NVIDIA FORCEWARE v66.93 REVIEW

"In this review we test the Nvidia Forceware driver 66.93 to 61.77 and 56.72 using 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003, 3dmark 2005, Doom3, Tribes Vengeance, Xpand Rally, Colin Mcrae 2005, Painkiller, Prince of Persia, Rally Trophy, Scrapland and Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War."

In this article we compare the recently released 66.93 drivers to the previous 61.77 and 56.72 drivers using software such as 3dmark 2005, Doom3, Tribes Vengeance, Xpand Rally, Colin Mcrae 2005, Painkiller, Prince of Persia - Warrior Within, Rally Trophy, Scrapland and Warhammer 40K - Dawn of War.

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR	AMD ATHLON XP 3200
VIDEO CARD	MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT
NVIDIA DRIVER	FORCEWARE v66.93
	FORCEWARE v61.77
	FORCEWARE v56.72
MOTHERBOARD	ASROCK K7S8XE+
MEMORY	2x 512MB OCZ GOLD XTC PC3200 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM	WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 2
DIRECTX VERSION	v9.0c

QUAKE III ARENA

1024x768

	280
	276
	280

1024x768 (4xAA & 8xAF)

	188
	184
	184

v56.72 v61.77 v66.93

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Four.dm68 Benchmark
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Compress Disabled
Lightmap Lighting
High Geometric Detail
Full Texture Detail
Trilinear Texture Filtering

COMMENT - "Quake 3 Arena is the oldest game featured in this 66.93 driver review and all the drivers have been fully optimised for this game so the results are very close. However out of the three drivers tested the 56.72 driver offers the best Quake 3 performance but only by about 3%."

TRIBES VENGEANCE

MEDIUM QUALITY

	73
	77
	80

HIGH QUALITY

	48
	54
	57

ULTRA HIGH QUALITY

	32
	32
	33

v56.72 v61.77 v66.93

COMMENT - "Tribes Vengeance is a much more modern game compared to Quake 3 and here we see that new drivers are able to increase performance. Using medium quality settings the 66.93 drivers increased performance by 9%. Using high quality settings the 66.93 drivers increased performance by an impressive 16% and at ultra high quality we became video card limited. However the 66.93 drivers still managed to increase performance by 4%."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
1024x768 Resolution
Imperial Arena level

MEDIUM QUALITY
Bump Map Detail Low
Texture Detail Medium
Terrain Micro Enabled
Fluid Surface Detail Medium
Fogging Distance Medium
Dynamic Shadow Medium
Glow Detail Medium
Terrain Deco Disabled
World Detail Medium
V2.0 Pixel Shaders Disabled

HIGH QUALITY
Bump Map Detail High
Texture Detail High
Terrain Micro Enabled
Fluid Surface Detail UHigh
Fogging Distance High
Dynamic Shadow High
Glow Detail High
Terrain Deco Enabled
World Detail High
V2.0 Pixel Shaders Disabled

ULTRA HIGH QUALITY
Bump Map Detail Ultra High
Texture Detail Ultra High
Terrain Micro Enabled
Fluid Surface Detail UHigh
Fogging Distance Ultra High
Dynamic Shadow Ultra High
Glow Detail Ultra High
Terrain Deco Enabled
World Detail Ultra High
V2.0 Pixel Shaders Enabled

UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004

BRIDGE OF FATE

	106
	106
	106

CONVOY

	53
	53
	53

TORLAN

	73
	73
	75

v56.72 v61.77 v66.93

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Direct3D Render Device
1024x768 Resolution
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Detail Normal
Character Detail Normal
World Detail High
Physics Detail High
Decal Stay High
Full Character Shadows
Full Fog Distance
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Coronas Enabled
Trilinear Filtering Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled
Weather Effects Enabled

COMMENT - "It appears that all of the drivers have been fully optimised for Unreal Tournament 2004 and there is hardly any difference in performance. However with the Torlan benchmark the 66.93 drivers are able to increase performance by 3% which was very unexpected."

NVIDIA FORCEWARE v66.93 REVIEW INDEX

PAGE 1 - NVIDIA FORCEWARE v66.93 INTRODUCTION

PAGE 2 - TRIBES VENGEANCE AND UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004

PAGE 3 - OTHER GAME BENCHMARKS

HOME = CPU - MOTHERBOARD - NEWS - 3D BENCH - SITEMAP - TECH - VIDEO CARD - BYTE NEWS - BLOG - LINKS

I hope you enjoy my reviews on nvidia video cards, be sure to use this information when picking out a new nvidia video card that's right for your needs

LATEST REVIEWS

AMD FX 6100 VS AMD FX 8150
HIS RADEON HD 7950
AMD A6 3650 VS ATHLON X3 455
ASUS RADEON HD 7970
AMD PHENOM II X4 960T
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 7970
AMD A6 3650 VS AMD A8 3850
AMD A8 3850 VS ATHLON X3 455
INTEL CORE i5 2500 VS FX 8150
AMD FX 8150 VS X6 1100T
PHENOM II X6 1100T VS i5 2500K
INTEL CORE i3 2100 VS CORE i3 530
INTEL CORE i3 530 VS AMD X3 455
INTEL CORE i3 2100 VS AMD X3 455
CORE i5 2500K VS PHENOM II 970
AMD PHENOM II X4 970 VS X4 955
AMD ATHLON II X3 455 VS X4 620
AMD ATHLON II X3 455 VS X2 560
AMD ATHLON II X3 455 VS X2 265
AMD ATHLON II X3 455
AMD ATHLON II X3 435
AMD PHENOM II X2 560 VS X4 645
AMD PHENOM II X2 560 VS X4 955
CORE i3 2120 VS PHENOM II 955
CORE i3 2120 VS PHENOM II 560
INTEL CORE i3 2120
AMD ATHLON II X4 620
AMD PHENOM II X4 955
AMD PHENOM II X2 560
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6850
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6770
HIS RADEON HD 6850
PALIT GEFORCE GTX 460 SONIC
POWERCOLOR RADEON 6790
PALIT GEFORCE GTX 550
PALIT GEFORCE GTX 560
AMD ATHLON II X4 645
PALIT GEFORCE GTS 450 SONIC
PALIT GEFORCE GTS 450
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6970