Nvidia cheats on 3DMark with 177.39 drivers

[Capper]

NVIDIA IS VOILATING Futuremark rules with the latest PhysX drivers, and doing it in the usual sleazy way. The rules are simple, violating them isn't a trick, and doing so in order to pump up your numbers is the height of unethical behavior.
Well no, it isn't the height, this is, but calling Nvidia on unethical behavior is what you might deem a target-rich environment. That said, the company's behavior this time could be done in an ethical way, but it chose not to. The explanation needs a little background though, so bear with us.
3DMark Vantage has four major components, two CPU and two GPU. One of the CPU subtests is a physics-based test. The physics test is based on the Ageia PhysX API, a fairly widespread API in use by a large number of games. Between the time that 3DMark Vantage development was started and the time it was released, Nvidia bought Ageia.
The problem is that the PhysX DLLs, and for that matter, the whole API is now owned by Nvidia. In and of itself, this is not a problem, especially if the company involved had a history of honesty, integrity, and fair play. Nvidia has none of these attributes, and has a proven history of cheating on 3DMark.

Nvidia cheats on 3DMark with 177.39 drivers - The INQUIRER

[polobunny]

Hmm interesting. I don't exactly consider this "cheating" though. PhysX instructions are meant to run on a PPU, not on the CPU or the GPU. That said, if it gives you more frame rates in games, where's the problem? I understand it cheats 3DMark Vantage Driver Approval Policy but it's not like in the past where nVidia/ATI or any other GPU company used lightened sub routines to gain frames.

[Boy'nBlack]

It's using a GPU to do CPU's work. The beef, from my point of view, is that no one else can have these special drivers. It's not hardware, but corn-holing drivers. See, even if ATI gets physics on the GPU or Intel gets it perfected in their CPU...they need the physics driver from nVidia.

So that is why there's a rule about driver gains as it's meant to test hardware. A CPU test should test CPU, physics test physics. What they're doing with 3Dmark is not showing actual improvement in games, but making it look better by coding tricks.

If you look back at all the tricks played prior, this is right in line. Like not painting stuff not seen in the world, when real games will do just that. What isn't drawn is easier, gets a score, but then you buy these products based on scores and wonder why it's not translated to real world gaming environments.

Intel isn't even submitting a set, it seems they don't want the world to know something

Come ooonn Ray Tracing.

[RA1D]

177.35




177.39 + physx

[qazwsx]

Originally Posted by RAID

177.35




177.39 + physx

Thats a HUGE boost, I didn't know it would help that much. Nice scores, maybe theres more to this physx than I first thought.