Exclusive Interview with NVIDIA's Windows Vista PM


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Many of you have read about my displeasure with NVIDIA's support for its graphics cards on Windows Vista. Recently, I got to speak briefly with Andrew Fear, Product Manager on NVIDIA's Windows Vista driver team, where I got to have some of my questions answered. While I wasn't entirely pleased with the actual answers, at least I know that the issues are being addressed, and we're not being ignored. Here's the rundown.

RWM: Can you elaborate on a general timeframe for Vista support? IE: Can you give us general planned dates for new driver releases, if you plan on releasing updated drivers between betas, etc.

AF: NVIDIA has already released our first set of drivers for the Vista Beta 1 release. This can be downloaded here: http://www.nvidia.com/page/technology_vista_home.html From now until the release of Beta 2, NVIDIA is working hard with Microsoft to deliver new drivers for the interim Vista releases. Typically these releases only go to a small audience, not even the MSDN developer list. Microsoft handles releasing the operating system builds to this audience so our job at NVIDIA is to continue our robust driver development and our drivers will reach that audience. At this time, we are waiting to release our next public driver until the next public Beta release from Microsoft. For that schedule, please speak directly with Microsoft on their release plans.

RWM: Can you talk about specific issues regarding reported problems... IE are you guys watching the blogs, etc.

AF: We would need more on specific issues he is reporting. But we are actively processing bug reports from OEMs and Beta testers, and we do read Blogs to see what end users are experiencing. The important thing to note about the current public Beta 1 is that the graphics subsystem isn?t close to the final release so often the bugs you may be experiencing are not even NVIDIA issues.

RWM: How in-depth is your involvement with OEMs for supporting mobile displays?

AF: Very involved. We have programs ongoing right now with all Tier1 OEMs.

RWM: Do you have an ETA on support for LDDM support on Toshiba tablets?

AF: That is up to Toshiba. We provide the source code, they provide the drivers.

RWM: Can you tell us about any interesting features you guys are working on for LDDM? Are there any really neat things you guys can do with LDDM on the desktop that you guys are looking at?

AF: The important thing about Vista is that the entire desktop is composited in 3D, so having a powerful 3D GPU is critical to get the full experience of the Windows GUI. Our plan is to support all of our current Windows features on Vista and continue to add more as we learn more about the operating systems.

I'm still digging into Toshiba and Microsoft's LDDM group to find out how they intend to deal with the display issues that currently exist. Hopefully I'll get some answers soon.

Edited by COSMIX
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FYI

Ive installed Nvidias newest builds:

78.03

81.26

Both work as LDDM drivers with the reghacks..much faster/better than 75.03

77.53 that came with 5219 also works flawlessly.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DWM

EnableMachineCheck=0

Animations=1

AnimationsShiftKey=1

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FYI

Ive installed Nvidias newest builds:

78.03

81.26

Both work as LDDM drivers with the reghacks..much faster/better than 75.03

77.53 that came with 5219 also works flawlessly.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DWM

EnableMachineCheck=0

Animations=1

AnimationsShiftKey=1

586592011[/snapback]

They work, but you must disable DWM when using other D3D applications. Try running Chess Titans with DWM enabled...

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