nVidia sucks

[vonduus]

So after spending the whole weekend and most of today fixing driver problems, I finally got everything to work (I hope). As always it is the nVidia drivers that screws everything up. I had to use Universal Extractor to get inside the 196.21 driver pack, so I could manually install the missing drivers for what Device Manager falsely believed was a coprocessor. It wasn't, what I got was a lot of extra system elements.

What is most annoying is that even if right now I feel like I am a real expert capable of fixing all kinds of driver related problems, I know that in a month or two, I will certainly have forgotten everything that i have learned the last few days, and then there will be a new screw-up. 

If anyone here knows about nVidia drivers, please tell me why Windows Update says my Geforce driver is up to date, when there is a newer one on nVidias home page?

And don't tell me that I should never, ever install nVidia stuff on my computer, as someone kindly suggested some time ago - my rig is based on an ASUS motherboard, so there is no way I can get it to work without nVidia, afaik. 

[XRsyst]

I used an 8800GT for a few years with 0 issues.  As far as graphics drivers go, don't believe what windows update says, it's always hopelessly out dated.

Your motherboard shouldn't affect what graphics card you can use.  Your mobo might have an nVidia north/south bridge, but even then it'll work with any other good video card.  Even if your mobo does SLI.

[dumpsterKEEPER]

It's interesting that you've had so many problems with nVidia. I've run a lot of ASUS boards (both ATI and nVidia based) at work and at home and have had very few problems with them.

Personally, I wouldn't go with Windows Update for system drivers whenever possible. When setting up a new system, I pull the latest drivers off of nVidia's site and install them first thing. This includes both mainboard drivers and graphics drivers as applicable. Windows Update tends to provide you with a very safe, stable (read: old) option while nVidia's site will give you the latest version.

Your motherboard shouldn't affect what graphics card you can use.  Your mobo might have an nVidia north/south bridge, but even then it'll work with any other good video card.  Even if your mobo does SLI.

Typically, the motherboard shouldn't affect your graphics card much, with a few caveats. In my experience, I find it best to match the motherboard chipset with the graphics card for the best performance and stability. In particular, running an ATI card on an nVidia board can cause instability. Additionally, if you're wanting to get into hybrid SLI (SLI between the onboard graphics and an external card) then obviously you'll be restricted in your choice of cards (although honestly, I've never known anyone to actually run hybrid SLI).

[Spikey00]

I also find that Windows Update fails at finding the most current--not sure why, as they should have a centralized source by now.

Though in the past I've had some issues with drivers--some where moving the cursor would actually lag the game quite significantly.  This was with the official nVidia drivers, so I went with X-treme G/etc. drivers that offer various improvements (so as they say) to performance; squeezing the lemon.

[vonduus]

Thanks all of you. I made a mistake when I referred to the 196.21 pack, what I meant was the 15.49 nForce pack. Somehow it didn't install the Awy drivers, and what took me so long was to figure out how to unpack that exe-file and install the Awy component manually. I am not a computer wiz.

The reason why I am a bit sceptical towards the new nVidia gfx drivers is that 196.21 seems to work fine on the software I have tested so far. In the past I have had all sorts of strange problems that ultimately could be solved by rolling back the drivers. So I thought: why fix it if it ain't broken?

I will check out the X-treme drivers, I always like to have a choice.

[Echo35]

I've had a LOT of ASUS issues in the past (Including going through 3 of a particular model and having to RMA them because they consistently failed, and the 3rd one actually very nearly caught fire) but I've never had issues with nVidia itself. Drivers are super easy (Just DL and install the latest one on the website, it's really not complicated, especially since most models have a universal driver anyway). Same goes with the nForce drivers too, except for the network manager, which I've had a number of issues with.