Warning 8800 GTS and 180.xx Nvidia drivers

I've been running a Gainward bliss 8800 Gts 320 for almost 2 years but recently I updated to the latest Nvidia drivers along with XP sp3. I started getting graphics problems and crashing issues followed by default res and the red 'x' next to my graphic card in device manager. To cut a long story short, I swapped out my graphics card with another 8800 gts I had and it started working properly. I concluded I had a faultly card and RMA'd my card back to Gainward. Within a week I had the replacement with a hand written note stating:

'Don't use Nvidia driver above 178.xx - it will damage the card!!'

This somewhat worried me so I email their support, the reponse:

Sent: Wed Mar 18 16:26:34 2009
Subject: RE: Nvidia Drivers above 178.xx damaging card?

Hi,,

We observed that 180 series drivers are not very well compatible with NVIDIA 8000 series graphics cards. Also we received complaints from users on 8800 series graphics card after they updated to new (180 series) drivers.

New drivers may work for some time but eventually you will see some kind of errors or some compatibility issues.

The new Drivers are specially developed for latest series of Graphics card like 9800 and GTX 260 and above series.

Best Regards

Technical Support
Gainward Europe

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I've logged a call with Nvidia who are looking into it but I thought I'd mention it here.

It does seem a bit strange to me but I'm not expert. Has anyone else had this problem with an 8800 GTS?

Its more or less what I've seen with my 9800GX2; it hates newer drivers.

As a rule, if the drivers work, don't touch them.

I don't have this problem with my BFG 8800GT OC 512. The current driver i have is 182.08 that i downloaded from Nvidia. That PC run crysis, Stlalker, & halflife.

I believe you are spot on. The version of the GPU seems to be the culprit from what I've been reading. My cards both have the G80 and can't handle the newer drivers. The later G92s, however, seem to be immune from this anomaly. I found a report on this in the past, but I can't seem to locate it anymore.

I havent experienced any problem with my XFX 8800GTS 320 so far with the 180.xx drivers.touchwood. a case of"exceptions are not examples'?

Hmmm, one thing I haven't tried is removing one card and not using SLI with the newer drivers. I may try that just for the heck of it. Maybe it's just an SLI problem. However, if flatulentcow's warning is accurate maybe I should just forget it.

I have my eye on a new Evga 285GTX 1G anyway. I may have to find a good home for these two 8800GTS 320's pretty soon

Interesting. I'm running a 800GTS 320 myself with the newest nvidia drivers. No issues as of yet. It would be nice if they gave a reason why they proclaimed it as "unhealthy" to the series.