Well, the drivers provided by Dell are decent, although a bit dated and they don't offer you as many options as you recieve in drivers straight from NVIDIA. Because of this, a lot of users here (myself included) use modded drivers from various sources to encourage every last bit of performance we can out of our cards... and also so we can access those options not available through Dells drivers (such as clock speeds, etc). So, with that in mind:
I find the 44.03 Detonator works wonders with my 4200, I use Teraphy's modded INF to work it (get it here). I find this driver gives me solid gaming performance in terms of fps and visuals, and is the driver that gives me the best 3dmark benchmark scores.
Others swear by the newer 52.XX OR 53.03 drivers (INF's for all of the newest ones from Pieter here). These drivers are good as well, but I find that although I recieve improved fps in most games, visually they are not up to the standards of the 44.XX drivers (in particular 44.03). Also the 3Dmark scores with these newer drivers are lower (although you really should choose drivers by game not 3Dmark performances, they still do have a bearing on most peoples decisions around here).
By all means try a few different drivers first to find the one that you prefer, as well as trying INF's from different sources, such as Teraphy's and Pieter's, but there are more out there as well.
Enjoy, and if you have any further questions please post again.
@Nerdtalker wrote:
Do the 44.03's support DX9 games?
Yes they do, they were the "industries best Microsoft DirectX 9 support" at their time of release, you can see I got that from Nvidia, here, they also explain some of the other features. They are no longer the best drivers for directx 9 (that goes to 52.XX, 53.XX)...... but if you are using them for a GF4 4200 go that doesn't really matter because it is a DX8.1 card and doesn't support DX9 features .
For those of you who are wondering "does this mean I can't play DX9 games?" Well, the response is that actually you can, the games will run perfectly well. It just means that the DX9 features that your graphics card doesn't support will not be featured in gameplay, which is no big hassle at all (you don't really notice too much of a difference... at least in the DX9 games released to date).
There are no decent video drivers in existence unfortunately. The Dell ones [aren't very good] (can't believe the filter blocks su*k) - have power management issues when closing the LCD at the XP login screen - often resulting in the screen not been powered back on.
I have similar PC specification to you (I8500, GF4 4200, P42.4, WUXGA). I have tried so many different drivers, including forcing the NVidia Detonators and Forceware. Here is my summary:
Detonator 44.23 - power issues fixed, however secondary monitor can have problems when playing back DVD, Digital TV (i.e. half the screen is missing), whether its VGA or TV out
Detonator 44.33 - power issues have come back
Forceware 51.26 - power issues have come back
I'm really unimpressed by Dell's unwillingness to resolve the situation. I've given up now, I just don't have the time to pursue this anymore. Occassionally I pop in here to check if anyone's come across a solution, but that's it.
sakor1
2.2K Posts
0
November 23rd, 2003 02:00
Well, the drivers provided by Dell are decent, although a bit dated and they don't offer you as many options as you recieve in drivers straight from NVIDIA. Because of this, a lot of users here (myself included) use modded drivers from various sources to encourage every last bit of performance we can out of our cards... and also so we can access those options not available through Dells drivers (such as clock speeds, etc). So, with that in mind:
I find the 44.03 Detonator works wonders with my 4200, I use Teraphy's modded INF to work it (get it here). I find this driver gives me solid gaming performance in terms of fps and visuals, and is the driver that gives me the best 3dmark benchmark scores.
Others swear by the newer 52.XX OR 53.03 drivers (INF's for all of the newest ones from Pieter here). These drivers are good as well, but I find that although I recieve improved fps in most games, visually they are not up to the standards of the 44.XX drivers (in particular 44.03). Also the 3Dmark scores with these newer drivers are lower (although you really should choose drivers by game not 3Dmark performances, they still do have a bearing on most peoples decisions around here).
By all means try a few different drivers first to find the one that you prefer, as well as trying INF's from different sources, such as Teraphy's and Pieter's, but there are more out there as well.
Enjoy, and if you have any further questions please post again.
stu
Message Edited by sakor1 on 11-22-2003 10:17 PM
Nerdtalker
276 Posts
0
November 23rd, 2003 19:00
sakor1
2.2K Posts
0
November 23rd, 2003 22:00
Yes they do, they were the "industries best Microsoft DirectX 9 support" at their time of release, you can see I got that from Nvidia, here, they also explain some of the other features. They are no longer the best drivers for directx 9 (that goes to 52.XX, 53.XX)...... but if you are using them for a GF4 4200 go that doesn't really matter because it is a DX8.1 card and doesn't support DX9 features
For those of you who are wondering "does this mean I can't play DX9 games?" Well, the response is that actually you can, the games will run perfectly well. It just means that the DX9 features that your graphics card doesn't support will not be featured in gameplay, which is no big hassle at all (you don't really notice too much of a difference... at least in the DX9 games released to date).
Hope that helps
stu
jquirke
5 Posts
0
November 24th, 2003 05:00
There are no decent video drivers in existence unfortunately. The Dell ones [aren't very good] (can't believe the filter blocks su*k) - have power management issues when closing the LCD at the XP login screen - often resulting in the screen not been powered back on.
I have similar PC specification to you (I8500, GF4 4200, P42.4, WUXGA). I have tried so many different drivers, including forcing the NVidia Detonators and Forceware. Here is my summary:
Detonator 44.23 - power issues fixed, however secondary monitor can have problems when playing back DVD, Digital TV (i.e. half the screen is missing), whether its VGA or TV out
Detonator 44.33 - power issues have come back
Forceware 51.26 - power issues have come back
I'm really unimpressed by Dell's unwillingness to resolve the situation. I've given up now, I just don't have the time to pursue this anymore. Occassionally I pop in here to check if anyone's come across a solution, but that's it.