New NVIDIA drivers

ns2isgoodns2isgood Join Date: 2013-04-16 Member: 184847Members
in NS2 General Discussion
Nvidia’s Next Driver Will Bring Massive Performance Improvements In CPU Heavy Games

It seems that Nvidia has been working on a truly amazing new driver for its graphics cards. Even though MS has just announced DX12 – a new API that promises to offer better performance on CPU heavy titles – the green team is developing a new driver that will lessen the CPU overhead on a variety of DX11 titles.

According to the graphs that Nvidia has released, its new driver – that is planned for release in a couple of weeks – will offer performance similar to AMD’s Mantle in both Star Swarm and THIEF. It’s pretty amazing what Nvidia is doing with its driver skills, and we cannot wait to see whether the green team’s changes will affect other CPU bound titles.

As we can see, with this new driver Nvidia’s flagship – GeForce GTX 780Ti – will be able to compete against AMD’s 290X. The interesting thing here is that Nvidia’s card will rival AMD’s card with the latter running via AMD’s latest API, Mantle.

Given the fact that Nvidia has only provided two scenarios, one has to wonder whether the green team has included ‘global’ tweaks that will improve performance on all CPU-heavy games or ‘specific’ tweaks for THIEF and Star Swarm.

Stay tuned for more!

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidias-next-driver-will-bring-massive-performance-improvements-in-cpu-heavy-games/

Could this be good news for NS2?
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Comments

  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    Would only result in about 1% more performance by my understanding. @xDragon‌ could say more
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  • xen32xen32 Join Date: 2012-10-18 Member: 162676Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    Good thing I use DX11 in NS2. Bad thing this fix probably will not work for NS2/will not support my GPU.
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  • Dictator93Dictator93 Join Date: 2008-12-21 Member: 65833Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    xen32 wrote: »
    Good thing I use DX11 in NS2. Bad thing this fix probably will not work for NS2/will not support my GPU.

    It will support all GPUs which can make these specific API calls... furthermore all games which utilize them. NS2 with any DX11 GPU in DX11 mode will see some benefit (I have yet to see what kind though).
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  • halfofaheavenhalfofaheaven Join Date: 2012-11-09 Member: 168660Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Gold
    Meh. In my experience, it's always better to stick to the driver released shortly after your graphics card. I'm sticking to 310.27 or something from 3 years ago until I actually upgrade my hardware.

    Could be good news for people with the newest generation cards though, but I doubt it.
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  • ezekelezekel Join Date: 2012-11-29 Member: 173589Members, NS2 Map Tester
    edited March 2014
    It only works in games running in dx 11? Cause that's very few games, and ns2 in dx11 from what I remember took a big hit on performance compared to dx9 so I don't think it'd show any improvement

    I just recently updated my nvidia drivers to one of the newer whql versions from ver 310.27 or something (I was like on a year+ old driver or so) but this new one has been pretty stable so I'm happy about it.

    Idk why they are even moving to dx12, if they make it OS bound to windows 8 or higher then it won't have many users
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  • RegnarebRegnareb Join Date: 2007-08-26 Member: 62008Members, NS2 Playtester
    edited March 2014
    Less FPS does not mean less smooth, it can be smoother with less average FPS.
    I don't remember if it was the case with DX11 and NS2 but it is possible. So, if the NVidia improves it even further, it can only be good.
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  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    Were there any confirmed issues with DX11? I've been using it for months without any issues.
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  • halfofaheavenhalfofaheaven Join Date: 2012-11-09 Member: 168660Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Gold
    joshhh wrote: »
    Were there any confirmed issues with DX11? I've been using it for months without any issues.

    Mouse lag and a performance drop for lots of people.

