Latest NVIDIA Windows Vista Driver News

On behalf of NVIDIA, the Vista Quality Assurance team would like to thank our user community for participating in the bug report system. The information you provided is valuable and will help us improve the quality and performance of our drivers.

As part of this process, we will be periodically sharing updated information on some of the top bug reports we have received on our Vista Beta drivers, common workarounds for certain known issues, and clarifications of issues that are outside of NVIDIA’s control.

Windows Vista Limitations
These are behaviors that may be different from Windows XP and are related directly to the Windows Vista operating system.
Selecting Vertical Sync (vsync) from the NVIDIA Control Panel does not affect DirectX applications.
Due to architectural changes in the new Windows Vista Window Display Driver Model (WDDM), the graphics driver can no longer disable vsync from its own driver or Control Panel. Selecting this option from the NVIDIA Control Panel will have no affect on DirectX applications. For applications that use Direct3D on Vista, use the vertical sync setting within the application. We are adjusting the help text in the NVIDIA Control Panel to make this clearer to our customers.
Horizontal and Vertical span modes are no longer available under Windows Vista.
Due to architectural changes in the new Windows Vista Window Display Driver Model (WDDM), span mode cannot be supported in NVIDIA graphics drivers. NVIDIA recommends using the built-in Windows Vista multi-display modes.

For a list of more features are that are no longer supported in Windows Vista, please view the driver release notes.

Application Limitations
These are known issues that need be solved by the application provider.
Call of Duty 2 renders solid color when selecting in-game 4x antialiasing setting.
The application is not applying antialiasing properly. Please try selecting 2x or disabling antialiasing. NVIDIA is pursuing a fix with the application developer.
City of Heroes & City of Villians the mouse cursor does not display and has warning about wrong driver version at the login screen.
This is an application issue that can be worked around in Fullscreen mode by adding “compatiblecursors 1” to the City of Heroes desktop shortcut. NVIDIA is pursuing a longer term fix with the application developer. There is also an error message on the login screen that does not affect gameplay: “Important: Your computer appears to be using older drivers for your video card. City of Heroes may run poorly without updated drivers. Go to www.nvidia.com to get the latest drivers.”
Everquest has a message pop up stating which card you have and recommends a specific driver build when using driver versions 100.xx.
The error message that appears is “”You currently have a (7.15.11.120) video card installed. We recommend that you download version 7772 drivers before playing Everquest.” This occurs due to an incorrect driver version check in the application, but does not affect the gameplay. Please select “Continue Anyway” to launch the game. Using a previous Release 95 driver (xx.xx format) does not have this problem. NVIDIA is pursuing a fix with the application developer.
Sims 2 (all versions) “Smooth Edges (AA)” option is not available when playing the game with driver versions 100.xx.
This occurs due to an incorrect driver version check in the application. Using a previous Release 95 driver (xx.xx format) will allow the option to be visible. NVIDIA is pursuing a fix with the application developer.
Warhammer 40k Dawn of War (all versions) does not run when using driver versions 100.xx.
This occurs due to an incorrect driver version check in the application. Using a previous Release 95 driver (xx.xx format) will allow the game to run. NVIDIA is pursuing a fix with the application developer.

NVIDIA Features Not Implemented Yet
These are features that NVIDIA is currently working on and plan to incorporate in future driver releases.
NVIDIA SLI support for GeForce 7 series.
NVIDIA is actively working on this feature and plan to release Beta drivers between now and the final release in the end of March.
NVIDIA SLI support for GeForce 6 series.
NVIDIA is actively working on this feature and plan to release Beta drivers between now and the final release in the end of March.
GeForce 7950 GX2 multi-GPU mode.
In current drivers, only one of the GPUs is active and functioning on this card. NVIDIA is actively working on this feature and plan to release Beta drivers between now and the final release in the end of March.

Product Support Limitations
These are features that either rely on our partners for solutions, or are support decisions for older product lines.
GeForce Go GPUs in notebooks are currently not supported in drivers from NVIDIA.com.
At this time, the drivers available on NVIDIA.com do not support notebook GPUs. Many NVIDIA notebook GPUs have Windows Vista drivers already built into the operating system and install the first time you run Windows Vista. Notebook GPU driver support is provided directly from the manufacturer, so please consult your manufacturer for an updated NVIDIA notebook GPU driver.
GeForce FX GPUs are not supported in 97.46, 100.54, 100.59, 100.64.
The GeForce FX GPUs are supported from the 96.85 drivers. NVIDIA is planning an update for these users later in 2007.
GeForce 4, GeForce3, and GeForce2 GPUs are not supported under Windows Vista.
For a full list of all GPUs supported by NVIDIA under Windows Vista, please visit this website. http://www.nvidia.com/page/technology_vista_home.html

NVIDIA Vista Graphics Driver Issues
The following are some of the top issues reported by end users that NVIDIA is currently investigating. If you are experiencing this issue, please feel free to submit a new bug report using the descriptions below. NVIDIA is actively working on fixes for these issues.

* At the Windows Vista CTRL-ALT-DEL login screen or when applications that request User Access Control (UAC) there are brief flashes of corruption or flickering.
* On resume from hibernate or sleep, the monitor only shows black but the computer is powered on. This can be worked around by completely turning off your computer and then restarting it.
* With Aero enabled, video playback in Windows Media Center video playback stutters in window mode. This does not occur with Aero disabled or in Fullscreen mode
* World of Warcraft has low framerates.
* Windows Vista Ultimate Extras “Texas Hold’Em” in-game flashes at the start of the game.
* While running Aero, the transparency affects on some windows are getting misapplied and can cause horizontal bands of pixel corruption.
* Brightness, contrast, and Gamma values remain the same after opening and closing the NVIDIA Control panel.
* Tiger Woods 2007 during hole fly-by there are black textures rendered.
* When trying to output TV Out over S-Video or HDTV component out, the color is black and white.
* TV Out or HDTV mode is not set after rebooting the computer
* Fan control does not work properly in nTune
* nTune fails to launch due to User Account Control (UAC)
* GPUs cannot be overclocked with nTune.
* LCD Flat Panel Scaling is not functioning properly in the drivers and causes some panels to come up in 800×600 mode.

NVIDIA Features No Longer Supported
These are features that can no longer be supported under the Windows Vista operating system, or have migrated to other NVIDIA utilities.
Full screen video mirror.
This feature is no longer supported due to the new Protected Video Path Output Content Protection (PVP-OPM) in Windows Vista.
GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring are now available from nTune.
GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring are available in nTune v5.05.xx.xx and higher. Please download that software to access these functions.

For a complete list of features no longer supported under Windows Vista, please view the driver release notes.