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Nvidia's 344.16 WHQL Driver Fixes Compatibility Issues

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Nvidia has posted its new GeForce 344.16 WHQL graphics driver.

Just days ago, Nvidia announced its new GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards along with the GeForce 344.11 driver. Very shortly thereafter, Nvidia launched the 344.16 Beta driver, which has now been WHQL certified and is available for download.

It's not exactly clear what the new drivers have to offer, as there is no mention of any performance improvements or new profiles. The only update that we can spot (beyond what the 344.11 driver offers) is that the Code 49 and Code 43 errors have been fixed for when using one of the new cards on an Asus Rampage Black or ASRock X79 series motherboard.

WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) testing is a process designed by Microsoft that ensures drivers don't present any issues when being used with various third-party hardware and software packages. A WHQL-certified driver therefore assures you a certain level of stability and predictability in most use cases.

So, in short, if you have compatibility issues with the new graphics cards, download and install this driver. If you aren't having any issues, you're probably better off saving 200 MB of your Internet bandwidth cap, if you have one.

You can download the driver here.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • abhinav_mall
    Thanks. Bandwidth is precious.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Speaking of driver issues, my GT 540M every once in a while will stay on the HD 3000 when I play War Thunder instead of optimus switching to the GT 540M.

    Restart fixes this, however I wonder if they also fixed this in this new update.
    Reply
  • alz_solstice
    My GeForce 8400 GS is not compatible with this update anymore. Got stuck with the 340.52 update. Urghh..
    Reply
  • fuzzion
    My GeForce 8400 GS is not compatible with this update anymore. Got stuck with the 340.52 update. Urghh..

    Im sure it can still play minecraft at 20fps
    Reply
  • yanis31
    WOW - This driver is CRAP! - it cannot detect my 780 during setup so can't be installed, - been screwing with this for 30 minutes, ended up with card not even being detected by windows, just some generic microsoft display adapter nonsense, even went as far as uninstalling antivirus and other hassle, no chance! just tried 344.11 and everything is immediately fine, no wonder geforce experience offers only 344.11 and same thing if you search for drivers on nvidia's website.
    Reply
  • yanis31
    ok guys i might have been a total idiot here - lack of sleep and the lack of one important detail in this article completely made me miss the part that this driver is ONLY for 900 series cards. let me repeat - IT IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH OTHER CARDS - tomshardware staff - please fix this in the article, since it doesn't mention it anywhere. - this is the reason GE or search on nvidia's site won't pull it up unless you enter 900 series card.
    Reply
  • gregsuarez
    344.11 wreaked utter and complete havoc on my Win7-64/GTX 680 SLI system. Everything was running peachy-keen, but as soon as I attempted to install 344.11 I got BSODs during repeated install attempts. I was even getting BDOD trying to revert back to the previous driver version. I eventually got everything running correctly by sweeping every NVIDIA file out of my registry and operating in safe mode. However, I had to install the components of the driver bundle separately. I'm still unsure if everything is operating the way it should. It would be nice if NVIDIA released a new driver set for pre-900 series cards.
    Reply
  • Mousemonkey
    The 344.11's work just fine on my 660Ti's as far as system stability goes but they seem to have borked my PPD, though that could have been the modified 344.16's. Either way both worked just fine for me and my 660's.
    Reply
  • Mousemonkey
    The PPD may have been the fault Stanford.

    http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=40051
    Reply
  • yanis31
    14274057 said:
    The 344.11's work just fine on my 660Ti's as far as system stability goes but they seem to have borked my PPD, though that could have been the modified 344.16's. Either way both worked just fine for me and my 660's.

    you installed 344.16 with 660ti's ? what? are you sure? so why can't the driver be installed on a gtx780? why it can be found on nvidia's site only if you enter a 900 series card in the searchbox? did i just misunderstand you or you are lying?
    Reply