Nvidia GeForce driver update: 296.16

[imelqui]

Because Asus don't have published nothing yet!

really?thought they released it a few days ago. guess i need patience. hehehe

[AQUASTEVAE]

thnx for this,but id like to have the driver release from asus. the 296.16 version from asus.

why would you ever want a driver released from asus? asus is famous for having screwy drivers, that are poorly written. mean while, the manufacturer does a good job. the first thing i got rid of on my machine was the asus update. it always led to old, out dated poorly written drivers. these machines run ten times better when you have minimum to no asus apps running on them.

[Zygomorphic]

@AQUASTEVE is right. ASUS drivers are rather poorly supported. This 296.16 driver in the pipeline is the first update in almost a year. In that time, nVidia has pushed at least three driver updates that I can recall. Starting from a few updates back, they are officially supporting the ASUS G53SX with the reference drivers. While having official ASUS approval is nice, all the sweet tweaks for games such as Skyrim are not available.

I have been running the reference drivers for some time, and I have had exactly zero problems with them. Kudos to nVidia for the great work. Even the beta drivers run reliably. John Carmack, the legendary computer game developer noted the same concerning the quality of their drivers:
PCG: If you were to buy a graphics card right now, what would you get?

John Carmack: Let me caution this by saying that this is not necessarily a benchmarked result. We’ve had closer relationships with Nvidia over the years, and my systems have had Nvidia cards in them for generations. We have more personal ties with Nvidia. As I understand it, ATI/AMD cards are winning a lot of the benchmarks right now for when you straight-out make synthetic benchmarks for things like that, but our games do get more hands-on polish time on the Nvidia side of things.

Nvidia does have a stronger dev-relations team. I can always drop an email for an obscure question. So its more of a socio-cultural decision there rather than a raw “Which hardware is better.” Although that does feed back into it, when you’ve got the dev-relation team that is deeply intertwined with the development studio. That tends to make your hardware, in some cases, come out better than what it truly is, because it’s got more of the software side behind it.

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/05/11/id-softwares-john-carmack-picks-a-side-in-the-nvidiaamd-gpu-war/

[Symho]

@AQUASTEVE is right. ASUS drivers are rather poorly supported. This 296.16 driver in the pipeline is the first update in almost a year. In that time, nVidia has pushed at least three driver updates that I can recall. Starting from a few updates back, they are officially supporting the ASUS G53SX with the reference drivers. While having official ASUS approval is nice, all the sweet tweaks for games such as Skyrim are not available.

I have been running the reference drivers for some time, and I have had exactly zero problems with them. Kudos to nVidia for the great work. Even the beta drivers run reliably. John Carmack, the legendary computer game developer noted the same concerning the quality of their drivers:
PCG: If you were to buy a graphics card right now, what would you get?

John Carmack: Let me caution this by saying that this is not necessarily a benchmarked result. WeÂ’ve had closer relationships with Nvidia over the years, and my systems have had Nvidia cards in them for generations. We have more personal ties with Nvidia. As I understand it, ATI/AMD cards are winning a lot of the benchmarks right now for when you straight-out make synthetic benchmarks for things like that, but our games do get more hands-on polish time on the Nvidia side of things.

Nvidia does have a stronger dev-relations team. I can always drop an email for an obscure question. So its more of a socio-cultural decision there rather than a raw “Which hardware is better.” Although that does feed back into it, when you’ve got the dev-relation team that is deeply intertwined with the development studio. That tends to make your hardware, in some cases, come out better than what it truly is, because it’s got more of the software side behind it.

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/05/11/id-softwares-john-carmack-picks-a-side-in-the-nvidiaamd-gpu-war/

Carmack doesn't work in Asus! So this post is useless.

The GPU in our note is custom and it need, for work properly, a driver custom by development of Asus and Nvidia!

