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Hardware NVIDIA Releases ForceWare 100.65
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - February 21, 2007 3:07 AM

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47 comment(s) - last by leexgx.. on Feb 23 at 8:28 PM

New WHQL certified ForceWare 100.65 for GeForce 8800-series and Windows Vista

NVIDIA today released its WHQL certified ForceWare 100 drivers for Windows Vista. The new ForceWare version 100.65 is the first WHQL certified driver compatible with NVIDIA GeForce 8800-series based graphics cards. Windows Vista beta drivers were available to GeForce 8800-series users previously.

The new drivers support Microsoft’s DirectX 10 API on single-GeForce 8800-series configurations only. Users with a pair of GeForce 8800-series graphics cards in SLI will have to wait for SLI DirectX 10 support. Nevertheless, DirectX 9 and OpenGL applications will be able to take advantage of SLI technology on GeForce 8800 GPUs.

GeForce 6 and 7-series SLI users are once again, left out in the dark with only Single GPU support. NVIDIA promises DirectX 9 and OpenGL SLI support for GeForce 6 and 7-series GPUs in a future ForceWare releases though.

WHQL certification aside, the new ForceWare 100.65 do not feature many new fixes, aside from control panel and overlay fixes. Interestingly enough, the ForceWare 100.65 release has a few HDMI output issues, though NVIDIA claims “full-featured HDMI support.”

NVIDIA highlights (PDF) the current HDMI issues as follow:

There are some known image quality issues.
Noise and pixel corruption occur under Clone or Dualview modes.
Only stereo audio is supported; 5.1 surround is not supported.

Nevertheless, NVIDIA promises a future driver will fix the above-mentioned issues.

NVIDIA ForceWare release 100.65 drivers are available for Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

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Alright

By Griswold on 2/21/2007 4:41:41 AM , Rating: 3

(Vista) This driver still doesnt recognize when Aero is running and not a game and as a result, the fan is still spinning at the same unecessary rpm at which it would spin if there was a game running. And thus I still have to use the bug ridden nTune to manually reduce fan speed to 25% every single time windows boots.

Game profiles also still dont seem to stick.

At least the handful games I play seem to work and the performance is also a bit better than the 97.x series.

This is with a 7800GT.

A few words about the platform drivers. The IDE driver doesnt install automatically. You have to do it manually. Once that happened, you're in for a surprise when you reboot/shutdown windows: your SATA drives will power down before every reboot just to spin up again a few seconds later when the computer POSTs - are they now in bed with the HDD industry as well? :P

RE: Alright

By Samus on 2/21/07, Rating: -1

RE: Alright

By Egglick on 2/21/2007 7:26:01 AM , Rating: 2

Unfortunately, these are the sorts of issues that you will need to deal with as an early adopter. It would be alot less frustrating to simply hold off until these issues blow over, but I suppose I must thank you for doing the testing for the rest of us.

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RE: Alright

By phatboye on 2/21/2007 7:47:32 AM , Rating: 1

Couldn't have said it better myself. If you are going to be crazy enough to be an early adapter then don't whine when thing go wrong.

I wish I could punch those people who are suing nvidia in the face.

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RE: Alright

By ToeCutter on 2/21/2007 9:45:47 AM , Rating: 3

quote:
Couldn't have said it better myself. If you are going to be crazy enough to be an early adapter then don't whine when thing go wrong.

Hmm, another one one nVidia's girlfriends.

Probably one of the same knuckleheads who asks "Why would anyone buy a DX9 card NOW?!"

nVidia's drivers have been jacked since the card came out, and not just for Vista. Read about the Source bug whose only remedy is to run in DX8. Funny how no other card has issues rendering Source content. The newest/fastest card out there can't render a two year old DX9 title properly in WinXP. Wow, that's progress.

Let's see if all the problems aren't magically "fixed" when nVidia releases the 8900 series in 2 months.

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RE: Alright

By Dustin25 on 2/21/2007 10:14:08 AM , Rating: 2

I have no problems under dx9 in source with my 8800gtx cards.

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RE: Alright

By Macuser89 on 2/21/2007 11:31:03 AM , Rating: 2

I have no problem with 8800 on XP running in DX9.

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RE: Alright

By ToeCutter on 2/22/2007 5:56:41 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I have no problem with 8800 on XP running in DX9.

Um, okay. You two are the only GeForce 8800 owners that aren't experiencing the fog bug with Source?

Despite admissions by Valve and nVidia that it does exist?

I suppose the issues with the nForce 680's SATA drivers were imaginary too?

More brilliance on the DT forums.

Google Fu: geforce 88000 source fog bug.

Or, just fire up HL2 and look thru a distant doorway.

