MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Why is MAME crashing with new Nvidia drivers?

> This issue keeps coming up over and over again, in multiple forums...
> http://gaming.stackexchange.com/question...-mame-emulator/
>
> The combination of recent versions of MAME, with certain Nvidia graphics cards, and
> the latest Nvidia drivers results in blue screens and reboots when you try to run
> MAME.
>
> At first, I was pointing the finger of blame at Nvidia, but I've become curious as to
> exactly which version of MAME this started in. Is it possible that MAME code is doing
> something wrong with D3D that's causing the crashes?

Honestly, it seems like NVIDIA manages to destabilize their drivers every third release or so. I think it's a combination of short release cycles, maximizing performance in the latest and greatest games, and focusing most of their testing on newer hardware. If you've got older hardware, or you're running anything other than mainstream games, you're more likely to run into issues. MAME is probably fairly unique in that it actually puts a fair amount of stress on the video card, and it's likely not something that gets tested very much in-house at NVIDIA.

My GT260 was doing the same kind of thing 3-4 releases ago, without even having MAME in the equation. A couple of updates later, the problem was apparently fixed.