IMHO

[Zygomorphic]

My point is that nVidia has the best driver support for their cards, custom or otherwise. I know John Carmack does not work for ASUS, but the point is that an independent game developer considers nVidia's work superior to AMD. While a bit lengthy, the punch-line is the last one, in which he acknowledges that the support is better, which applies to all cards. In other words, nVidia's drivers work. Like I said, I run my G53SX with the reference drivers, and it works perfectly. Their driver support for "custom" cards is incredible.

Anyway, what is custom about the card? It runs on the standard PCIe x16 lanes, without Optimus. The LCD is directly connected to the nVidia card--unlike Optimus--making it effectively a reference design. A custom form factor, maybe, but a custom logic card--no. Apple does the custom cards, as I think Sony does also. ASUS, to the extent of my knowledge does not. @Symho, do you actually work for ASUS?

[tegnebok]

nice, will this do something to the 3D?

[Symho]

My point is that nVidia has the best driver support for their cards, custom or otherwise. I know John Carmack does not work for ASUS, but the point is that an independent game developer considers nVidia's work superior to AMD. While a bit lengthy, the punch-line is the last one, in which he acknowledges that the support is better, which applies to all cards. In other words, nVidia's drivers work. Like I said, I run my G53SX with the reference drivers, and it works perfectly. Their driver support for "custom" cards is incredible.

Anyway, what is custom about the card? It runs on the standard PCIe x16 lanes, without Optimus. The LCD is directly connected to the nVidia card--unlike Optimus--making it effectively a reference design. A custom form factor, maybe, but a custom logic card--no. Apple does the custom cards, as I think Sony does also. ASUS, to the extent of my knowledge does not. @Symho, do you actually work for ASUS?

No, i don't work for ASUS simply follow the logic. If is it unnecessary the ASUS's driver they don't develop and public nothing on web; ask to Marshall and you will see that i'm right! So you can use your PC in each way you think better.

[Zygomorphic]

@Symho I think we are arguing two different things. If I have offended/annoyed you, please accept my apologies.

By the same logic, it might be true that ASUS does have poor driver support. They recognize that their computer is compatible with the nVidia reference drivers, and the majority of users will see this on nVidia's website and un the latest nVidia reference drivers. If the majority of users run the latest reference drivers, what is the point in spending the time and money to certify another driver, if the latest nVidia ones function flawlessly? A few drivers will be certified, yes, so that the troubleshooting tech support team has something to direct users to.

ASUS is primarily--read almost exclusively--a hardware vendor, so their software division is much smaller. Apple, on the other hand, runs non-reference hardware. Thus, because the nVidia/AMD reference drivers are incompatible--I think--, they must periodically release updated drivers so that their hardware does not fall behind in driver support. ASUS run reference hardware, so nVidia's updating policy covers them with no extra trouble. nVidia, in an effort to keep support of the gaming community--and developers--, must continue to update drivers with tweaks and patches.

All the same, kudos to ASUS for being in the process of certifying another driver. Way to go @Marshall! Who knows @technebok, they might introduce 3D support!

[AQUASTEVAE]

The GPU in our note is custom and it need, for work properly, a driver custom by development of Asus and Nvidia!

IMHO

i don't believe this at all. what is your reference? link? i always run clean drivers from the manufacturer, which have nothing to do with asus, and they work perfectly. as a matter of fact, i would say that a large number of the complaints and problems on this board are because people are using asus crap on their computers, which cause more problems than they give good results.
i have the g74sx dh71, and it runs perfectly without any asus crap on it. i have never experienced all the problems listed all over this board, because i got rid of the asus crap on it the day i received it.
so i'm calling you out to show proof of what you say. i'm waiting for your response...

[AQUASTEVAE]

No, i don't work for ASUS simply follow the logic. If is it unnecessary the ASUS's driver they don't develop and public nothing on web; ask to Marshall and you will see that i'm right! So you can use your PC in each way you think better.

sorry, but there is NO logic there. using drivers from a company that has a long history of writing terrible software, over the top of other terrible software is not logical. you might want to get a dictionary and look up the term, so that you better understand it.