivers optimized for those games.

I realize that for a long time there was a problem with nVidia drivers recognizing the card and went through a period of altering files to get the card recognized. Never got any performance boost, however, only a drop.

Now we have the new 163.71 drivers, which actually recognize the card. These I went through the bother of getting direct from the XFX site where they are promoted as the latest drivers for my card. Result? The same, a significant DROP in performance.

What kind of drop? UT3 demo doing a fly-by on the Shangri-la map with the stock 93.82 drivers I get 34 to 62 fps. Same settings with the new drivers I get 15 to 48 fps.

Fear performance test: 93.82 average fps=62 163.71 average fps (identical settings)=46

Aquamark test: 93.82= 66,000 marks 163.71= 31,000marks!!!

I assumed that after the passage of so many months, this issue would be addressed and fixed by the manufacturer of this card. What is the problem? These driver updates are optimized for the latest games, but we cannot use them!

[Deadman93723]

I am currently using XG 163.71 in XP and the performance is the same as XG 92.91. In BioShock I actually get better performance with the newer drivers.

Now Vista still doesn't work with newer drivers.

[Miker]

http://rapidshare.com/files/58735221/162.zip.html

These are the drives I use with my 7950GT AGP. Old ones off the XFX Site. Give them a try.

[migwell]

Deadman, got any kind of comparable benchmark on those drivers? If they work properly for you, got any clue as to why they don't work for me?

Miker, which drivers are those? I have downloaded so many by now that I probably have them. Got any comparable benchmarks on them (3DMark, ingame, whatever)

I'm running an A64 3200 with 1gb ram. WinXP.

[Miker]

162.18_XP32_forceware of off the XFX Site.
They are the only drivers for me that display the water in FryCry right. Any other driver I tried I had odd display problems sometimes in many games.

[Deadman93723]

Deadman, got any kind of comparable benchmark on those drivers? If they work properly for you, got any clue as to why they don't work for me?

Miker, which drivers are those? I have downloaded so many by now that I probably have them. Got any comparable benchmarks on them (3DMark, ingame, whatever)

I'm running an A64 3200 with 1gb ram. WinXP.

With XG 92.91 I get 6138 in 3dmark06, with XG 163.71 I get 6056. It's a little bit of a loss but nothing that is actually noticable.

BTW: my 7950GT AGP is overclocked to 630/1600, and mt C2D E4500 is running at 3.0Ghz

[xfxsupport]

I will have one of the support staff try the different drivers to see if we also get a performance drop or not. I will keep you all posted.

[migwell]

I'm still going around in circles on this one, and I don't really see anyone having the same problem that i am having.

I do realize that even if I were able to get a newer driver to work properly, I probably wouldn't see any performance boost but rather a small decline in general. But it is driving me nutty that no matter what newer driver I try, my performance drops by 50%.

Miker, I did try the 162.18 drivers... same results as above with the 163.71's. Also, I'm not getting the control panel with newer drivers, but this seems to be pretty common. Riva Tuner indicates that I'm missing 'nview.dll, nvshell.dll and nvwdmcpl.dll' or at least it can't find them, but these .dll's are in the correct folder.

I can use the drivers numbered in the nineties though.

[Miker]

This is a DX9 card remember... no real need to use new drives.

[migwell]

Supposedly the newer drivers are optimized for Bioshock, Unreal Tournament 3 and so on. Would be nice to enjoy those benefits.

[Miker]

I play BioShock with no problems...

[migwell]

Are you just posting to get your post count up? Thanks for the 'help'.

[A-L-E-X]

Tweakforce has new XG Forceware drivers out. Anyone test these? I just d/l 163.75 and 163.76. I also d/l nvidia forceware 163.76 BETA from the nvidia site. Anyone perform any benches with these and the 7950GT AGP? Any results will be welcomed! :)

With XG 92.91 I get 6138 in 3dmark06, with XG 163.71 I get 6056. It's a little bit of a loss but nothing that is actually noticable.

BTW: my 7950GT AGP is overclocked to 630/1600, and mt C2D E4500 is running at 3.0Ghz

[A-L-E-X]

Downloads going quite fast on nvidia's site tonight... set a new single d/l record on my 30/5 connection... 2.33 megaBYTES per sec average with a maximum of 2.93... wow!

[migwell]

So, no word on why the newer drivers do not provide any better performance?