Nvidia’s ForceWare Windows XP drivers now at 169.21

Nvidia's ForceWare Windows XP drivers now at 169.21 - Image 1Graphics chip manufacturer NVIDIA has just released a new version of their ForceWare unified architecture drivers for Windows XP, and version 169.21 marks the latest for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows XP users on NVIDIA 6 Series cards and up. The latest revisions for the 169 driver version line follow at the full story with accompanying changelog.

Nvidia's ForceWare Windows XP drivers now at 169.21 - Image 1 

Brandishing your brand new NVIDIA 8800 GT, are we? Well it’ll be time for a tuned test run, because the engineers from graphics chip manufacturer NVIDIA has let slip its latest stable drivers for the later graphics cards (mobile versions excluded) a few days ago.

Get ready for some performance love, because NVIDIA ForceWare driver version 169.21 packs minor game optimizations for gamers on Windows XP. 169.21 also arrives with adjustments for complaints with Blu-ray and image tuning as well as driver utility functionality.

The most noteworthy of performance fixes come for those lucky gamers on the nForce chipset and packing a dual-card graphics powerhouse via SLI, but there’s also performance gains to be had for those content on a single card.

The 169.21 version set is a Windows XP only affair; the Vista equivalent is at version 169.25 at any bit level. Those maximizing their memory assets on Windows XP 64 will get just a minor, specific fix. Those fixes include:

Windows XP 32-bit

For Single-GPU

All GPUs

  • The NVIDIA Control Panel Run Display Optimization Wizard back button
  • does not work.
  • FEAR–reflection in the puddle flickers.
  • Star Wars: Republic Commando: Application crashes when starting a new game.

GeForce 8 Series GPUs

  • GeForce 8800 GTX: Dungeon Siege 2–the mouse cursor is “laggy” and jittery
  • when CSAA is enabled.
  • GeForce 8800 GTX: Changes in the NVIDIA Control Panel->Adjust Video Color settings has no effect on Blu-ray disc videos.
  • GeForce 8800 GT: Bioshock–a small black square appears during part of the intro sequence when antialiasing is enabled.
  • GeForce 8600: Thief Deadly Shadows–there is texture corruption when using the game control panel default settings.
  • GeForce 8600: There is corruption on the NVIDIA Control Panel->Resize HDTV Desktop page after clicking Apply.
  • GeForce 8500/8400/8300, GeForce 7300 GT: After switching from Dualview mode to VGA single-display mode, the output appears on the DVI in singledisplay mode.

GeForce 7 Series GPUs

  • GeForce 7900 GTX: There is color corruption in the intro clips of Happy Feet
  • VC1 Blu-ray disc with WinDVD.
  • GeForce 7800 GTX: Clicking Cancel after starting the NVIDIA Control Panel
  • “Resize HDTV desktop” function reverts the settings to the default instead of
  • the previous settings.
  • GeForce 7300 GT: There is corruption on the HDMI display when first
  • switching to the HDMI after installing the driver.
  • GeForce 7300 GT: NVRotate is not able to rotate the display from normal
  • mode to 180 degree rotated mode.

GeForce 6 Series GPUs

  • GeForce 6800: Star Wars Empire at War – the application crashes to the
  • desktop after displaying the logo ‘petroglyph’ during launch.
  • GeForce 6600: The NVIDIA Control panel hangs when changing the
  • resolution with SLI mode enabled.

For SLI-Mode

All GPUs

  • [SLI], 3DMark 2005: Intermittent, horizontal, single-pixel width lines are drawn on the screen during CPU Test 1. This issue did not occur with V-Sync enabled.

GeForce 8 Series GPUs

  • [SLI], GeForce 8800 GTX: Stalker–with SLI mode enabled, the game
  • performance does not improve by much.
  • [SLI], GeForce 8600: Roller Coaster Tycoon 3: Soaked–shadows flicker with the default game settings.
  • [SLI], GeForce 8600 GT: Far Cry–there are flickering patches when moving around within the game.

GeForce 7 Series GPUs

  • [SLI], GeForce 7950 GX2, Quad NVIDIA SLI, NVIDIA Control Panel: The SLI performance mode option is visible for individual application profiles after SLI is disabled.
  • [SLI], GeForce 7950 GX2, GeForce 7900 GX2: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas–intro videos are slightly darker when SLI AA is enabled.
  • [SLI], GeForce 7950 GX2, Quad NVIDIA SLI, NVIDIA Control Panel: SLI performance mode setting on an application profile will not reset to defaults once a different option is selected.
  • [SLI], GeForce 7950/7900 GX2, Quad NVIDIA SLI: F.E.A.R.– the UI text
  • occasionally remains on the screen after exiting the game when 16x SLIAA is enabled.
  • [SLI], GeForce 7950 GX2 Quad NVIDIA SLI: The Godfather–the intro videos flash. You can correct the problem by disabling VSync.
  • [SLI], GeForce 7 and 6 Series, SLI: Evolution GT–with SLI mode enabled under any AFR mode, flickering occurs.
  • [SLI], GeForce 7900 GX2 Quad NVIDIA SLI: Tomb Raider: Legend– video playback is warped within an inch of the SLI mode split line.
  • [SLI], GeForce 7950 GX2, Quad NVIDIA SLI: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within–the intro movie does not display after restarting a level if SLI and antialiasing are enabled.
  • [SLI], GeForce 7950 GX2 Quad NVIDIA SLI: Rome:Total War–there is flickering and slow performance when playing the game.

GeForce 6 Series GPUs

  • [SLI] GeForce 6 Series: At switching to 1280×1024, the monitor loses sync upon enabling SLI mode.
  • [SLI], GeForce 6800 GTX: The desktop resolution falls back to 640x480x8bpp when enabling SLI mode.
  • [SLI], GeForce 6600 GT: 3DMark05 – if SLI mode is enabled, a blue-screen crash occurs after setting the resolution to 1600×1200, and enabling 4x antialiasing and trilinear filtering.
  • [SLI], GeForce 6800: SLI mode cannot be enabled on a 30” DFP (native resolution 2560×1600 or 1280×800) when the display is set to a non-native resolution.
  • [SLI], GeForce 6800 GT: Test Drive Unlimited–the game crashes with an error message when SLI16x AA is enabled.
  • [SLI], GeForce 6800, SLI: The character portrait in Dungeon Siege 2 is corrupted.
  • [SLI], GeForce 6600, SLI: With SLI mode enabled, there are corrupt shadows in the Lost Coast benchmark when the application 2x antialiasing is enabled.
  • [SLI], GeForce 6600, SLI: with SLI mode enabled, horizontal segments of terrain in World of Warcraft are shifted out of position, and in other cases the foreground terrain intermittently fails to hide background objects.

Windows XP 64-bit

For Single-GPU

  • GeForce 8500/8400/8300: Parts of the NVIDIA Control Panel “Resize HDTV desktop” page are corrupt or missing.

Via Daily Tech

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