Low 2D shapes performance with NVidia cards

[strafe]

I have Asus EN6600, with 256 DDR RAM, and Windows XP64.
I can`t explain this so maybe you could help me. I was wondering since drivers version 100 came out.
With drivers versions <100 performance is excellent, but with versions >=100 2D performance of Unfilled Shapes is terrible.

Graphics 2D - Shapes Result
with driver version 93.71-----47.9
with driver version 163.71----3.70

It looks like hardware acceleration for that particular thing is not activated. I have tried various versions of drivers, and different versions of Performance Test, and allways got the same result. Every other aspect of 2D performance between this two drivers is almost identical.

The way I see it, there are few possible explanations:
1. Nvidia drivers version >= 100 are not working properly with this hardware.
2. They are not working properly on Windows XP64.
3. Performance test has some issue in this configuration and not detecting it properly.

If someone is experiencing similar thing, please reply.
Is there another way to test performance of 2D Unfilled Shapes?

[David (PassMark)]

For the 2D tests, there is no attempt to 'detect' the hardware in use. The same commands are sent to all video cards. (In fact we use the Windows O/S GDI API to draw the shapes for this test)

A result of 3.7 is low. But we have seen other 64bit machines with NVidia cards also do badly. For many many years now NVidia have been struggling to produce stable drivers, they release drivers without enough testing (recently their problems have been with Vista, 64bit and the 8800 cards). So it woudn't surprise me at all if they have broken something in their recent driver releases.

[strafe]

Thank you for your reply.

What am I loosing if I stick with 93.71 drivers instead of new ones.

Any suggestions?

[wonderwrench]

Your not the only one with problems. I'm running a EVGA 6800GT 256 meg AGP card and any 1xx.xx driver kills Graphics 2D - Shapes.
with driver version 94.24---30
with driver version 163.71--1

The only down side is if a new game has compatibility issue's with an old driver you will be stuck with a unplayable game or weak 2d performance.

I wonder if this bug only effects 6xxx series cards?

XP pro sp2 32 bit, latest updates

[wonderwrench]

Update this bug effects 6, 7 and 8 series cards. I just picked up a EVGA 8800GT SSC and the 2d shapes score is 343% slower than my old 6800GT was using 94.24 drivers. I cant test 9x.xx drivers on my 8800GT because the drivers do not support the 8800GT. All other 2d tests are way faster on the 8800GT as they should be. Same resolution bit depth and refresh rate.

BTW Passmark do you have any pull with anyone at Nvidia? as they must be blind to the problem. Question could 1xx.xx drivers have this problem because device bitmap caching is disabled for some reason?

[David (PassMark)]

We confirmed the problem on a P4 with a NVidia 6600GT card here,

With old drivers (Forceware Version 84.21) the performance in the unfilled shapes test was good. With new drivers (Version 169.21) the result drops dramatically. More than a 10x loss of performance on this one test. Other tests are not really effected. I can visually see the drop in performance it is so bad.

Seems to definitely be a device driver bug.



Our past attempts to report bugs to NVidia have been a waste of time, but I'll send off a couple of E-mails to the contacts we have and see if we get any answer. Don't hold your breath however.

[wonderwrench]

Well thanks for trying I really appreciate it. I have known about this bug since the first 1xx.xx drivers came out. Its been so long I can't remember when that was for sure. I have worn my fingers to the bone posting about this problem everywhere I can think of. It would seen most owners of Nvidia cards do not care 2d is broken or are blind to the problem. I first thought the 1xx.xx drivers were only messed up on 6 series cards as thats all I had for testing. A few months ago I got a guy to do some testing on his 7600gt and he found the same problem. Seems the average PC enthusiast cares nothing about 2d performance. They just want a higher 3Dmark score.

BTW I have owned Performance Test and Burnin Test since version 1. They have proven to be some of the most valuable tools I have ever purchased.
I was a beta tester at one time but I must have gotten lost in the shuffle.
If you ever need a dedicated beta tester let me know.

Thanks for the help and the great tools.

[David (PassMark)]

I'll send off a couple of E-mails to the contacts we have and see if we get any answer. Don't hold your breath however.

Just an update on this. I did get an acknowledgement from NVidia saying that they agreed it was strange and they would "send around a few [internal] E-mails to if anyone can help".

That was more than two months ago now. There was never any further response.

[wonderwrench]

The latest 174.74 beta drivers still kill 2d shapes. Tested in XP pro sp2 32 bit running a 8800GT. I guess Nvidia is too dumb to fix this or just does not give a crap. ATI here I come!

[MasterX]

Dont go there yet, performance test has a quirk somewhere because heres a few scores that make no damn sense!

graphicstest-splitframe is when i have SLI turned on!
mx-quadcore-phenom is when i have SLI Turned off, single card rendering!

Theres almost no difference, which means performance test is not working correctly!!!!!!!!



My Specs:
AMD PHENOM QUAD CORE 9600+ BLACK EDITION (2.64Ghz)
ASUS M2N32 SLI Deluxe with 32X PCI-E lanes - Fastest AM2 Board!
4 GB Patriot DDR2 800 low latency (4-4-4-12)
2 X BFG Tech GeForce 7900 GT-OC (with bridge, not the cheapo bridgeless)
2 x Seagate baracuda 160GB in raid 0
Everything watercooled!!!!

Desktop Resolution: 1680x1050x60hz
Graphics drivers: 174.53
Perf Test version: 6.1 (build 1008 )
Windows XP SP2 x32
All unneeded processes trimmed!
Defragged last wednesday

Performance Test Settings:
Disk Drive under test: C:
CD Drive under test: F:
Test Durration: 3
Computer name: mx-quadcore-phenom
supress warning: 0
number of processes: 4 (1 cpu x 4 cores - quad core)
3d graphics: max refresh rate

You guys tell me.......
When SLI is engages the 3D performance should gain 50-90% performance!

Call of Duty 4 single card i get 20-40 FPS @ 1440x900x75hz
Call of Duty 4 SLI enabled I get 40-70 FPS @ 1440x900x75hz
Battlefield 2 single card i get 60-80 FPS @ 1280x900x80hz
Battlefield 2 SLI enabled I get over 150 FPS @ 1280x900x75hz

Whats the deal?