Reducing the NVIDIA Blacklist

We recently relaxed our graphics blocklist for users with NVIDIA hardware using certain older graphics drivers. The original blocklist entry blocked all versions less than v8.17.11.8265 due to stability issues with NVIDIA 182.65 and earlier. We recently learned however that the first two numbers in the version string indicate platform version and the latter numbers refer to the actual driver version. As a result we were inadvertently blocking newer drivers on older platforms.

We have since opened up the blacklist for versions newer than 8.15.11.8265 (Win XP) and 8.16.11.8265 (Vista/Win7) via bug 1284322, effectively drivers released beyond mid-2009.This change only exists on Nightly currently but we expect it to ride the trains unless some critical regression is discovered.

If you are triaging bugs and user feedback, or are engaging with users on social media, please keep an eye out for users with NVIDIA hardware. If the user does have NVIDIA hardware please have them check the Graphics section of about:support to confirm if they are using a driver version that was previously blocked. If they are try to help them get updated to the most recent driver version. If the issue persists, have them disable hardware acceleration to see if the issue goes away.

The same goes if you are a user experiencing quality issues (crashes, hangs, black screening, checkerboarding, etc) on NVIDIA hardware with these drivers. Please make sure your drivers are up to date.

In either case, if the issue persists please file a bug so we can investigate what is happening.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Thank you for your help!