Thread: Nvidia 185.85 Driver (Released May 6th) - Question & Game Performance Increases!

I realize theres a sticky about Driver Updates but I wanted to ask a question about these drivers that were just released, & it seems the sticky is not getting much attention. Im sure many of you know the last few driver updates for GeForce cards has been improving performance in some PC Games, and the latest driver improved performance again! So I installed the new driver, and Im not sure if its because I had'nt updated my drivers in awhile, but I definitely noticed a much "sharper" image in FallOut 3! However, in every game I now get a weird "skip/pause" for a split-second approx. every 2-3 minutes. Youre going along in the game, doing your thing, and then for a quick sec the game just kind of hiccups, then back to normal. Has anyone else with the new driver noticed this? Or, did anyone notice that with any of the last few versions? So far it only seems to do this in games, I havent noticed it anywhere else. Anybody else have this going on, or have any ideas what would cause that from a new driver, and for it to only happen in 3D Apps? I looked around teh intrawebnet & havent seen many complaints; in fact most are praising this driver as the best release yet. Anyone have a similar experience?

Heres the link, followed by part of the drivers release notes:
(Nvidia GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, and 200-series desktop GPUs and ION)
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_185.85_whql.html
"Accelerates performance in several 3D applications. The following are examples of improvements measured with Release 185 drivers vs. Release 182 drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
[b]Up to 25% performance increase in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Up to 22% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with antialiasing enabled
Up to 11% performance increase in Fallout 3 with antialiasing enabled
Up to 14% performance increase in Far Cry 2
Up to 30% performance increase in all Half-Life 2 engine games with 3-way and 4-way SLI
Up to 45% performance increase in Mirror’s Edge with antialiasing enabled
Optimized GPU PhysX compatibility and performance in the PC game Cryostasis"

Thanks for the reply Wile E! My card is a bit older (7 series) so I dont have the PhysX component on this card. I still dug around for PhysX options in the Windows Control Panel, Nvidia Control Panel, and the Advanced Display Settings and didnt find any place where I could disable PhysX. I figured beforehand that there wouldnt be an option for me since its not present on my card, and that appears to be the case. So unless Im missing someplace it should still be showing as an option even for a non-PhysX card, unfortunately that doesnt seem to be whats causing my hiccups.

Yup I always uninstall the old ones first, and although I used to use DCPro all the time I havent used it recently. Guess I'll try that next. Not sure if it will make much of a difference, but its worth a go. Thanks again for the replies.

Do you think for BF2142 and L4D, among a few other TTP hosted games, should I disable the PhysX? I notice when I get around most of the server players in one area (BF2142) like trying to take church, my FPS will drop by 10 or so and the game along with VOIP gets a little choppy. Wondering if the card is trying to render all players with PhysX is making it hiccup sometimes.