Hm, chugging with latest Nvidia driver ... anyone else?

[Araxes]

I'm running a 9800 GT and until sometime last week I got stellar frame rates no matter what settings and what was going on ...... this week I updated to the hyped 178.13 driver which adds PhysX support for all 8-9-2 series cards of more than 256MB including the new 9800 series released of which the GT is one ... and is WHQL certified, btw.Now EQ2 is extremely sluggish in terms of responsiveness.  Overall performance is greatly degraded.  Unrelated to game settings.  Not like the normal lag or hitching due to lack of horsepower.  More like trudging through water.  Seems bound to processes, in some way.Anyone else have this since updating to 178.13  ?Additionally, anyone know where I can download a rollback driver?  I'm not seeing it on Nvidia's site.Ara

[TSR-TrevorG]

I do not have an NVIDIA card so I cannot test this myself.  Does the Forceware come with an option to disable/enable the PhysX?

[Cassea]

I'm using it with a 9600GT without a problem under Vista 64.

[Araxes]

I've currently reverted to the 177.79 driver which runs with no such issue.I'll have to bide my time until the next driver update, I suppose, and see if it resolves the degradation.Trevor, yes, it appears that in Vista you can enter the Control Panel > Programs and Software > and then select the Nvidia PhysX component and uninstall it.  I did not actually try it -- I simply wiped out the entire 178.13 package, including PhysX, and re-installed 177.79.   It is possible that uninstalling PhysX without uninstalling the driver itself would cause issues.  Of course EQ2 does not use PhysX in any way, so I can't see how that might cause a conflict in the first place, but one never knows ...When I get ambitious I will try it and report here what I find ...Ara

[vochore]

<p>there is an option to disable phsx but its not under the normal nvidia control panel.</p><p>you need to go to your main windows control panel and it will be in a folder....."look for it under classic view"</p><p>i do not remember what the folder name is...not on my home computer.</p>

[Araxes]

I uninstalled PhysX and also tried it by simply disabling it.  It makes no difference with it or without it -- not that I expected it would since EQ2 has nothing to do with it, anyway.In any case, the game performance this week is sluggish to the point of my not being able to play it, and I have changed nothing in my setup beyond the driver update, so I don't know if that is the cause or if something in the game changed that is the cause -- becuase all other games I play run absolutely fine.  /shrug<strike>No resolution at this point.</strike>EDIT - The resolution is as follows:<ol><li>Uninstall drivers via the Control Panel.  </li><li>Wipe out excess files using Driver Sweeper, and reboot.</li><li>Delete any old driver directories in the NVIDIA nvWin64 directory, and reboot.</li><li>Re-install 175.31 drivers from the EVGA disc that shipped with my card, and reboot.</li><li>Done</li></ol>Issue resolved.  Can play in full screen again with shadows and anti-aliasing and nice smooth and gameplay.Clearly a driver conflict.  I can't advise using 178.13 for 9800 GT users on Vista 64.  Just passing it along for anyone.  Try 175.31 -- works best.  (You can download them at guru3D.com btw, along with the Driver Sweeper utility.)Ara

[Cassea]

I wonder why there is no such issue with the new driver and the 9600GT... at least for me.I thought the 9600 and 9800 were basically the same card but with the 9800 having some more shaders.Perhaps it's some combination of hardware and drivers?

[TSR-TrevorG]

Thanks for the info!

[vivanos]

Using 178.13 on my 7600GT without any noticible difference.