Geforce 200 series driver 177.35 installation mod

[MUff1N]

NOTE: This only works with XP. This doesn't work with Vista for some reason...I know, I tried!!!

Nvidia has released the new drivers for the 200 series graphics cards and I wanted to see if I could install them on my 8800GTS just for kicks...LOL
So I did an experiment to see if this would work or not and it did!
I've tested the 177.35 XP driver on ALL my games and it works perfectly. (Old & New)
RTCW, HL2, Bioshock, COD4, COD2, FEAR, Crysis, etc.
Not to mention Crysis looks Really Good for being on Medium settings!
I'm 100% positive this driver has the new NVIDIA® PhysX™ Technology supported drivers that will enable this in the 8800 cards too!
I think this is why it looks so good...

So this is how I did it!
I extracted the 175.16 XP drivers to a folder using WinRAR, then I did the same with the 177.35 XP , 200 series drivers.

I then replace the nv4_disp setup file (screenshot) in the 177.35 folder with the one in the 175.16 folder.
Then I installed the 177.35 200 series card graphics drivers by clicking on the setup.exe in the 177.35 folder...
Worked like a charm and so far no crashes and everything looks really good.
Btw, the EVGA Precision overclocking utility works fine with this driver as well! The Crysis screenshots are with a 20% OC on my card.

If anyone has in questions ask, but it's pretty straight forward on how I did this...nothing major.

This is the driver I installed on my 8800GTS.
GeForce Release 177

GeForce Release 177 WHQL
Version: 177.35
Release Date: June 17, 2008
Operating System: Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center Edition
Language: U.S. English
File Size: 36.5 MB

WHQL-certified for Windows XP
Supports GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs.
Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI™ technology* on DirectX 9 and OpenGL.
Supports Folding@home distributing computing application.
Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.



Nvidia control panel system's info screenshot of installed drivers
Screenshots of Crysis on Medium. 1440x960
nv4_disp setup file to be replaced

[MUff1N]

After playing all my games (without any crashes) and looking at the graphics resolutions quality I must say this driver really makes everything look very Good.
Almost like the DX10 look as you can see by looking the water in the Crysis screenshots.
So I'm sticking with the Geforce 200 series drivers instead of using the normal 8800GTS drivers because the overall graphics quality is much better!!! (175.16)

Here's a bit more info on the 177.35 driver.

Nvidia has released the Official Forceware 177.35 drivers for Windows XP and Vista. These drivers are WHQL certified and are only for the newly released GTX 280 and GTX 260 series. (Unless you do my installation modification to install them for your card)
Aside from adding support for these cards, they also contain support for CUDA technology, Hybrid SLI and Folding @ Home.

WHQL-certified for Windows XP.
Adds support for GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs.
Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI™ technology* on DirectX 9 and OpenGL.
Adds beta support for Folding@home distributing computing application.
Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.
Please read the release notes for more information on product support, features, and known compatibility issues.
Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.

[MUff1N]

Has anyone else besides me tried this out yet?
I'm extremely happy with the result I got and will keep using these drivers because ALL my games look so much better using the 200 series drivers.
I'm going to do the same thing with the Vista drivers and install them on my Vista OS as well.

[Samuknow]

I have had this running for a few days. Works great and you are right about the image quality. Even older games look better. Benchmarks went up also.
Great stuff.

[MUff1N]

Originally Posted by Samuknow

I have had this running for a few days. Works great and you are right about the image quality. Even older games look better. Benchmarks went up also.
Great stuff.

Good then it's not just me or my imagination that these drivers are better.
Glad they worked out for you like they did me.
I'm pretty sure these drivers also include the PhysX enabling drivers.
PhysX is suppose to work with the 8 series cards as well and this is what I'm seeing that makes it look better without it slowing down the games yet improving the quality of them. Just speculation of course...

Btw, I installed my backup img of Vista and tried this on it and it doesn't work at all.
It says that it installed (Goes through the setup routine) it but after rebooting it doesn't!!!

[MUff1N]

If anyone wants to try this out without going through the process of modifying the setup.ini you can now just download it.
I uploaded it to Rapidshare. This is the EXACT driver mod I installed in my computer...OK

Nvidia driver version 177.35 WHQL XP 32bit mod
RapidShare: Easy Filehosting

[ccperf721p]

Nvidia has the 177.35 XP drivers on the CUDA toolkit page now. Thanks for the effort Muff1N..

Download CUDA Code - complete and free toolkit for creating derivative works

[MUff1N]

I checked out the setup.ini on these and it does support all the series cards!

Since I couldn't get this driver (my mod) to install on Vista, I'm going to install this one from Nvidia and install it on Vista and see how it does.
I'll report back and let you know guys know how it goes...
I really want this driver on Vista because I know how Great it looks on XP!!!
I swear it looks like DX10 on Crysis running XP with the 177.35 driver.
Thanks for the link Cliff!

[MUff1N]

OK, the results are in and they look pretty good using the 177.35 drivers for Vista so far!
I'll do more testing and playing of different games and see if it looks better or not. Crysis looks very good, but it does on DX10 anyways...I'll see how my other games look.
The installation is the same as regular Geforce drivers...

My 3DMark Vantage score went up as well by a bit!

[MUff1N]

This mod works the same with the newest 177.41 XP driver for the 200 series card for my 8800GTS.

I just installed it yesterday doing it the same way as last time with with no issues.
Same results, with no major improvements that's noticeable with my card anyways.
Even still, it's a Major improvement over the standard drivers for my card!

As with the last driver this also enables PhysX for the 8 series card GPU as my CPU score went up after installing it
benching with 3DMark Vantage.
The one on the left is using Vista driver 175.19 and the one on the right is using driver 177.35 driver for Vista with PhysX enabled.
Benching was done at the below signature system details.