updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

[loga8n]

hello again
as you can see as the topic states, how do i go on doing these tasks
i went to the gigabyte site, to download drivers, i tried the new driver 260.63, but i get an error saying my version of windows is not compatible, something in that range
i have windows 7 x64, then i look at the other driver 258.56 whql, and it seems to be an older version, so i went on ahead to nvidia site and downloaded their version 258.96 whql
it seems to be a newer version, assume by date and number of it
it works , but when i run easy tune 6, the video tab does not show up
also before i install any driver at all i ran windows experience and i got a 1 on gpu lol, after i install i got 7.5 is that normal

does installing gigabyte driver have any improvements over nvidia dri vers. and how come i cant use 260.63

as for updating the bios, how do i check the version of my gpu,
is using the vga @bios utility safe, if not can i use an external hd to flash the bios, probably not cause i wont be able to boot to dos right??
well thanks for any tips you guys have.

[Acebmxer]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

I would STRONG discourage updating the bios on the video card unless you absolutely need to. as for the drivers the latest versions can be found in a stick on this forum or go to nvidia's website and download the drivers. that is were you will find the latest versions.

[wazza300]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

did you update easytune aswell? you mean the graphics tab on easytune is greyed out?

[loga8n]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

i went to nvidia site and downloaded the latest drivers
and yes i also updated easy tune 6, and the gpu tab is grayed out
is that normal?? i have been looking at other posters screen shot and their easy tune doesnt seem to be grayed out, is their a problem with mine

i used gpuz and it seems the bios on gpuz matches the f3 bios on gigabytes site, so i guess i dont need to update it, and i was just wondering if using the @bios for gpu that risky
guess it seems dangerous like the bios upgrade for mobo too then.

[wazza300]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

@bios for your gpu should be fine,if it does brick the card then you can re-flash it if you have a spare pci-e gpu and plug the two in together

as for easytune i remember when the same thing happened for ati 5000 series cards,just wait for a newer version of easytune to come out that supports that card,mine works fine in easytune now but i remember when it was greyed out like yours

[Psycho101]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

Don't flash ANYTHING from windows. If you really must flash a VGA BIOS use NVFlash or ATIFlash from a bootable CD/USB stick. The same applys for motherboard BIOS's. Windows has an exponentially larger chance of freezing or crashing compared to a DOS based program. Besides, nobody should have to flash their VGA BIOS unless they are having an issue which that BIOS directly addresses. It's not even needed to run two cards in SLI. Both my cards are working fine together and are running different BIOS versions.

Stick with the officially released NVidia Grforce drivers. The ones on the Gigabyte site simply aren't updated often enough to be of any use. Definitely don't worry about easy tune either... ditch it, it's crap. Download MSI Afterburner instead. It still offers all that easy tune does, including overclocking and temp/activity monitoring. Afterburner also allows you to set custom fan curves and enables you to adjust the GPU voltage (GPU VCore) if you wish.

[Acebmxer]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

yes like Psycho said never flash anything motherboad, video card, or anything in windows. too many chances for something to go wrong.

[wazza300]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

yes your both right about flashing from windows,ive only used atiflash about 5 times and it worked fine for me but you might not be so lucky,as for using easytune to oc graphics card with your wasting your time imo,easytune is best used for just monitoring things really,you can overclock from within nvidia or ati ccc software just as good you only need msi afterburner if you need to adjust gpu clock voltages to remain stable

[Psycho101]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

Indeed.

Note that to OC from within the NV control pannel you will need to download and install NTune, then the option will be available in the usual place.

[wazza300]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

so what fps are you getting now in gta iv psycho? with 2xgtx460?

[Psycho101]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

Frame rate hasn't budged from ~68 FPS. The game's probably extremely CPU bound. On the positive side I can turn almost everything up full and STILL get 68 FPS in the benchmark. Gameplay is also flawlessly smooth. The only thing that stops me truely using max settings is the 1024MB GPU RAM limit. I know I can run with -norestrictions but can't be bothered as there's no difference between high and very high shadows to my eyes. Draw and detail distance is on 100 and everything else is max tho.

[wazza300]

Re: updating gigabyte gtx 460 bios/drivers

i turn off night shadows,thats a memory hogger,and few other things on medium rest is high/very high,same distance and density 100% but im at a lower res and i keep vsync enabled or else its jerky,have you patched to latest #7? i have