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258.96 NVIDIA Drivers better than all newer versions?

post #1 of 11
2/25/12 at 2:53pm
Thread Starter 
I'm running a Win7 Acer Revo 3610 (ION platform) and I have about as perfect playback as one could hope for. I don't get stutters on any file format at 23.976 in XBMC and I can watch blu-rays in TMT3 without a single frame-skip or error. It's amazing.

My drivers are 2 years old.

Every so often I get the urge to try new drivers - I've installed 266.58 and the recent 285.62, but they always introduce problems. With 285.62 (which I tested last weekend) I found the following:
  • Anything at 25fps (using 50Hz refresh rate) was fine
  • Anything at 24.00fps (using 24Hz) was fine
  • H.264 encodes at 23.976 (using '23Hz') played fine
  • But 23.976 Xvid .avi files (or anything XBMC classes as 'MPEG4') would constantly drop frames

The frame drops were visible on screen too - pressing 'O' and watching the stats in XBMC, you could see the frame rate waver around 23.976 and then suddenly dive down to 22.XXX and back again during which time the "dropped" counter would increase by a few frames. Rolling back to trusty 258.96 stopped this immediately and produced rock-solid results: a two-hour movie = zero dropped frames on the counter.

Has anyone else witnessed this? The NVIDIA upgrades seem to be mostly geared towards gaming performance these days, but to my eye they've never better these 2010 drivers. What are you guys using?
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post #2 of 11
2/25/12 at 4:33pm
I have the latest nVidia drivers (275.33) on my Revo R3610 and I have no issues. I can't tell the difference between the older driver(s) and the new ones. I updated them because I can't help myself. Newer must be better - right? Fortunately the update did no harm (and maybe improved something I not yet aware of).
However, My advise to anyone who asks is "if the drivers you have now are working fine, leave them alone".

For me the road to 23.976 perfection, was switching to JRiver Media Center.
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post #3 of 11
2/25/12 at 5:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CountryBumkin View Post

I have the latest nVidia drivers (275.33) on my Revo R3610 and I have no issues. I can't tell the difference between the older driver(s) and the new ones. I updated them because I can't help myself. Newer must be better - right? Fortunately the update did no harm (and maybe improved something I not yet aware of).
However, My advise to anyone who asks is "if the drivers you have now are working fine, leave them alone".

For me the road to 23.976 perfection, was switching to JRiver Media Center.

275.33 are 8 months old. there have been three 'official' driver releases since then...
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post #4 of 11
2/26/12 at 4:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcantu1 View Post

275.33 are 8 months old. there have been three 'official' driver releases since then...

Thanks. They "were latest" the last time I worked on this machine (it's not my main HTPC). Now I have to get the latest driver and update. Because I am compelled to.

But ideally, and I think most would agree, "if it ant broke, don't fix it".

Good luck.
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post #5 of 11
2/26/12 at 5:11am
One of the Nvidia drivers (285.62) will break WMC TV (sound but no picture) plus they removed the simple edit resolution buttons. Stick with the older version (280.26) and remember the updates are only aimed at gamers - so upgrading is pretty pointless if you only use the system for Home Theatre or general computing.
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post #6 of 11
2/26/12 at 9:45am
The latest nvidia driver are on guru site ( 02/22/12 ) :WHQL certified asus nvidia 295.73 (157 mg)

forget asus site they are from may 2011
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post #7 of 11
2/27/12 at 3:05pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the replies - "if it ain't broke..." seems to be the way to go. It's interesting to see that others are happy to not sit on the bleeding edge - it's just annoying that even Windows wants me to update my drivers! I do every other upgrade, but I have to know to ignore this one or else make my experience worse.

Can't believe how temperamental and system-specific the driver problems seem to be too. God forbid I ever want to upgrade!
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post #8 of 11
2/27/12 at 4:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heuer View Post

One of the Nvidia drivers (285.62) will break WMC TV (sound but no picture) plus they removed the simple edit resolution buttons. Stick with the older version (280.26) and remember the updates are only aimed at gamers - so upgrading is pretty pointless if you only use the system for Home Theatre or general computing.

Never a more true statement . However , different drivers work better than others based more on the system and what is installed on it more than the driver itself

Quote:
Originally Posted by franky932 View Post

The latest nvidia driver are on guru site ( 02/22/12 ) :WHQL certified asus nvidia 295.73 (157 mg)
forget asus site they are from may 2011

Yes ,forget about Asus ... uh , no problem . Consider it done

Quote:
Originally Posted by aequalszero View Post

Thanks for the replies - "if it ain't broke..." seems to be the way to go. It's interesting to see that others are happy to not sit on the bleeding edge - it's just annoying that even Windows wants me to update my drivers! I do every other upgrade, but I have to know to ignore this one or else make my experience worse.

Can't believe how temperamental and system-specific the driver problems seem to be too. God forbid I ever want to upgrade!

Or , "If it aint broke" , "fix it till you break it" and then fix it ! Your either very luck or have kept your system very stream lined cause eventually 99% of users at some ponit in time are going to update there drivers out of "force" . Give it some more time . u'll get bold

Drivers ? I use 295.33 . Not the most current but close . Works great on my system with my components
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post #9 of 11
2/28/12 at 8:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heuer View Post

One of the Nvidia drivers (285.62) will break WMC TV (sound but no picture) plus they removed the simple edit resolution buttons. Stick with the older version (280.26) and remember the updates are only aimed at gamers - so upgrading is pretty pointless if you only use the system for Home Theatre or general computing.

Ya know, on my gaming rig (which has a pair of 9600GSO's) I've been having a problem with Video Overlay on my secondary monitor - it just didn't work, but it used to some time ago. I finally went back and reinstalled and found out that 280.26 is the last driver without overlay broken. I guess Nvidia did a number on video processing during the 285.62 update.
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post #10 of 11
2/29/12 at 1:22am
I updated to 295.73 the other day. The previous update hadn't worked well for me (random black screen for 5 seconds every couple of hours) but these seem okay so far.
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post #11 of 11
2/29/12 at 9:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by franky932 View Post

The latest nvidia driver are on guru site ( 02/22/12 ) :WHQL certified asus nvidia 295.73 (157 mg)

forget asus site they are from may 2011

of for me...........
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