Latest nvidia drivers slower than old one?

Hi all. I've had a Latitude E6400 almost since it came out, so I've been dutifullly upgrading drivers as they've worked the bugs out. I'd like to keep up with the video drivers, but I've noticed that the latest drivers for the Nvidia 160M are noticeably slower in Vista, particularly in window minimize/restore operations, than the original driver. This is confirmed by my Windows Experience Index dropping from 3.5 to 3.3 on the aero video score. Has anybody else noticed this problem, or is it just my laptop? Anybody think of a solution? I've tried using the latest driver from the Nvidia site instead of the Dell driver, but the result is the same.

Thanks!

 

It's good that you said something, because I thought that the problem was just in my head... I just updated my Windows Experience Index and mine too dropped from 3.5 to 3.4. I don't have any idea what to do though so I won't be much help lol...

 

Just because drivers are newer does not mean they are any faster. In fact, like you've experienced they can be worse. Make sure you've done a clean install for the GPU drivers, meaning you're following the correct procedure (You can read more about that at laptopvideo2go.com). Don't worry about the WEI score though, since that really doesn't mean anything.

 

Well I just tried to install the driver correctly...

I went into control panel, add/remove, uninstall nvidia drivers
then restarted, and upon restart it said that the new hardware was ready to install- which I wasn't ready for (I thought I would have to download and install the new driver...). then restarted again.

After this process the desktop performance did feel faster, and I did a WEI update and guess what- my aero score returned to 3.5 and my game score went to 4.8 (+.1 from the original, before messing with the drivers).

So I went to check what drivers were actually installed (because as I said I never re-downloaded and installed the new ones). So I actually have drivers from 6/27/08 (driver version 7.15.11.7607)... oh well, so far its performing better so I guess I'm happy, lol.

 

Thanks for the responses, and confirming it's not just me. Milkman, it sounds like you went back to the original driver that shipped with the machine. Great if it works for you, but I was actually having the odd blue screen with it. Theros, while the WEI is sometimes irrelevant, it serves as confirmation of a problem you can see with your own eyes whenever you minimize/maximize/restore your windows.

Since posting, I've found information on a function in the NVidia gpu called Powermizer, that apparently down clocks the gpu in the later drivers more than desirable. A user on here, whose name escapes me at the moment, created a utility for tweaking the settings of the gpu and allows you to disable powermizer when plugged in (among other things). That did the trick for me, even with the later drivers. The WEI didn't go all the way back up, but the graphics seem quick and smooth, so I'm happy. Hope that helps.

Scott