Futuremark Disabling Certain NVIDIA Driver Results

[TS | Thomas]

"FYI, we just decided to disable (at least for the time being) all current submitted results using the questionable drivers, Detonator 42.67, 42.68 & 42.69. This means that the current results are not deleted, but disabled from being published. We encourage you to use only officially released, &/or WHQL'ed drivers, as results run with the above-mentioned driver versions will be disabled.

The reason for this is that the drivers have been officially stated as optimized for 3DMark03, & we can not verify the purity & integrity of the drivers. We are investigating the drivers & their effect on 3DMark03 - both performance & the rendering quality (ie. image quality)."

Would you like to know more? I do recall reading that these "press drivers" NVIDIA released did improve 3D Mark 2003 performance, albeit by not rendering certain effects. Hmmmm.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

LOL! Man this is funny!
I can picture all the nvidia users out there wondering why the .... they can't find any published scores with recent drivers....

Here is a short answer by Ati to what has happened...

I especially liked this part:

Originally said by Terry Makedon (ATI's Software Product Manager)
Looking at NVIDIA we notice they have not posted a WHQL certified driver on their web site since August for Windows ME and November for Windows XP.

 

[negroplasty]

As much as I like NVIDIA, what they did was wrong; and quite frankly, they deserve what they get. Now all scores for both NVIDIA and ATi will be REAL. Although I must say, I think that the 3D Mark 03 scoring is slightly bias to ATi cards; but either way, NVIDIA will prevail.

As for your

ATi FanATIc's

, I think a better label would be NVIDIA H8eRs. You never hear of NVIDIA fan sites bad mouthing ATi do you? (At least none that I have heard of) (Even when NVIDIA had the higher performing GPUs) Perhaps it is just that you ATi fans have so much to fear from your competition. For now ATi may have the fastest card on the market (not for much longer), ATi's pathetic excuse for drivers puts all of their previous efforts down the drain. At least NVIDIA drivers (WHQL or not) will actually run more than 90% of games and 3D applications you throw at them, which is more than I can say for the CATALYST drivers.

BTW, I mean no disrespect.

 

[warr]

i do hear NV fans slamming ATI, S3.

 

[Th3M1ghtyD8]

Originally posted by timmoore
As much as I like NVIDIA, what they did was wrong; and quite frankly, they deserve what they get. Now all scores for both NVIDIA and ATi will be REAL. Although I must say, I think that the 3D Mark 03 scoring is slightly bias to ATi cards; but either way, NVIDIA will prevail.

Maybe because the 9500/9700 Series were the only DX9 Cards available to test at the time. NVIDIA may prevail eventually, but obviously only by resorting to cheating, which does nothing other than confuse users. NVIDIA had plently of time to produce a faster card than the 9700Pro if they had wanted, but instead release a £400 Vacuum Cleaner, which is in some tests slower than their GF4Ti4600.

Perhaps it is just that you ATi fans have so much to fear from your competition.

The only competition I have to fear at the moment is a new ATi Card, NVIDIA had there chance to release a card faster than a 9700Pro but didn't.

For now ATi may have the fastest card on the market (not for much longer), ATi's pathetic excuse for drivers puts all of their previous efforts down the drain. At least NVIDIA drivers (WHQL or not) will actually run more than 90% of games and 3D applications you throw at them, which is more than I can say for the CATALYST drivers.

NVIDIA have had the Detonator Unified Driver System for a lot longer than ATi has been developing Catalysts. NVIDIA has had plently of time to ensure games are compatible with their drivers, but even still the infamous Via/NVIDIA infinite loop error can still crop up. If you want a fair test between driver sets go back to around detonator 23.12 and see how it copes with most new games (Rallisport Challenge and Freelancer spring to mind).

I know which card is the best performing card of the moment and I am very happy with it, if you are happy with NVIDIA Hairdryers then fine, or if you want to use a 1Mb ISA Trident Card, then it doesn't really bother me. I am not an NVIDIA hater or anything like that (My last card was a GF3Ti200 which was the best performance/value card at the time)