New guy with a video card question (GTL related)

[Psychographic]

I recently found my old racing wheel and decided to try some PC racing after a long break, to show how long it's been since I've done any racing, GTL was just about to come out when I last raced. I just bought a copy of GTL and GTR2. While playing GTL at a night race it became apparent that I need a better video card.

After researching and figuring out how much I was willing to spend to get a new card I decided on a EVGA Geforce 9800GT which is currently on it's way. I decided it would be smart to look for the latest drivers before getting the card so I would be ready for when it arrives. While doing so, I stumbled on a thread at the Nvidia site's forum about how the 8, 9 and 200 series cards have problems with the GTL/GTR series of games locking up and kicking back to the desktop using certain drivers.

Have any of you experienced this problem, and if so, is there a solution to it?

Can you suggest what drivers to use for this card?

BTW, there was no real confirmed solution posted on the Nvidia forum, but the posts were about a year old.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=90741

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I had an 8800GTS, and experienced black screen lockups in the Race series, but never in GTL (which is not to say that they don't happen, I just never experienced them). I ended up changing to ATI, but as I say - never had any issues with GTL, nor rFactor, for that matter.

I think some of our GTL regulars use quite old drivers, but again that might be so they can use Race series properly.

 

[Peter]

On my old GTS 250 ( 9800 GTX ) works best with 186.18 ( No stuttering or freezings and the best performans ) but with my new GTX 260 the newer drivers are better.

 

[Dave Stephenson]

I don't think I've had any problems with GTL with my nV cards. 8800GTS or the 275's I have now.

If you want to try the 186.18 mentioned above, if they are already gone from the nVidia website Guru3d.com have an archive all the older drivers.

 

[Peter]

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winxp_186.18_whql_uk.html

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7_winvista_32bit_186.18_whql_uk.html

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7_winvista_64bit_186.18_whql_uk.html

 

[Carlos Diaz]

I had an ATI 3870 that would crash all the time with GTL. I traded with a friend for another 3870 to see if it was my particular card. Ended up being the same, random crashes all the time. So then I downgraded to an nVidia 7800GT and it ran perfectly. Now I have a GTX285 and I have the latest drivers and it still runs perfectly.

 

[Tim Ling]

I had an ATI 3870 that would crash all the time with GTL. I traded with a friend for another 3870 to see if it was my particular card. Ended up being the same, random crashes all the time. So then I downgraded to an nVidia 7800GT and it ran perfectly. Now I have a GTX285 and I have the latest drivers and it still runs perfectly.

Same for me too. No CTD's yet using Win7 and GTX295