New Nvidia driver 320.49 - fixed lots of things

[trueblack]

NVIDIA SLI Technology
Added or updated the following SLI profiles:

Added SLI profile for Alien Fear
Added SLI profile for Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Added SLI profile for Dead Island: Riptide
Added SLI profile for Dragon Sword
Added SLI profile for Neverwinter
Added SLI profile for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Added SLI profile for GRID 2
Added SLI profile for Human Head 2
Added SLI profile for Remember Me
Added SLI profile for The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
Updated SLI profile for Natural Selection 2
Updated SLI profile for Resident Evil 6
Updated SLI profile for Trackmania 2: Canyon

Fixed Issues
The following sections list the important changes and the most common issues resolved since version 320.18. This list is only a subset of the total number of changes made in this driver version. The NVIDIA bug number is provided for reference.

Windows Vista/Windows 7 Fixed Issues

[Battlefield 3]: Blue rectangles appear when exploding a car within the game. [1282583]
[Eve Retribution]: There is image corruption in the game. [1282302]
[Call of Duty: Black Ops 2]: There are artifacts and graphics corruption in the game. [1277657]
[GeForce GTX 670]: The GPU runs at a higher performance level more frequently with dual monitors enabled. [1279437]
[GeForce GTX 670][Battlefield 3]: The graphics in the game are corrupted. [1281730]
[GeForce GTX 680][Assassin’s Creed 3]: There is purple corruption during gameplay. [1290918]
[SLI][3D Vision][GeForce GTX 680M][Notebook]: The internal display goes blank after installing the driver and enabling SLI or stereoscopic 3D. [1297104]
[SLI][Surround][GeForce GTX 670]: 2D Surround cannot be enabled when SLI is enabled. [1303522]
[SLI][Tom Clancy`s Ghost Recon Future Soldier]: SLI profile needs to be updated. [1292762]

Windows 8 Fixed Issues

[GeForce GTX 680][Stereoscopic 3D]: The NVIDIA Control Panel->Set up stereoscopic 3D->Stereoscopic 3D display type setting reverts from HDMI Checkerboard to 3DTV Play after rebooting the system. [1294390]
[SLI][3D Vision][GeForce GTX 680M][Notebook]: The internal display goes blank after installing the driver and enabling SLI or stereoscopic 3D. [1297104]
[SLI][Surround][GeForce GTX 670]: 2D Surround cannot be enabled when SLI is enabled. [1303522]
[SLI][Tom Clancy`s Ghost Recon Future Soldier]: SLI profile needs to be updated. [1292762]

Very nice to see Nvidia so fast in fixing things I bitched at their forums last month. I only have to say, - well done -, anyone that listens to complains, validates and fixes it, is a good company to work with.

I am testing this driver now on games I play.

 

[ilovecats]

Thanks for the heads-up. Note these are beta drivers. But wow there are some nice numbers for my 660

GeForce GTX 660:
Up to 20% in Dirt: Showdown
Up to 18% in Tomb Raider
Up to 10% in Metro: Last Light
Up to 10% in Sleeping Dogs
Up to 8% in StarCraft II
Up to 6% in Sniper Elite V2
Up to 6% in Metro 2033
Up to 6% in Far Cry 3
Up to 6% in Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Up to 5% in F1 2012

I'm actually on TR atm. Gonna install now.

 

[wingman99]

Have they come out with a Fix for the yellow roads in BF3

 

[awktane]

Looks like as usual nvidia beta is more stable than amd release. No problems at all so far.

 

[trueblack]

So far I dont have any issues with Bf3 anymore.

using 5760 res..

 

[trueblack]

Thanks for the heads-up. Note these are beta drivers. But wow there are some nice numbers for my 660


I'm actually on TR atm. Gonna install now.

Recent drivers keep boosting the performances on the GTX6XX series.

 

[ilovecats]

Recent drivers keep boosting the performances on the GTX6XX series.

