WHQL certification is riddle wrapped in an enigma

WE SPOTTED an interesting story over at Xbit which concerns Microsoft WHQL certification. It takes some reading, and more than a few scratched heads, but we think we understand the shenanigans reported therein.

The problem appears to be exhibited when running the Display Compatibility Test, which is part of the WHQL testing suite. On Nvidia's 66.81 ForceWare drivers, GraphZilla's 6800 Ultra and 6600 GT cards fail the Pixel Shader 3.0 test. Nvidia appears, however, to have been granted a waiver by Microsoft which enables it to claim WHQL certification for the 66.81 driver despite this failure.

ATI has fallen foul of a similar problem with DCT with its geometry instancing feature, as we reported earlier.

As writer Anton Shilov points out, the problems that have arisen raise questions about how far companies design their hardware to the standards that they set and whether or not shortcuts are taken. We will be keeping a close eye on Nvidia's new drivers to see what PS3.0 improvements are made. µ