306.23 SLI Driver issues - fixed and would like to share my experience with OCN - Page 3

here is a side question with this. Do I need to install all this 3d vision and 3d controller drivers. Or even the HD audio. Or all those important stuff for gaming? Or are they just the 3d drivers for 3d glasses type stuff?

Im going to run the test and see if 306.23 with 301.42 physical X drivers gives better benchmarkings. But I wanna dumb down the install stuff if I don't need it first.

Im gonna see what these drives will do to my sli 480's later tonight

Test number 3: 306.23 graphic drivers with 301.43 physical X drivers on clean install. tests where ran all the same in the same OC setting upon a fresh restart.

Results of test 3 is sees a 10 plus fps gain on the max min. With an middle avg fps. The score is not as high as a full 306 install but better slightly then a 301 install.


Now which is more stable and better for gaming. that's tough. I will try this out in Mechwarrior online beta to see if I notice any difference. Since they run a crysis engine. But sadly they don't have an sli profile for it yet. Some people are saying you can force sli or use another profile but I have zero Idea how to do that.

Edit: hah forgot to add my conclusion....

So from the 3 test I have done I have concluded that the installing 301.43 as a fresh install then installing 306.23 graphic drivers over it leaving the physical X drivers at 301.43 yield a higher overall rating. Yes the score is higher on test 2 BUT 1 fps for a min/max gain of 10 plus fps base is worth the lose of that frame per second. Stating in other words that the 306 physical X drivers are either geared for the 600 series and or Borderland 2 settings. So yes Byod was correct in seeing an issue with the new drivers . This work around will ensure the 400 series cards in SLi get the maximum out of the drivers.

+rep for Byod +10 rep for me benchmarking it!
Edited by CyberDemonz101 - 9/27/12 at 4:48pm

Hey guys i'm going to try this on my SLI GTX 680 Lightnings, to see if the result is any better

Well i just spent a bit of time doing all this, i only used 3D Mark 11 for my testing
I didn't record pictures as i can confirm that the performance on my 680's was lesser with 301.42.
So i went back and installed 306.23

As I pointed out plus looking at patch notes alot of the 306 driver code where ment for the 600 series cards. And nvidia pushed alot of coding into borderlands 2. And kinda flaked on the rest. So the 306.23 drivers and physical x drivers give a performance gain to 600 series cards and we lose out on the 400 500 series cards.

Side question. Did you try my 3 methods of testing or just fresh install of 301 and 306 without changing the physical x part?

I also pointed out from one of my other posts I have 2 friends running 680gtx in sli and they are getting close to 250fps on WoW. Yes the game caps at what 60 fps but the fps counter will go to the correct ammount.

But thank you for your help in testing the drivers to see if this was an issue with all cards or just some.

If anyone has a 500 series card in sli I'd like you to try the 3 tests I did and see what results you get.

Test 1: 306.23 drivers on fresh install
Test 2: 301.43 drivers on fresh install
Test 3: 306.13 graphic and 3d drivers with 301.43 physical x drivers.

All must be done in custom installation. I also did mine with a fresh boot up after installing the drivers. I also did the test 15 mind apart to let the gpu's cool off a tad. to give the same conditions.

New Beta NVIDIA GeForce 306.63

These have the same larger shared system memory size like regular Geforce drivers.
305.53 and 305.67 had 1024mb, 306.63 has 2816mb.

Windows driver version 306.63 and Linux drivers version 304.15.00.03 provide beta support for OpenGL 4.3 and GLSL 4.30 on capable hardware.
OpenGL 4.3 Driver Release Notes

You will need any one of the following Fermi or Kepler based GPUs to get access to the OpenGL 4.3 and GLSL 4.30 functionality:

Quadro series: 6000, 600, 5000, 410, 4000, 400, 2000D, 2000
GeForce 600 series: GTX 690, GTX 680, GTX 670, GT 645, GT 640, GT 630, GT 620, GT 610, 605
GeForce 500 series: GTX 590, GTX 580, GTX 570, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 560 SE, GTX 560, GTX 555, GTX 550 Ti, GT 545, GT 530, GT 520, 510
GeForce 400 series: GTX 480, GTX 470, GTX 465, GTX 460 v2, GTX 460 SE v2, GTX 460 SE, GTX 460, GTS 450, GT 440, GT 430, GT 420, 405

All the extensions listed below are part of the OpenGL 4.3 core specification, but they can also be used in contexts below OpenGL 4.3 on supported hardware.

For OpenGL 3 capable hardware, these new extensions are provided:

ARB_arrays_of_arrays
ARB_clear_buffer_object
ARB_copy_image
ARB_ES3_compatibility
ARB_explicit_uniform_location
ARB_fragment_layer_viewport
ARB_framebuffer_no_attachments
ARB_internalformat_query2
ARB_invalidate_subdata
ARB_program_interface_query
ARB_robust_buffer_access_behavior
ARB_stencil_texturing
ARB_texture_buffer_range
ARB_texture_query_levels
ARB_texture_storage_multisample
ARB_texture_view
ARB_vertex_attrib_binding
KHR_debug

For OpenGL 4 capable hardware, these new extensions are provided:

ARB_compute_shader
ARB_multi_draw_indirect
ARB_shader_image_size
ARB_shader_storage_buffer_object

The OpenGL 4.3 and GLSL 4.30 specifications, and all ARB extension specifications, can be downloaded here: http://www.opengl.org/registry/

For any bugs or issues, please file a bug through the developer website: https://nvdeveloper.nvidia.com/
Edited by Buzzkill - 9/28/12 at 3:52pm

Interesting BENCHMARK TIME!!!!!! I'll get results later on what tests I ran to see. But I will do a straight 306.63 and a 306.63 with 301.43 physical x drivers.