Nvidia ForceWare 66.31

[DjmUK]

I remember seeing a post about the 65.76 drivers, but don't recall any info on the 66.xx range. So here we are:

Station Drivers got their grubby little paws on ForceWare 66.31. The files are dated on the 25th of August 2004 and will work with GeForce FX and upwards. This driver has been WHQL classified.

We haven't had time to test these fully and bare in mind they are not WHQL so please be careful. We do not know where these drivers originate from.

The driver includes a handy setup.exe and international language files. We recompressed it towards a 15MB file-size.

Remember, these driver need to be considered Beta, use them at your own risk. If you give the drivers a try then be sure to let us know your experiences in our NVIDIA driver forums.

As always we adware and virus checked the files.

Source: Guru3D

Downloads

Mirror 1: Download (Europe)

Mirror 2: Download (Europe)

Mirror 3: Download (Europe)

Mirror 4: Download (America)

Mirror 5: Download (Australia)

[DjmUK]

After analysing the drivers .inf files I noticed that the following cards have been removed:

Nvidia GeForce 6610 XL (available in 65.76)

Nvidia GeForce 6800 LE (available in 61.77)

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

First off as always thanks for the heads up Djm (Y)

I just finally got around to installing the 65.76's about 3 days ago, so I am a little hesitant to try these out because so far so good with the 65.76's, but I think I am going to try these out just for the hell of it.

[SidVicious]

Good drivers...works fine here. :)

[Electronic Punk]

Ah well, I have 66.60 here ;)

[blueshirt]

What does WHQL classified mean?

[Electronic Punk]

It means it has been thru Microsofts lab and has been certified that it runs at spec.

So **** all really.

[Symbiotic Hat]

I've tried the 65.76, 66.00, & the 66.31. The 66.00 is by far the best one of the 3. I get a massive FPS increase in Doom3 with them. I recommend you try them.

[Electronic Punk]

Well I got 66.60 last night from NVIDIA to test something in UT2004, but so far they just look like the other 66.xx series, but I haven't really had any time to play with them.

[dreamthief]

I've tried the 65.76, 66.00, & the 66.31. The 66.00 is by far the best one of the 3. I get a massive FPS increase in Doom3 with them. I recommend you try them.

don't just look at the FPS. What bout the image quality? At 4X, 8X AA?

[DjmUK]

Well I got 66.60 last night from NVIDIA to test something in UT2004, but so far they just look like the other 66.xx series, but I haven't really had any time to play with them.

66.60 isn't on Nvidia's website that I can tell. Unless you're a beta tester.

[Electronic Punk]

Yeah, I was helping them test something with UT2004 - which turned out to be DEP, SP2 and Athlon64 related.

But I am gonna hang on to the drivers and give them a work out all the same.

The latest version beta testers have access to is 66.25, which are newer than these 66.31, bizarrely.

As with these internal beta version tho, 66.60 is tagged so I won't be distributing them.

[Nathanael]

Aren't these kind of old (been on Guru3d for sometime now)?

Anyway they work fine for me.

THNX.

[DjmUK]

66.25 newer than 66.31 - interesting, it's really wierd all of those betas floating around...too many if you ask me, and I always thought the higher the number - the newer they are.

Any idea when the next official drivers will be released? and what version number they will be? (if you're allowed to disclose the info.)

For example:

September > 66.60

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Any idea when the next official drivers will be released? and what version number they will be? (if you're allowed to disclose the info.)

For example:

September > 66.60

I would not mind knowing this myself, and I agree, there are almost to many Beta Drivers floating around.

I tried these drivers out last night, did not get a chance to do any hardcore gaming with them, but since Call OD Duty Untied Offensive should be in my hands either later today or tomorrow I figure that will be a good test.

one thin I did notice right away though is that the Control Panel is definitely stripped down compared to the 65.76's. I did not get a chance to poke around all that much though, but it is one thing I noticed.

[Electronic Punk]

Well I was told that the next ones would be 70.xx !

But then the Quadro 65.xx were released

No eta sadly.

[DjmUK]

70.xx - then why are they bothering with the 66.xx range, they'll have to go through the whole range:

66.xx

67.xx

68.xx

69.xx

70.01 (beta)

So the next WHQL official drivers from Nvidia are from 61.77 > 70.xx (during that time they could of released some driver updates). They might also change the name again Detonator > ForceWare > Something Else.

[Electronic Punk]

From what I know each series is developed seperately.

Rel5 was for the Geforce 4 range.

Rel6 was for the GeforceFX range

Rel65 (65.xx etc.) was going to be for the GeForce6 range, but development on 7 is going so well they have decided to wait.

So even tho Rel6 support the Geforce 6 series, they are only tapping the surface.

And I think Forceware was a horrible name, I also joked that the next range (a few months ago) would be called Geforce 6, but there was no reply :D

[DjmUK]

Does your 66.60 contain SLI codes? I mean, the 61.77 does NOT support SLI because it wasn't invented then ;) so I was wondering when the SLI optimised drivers come out - because they'll need to be shipped with the SLI cards themselves (whenever they get released in the UK).

Wouldn't it of made more sense if (not sure what Rel stands for):

Rel3 = GeForce 3 Range

Rel4 = GeForce 4 Range

Rel5 = GeForce 5/FX Range

Rel6 = GeForce 6 Range (inc. 6600, 6800 & 6900 Range [still no word on 6900 officially])

Rel7 = GeForce 7 Range (long time until those babies come out)

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Does your 66.60 contain SLI codes?

I am not sure what you mean by 'codes" as I just download a driver, install it, and then play games to see if my FPS is the same and I do not see any noticeable tearing or graphic related glitches, and of course that they work, and then they get the stamp of approval from me.

With that said, one of the new additions I did notice in the Control Panel was "Multi-GPU"

I must admit, I am very, very tempted to try this SLI out one day, although the logical part of me says no need and you are crazy for even thinking about it... however as soon as nForce 4 based mobo's hit the market, I am upgrading my entire system minus the card, and my girlfriend and my mom are asking what I want for my 30th birthday coming up in December, so you never know...

Edited September 14, 2004 by DirtyLarry

[DjmUK]

Instead of 'codes' I should of wrote 'capable'. I'm not sure which drivers are SLI capable, but I guess I need to have an SLI card for the drivers to detect it and display the options (like in the above post).

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Instead of 'codes' I should of wrote 'capable'. I'm not sure which drivers are SLI capable, but I guess I need to have an SLI card for the drivers to detect it and display the options (like in the above post).

LOL Okay that makes more sense, I thought I was missing out on some secret something there, and I wanted to know what the "codes' were myself ;)

I have not gone crazy and tried every beta driver out there, but I have had my 6800 for almost 2 months now, and I am pretty damn sure this is the first set I have personally seen that SLI "Multi-GPU" option in the Control Panel. I don't think the older ones had this option, but i really don't remember for sure or not. So these very well may be the first drivers that have that capability. Now my curiosity is peeked as well.

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

I've been using 66.31 for a few weeks now, and I like them alot ;)

[$ick]

Is there anywhere i can purchase a 6600 GT yet?