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RE: Alright

By leexgx on 2/23/2007 8:28:48 PM , Rating: 2

i do not norm play on steam or have it installed on vista but will have it installed in 1hr CS:Source just to conferm it on mine

I agree on the Bug on the Sata RAID bug if thats what you are refering to my fix is after installing the driver is Turn off Command Queing
Device man > SCSI (XP) or Storage Vista > Nvidia Sata {all of them} Untick command queing on all 3 oif them (there is 2 per controller) that should resove alot of the CPU use on disk load but i recommend Cluster size no smaller then 32K

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RE: Alright

By phatboye on 2/21/2007 11:47:25 AM , Rating: 1

Firstly let's not act childish here.

Secondly if you think there is a magic video card out there that doesn't have some sort of problem with 2 year old games please point point it out for me because I'd like to own such a card. This is the price you pay for being an early adapter. If you don't like it then that's tough because that is how things go. I'm not saying that If you pay +$250 for a card that you shouldn't want it to work. What I am saying though is that if you are going to buy a new video card that works on a completely new architecture on a new OS that changes the way that the drivers have to be written then you should expect problems. I too would complain to Nvidia had my card not worked but I would never go out and sue Nvidia over something stupid like that.

Not to mention I heard about this lawsuit like 2 days after Vista's release. Re writing drivers take time.

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RE: Alright

By Korvon on 2/21/2007 4:44:13 PM , Rating: 2

Its not like Nvidia waited until Jan 30, 07 to start working on the driver set for DX10. Also, while I dont agree with the lawsuit, its over Nvidia saying they have the only DX10 card on the market, when it didnt work with DX10.

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RE: Alright

By ToeCutter on 2/22/2007 6:10:18 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Firstly let's not act childish here.

Throwing a rock thru the front window of nVidia's corp HQ would be childish.

Filing suit against them seems...motivated.

If these issues had to do with DX10 titles that just came out, then I'd say "Okay, let's wait it out" But we're talking about MANY issues with Vista, as well as XP. If these drivers weren't ready, than why did nVidia push the card out the door? To beat ATI to market with a DX10 card, that's why. Now many of us are stuck with cards that simply don't work. I get teraing dragging a folder window across my desktop. What does this have to do with DX10 or Vista if I'm running XP?

Fact is, I've been agnostic towards both ATI and nVidia. Both have offered excellent products, both have had issues with drivers.

But as of late, it seems that every nVidia product I buy has issues that are fixed at a gingerly pace, on not at all.

I had supreme faith that the GF 8800 would provide the best gaming experience money could buy when I popped for a new $500 GF 8800 a few weeks ago. But in searching for a solution to my problems, in seems clear that nVidia doesn't give a rat's ass about fixing the problem. They haven't responded to emails, forum posts, etc.

Whatever, I'm moving on. I'm looking forward to R600 far more today than I was 2 weeks ago. I'll snag on the day it hits the streets. Which ever card works best will find new homes in my play and HTPCs. The other will go on eBay.

And I'll be sure to share my experiences with anyone that'll listen...( prolly not many ;-)

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RE: Alright

By xdrol on 2/21/2007 1:15:54 PM , Rating: 1

nVidia's drivers have been jacked since the card came out, and not just for Vista.

Wrong. Vista needs display drivers to be rewritten from cratch. If you got an XP driver for your card, it does not help you to have a Vista as well. (Apart from the logic that actually communicates with the card.. But that's the same even under Linux.)

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RE: Alright

By patentman on 2/21/07, Rating: 0

RE: Alright

By phatboye on 2/21/2007 1:13:56 PM , Rating: 2

Maybe if you read the entire sentence what I said would make more sense. Have fun with those Bar exams </sarcasm>

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RE: Alright

By GoatMonkey on 2/21/2007 7:46:27 AM , Rating: 1

Try getting out of the house and hitting a few rock concerts. The hearing damage will make the fan noise unnoticeable.

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RE: Alright

By derdon on 2/21/2007 8:49:25 AM , Rating: 3

Or install one of the infamous 5800s in a computer nearby... there's hardly a chance that you'll hear your own

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RE: Alright

By Goty on 2/21/2007 8:09:30 AM , Rating: 2

There's no reason that your video card should be able to notice the difference. Aero runs off of DX9, iir, so the video card is doing the same things it would if you were playing a game.

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RE: Alright

By Hare on 2/21/2007 2:30:44 PM , Rating: 3

Really? So you think that it's perfectly ok that people get unwanted noise pollution not to mention less battery life if we are talking about laptops...

The situation is this. Nowadays just 2D/3D-modes don't work. Simple as that. Drivers need to recognize what is happening and adjust clock speeds dynamically. That way the temps stay low and there's no need to run the fan at full speed. This works in XP (2D/3D) but since Vista uses Aero, drivers need additional capabilities.

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RE: Alright

By Trisped on 2/21/2007 9:09:29 PM , Rating: 2

Hmm, wouldn't it be easier to just adjust the fan speed basied on the GPU temp? Or what about the heat sink temp?