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  • HamletHamlet Join Date: 2008-08-17 Member: 64837Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited March 2014
    Oh, there is a massive memory leak where NS2 eats up all your RAM until it crashes under DX11. It's a slow, but steady process - so you won't notice it immediately.
    Doesn't happen in DX9, fortunately.
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  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    Hmmm, weird... I have never experienced any of those issues. If I ever noticed any mouse lag, I would have disabled it right away. *shrug*
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  • RoobubbaRoobubba Who you gonna call? Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11930Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    I didn't get much mouse lag difference between DX9 and DX11 (and I'm usually very sensitive to it). What I did get was about 20fps more in DX9, so I stuck with that!
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  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    edited March 2014
    It's odd, some people get better FPS with DX11.. some don't.
    But there are better frametimes with DX11, so it can feel smoother/more consistent.
    But its also less stable and afaik doesn't match the mouse input timings of DX9.

    So its a toss up
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  • Dictator93Dictator93 Join Date: 2008-12-21 Member: 65833Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited March 2014
    I have better FPS in DX11 than DX9 (which by extension decreases input lag by virtue of more samples in frames).

    When that driver launches, I will do a thread testing pre-driver, post driver, and DX9. If anyone else would like to contribute--- that would be awesome!
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  • Soul_RiderSoul_Rider Mod Bean Join Date: 2004-06-19 Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    I don't notice any issues between DX11 and Dx9. But then I only use DX11, and I get 200FPS on medium settings, so I don't need to worry. The only issue now is the hitchng when loading formerly occluded stuff, which I believe is under investigation.
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  • MrFangsMrFangs Join Date: 2013-03-27 Member: 184474Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited March 2014
    With a Radeon 6850, I had about 10-20 FPS more with DX11, so I obviously used that. Absolutely no issues with it (except for the Mumble overlay not working, which isn't NS2's fault). With a GTX 750ti in the same system, DX9 seems to be the faster one.

    No noticeable input lag with either (vsync off of course).
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  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    @MrFangs‌
    Weird, right?
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  • ezekelezekel Join Date: 2012-11-29 Member: 173589Members, NS2 Map Tester
    I had way less fps in dx11 and input lag, and it was something huge like 40-50 frames. haven't tried it again

    also I have windows aero disable when ns2 starts because that originally fixed my mouse input issues, im sure a patch fixed it but i leave it off anyway to avoid it ever happening again
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  • MigeMige Join Date: 2005-03-19 Member: 45796Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    edited March 2014
    Dictator93 wrote: »
    I have better FPS in DX11 than DX9 (which by extension decreases input lag by virtue of more samples in frames).
    Yeah I should agree with this.. usually have 20+ better fps with DX11 but it stutters/hitch once for the while. I use DX9 just because server performance will kill the fps and thats why the input lag can be pain in the ass (fps is about the same).. CPU utilization is a way better when using DX11, gonna wait new drivers but I'm not too excited
    ezekel wrote: »
    also I have windows aero disable when ns2 starts because that originally fixed my mouse input issues, im sure a patch fixed it but i leave it off anyway to avoid it ever happening again
    And if you use more speakers like 5.1 (7.1 doesn't work in my opinion) it may give even more input lag at least when using virtual surrounds like cmms-3d, thx, sbx & razer surround (dont have dolby headphone any more).. not sure how much it will add when you use with DX11.. Easiest to measure/feel input lag is to use low graphic settings (turn off/low everything)

    IronHorse any news about the collision errors fix? :)
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  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    @Mige‌
    Which collision errors exactly? link?
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  • ns2isgoodns2isgood Join Date: 2013-04-16 Member: 184847Members
    edited April 2014
    The beta drivers are released here - http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-337-50-beta-performance-driver

    Page is claiming up to 71% increase in frame rates in some DX11 titles. Going to try it in NS2 and see if there is any improvement, doubtful though.

    edit: oh, lovely... dx11 option has been removed in ns2 apparently or my dx is messed up.
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  • ObraxisObraxis Subnautica Animator & Generalist, NS2 Person Join Date: 2004-07-24 Member: 30071Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, WC 2013 - Supporter, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
    I noticed about 10%-15% FPS increase. Which is nothing to sniff at :) I think @Matso had about 10% as well when he did some quick benchmarks.
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  • LocklearLocklear [nexzil]kerrigan Join Date: 2012-05-01 Member: 151403Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, WC 2013 - Shadow
    I had 5 more FPS than I had on DX11 before, which is still 15 FPS less than what I get on DX9.
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