back to article Nvidia gamers hit trifecta with driver, optimizer, and mobile upgrades

Monday was a busy day for the gaming guys and gals at Nvidia, with the release of a new beta DirectX 11 driver, version 2.0 of the multi-talented GeForce Experience gaming enhancer, and an update to the company's Shield mobile gaming device that includes Android 4.4.2, aka KitKat. "Our new 337.50 Beta driver enhances the …

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  1. M Gale

    The Shield?

    You mean it's actually been released now?

    Yeah, there's your problem right there. Try marketing the thing.

  2. john devoy

    It was just a shame these new drivers cause an instant crash on my system when i try to run minecraft; uninstalled within 30 mins.

  3. Filippo Silver badge

    Drivers

    The last two "certified" WHQL drivers crash when playing The Secret World on Windows 8 about every hour. And not your regular crash-to-desktop either; you get a black screen, fans spinning to max on the card, and a message from the OS saying that the driver stopped responding and was restarted.

    The previous ones fortunately only crash once in a while, but when they do they bring down the whole system. As in, hard reset required. Both these issues have been confirmed by multiple users.

    Just when I finally get tired of AMD's crap drivers and decide to switch to Nvidia, this is what I get. Makes sense.

    1. Tom 260

      Re: Drivers

      I had a 550Ti that caused BSODs on my Win7 system (while web browsing, didn't matter if it was Firefox or Chrome) with any drivers newer than March 2013, so crap drivers abound on both sides. Saying that I'm happy with my current ATI card & drivers (or AMD as I guess I should call it these days).

  4. M Gale

    These are beta drivers.

    You don't like crashes, glitches, BSODs, fire, explosion, war, famine, pestilence or death?

    Then don't install them.

    You want the bleeding edge and don't care how buggy it is?

    Well, then go right ahead, but be aware that here be dragons. They're hungry, you're crunchy, and taste good with ketchup.

    Simples. I've not had a graphics driver related crash in recent years, neither with my old AMD 5750, or the newer Nvidia GTX650. However, I don't install beta graphics drivers.

    1. CliffR

      Re: These are beta drivers.

      I know what to expect with beta drivers, but I also experience the same instability with the certified drivers.

      I had a similar experience to others. I moved from AMD to Nvidia due to getting fed up with having driver issues. Since Nvidia GeForce Experience was released I've had numerous crashes with the certified drivers. I'd consider the beta drivers only if they have fixes for the crashes that I experience with the certified versions.

      It seems to be par for the course these days that a graphics driver update requires at least 2 hours of my time, a trawl of support forums and making sure I have a legacy "working" driver package that I can roll back to 75% of the time.

    2. foxyshadis

      Re: These are beta drivers.

      Don't stick your head in the sand, full release drivers from all of of major vendors have crash bugs too, especially with non-AAA or newly released games. Check any forums. They're merely less common with release versions, which is reason enough for me to stick with them as I get older.

  5. Sil

    Uninstall

    For the first time in years I had troubles with a NVIDIA beta. Windows didn't like it, deactivated it and I ended up with one screen lost and the other in low res.

    I had to uninstall it and revert to previous driver.

    (I have a GTX 680)

    Not sure if this is an isolated case or not.

    1. Gareth Jones

      Re: Uninstall

      Ditto on Windows 8.1. One screen down and a reboot dropped the primary to VGA. Could be an install failure as only the old driver was listed in Add/Remove Programs (yes, I know the name's changed but this is clearer). A rollback of the driver fixed the problem...albeit slowly.

  6. Clive Galway

    You missed an important development

    ShadowPlay now has two important new features:

    Desktop recording.

    You are no longer limited to recording full-screen games.

    Full res recording.

    You can now record in the original resolution.

    Pretty much all that is missing now are the Audio Capture options (ie game on one audio track, VOIP on another)

    Has anyone considered the security or social implications of this?

    For example, would "shadow" desktop recording not be an *anti* boss-key?

    ie your boss walks up, wonders what you were just doing, hits ALT-F10 and voila, shadowplay dumps your last 20mins of desktop activity to a video...

    1. foxyshadis

      Re: You missed an important development

      Boss would just remote in/screen-share if he cares that much.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    remote stream outside of one's home network?

    I know some Shield hobbyists worked it out, but now it's an official modification?

    that's gonna make waiting for the dryers at the laundromat a less boring proposition.

    it may have been a $200 handheld, but with the casual gaming I do, and paying less than $3 usd for most games, saved a fortune over Nintendo or Sony's offering with even crap bargain bin games going for $15, and anything good closer to $50 when tax is done.

    plus, I get the excuse of "I'm a developer" and "working on mobile apps" and use the platform for testing ;)

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