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8800 GT: BootCamp or Nvidia.com drivers?

V

vannibombonato

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
416
306
Dears,
very simple question.
Is there consesus on wether its better to use the outdated BootCamp drivers (im using Vista 32bit) or the latest from Nvidia.com / others?

In case, is there any specific procedure for installing BootCamp drivers or i just donwload and launch the Nvidia ones?

Thanks,

Vanni
 
^squirrel^ said:
nvida drivers everytime! They have never let me down and it's nice to know that it's the latest driver.
Click to expand...

Its sure that if you have a "normal" 8800 on a "normal" pc they're the best thing to do...but are you actually talking about the Mac versions of the 8800gt? Have you tried it yourself ;-) ?

Thanks,

Vanni
 
I can not game with bootcamp or nvidia. All games freeze after max 5 minutes play = hard reboot or if im lucky alt-tab and quit game.
 
I have Mac version of the 8800 and i downloaded the drivers from nvidia.com. I've had faultless gaming and get a better 3dmark score with Nvidia drivers than with boot camp drivers.
 
I had a similar problem with not having aero enabled when I bootcamped. Downloaded the nvidia drivers from the apple site and has been working perfect since. The drivers from the apple site were just the standard nvidia ones with an nvidia installer.

I don't think drivers that are mac specific are required, just the correct ones for your card type and operating system.

Hope you get it sorted :apple:
 
Nvidia drivers works better for me.

I am playing without faults Bioshock and Crysis (demo) at 1600x1200 with all maxed out. Only time I has a slight lag ... is when the antivirus decides to pop up! Gosh, I forgot how these programs work :)
 
I use the Nvidia.com drivers when playing HL2 (all settings on "max") on my XP SP2 in Bootcamp. No problems whatsoever - even in multiple-hour gaming sessions.
 
:D

Always nVidia drivers.

TFT my advice is disable the ethernet card or wifi in device managere for windows and get rid of the antivirus and or other security software, it will only slow things down, after all not much of a reason to let windows connect to the internet if it doesnt absolutely have to.

:D
 
Just about to purchase a Mac Pro with the 8800, do you guys install the official nVidia drivers talked about in this thread, in Windows or OS X?

I'm not sure which platform you are discussing.
 
fatsoforgotso said:
Just about to purchase a Mac Pro with the 8800, do you guys install the official nVidia drivers talked about in this thread, in Windows or OS X?

I'm not sure which platform you are discussing.
Click to expand...

If I may interject. They are talking about Windows. As for the current set of GFX cards only Apple releases OS X drivers.
 
Has anyone done quantitative comparison of gaming fps rates with Boot Camp drivers vs. Nvidia drivers?

I saw a decrease in fps for Unreal Tournament 3 when going from Boot Camp drivers to NVidia ForceWare 171.17. I didn't notice any difference with Crysis.

If you're using NVidia drivers and are really seeing better performance than Boot Camp's drivers, what version are you using?
 
thagomizer said:
Has anyone done quantitative comparison of gaming fps rates with Boot Camp drivers vs. Nvidia drivers?

I saw a decrease in fps for Unreal Tournament 3 when going from Boot Camp drivers to NVidia ForceWare 171.17. I didn't notice any difference with Crysis.

If you're using NVidia drivers and are really seeing better performance than Boot Camp's drivers, what version are you using?
Click to expand...

Have one game only.
On World in Conflict, at something like 1600x900 full detail, on the benchmark test i moved from 26 up to 32 fps average.

Net, something like a 23% increase.
 
You guys have to realize that nVidia hand tunes drivers for games. So when the next big game comes out you will see (then) current drivers perform ok. Then the next set of drivers come out and the performance goes up (usually). Well sometimes older games have performance dropoff because of the way they tune the cards. So if you have a particular game that runs well and then with the next release the performance goes down, if that is the only game you run just go back to the older drivers.
 
hey guys... I'm a newbie to the possibility to switch to Windows. I was about to check bootcamp but you are talking about switching with Nvidia Drivers!? Is there a how to somewhere I could look at? Thanks!
 
I'd follow this order:

1. Use Bootcamp drivers to set things up normally.
2. Download the NVidia drivers.
3. Uninstall your graphics card.
4. Install the NVidia drivers.

with reboots between most steps.
 
ray_uk said:
:D

Always nVidia drivers.

TFT my advice is disable the ethernet card or wifi in device managere for windows and get rid of the antivirus and or other security software, it will only slow things down, after all not much of a reason to let windows connect to the internet if it doesnt absolutely have to.

:D
Click to expand...

It might be a bit difficult to play on-lines games that way, though. And playing games is probably the first reason why we have Bootcamp installed in the first place ;) :D

--Erwin
 
there is no reason to use bootcamp drivers instead of the newest ones. There is nothing specially mac-specific in the bootcamp drivers. They are just updated less frquently.
 
fatsoforgotso said:
Just about to purchase a Mac Pro with the 8800, do you guys install the official nVidia drivers talked about in this thread, in Windows or OS X?

I'm not sure which platform you are discussing.
Click to expand...

Are you serious??!?!
 
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