Digit-Life news about Detonator drivers

[DSC]

http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?93467#93467

"We’ve recently posted a number of reviews dedicated to benchmark "optimizations" implemented by ATI and NVIDIA (it turned out the latter implemented more of them). We found out that all NVIDIA drivers up to 44.71 inclusive contain "optimizations" for all games that have benchmarks (it’s strange, but none have been made for Unreal II, though it’s based on the same engine, as UT2003, but still doesn’t contain a benchmark.)

But there are some optimizations for UT2003. Funny, isn’t it? Unreal II performs with Anti-detect same as without it. I doubt that Unreal II just doesn’t require any optimizations. Unfortunately it just doesn’t have an exposed benchmarking tool to "optimize" . NVIDIA specialists might have actually overlooked the tweakers who found scripts in Unreal II for executing the test.

Anyway, the thing is that in Code Creatures Anti-Detect found out that speed of all GeForce FX cards was "optimized" by cheating, as Code Creatures is not a game, but a pure benchmark. E.g., FX 5900 shows 46 fps (1024x768, 32bpp), but only 33 fps with Anti-Detect. And the newly leaked 44.90 beta doesn’t seem to contain any optimizations, as we obtained the same fps values on the same card at the same resolutions, as 44.03 and 44.65 versions had provided with Anti-Detect. We’ll continue checking the situation, and it will be very good if optimizations have really been removed from other tests as well!"

Detonator 44.67 and higher doesn't seem to be encrypted as claimed by Unwinder, if NVAntiDetect affects the scores. :?

 

[Dave Baumann]

Whenever editors visit NVIDIA they always ask you waht benchmarks you are currently running....

 

[2senile]

Whenever editors visit NVIDIA they always ask you waht benchmarks you are currently running....

:?
Can somebody tell me why I am not as surprised as I expected to be by that statement?

 

[Radea]

Ahh, soo much for NVIDIA 'encrypting' their drivers :?

..Maybe Unwinder found out where the encryption was and patched their unpatchable drivers so they can be patched

 

[chavvdarrr]

http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?93467#93467

And the newly leaked 44.90 beta doesn?t seem to contain any optimizations, as we obtained the same fps values on the same card at the same resolutions, as 44.03 and 44.65 versions had provided with Anti-Detect. We?ll continue checking the situation, and it will be very good if optimizations have really been removed from other tests as well!"

Detonator 44.67 and higher doesn't seem to be encrypted as claimed by Unwinder, if NVAntiDetect affects the scores. :?

Read again your quote, where do you see that 44.90 is not encrypted ?!
Instead what is said is that 44.90 without anti-detector script gives same frames in CCB, as 44.03 with anti-detector scripts.
So, simply:
44.90 is encrypted - no anti-detector script
44.90's speed in CodeCreatures is on same level as 44.03 with anti-detector script.

 

[Pete]

Whenever editors visit NVIDIA they always ask you waht benchmarks you are currently running....

:?
Can somebody tell me why I am not as surprised as I expected to be by that statement?

Well, there's nothing inherently wrong in asking what tools people demonstrate their cards with. I also don't think there's anything wrong with optimizing (per Tim Sweeney's definition--same output, faster calculation) for particular hardware features. However (and obviously), I have a problem with sacrificing IQ behind a customer's back in order to appear faster, which is what we're finding nV appears to do a lot of.

 

[mboeller]

And the newly leaked 44.90 beta doesn’t seem to contain any optimizations, as we obtained the same fps values on the same card at the same resolutions, as 44.03 and 44.65 versions had provided with Anti-Detect.

Ahh...

Nvidia is playing "nice guy"

And so they will "prove" that the encrypted drivers have no (obvious) "optimisations" to lure the consumer / reviewers / critics / hw geeks away from the "optimisations" which are in the drivers now.

Afterwards, when no one will and can check the drivers due to the encryption the optimisations will be put back slowly over time and Nvidia is (relatively) save cause no one can check if the drivers behave correct anymore.

Nice try. IMHO this will even work.

So over the next few weeks we will see reviews from the big sites stating that the older drivers had "bugs" and the new driver 44.90 works correct now and so everything is fine and will be fine in the future too. Maybe even Nvidia will bring an new label like "approved drivers" to turn the debakel into an positive marketing stunt.

Everyone will be satisfied and goes back to normal. Then we are back to the old mode with normal time-demo's, easy benchmarking and cheating all over the place. Will be nice to watch.

 

[cho]

Whenever editors visit NVIDIA they always ask you waht benchmarks you are currently running....

had ati never asked this problem?

 

[Dave Baumann]

I personally have never been asked that by any ATI personel.