So...where does it say that this a “performance driver” for Max 2010?

From the dropdowns, choose Product Type, Product Series and Product,then from Download Type, choose “3ds Max Performance Driver”, then your OS. For Language, I think only English US is available, when I tried English UK it didn’t find it.
You should get this page.

OK..I extracted the file mentioned above (3dsmaxpd.drv) and pasted it into:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2010

But, I still get the attached error.

ideas?

-edit- Has anyone read the readme file? It still references Max 2009. Gives me warm fuzzies on Nvidia’s thoroughness.

Max Design 2012 SP2 / Win 7 Pro
NVidia Quadro FX 4800 x 2 (non sli)
HP Z800 - 2 Xeon X5680 @ 3.33 GHz; 36 GB ram

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Hmmm. I have better frame rate and less viewport stuttering with the standard Direct 3D. Nvidia has not bee impressing me lately.

BTW...thanks iamsurf for the detailed..."press this button” instructions.

Dean

Max Design 2012 SP2 / Win 7 Pro
NVidia Quadro FX 4800 x 2 (non sli)
HP Z800 - 2 Xeon X5680 @ 3.33 GHz; 36 GB ram

pyro777 19 November 2009 07:10 PM

Hmmm. I have better frame rate and less viewport stuttering with the standard Direct 3D. Nvidia has not bee impressing me lately.

Dean

I agree. It’s 400% worse than the standard Direct 3D driver.

Even Windows 7 seemed to work faster than XP x64 with the standard Direct 3D driver. If Revit wasn’t 400% worse under Win 7 I’d switch my OS.

Paul
http://www.monsefdesign.com
------------------------------------------------------
Dual Quad Core Intel Xeon Processors X5365 - 3.00GHz
16 GB DDR2 ECC SDRAM 667MHz
768MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 4600
Windows 7 64-bit

Revit Architecture
3ds MAX Design

By the way - it seems there is a Bug in this driver:

i can’t set anything higher than “2 Samples” for Antialiasing. Any other setting would reset to “none”...No problems with the standard D3D driver with these settings.

samab thank you for the link, most helpful.

Although now that I’ve installed the drivers I’ve been having critical issues.  Max and XP have been very stable but since the install I’ve had 2 blue screens of death, in 2 days.  So I’ve been forced to revert back to the direct 3D driver for stability and sanity’s sake. 

So yeah, downloader beware, may cause blue screen crashes.  I’m using max 2010, SP1 with the latest hot fixes.

I just installed the NVIDIA Max driver using “jamsurf’s” method of dropping the “3dsmaxpd.drv” file into the Max root directory and setting it up in the “Preferences...” options. The immediate viewport improvements were impressive. I tend to work in polygon laden viewports and Max2010 is the first version that has consistantly caused me to work with sluggish viewports. My primary tool for moving around in the viewports is a “3DConnexion SpacePilot.” When that becomes sluggish, I usually go to the mouse and keyboard. When they become sluggish, I go to the “ViewCube” and “SteeringWheel.” I find them both very useful. The progression of viewport devices isn’t random for me. I found that each, in that order, would give me more control than the previous one. I don’t know if that’s different for others; but, that’s way it works on my system.

After switching to the new driver, I opened one of my current work files which has been causing me problems with extremely sluggish viewport control. For the first time, I was able to use any of the control devices to move around the scene, with relative ease. Of course, I can simplify my scenes for better control and that’s exactly what I do, when I have to; but, I like working with as much detail in the scene as possible when I start animating.

When I first opened Max, after the installation, there was a black square and a black triangle on the left side of each orthographic viewport when I rolled the mouse over them. This does not occur in the Perspective viewport. After right clicking in any of the viewports the black shapes dissappear and don’t return until the next time I open Max.

I might have problems later; but, for now, I’m happy with the new driver. Knocking on wood, tap, tap, tap.

Max 2012(64) Win 7 - 64
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800
Dual Xeon E5520 Six-Core, 3.33GHz
16GB DDR3

Unfortunately this metod doesn’t work on my PC: this error appear “loading of custom driver failed. Forcing null driver mode.
Any further help?

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Any huge performance gain after installing? Or is a geforce 260 etc just fine in directx 9 mode?

Intel i7 930 2.8Ghz 8 CORE HT / CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus (no OC yet!)
Nvidia EVGA GTX 260 v296.10 driver (Nitrous in max) / Dual Dell Professional P2311H 23” Displays
ASUS P6X58D-E / Corsair Dominator 12GB 1600 DDR3 / Antec tp750 blue / Antec 300 Illusion
Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1
3ds max design 2012 x64 SP2 (since the 1st DOS version!), Mudbox 2012 x64 SP3, Softimage 2012 x64 SP1, Maya 2012 x64 HF2, Adobe CS5.5 x64, CorelDRAW x5 SP3, Painter 12, etc etc
Wacom Intuos4 v6.2.0w5 / 3DConnexion Space Navigator (drv6.15.2)/ Logitech Performance MX mouse (5.33.14)

Hi Guys, if this causes a problem in future, right click the installer and chose: Troubleshoot Compatibility.  Finally compatability features actually work consistantly.