My my. Well, I guess I sort of expected this kind of reply from you. Seems to be pretty typical...if you are challenged by someone you launch a smart-ass personal attack. Shall we examine your post? Yes, let's.
You know, if the new drivers worked properly in all configurations, I'd recommend them.
NO driver works properly in all configurations. Period! Not even your "recommended" ones. Some may work in more configurations than others, true, but 6.47 sure ain't it.
They don't, and it is a cruel joke to try to send people off downloading the "latest greatest" crap that nVidia.com wants to dish out.
Once upon a time a few years ago, 6.47 WAS the "latest greatest." I guess by your logic (every new nVidia driver is crap) then it was crap at the time of its release -- and in a few years, 23.11 will be just fine.
The point is that no company puts out a "perfect" driver -- ever -- and nVidia has put out a lot of drivers that have worked just fine and dandy. If you want to see crappy drivers, check out ATI. Their track record is worse than Nvidia's. And a large part of nVidia's "bad driver" reputation comes from the fact that the majority of the drivers out there are leaked beta versions. The official releases have actually been pretty consistently stable. (For that matter, there have only been a couple of betas that have caused problems.)
People have white fish and white coral, people run out of memory, their computers crash when they bring up the Settings box, they crash after 2 mintutes, they crash because a background app tries to take over, they crash just because it's the nVidia thing to do. That's what people get for trying the latest drivers.
This is with the 23.11 drivers (the latest)? Sorry to tell you, but if all of those problems are happening with this driver installed, then it ain't just the driver that's the problem. There was a problem a little while back with a driver causing an blue-screen "infinite loop" message, and it was widely posted on Usenet, but that was the only problem of any import, and that was solved in the latest release.
I didn't just pull these drivers out of my ass. These are drivers that I and SereneScreen have selected by PROCESS OF ELIMINATION.
Well, good for you. Did I ever even imply that you didn't use some sort of testing methodology to make your decision? No. In fact, I specifically used the word "tests." So don't get all huffy with me.
And so you used PROCESS OF ELIMINATION. Big frickin' deal. That tells me next to zilch. So, what exactly was the methodology and criteria used that DETERMINED WHETHER a driver was accepted or eliminated? That would be more helpful than just saying you "tested" and "used process of elimination" in your decision.
May I say that you are in the small minority of people who have had complete success by keeping up with the endless stream of new driver revisions from nVidia.
I never said I've had "complete success" with all nVidia drivers. I never even said I've always kept up with the endless stream of new driver revisions. I'm sure I've missed a few driver releases here and there (mostly beta ones).
Most people have had satisfactory results with the new drivers, however, and I really don't know *anyone* else that would still recommend an old driver like 6.47, especially under Windows XP. Not that it won't work, necessarily -- I'm sure it probably does, at least with stuff that doesn't use the features of the newer drivers. But you're about the only one recommending it. And my post was mainly just taking exception to your assertion that it is always always ALWAYS a bad idea to get "new" drivers from nVidia. No it's not. Not always. Not even ALMOST always.
I'm running 6.47 drivers on my TnT Riva on Windows 2000 and it works perfectly, running Direct3D and OpenGL software. I have absolutely no plan to change what's on here, and absolutely no plan to change the driver recommendations at my website.
Goody for you. But don't make blanket statements that include the word "always" when it clearly is NOT "always."
Coelacanth, please use the search engine here to read the hundreds of posts from people using the "latest nVidia drivers" all going through a small nightmare just trying to get a stable system.
Morgan, please use any number of search engines and graphics sites to see the hundreds of posts from people that have had no trouble whatsoever with the new drivers and have posted positive benchmarks with them. And then do another search for people that are running XP with driver 6.47 and see how many results you get.
Also keep in mind that on a forum such as yours, people usually search these things out in order to post problems that they have with getting a certain card or driver to work -- they're not usually going to search out this site and post something like, "I just want to say that the aquarium works fine with my video card/driver." People most frequently post these things when something DOESN'T work. If you just look at that, it's a skewed perspective.
Go ahead. Run the old 6.47 drivers. If it works, great. But don't go around saying that that is ALWAYS what should be done, and that nVidia's drivers are ALWAYS crap. Because that's just plain, absolutely, downright false. Period!
If you think you have all the answers, stary by answering jonjonbear's problem above.
Oh, go soak your smart-ass head. I never said I had all the answers; never even alluded to that. I was simply refuting your blanket statement about the drivers. Don't go trying to win the argument by launching personal attacks and challenging my intelligence, because I sure as hell won't let that pass. Got it?
I MIGHT be inclined to change the 2000/XP driver recommendation for GeForce 2s and 3s, but never for the TnT Rivas and never for Windows 9x.
Fine. Whatever.
I'm outta here.