[KraGorn]

As I mentioned in my other post, I'm using an nVidia card for the first time building an HTPC.


How do you update nVidia drivers?


I have a Leadtek card, so I installed the drivers from the included CD, then went to their web site and downloaded later versions (61.xx). All worked fine, specifically the Control Panel.


I went to nVidia's site and found later drivers (another 61.xx variant) so I downloaded those. They installed and work, however when I try to get to the Control Panel I get an error talking about a version mis-match. Presumably the download from nVidia only included the drivers, no the Control Panel. However, I looked in vain for a download for that.


ATI used to separate the drivers and panel, then they combined them. How do nVidia distribute updated panels?

 

[Vern Dias]

To be absolutely safe, you should always remove the previous drivers from the "add remove" programs before installing a new version. NVidia has the control panel integrated with the drivers. To be completely safe, also delete the \\NVidia directory and any subdirectories under it before installing the new drivers.


There are also a bunch of "cleaner" utilities out there, but I have never had to resort to any of them.


Vern

 

[KraGorn]

Okay thanks Vern, I'll restore a Ghost image before I installed the first set and try again. I assumed the driver download didn't include the control panel because the download of 61.xx from Leadtek's site was 23Mb while that from nVidia's site of 61.77 was 12Mb, and I see on Guru3D some are even smaller.

 

[Scotty L]

I always use nVidia's. Sometimes the hardware manufacturers include clutter with their custom drivers, but mostly just useless icons here and there for brand recognition, and maybe some uneccessary options in the CP/systray.

www.nzone.com has leaked WHQL certified 66.81 drivers. I use em for my eVGA 6800gt and they work just fine.


And just fyi I always just install nvidia drivers over each other. But with those manuf drivers it may be a good idea to unistall them first.

 

[KraGorn]

Thanks Scotty, I was beginning to think I was best off ignoring the CD that came with the card .. I do that with my ATI cards but since this is the first nVidia card I've had since a GF4-Ti I thought I'd take the easy route to start with.


Thanks also for the link, one I Googled was dead.

 

[valhalla]

Quote:

Originally posted by Scotty L www.nzone.com has leaked WHQL certified 66.81 drivers. I use em for my eVGA 6800gt and they work just fine.

I upgraded to the 66.81 drivers on my eVGA 6800gt and got a noticeable increase in framerates in Doom3 and Farcry. These drivers are on Nvidias FTP site if you poke around.