This is really nice and all that, but I honestly don't feel much of a difference somehow. I think Nvidia exaggerates these gain percentages a lot, too. I'd really like to know the hardware setups and exact game settings they used to obtain those numbers.

 

[Soulcatcher668]

This is really nice and all that, but I honestly don't feel much of a difference somehow. I think Nvidia exaggerates these gain percentages a lot, too. I'd really like to know the hardware setups and exact game settings they used to obtain those numbers.

Performance Boost
Increases performance for GeForce 400/500/600 Series GPUs in several PC games when compared to the GeForce 314.22 drivers.

From HERE, the release document. This time the compared driver is only two versions old.

 

[EarthDog]

Normally, one doesnt 'feel' a difference in driver FPS improvements anyway. Measure it with a FPS tool like FRAPS and a canned benchmark. One doesnt feel a couple FPS and that is what the percentages yield in a lot of cases.

 

[ilovecats]

Normally, one doesnt 'feel' a difference in driver FPS improvements anyway. Measure it with a FPS tool like FRAPS and a canned benchmark. One doesnt feel a couple FPS and that is what the percentages yield in a lot of cases.

Yeah but 20% should be more than just a couple of fps. Most end users probably won't bother doing version to version comparisons with fraps, that's why I want to see their test settings for their numbers, so that I can have a better idea on exactly what got improved and maybe tweak my own settings to take advantage of it.

For example, with a certain high-end setting on, say SSAA, you get 20fps in the old driver. Let's say the new driver improved SSAA and you get 24fps, which is a "20% gain". The problem is, this is ultimately useless because it's still considered "unplayable" and the feature will be disabled. That's practically no gain at all.

The release document doesn't seem to contain that information.

 

[EarthDog]

Clearly, as you mentioned, the amount of FPS gained will vary by the FPS you are getting. So, as in your example, it can be 4 FPS, or maybe it will be 15 (saying you are getting 75 FPS to start). Can you notice 15 FPS above 75? I cant. You will notice more of that 4 FPS from 20 FPS. Sure it doesnt make it playable, but that is more noticeable, IMO, due to the low FPS to start.

You are right, but this is something that needs to be measured to notice almost anywhere.

 

[trueblack]

regardless, improvements are good.

I see it as 'great, now I can go from high setting to ultra!'

 

[EarthDog]

But can you really? Like was discussed directly above you that depends on what FPS you were getting before that as to how much it really matters. You think you can go from High to ultra gaining 5 FPS (from 20)? Not in most games... 10 FPS (from 40?)? Maybe there. Much above that, you could already put it on ultra and have very playable FPS. So there is a very small window where that can happen. So it depends on the situation, big time.

 

[Pierre3400]

Looks like as usual nvidia beta is more stable than amd release. No problems at all so far.

This is based on what?

regardless, improvements are good.

I see it as 'great, now I can go from high setting to ultra!'

With your setup, ultra should have been possible with just 1 670, from looking at benchings..

 

[EarthDog]

Nothing. Especially considering all the people complaining in this thread about it and rolling back...

 

[trueblack]

With your setup, ultra should have been possible with just 1 670, from looking at benchings..

3 monitors. not all game I can go ultra on 3 screens.
BF3 for example, I need to keep selected features off to keep the FPS high, so any percentage increase to me = being to able to turn another feature to ultra..

and it is true in this driver's case for many games.
(also due to the previous driver sucking)

 

[Boulard83]

3 monitors. not all game I can go ultra on 3 screens.
BF3 for example, I need to keep selected features off to keep the FPS high, so any percentage increase to me = being to able to turn another feature to ultra..

and it is true in this driver's case for many games.
(also due to the previous driver sucking)

Are your 670's 2 gb ? IF yes, BF3 require more than 2gb for ULTRA + 2xMSAA on surround. I get between 1900 and 2300 depand on the map i play. With 2gb, the VRAM become the issue.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

WHQL released today for this driver.

 

[Ronbert]

Glad to see Nvidia fixed this... I was having some nasty issues with 320.18