IMatch, Nvidia and Windows Updates - the continuing story

[GOC53]

A recent update to Affinity Photo informed me that to have "Hardware Acceleration" I needed to have a more recent version of Windows 10 Home.
So I updated to Version 20H2, Build 19042.804.
And, of course, when IMatch opened the viewer, it crashed. This has happened, in similar circumstances, several times before. I feared that I would have to go back to my older version of Windows.
My graphics card is a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and the driver was version 456.71.
A visit to the Nvidia downloads site (https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/drivers/) suggested several replacements.
461.72 does not work for me, BUT 461.40 does!
I used the Studio Ready driver.
I am pleased that I now have an up to date version of Windows, hardware acceleration in Affinity Photo and, most importantly, IMatch working properly!

Someone, somewhere, must know why some drivers work and others do not. Unfortunately, it is not me.

[Mario]

The Studio Drivers is the 'stable' branch of Nvidias driver. To be prefererd, unless you have to run the latest games.
If you don't install a driver yourself, Windows will pick the latest stable driver for your Windows version.

As I have learned, the crash was never caused by the driver directly but by some part of the Nvidia GForce Experience software suite. Which somehow hooks into the system to send telemetry to Nvidia.
I always skip installing the Experience and install only the driver. I don't need anything the Experience software offers.
I have two computers with Nvidia graphic cards and both run fine with IMatch. I also have a tablet with built-in Intel GPU and access to systems with AMD GPUs. So far, only some Nvidia drivers ever made problems.

[Tilt]

I run into the same problem. I've pretty much given up on this software. I come by every couple of months and download the latest version (why I'm on today). I install it.. test it, and boom- it crashes in viewer mode. I'm using the Windows 10 Nvidia Driver update.

I have several types of image editing software, video editing, and a few different management systems (Lightroom, ACDSee, tried demo for Supreme Photo).. none of these other programs give me any issue.  I'm currently using ACDSee, but would like to come back to iMatch because it's got better handling of Versioning.

Anyway- good luck.

[Mario]

I have two Nvidia myself cards. No problems.

More than 50% of the IMatch base use Nvidia cards.
Never problems with AMD or Intel boards.

Another user contacted me about this problem just two days ago. He just installed the latest driver for his Nvidia card and the problem was gone immediately!

If you have the "Experience" software suite installed and don't need it, uninstall it. The crash happens in a DLL which is part of the Experience software, not in the driver I believe.
This also removes the unwanted "call home" telemetry Nvidia performs from your system.

Again, there is nothing I can do. IMatch uses Windows DirectX and DirectX talks to your Nvidia driver. Which then crashes on some computers. Definitely a Nvidia driver / Experience issue.