Personally I though this is what they had been doing for a while, but maybe I was wrong.

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RE: Alright

By SexyK on 2/21/2007 8:53:25 AM , Rating: 2

The fan runs at a constant (silent) speed on 8800s, and the clocks don't shift from 2d to 3d, so the Aero/gaming problem you're having isn't really a problem for early adopters at all.

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RE: Alright

By Slaimus on 2/21/2007 12:11:55 PM , Rating: 2

You are not using an 8800 series card, so you should not be using this Vista driver. 97.46 is still the newest WHQL GF7 driver.

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RE: Alright

By glennpratt on 2/21/2007 4:44:44 PM , Rating: 2

Did you look at the page? It lists 6 and 7 series as supported and the drivers are indeed signed WHQL for 6 and 7 series (I just installed it).

On a down not, over clocking doesn't work in nVidia Control panel, but that thing is such an amazing pile of crap, I'm not surprised.

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RE: Alright

By Souka on 2/21/2007 6:26:03 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
(Vista) This driver still doesnt recognize when Aero is running and not a game and as a result, the fan is still spinning at the same unecessary rpm at which it would spin if there was a game running. And thus I still have to use the bug ridden nTune to manually reduce fan speed to 25% every single time windows boots.

Welp, Aero can load a cards GPU a fair bit, so the fan spins up to GPU cool...unless you want it to over heat. :)

Also, you said you're using nTune... have you tried RivaTuner? (no idea if it works under Vista, but it does the charm for me under XP. %25 fan speed normal, %100 playing games as I have it massivly overclocked for 3d apps)

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RE: Alright

By MasterOfSuchThings on 2/21/2007 9:02:37 PM , Rating: 1

Why would you be running the Aero interface? That is just for Mac wannabees. You do realize you can turn that crap off? Are you that impressed with shiny happy objects? Just smash your PC and go buy a Mac because that's all you deserve if you use Aero (and probably rely on the mouse for everything, for that matter).

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Why?

By gramboh on 2/21/2007 12:02:13 PM , Rating: 1

Why are enthusiasts on this site running Vista? The only logical reasons to run it now are:

a) Tinkering/curiosity (use second install) if you got it for free
b) Development (business use then, not gaming)
c) Received as OEM with Dell (unlikely for users of this site)

I just can't believe all the people suffering through use trying to play games. Dualboot it with XP and play games in a well developed stable OS. There is no compelling reason to use Vista, it doesn't make sense!

RE: Why?

By patentman on 2/21/2007 12:09:14 PM , Rating: 2

I agree, for the time being. There are no DX10 apps right now, so no reason for me to go to VISTA. Once the DX10 titles start showing up, I will convert.

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RE: Why?

By glennpratt on 2/21/2007 12:34:37 PM , Rating: 2

I'm not suffering through anything. HL2, GRAW, BF2, Generals, Zero Hour... all work fine.

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RE: Why?

By gramboh on 2/21/2007 2:00:39 PM , Rating: 2

Ok, I'm not trying to flame, but why did you choose to run Vista now?

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RE: Why?

By Korvon on 2/21/2007 4:55:20 PM , Rating: 2

I have run RC1, RC2, and I am currently running RTM, and I have to admit, I like Vista more than XP. If you have the system to run Vista it gives a much better experience than XP. I run everything from WC3 to FEAR, and the all run perfectly. Most games require the latest patch and, at the most, to be run in Admin mode.

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RE: Why?

By glennpratt on 2/21/2007 5:01:12 PM , Rating: 2

I've been running it since Beta 2. I use Media Center extender on an Xbox 360 (this is my only TV in the house) and Media Center in Vista is much better then MCE 2005 IMO. I haven't come across any show stopping bugs since the betas. The much improved search and generally snappiness of everything compared to XP lets me work faster.

I've also run beta versions of Ubuntu, XP x64, XP, SBS 2003, 200, etc, etc. I enjoy it I guess, I'm no MS fanboy either, I deploy Linux based routers at work and have a couple Ubuntu servers.

I wouldn't recommend people rush out and buy Vista Ultimate or anything, but if your upgrading/buying a new computer, I would consider Vista. I just upgraded my main machine when RTM released. I was running RC2 on an Athlon XP 2500+ :)

FYI, I'm a Microsoft Action Pack subscriber because of my line of work, so I got 10 Vista Business Upgrades along with 10 copies of Office 2007 Enterprise, amongst other things. $139 upgrades Vista Business to Vista Ultimate.

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RE: Why?

By Ringold on 2/21/2007 6:59:32 PM , Rating: 3

I second all that.

I haven't been suffering through anything with Home Premium x64. I've been getting my work done, all my things have drivers (or at least just recently got them), and haven't really run in to any snags.

