Conclusion

Futuremark was evidently trying to avoid another fiasco by allowing only specific drivers that they have tested and approved. However, their approval and recommendation of the NVIDIA Rev. 52.16 driver with its 3DMark03-specific optimization seems to run counter to that objective.

Granted, they tested NVIDIA's optimization and found that it only affected the Pixel Shader 2.0 test and had no effect on the overall 3DMark score. Still, that should not have been the ONLY approved driver on the list.

If there has to be a single approved driver, it should have been NVIDIA's latest "optimization-free" driver. That would allow everyone to produce valid and completely comparable results.

Even if they felt that the Rev. 52.16 driver was still a valid driver, why not provide a list of several approved drivers including at least one "optimization-free" driver? After all, they already list three different approved drivers for ATI cards.

So, what do you think about this issue? Please share your thoughts with us here!

Addendum

To avoid confusion over what this article is all about, I would like to add that :-

Of course, NVIDIA has long been releasing drivers that have "3DMark03-specific optimizations".

If you were misled into thinking that this article was about NVIDIA's cheating drivers, please read the article... AGAIN. This article is NOT about NVIDIA's optimizations for 3DMark03.

But on the topic of optimized drivers, NVIDIA do have optimization-free drivers. Of course, they are OLD drivers.

If I were Futuremark, I know I have the power to effect change in NVIDIA. All I have to do is recommend ONLY drivers that are cheat-free! That would be the "latest, cheat-free driver", as I mentioned in my article.

Naturally, in NVIDIA's case, that would be a really old driver. It would probably not support the latest NVIDIA cards. But that's not my fault, isn't it? If NVIDIA cannot play ball and play fair, that doesn't mean I (playing as Futuremark) cannot do the same.

The purpose of this article is to point out the fact that Futuremark CAN do something about it, if they want. All they need to do is be fair and recommend only drivers that are COMPLETELY CHEAT-FREE. That will catch NVIDIA's attention and force them to create cheat-free drivers.

Questions & Comments

Please feel free to post your questions or comments here!