Nvidia cheats on 3DMark with 177.39 drivers

Different workload, let's just pretend it's legit and we'll not speak of this again.

NVIDIA is violating 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, 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.

To be fair, ATI has been caught at the same thing as well, but nothing lately, and Intel compilers come with curious optimisation defaults as well. No one is clean, but only Nvidia seems to take dishonesty as a corporate mandate.

So, with the latest driver, Forceware 177.39 drivers, Nvidia put its now in-house PhysX APIs into the drivers. Instead of it running on the CPU or on the PhysX chip, it is running it on the GPU. It owns the GPU and it's drivers along with the physics API and all those drivers. This is a dangerous situation.

There are two problems with Nvidia doing this, it isn't a legal driver for 3DMark, and it isn't even running the same program as others who run 3DMark. Either one is enough to preclude people from using those drivers and calling the results 3DMark scores.

If you look at the 3DMark Vantage Driver Approval Policy, section 3.5 clearly states, "Based on the specification and design of the CPU tests, GPU make, type or driver version may not have a significant effect on the results of either of the CPU tests as indicated in Section 7.3 of the 3DMark Vantage specification and whitepaper." When you run a CPU test on a GPU, it clearly violates the rules.

The other problem is that when you install the drivers, they replace the PhysX DLLs with a completely different set of DLLs. If you look at the Nvidia PhysX reviewers guide, a PDF that NV hands out to help people write up their newest toys, they say the following for UT3 installation.



That looks completely above board!

Note steps 4 and 5 that say "Uninstall the existing AGEIA PhysX v7.11.13 driver (installs with UT3 installation)." and "Install the new PhysX 8.06.12 driver." Same with 3DMark Vantage, and they offer the helpful hint of "GeForce PhysX is enabled in CPU Test 2. We recommend testing in Performance Preset for the best final score with GeForce PhysX. In Extreme Preset the score is mainly determined by the GPU score. A faster CPU Test 2 result will not make much difference."