I just enjoy it. It's a pleasure to work with in comparison to XP, yet more functional (for my purposes) than OSX and definitely more so in a desktop capacity than linux would be for me. Primarily upgraded this computer to it because briefly it'll be given to my parents and I wanted to have a feel for it so I could guide them through any odd aspects of it. My next build should get ordered from NewEgg next week -- and at this point, well, I think you'd have to be dense to order XP for a custom build at this point. Logic alone says you'd just be swimming upstream.

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Support for Widescreen?

By LiquidIce1337 on 2/21/2007 10:47:33 AM , Rating: 2

I had vista running for about 2 months. It worked okay but I didn't see anything spectacular about it. The problem I ran into was Nvidia's drivers for my 7800GT didn't support widescreen 1440x900. I wonder if this update supports the crippled wide screen that makes my desktop beautiful again.

it's a Viewsonic VA1912wb btw..

RE: Support for Widescreen?

By glennpratt on 2/21/2007 12:33:22 PM , Rating: 2

Sounds like some sort of user error, I'm looking over my shoulder at a 7900GT running at 1440x900 in Vista RTM using the last nVidia drivers, it also worked fine on RC1. I wouldn't be too worried about it when you try again.

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RE: Support for Widescreen?

By Spyvie on 2/21/2007 2:46:35 PM , Rating: 2

The Jan 5th, 97.46 WHQL driver does not support 1440 X 900, the newer and older driver all do

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RE: Support for Widescreen?

By LiquidIce1337 on 2/21/2007 3:50:44 PM , Rating: 2

Ahh, thanks for the clarification.. I'll give it another shot. I just like running Vista for the sheer look right now. I have a feeling of organization and with my anal attitude towards how things look and feel and customizing stuff. I guess also why not since my computer isn't being utilized by a 64 bit OS right now.. which imho I believe the OS should have been 64bit only. It's becoming more of a standard

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RE: Support for Widescreen?

By glennpratt on 2/21/2007 4:48:04 PM , Rating: 2

Where did you read this? There is a computer sitting 5 feet behind me running a 7900GT with 97.46 WHQL drivers at 1440x900.

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RE: Support for Widescreen?

By Spyvie on 2/21/2007 5:47:55 PM , Rating: 2

I experienced it first hand, though I could be wrong about the version. One of the shiny new drivers in the recent past definitely did not support 1440 x 900. The MS driver always did, and the latest Nvidia drivers do as well.

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ATI Catalyst 7.2

By Scabies on 2/21/2007 8:42:38 PM , Rating: 2

Driver woes? Too bad ATI AMD released Catalyst package 7.2 today, which gave me personally an extra 14FPS in Source games. B*ches!
(they claim exorbitant numbers like>>>

quote:
Open GL performance improves for all ATI Radeon™ X1000 series products. Gains of up to 25% in Doom 3, 48% in Quake 4 and 21% in Prey can be seen on a variety of ATI Radeon™ X1000 cards. These performance gains are noticed under the Windows Vista operating system.

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.co...

Only one month late...

By Mudvillager on 2/21/07, Rating: -1

RE: Only one month late...

By thebrown13 on 2/21/2007 9:40:01 AM , Rating: 1

... how much?

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RE: Only one month late...

By MightyAA on 2/21/2007 10:57:33 AM , Rating: 2

Man, you've got nothing to complain about. I have a GeForce Go 7950 GTX. NVidia doesn't have a driver listed. Their latest is Version: 84.63 from July and doesn't support the card. I got a Version: 86.14 (Nov build) from the manufacturer, but there hasn't been a single update & no Vista drivers at all.

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RE: Only one month late...

By Tsuwamono on 2/21/2007 11:29:42 AM , Rating: 2

Ill give you 20$ for it considering the 8800s will be WORKED by the X2900 XTX and also considering that nothing seems to work right with them im told.

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RE: Only one month late...

By Frazzle on 2/21/2007 11:37:34 AM , Rating: 2

Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen:

http://www.techpowerup.com/?25870

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RE: Only one month late...

By Ringold on 2/21/2007 5:42:53 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
"This was a tough decision to make for us, but we remember how hard NVidia got laughed at with the GeForceFX so decided no product at all is better than a dust-buster."

That's what the propaganda artist meant to say, but couldn't get it out.

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RE: Only one month late...

By Dustin25 on 2/21/2007 11:42:43 AM , Rating: 2

Cool, and when you're done trying to install it on your commodore I'll buy it from you for $10 and install it on my third pci-e slot. Right along side the other two that work flawlessly with everything I throw at it.

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RE: Only one month late...

By patentman on 2/21/2007 12:08:00 PM , Rating: 2

The fact of the matter is that no video card has ever worked flawlessly with everything. To say that ATI cards are an exception to that is pure fantasy.

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