NVidia Driver frustrations

[Adzekul.3104]

So I have an older graphics card (GeForce GTX 760) and the latest series of NVidia drivers just keep crashing so often that the game in unplayable. The problem only happens with GW2. I have tried numerous older versions (currently on testing the sixth out of the previous 10 drivers .. this one is 460.89).

I have also tried "repairing" GW2, but this seems to offer no fix for my problem.

Things were fine for a long tie with NVidia driver 461.72 but it started crashing when 461.92 became available. I upgraded. And it was just a bad. And then on March 30, NVidia posted 465.89 and it was minor improvement (only crashing once per hour instead of once every 2-5 minutes). But with the latest GW2 patch, the instability of the NVidia 461.xx series returned.

Has anyone else had similar problems? If so, what have you done? What driver version are you using now?

I want to avoid Anet and NVidia each saying "talk to about this. It is their problem".

Please help.

[Infusion.7149]

If you use anything with overlay or dll injection at all whether it is discord / Teamspeak Overwolf, d912pxy / dxvk , arcdps try not using it first.

Also try clearing the shader cache.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Your graphics card is quite old. You could test a driver of a number of generations back. Like this one.https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/128421/

At a certain moment the newest drivers are not always the best for older GPUs with older games.You also should do some general system stability testing, including:Windows memory diagnostic.Running 3DMark and/or FurMark.OCCT VRAM test

[Nessai.2148]

Iv also had some issues, but not with chrashes, but with bad rendering and very heavy lag that makes it nearly unplayable when im not soling on a map.I also use Nvidia but a newer craphic card GTX 1650 Ti and yes it is a lap top. But iv never had problems before

[TinkTinkPOOF.9201]

@"TheQuickFox.3826" said:Your graphics card is quite old. You could test a driver of a number of generations back. Like this one.https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/128421/

At a certain moment the newest drivers are not always the best for older GPUs with older games.

This.

I know people like to update drivers, but OP you should know after a gen or maybe two if you are lucky will driver updates ever help in any way for those older cards. The MFG cares about optimization on newer cards for better performance and bug fixes and most of those are for big name games, often times not across the board performance. As such, updating drivers unless it states so in the release notes will only result in possible stability issues with the newer drivers as your card gets older and at some point will not even be supported. Which will probably be soon, as the 600 and 700 series are at the end of their supported list and both are Kepler architectures. After a while the GPUs become so different that it becomes to much of a hassle to keep support for those older cards and they get dropped after a given time depending on release cycles.

As such, I would suggest rolling back to the last known good driver. Unless a new driver is released that fixes a bug for your card that you are dealing with, I would suggest not updating. I would be very doubtful if any updates offer any performance gains for that card.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I use 441.08. Works great.For me, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Adzekul.3104]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I know well enough that old card + new drivers =/= stability.

I went all the way back to 442.50 (mid-to-late-2019 I believe) but even this was not stable. Maybe I need to go back further, but currently I cannot find drivers older than 457.09 ... at least that is the last easy-to-find driver.

I will keep looking. i do not want to jinx it, but 460.89 has been holding for a day or 2 now.

Problem seems to be worst when I have GW2 + Youtube (Firefox) + Discord all running together.

I do not use any GW2 addons.

One of my most annoying problems is finding an old driver that works for months & months, and then suddenly stops working when NVidia realeases a new driver. This is what happened with the 461.xx series.

[Ashantara.8731]

@"TheQuickFox.3826" said:Your graphics card is quite old.

That shouldn't be the issue as the nVidia download page let's you filter the drivers for your card: https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/drivers/

@"Adzekul.3104" said:So I have an older graphics card (GeForce GTX 760)

I used that card, too, till last fall.

I have also tried "repairing" GW2, but this seems to offer no fix for my problem.

Things were fine for a long tie with NVidia driver 461.72 but it started crashing when 461.92 became available.

Have you tried to completely uninstall the current driver using DDU, then install the latest one compatible with your card (see link above)?

Also, unless you think you absolutely need it, don't install GeForce Experience - it's not necessary for the driver to function.

[Caedmon.6798]

Pro tip,when Uninstalling drivers disconnect your Internet,better pull the cable. So when you reboot Windows wont be messing with your installation because it auto installs an older version before you even get the chance to install your own.