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"Best" NVidia driver for SC4 Deluxe?

Started by Wodong, June 15, 2013, 10:38:10 AM

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Wodong

UPDATE: (ayup, putting it at top, also added it to my last post in case people are curious but don't want to reread the OP).  My problem with the region view glitch was indeed my Nvida drivers.  Clean installed back to 310.90 and everything works as it did before I started having the troubles with region view.  I went with that driver instead of the suggested 314.07 simply because it was already extracted to my C: drive.  I thought I'd deleted all of them for some reason.  If I'm feeling adventurous I might install the 314 driver.

I reinstalled SC4 in an attempt to take care of some problems I'd been having with it, but I'm still randomly getting a glitch with region view.  Basically A region view thumbnail of a city tile will corrupt (or something) during the save/save and exit to region, and I end up with a nasty blot.

I'm starting to think it's a problem with my Nvidia GPU drivers.  Sadly I can't remember exactly what version I was on when it started, and I didn't connect the two as a possibility until about last night.

Specs:
SC4 Deluxe with 1.1640 patch applied
Windows 7x64 on a Asus K53SD Notebook (i.e. The only hardware I can upgrade/change are RAM and my hard drive)
2.5GHz quad core i-5 intel
6 GB RAM
v320.18 Nvidia drivers for Win7x64 for GeForce 610M (which had been working perfectly well for ages before the recent messiness.)
I've ruled out plugin problems because I've tried playing with no plugins at all and it still glitches out randomly.

My question, then: What drivers are people with Nvida cards using, and are the solid for you?

I do have correct 9.0c DirectX drivers installed since forever, and really the main culprits have got to be either the Nvidia drivers or the fact that I recently UNinstalled a bunch of programs that I no longer use.  I did a clean SC4 Deluxe reinstall after that though, so I'm leaning heavily toward Nvida driver problems.

Reform

My Nvidia driver version is 314.07 and I play with GeForce GTX 660. This version works well for me and hopefully for you as well, if your card is supported by it.

vortext

Quote from: Wodong on June 15, 2013, 10:38:10 AM
Basically A region view thumbnail of a city tile will corrupt (or something) during the save/save and exit to region, and I end up with a nasty blot.

A picture of said blot would be useful. In any case, do you alt-tab away away while saving? If so, stop it because that'll result in a flat city tile in region view. A large screen resolution can botch the region view, too.

In the past I've experienced glitches as well. Instead of driver issues I found adjusting the so-called 3d settings solved my trouble [linkie].
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Kitsune

Its likely the 320.18 drivers themself - I've heard of a lot of people having problems with them, and they might responsible for frying a few GPUs too.
~ NAM Team Member

Wodong

#4
UPDATE: (ayup, putting it at top).  My problem with the region view glitch was indeed my Nvida drivers.  Clean installed back to 310.90 and everything works as it did before I started having the troubles as shown in the image linked below.  I went with that driver instead of the suggested 314.07 simply because it was already extracted to my C: drive.  I thought I'd deleted all of them for some reason.  If I'm feeling adventurous I might install the 314 driver.

Hopefully this works, as my online storage has changed a few things (i.e. how can we screw people who don't want to use the paid service anymore?):
<embed src="https://www.box.com/embed/dpnkxn7fjsu9gcu.swf" width="466" height="400" wmode="opaque" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always">

Vorxtext:  I never use alt-tab when saving, I'm actually afraid to even touch the mouse when saving cities these days.  :-[  Will try the settings in the image from your post.  They were mostly the same, but fiddly things can come down to that one setting, hey?

Reform:  thanks, I vaguely recalled being somewhere in the 310s and not having trouble with my drivers.

Kitusne:  Well that alone sounds like a good reason to drop down to a lower driver version!  Although, I had a previous version or two and still got graphical glitches from time to time.  They're just a heck of a lot worse now than they used to be.

Fact is the newest game I play anymore is either Civ IV BtS or NWN2.  After really really trying to like Civ V I decided that I was just wasting time and not getting enjoyment out of it.  Shame too, looked really pretty....and even then I still ended up spending 90% of the game in strategic view.  ???

Off to try out new settings and track down old drivers.  Will update once I've tested things out.  Thanks all.