New Nvidia Drivers 66.93 WHQL

**Radical Dreamer** · November 9th, 2004, 09:30 PM

Get em while they're hot!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93

**TechZ** · November 10th, 2004, 04:16 AM

Some more details:

A new WHQL Forceware graphics drivers v66.93 (Win2k/XP ~ 17.7MB) are available for download from the official NVIDIA download page. The drivers for WindowsXP Media Center Edition can be found here. The complete list of fixes can be found here (PDF).

These new drives adds support for GeForce 6600, GeForce 6600 GT, and GeForce 6200, spport for SLI, support for using HDTV over DVI connectors, support for 512 MB frame buffer GPUs, support for advanced DVI timing on all GeForce 6 series GPUs, support to recognize and display monitor name in all control panels, support for TV/HDTV setup in the nView Display Setup Wizard, and MicrosoftR DirectX 9.0c and OpenGL 1.5 support.

Significant issues resolved in driver version 66.93 are listed below:
Windows XP, Quadro FX 3400: CATIA - Extra lines displayed on Structural Anlaysis.
Windows XP, Quadro FX 3000, IBM T221 panel, DG5: Desktop appears elongated when HRSD is selected.
Windows XP, Quadro FX 4000: Main grid is corrupted when starting Lightwave 8.0/7.5.
Windows XP, GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, GeForce 6800: Corruption with vehicles and clouds in Sim City 4.
Windows XP, GeForce PCX 5750: Command and Conquer Generals back screen is white (or green).
Windows Media Center Edition: Live TV or DVD playback may stall or stutter when using the "Smart" deinterlacing setting in the NVIDIA DVD Decoder.
GeForce FX 5200, Windows NT 4.0: Crash in Quake3 ver. 1.32 with Multiview.
GeForce 6800, Windows XP: Corruption in the Far Cry loading screen before the map loads at 1600x1200x32 or greater resolutions with antialiasing enabled.
Quadro FX 4000, Windows XP, Lightwave 8.0/7.5: Main grid is corrupted on startup.
GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, Windows XP: Deus Ex 2 door button shader disappears.
GeForce 6800, Windows XP: Corruption after screen shot attempted with antialiasing enabled in Far Cry.
GeForce 6800: Cannot set refresh rate of 48 Hz for 3840x2400.
Quadro FX 1100, Windows XP, Autodesk Inventor 8: Mipmapping is broken.
Windows XP, Quadro 400 NVS: Non-admin accounts can enable multiview, but an error message appears after rebooting the system.
Modo application crashes with GeForce Products.
Windows XP, GeForce 6800: Microsoft Rallisport Challenge performace drops with antialiasing and lens flares enabled.
Windows XP, Quadro NVS 200/280: Roaming profiles cannot be read or written.
Windows XP, GeForce4 Ti: Kohan 2 has missing geometry.
Wndows XP: Manual downclocking does not work but locks to the defaults.
Windows XP, GeForce4 Series, GeForce 6800: Fog problems with Men of Valor.
Windows XP, Windows 2000, GeForce FX 5950: When the digital display is the primary in Clone mode, both TV and DFP are black upon resume from standby.
This driver now supports PCI Express under the Windows NT 4.0 operating system.

**Zerotech** · November 22nd, 2004, 12:27 PM

Just tried these drivers after installing my new GF6800 128MB card. Got a nasty surprise when, during the high particle test, the system completely rebooted! I've never had that kind of reaction in XP. Tried a couple of times to be sure it would reproduce. When I went back to the v61.77 drivers, Aquamark 3 ran fine.
I still have to dig out my CD with 3DMark2003 on it and install/run that benchmark.

I'm not so sure about game and general system stability with the v66.93's. Guess I'll stick with the last version and see what happens.

**TechZ** · November 23rd, 2004, 06:50 AM

I havent run any benchmarks since upgrading the drivers, but new games like NFS Underground2 run fine, a demo of some other game, made xp reboot though.

**Zerotech** · November 23rd, 2004, 12:16 PM

Thanks, TechZ! It's nice to know I'm not alone with this kind of thing.

I'm planning on picking up Half Life 2 (collector's edition, if I can get it) soon and wanted to be able to run it without too much trouble (connecting to Steam over dial-up is going to suck).
I've heard about some v68.xx-70.xx drivers that are in the alpha/beta stages right now; might be worth waiting for those to make official release.

Is it just me, or do the non-WHQL drivers work better than the certified ones?
That seems to have been my experience lately.

**TechZ** · November 24th, 2004, 01:49 AM

I've never used the nonWHQL/leaked drivers, neither have I ever used the modded drivers. I stick with the "stable" WHQL drivers that nvidia release.

**GrandDad** · November 24th, 2004, 02:35 AM

Originally Posted by Zerotech

Thanks, TechZ! It's nice to know I'm not alone with this kind of thing.

I'm planning on picking up Half Life 2 (collector's edition, if I can get it) soon and wanted to be able to run it without too much trouble (connecting to Steam over dial-up is going to suck).
I've heard about some v68.xx-70.xx drivers that are in the alpha/beta stages right now; might be worth waiting for those to make official release.

Is it just me, or do the non-WHQL drivers work better than the certified ones?
That seems to have been my experience lately.

Have been using the ForceWare 70.41 beta for a while now , those have gotten highest score in Aqua3 (on FX-5700LE-256mg card) .

**TechZ** · November 24th, 2004, 02:41 AM

Some new betas have a lower score in a few benchmarks and higher in others, thats why I dont use the leaked/beta ones.

**Zerotech** · November 26th, 2004, 01:56 AM

I've never used the nonWHQL/leaked drivers, neither have I ever used the modded drivers. I stick with the "stable" WHQL drivers that nvidia release.

I've never used leaked drivers either. I have used beta drivers a few times with a Matrox G400 with mixed results (betas supplied by Matrox themselves).
I have used modded drivers only on 3dfx Voodoo cards, due to the lack of updated drivers from the now defunct 3dfx (again with mixed results).

What I was referring to with nVidia was the fact that the v61.77 drivers (which are not digitally signed) proved to be more stable in the Aquamark 3 benchmark program than the v66.93 drivers (which are digitally signed, ie WHQL certified). Similarly, the v61.76 drivers for Win9x/ME (WHQL) gave me stability problems, yet the v54.03 drivers (non-WHQL, unless I'm mistaken) worked fine.

It has been my experience since switching over to nVidia cards almost exclusively that the drivers that nVidia releases without WHQL certification give me little or no trouble as opposed to drivers released with certification.
This may be something I actually am alone in.

GrandDad- I have read about "leaked" drivers a few times. Where might one find such drivers and are there legal issues in downloading/installing them?
Also, are the stability problems as horrible as rumor has them to be?

**TechZ** · November 26th, 2004, 09:23 AM

www.guru3d.com I dont think theyre illegal.
Also the latest/leaked/betas are all at www.ggmania.com or gameguru.box.sk

**Rockguykev** · November 28th, 2004, 05:20 PM

I'm having massive problems with this driver version.

I just bought a new 5200 fx a few days ago (highest power card my non-AGP motherboard can take...) and the installation has been a mess. The stock drivers led to massive random restarts and these updated ones are just odd.

Whenever I right click on a vid file or open the Nvida Settings in my taskbar the screen goes black for about a second and then (usually) comes right back on.

I had one instance this morning where it went off and stayed off. Am I the only one having this issue? Should I try to find an older version of the driver?

**ngc4414** · November 28th, 2004, 06:26 PM

i am having problems as well with these drivers
the nvidia helper service keeps timing out and stalling my system
i disabled the service but i haven't tried any games since
the service only controls the refresh rate in open gl game if you have it set differently, so i dont think it should be a problem

**GrandDad** · November 28th, 2004, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by Zerotech

GrandDad- I have read about "leaked" drivers a few times. Where might one find such drivers and are there legal issues in downloading/installing them?
Also, are the stability problems as horrible as rumor has them to be?

This is were I've been going for different Video drivers , They also have for ATI's .

http://www.mvktech.net

**GrandDad** · November 28th, 2004, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by Rockguykev

I'm having massive problems with this driver version.

I just bought a new 5200 fx a few days ago (highest power card my non-AGP motherboard can take...) and the installation has been a mess. The stock drivers led to massive random restarts and these updated ones are just odd.

Whenever I right click on a vid file or open the Nvida Settings in my taskbar the screen goes black for about a second and then (usually) comes right back on.

I had one instance this morning where it went off and stayed off. Am I the only one having this issue? Should I try to find an older version of the driver?

Are you talking about a PCI card ?

Problem could be IRQ's with the MB bios or Windows .

What MB (brand and model) and Windows ver. ?

**Rockguykev** · November 28th, 2004, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by GrandDad

Are you talking about a PCI card ?

Problem could be IRQ's with the MB bios or Windows .

What MB (brand and model) and Windows ver. ?

not sure about the mobo but the comp is an HP Pavillion a347x running Win XP home. I'm going to try switching it to a different PCI slot since right now I have it in one that used to hold a modem. Maybe the bios is still looking for that. I don't know.

I just think its odd that its mostly when I'm dealing with video files.