NVIDIA drivers 266.58 WHQL 1-18-11

[Wreckage]

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-266.58-whql-driver.html

This is the first release from the Release 265 family of drivers (versions 265.xx to 269.xx). You can read more about this family of drivers on GeForce.com.

This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs.

New in Release 266.58

GPU Support

* Supports the newly released GeForce GTX 580 and GeForce GTX 570 GPUs.

Performance

* Increases performance for GeForce 400 Series and 500 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. the latest Release 260 drivers. The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured on Windows 7. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

GeForce GTX 580:

o Up to 7% in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
o Up to 12% in Battleforge (SLI 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF Very High)
o Up to 11% in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (SLI 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
o Up to 7% in Dirt 2 (SLI 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
o Up to 7% in Far Cry 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
o Up to 5% in Just Cause 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF Dark Tower)
o Up to 5% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
o Up to 9% in Stone Giant (SLI 1920x1200, DOF on)
o Up to 8% in Unigine Heaven v2.1 (SLI 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)

* Improves performance in Final Fantasy XI on GeForce 400 Series and 500 Series GPUs.

Visual Quality

* Adds ambient occlusion support for one of the most popular games of the year: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Ambient occlusion improves the quality of lighting, shadows, and depth perception in many parts of the game. Learn more on GeForce.com.

NVIDIA 3D Vision

* With Release 260 and 265 drivers, the installation process for 3D Vision has changed. Please view this knowledgebase article for more information on the changes.
* Adds support for 3DVisionLive.com Beta 2:
o Adds supports for 3D photo sharing and viewing
o Adds new 3D video clips to the website
* Improved scaling quality with video streaming content from 3DVisionLive.com over previous 266.35 Beta driver
* Adds 3D Vision Window Mode support for the following games and applications:
o Games
+ Aion
+ Crazy Racing Kart Rider
+ Crossfire
+ Dragon Nest
+ EverQuest 2
+ Guild Wars 2
+ NED
+ PopKart
+ QQ Dance QQ
+ QQ Xian Xia
+ Tian Long Ba Bu
+ World of Warcraft – Burning Crusade
+ World of Warcraft – Wrath of the Lich King
+ Xun Xian
+ Zhu Xian 2
o Google Earth
o Improvements to 3DVisionLive
* Adds support for new 3D Vision Desktop LCD monitors: Acer GN245HQ, Acer HN274H, Hannstar HS233, I-O Data 3D231XBR, Lenovo L2363dwA, Planar SA2311W
* Adds support for new 3D Vision projectors: Acer X1261P, Sanyo PDG-DXL2000
* Adds support for new 3D Vision All-in-On PC: ASUS ET2400XVT
* Adds support for new DLP HDTVs: Mitsubishi WD-83838, WD-83738, WD-73838, WD-73837, WD-73738, WD-73638, WD-73C10, WD-65838, WD-65738, WD-65638, WD-65C10, WD-60738, WD-60638, WD-60C10, L75-A91.
* Added the following 3D Vision game profiles:
+ Arcania: Gothic 4
+ Crazy Racing Kart Rider 크레이지레이싱 카트라이더
+ Crossfire 穿越火线
+ Darksiders
+ DC Universe Online
+ Dragon Nest
+ Front Mission Evolved
+ Guild Wars 2
+ Hank Haney's World Golf
+ Lineage 2
+ Medal of Honor (2010) Multiplayer
+ Medal of Honor (2010) Single Player
+ NED
+ Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
+ NVIDIA Demo: Aliens vs. Triangles
+ NVIDIA Demo Endless City
+ PopKart 跑跑卡丁车
+ QQ Dance QQ 炫舞
+ QQ Xian Xia Zhuan QQ 仙侠传
+ Tian Long Ba Bu 天龙八部
+ TRON: Evolution
+ Vizerra (fullscreen version)
+ World Rally Championship 2010
+ Xun Xian 寻仙
o Update the following 3D Vision game profiles
+ Lost Planet 2 – rating is now changed to Fair
+ Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2- rating has been changed to 3D Vision Ready

NVIDIA Surround
o Improved performance for 3-way and 4-way SLI configurations
o Updated 3D Vision Surround and NVIDIA Surround game support list. Please visit the 3D Vision Surround web page for a full list of supported games.

NVIDIA SLI
o Adds SLI profiles for the following PC games:
+ Alien vs. Triangles Demo
+ Endless City Demo
+ Lionheart: Kings Crusade
+ Moscow Racer: Legends of USSR
+ Rift: Planes of Telara
+ Shaun White Skateboarding
o Enhances SLI profiles for the following PC games:
+ Age of Conan
+ Arcania: Gothic 4
+ Civilization V - DX11
+ Lost Planet 2
+ World Of Warcraft

Other
o Installs HD Audio driver version 1.1.13.1
o Installs PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0514
o Supports playing back Blu-ray 3D discs when connecting your GPU to an HDMI 1.4 3D TV. Playback requires compatible software application from CyberLink, ArcSoft, Roxio, or Corel. For GPU and system requirements, visit the NVIDIA Blu-ray 3D website.
o Supports lossless DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD audio bitstreaming support for compatible Blu-ray movies with GeForce GTX 460, GTS 450, and GT 430 GPUs.
o Supports high definition 24-bit, 96 and 192 KHz multi-channel audio sampling rate support for compatible Blu-ray movies with GeForce 400 and 500 series, GT 240, GT 220 and 210 GPUs.
o Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5.
o Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash 10.1. Learn more here.
o Supports the new version of MotionDSP's video enhancement software, vReveal, which adds support for HD output. NVIDIA customers can download a free version of vReveal that supports up to SD output here.
o Supports DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
o Supports OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
o Supports OpenGL 3.3 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
o Supports OpenGL 4.1 on GeForce 400 series and later GPUs.
o Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.
o Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.
o Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.

 

[djnsmith7]

Curious to see how these play out for those who test them. I'm doing a rebuild this weekend, so I'll give them a try.

 

[Elganja]

i'll give them a go when i get home

 

[Idontcare]

Good timing, getting ready to reinstall my GTX460.

 

[Wreckage]

Good timing, getting ready to reinstall my GTX460.

Although it's not mentioned in the notes above, I wonder if the "timing" on these drivers has anything to do with the 560. It may also explain the delay in 11.1 as I'm sure AMD wants some extra polish before a new round of benchmarks come out.

So hopefully extra "free" performance for everyone!

 

[nitromullet]

I don't play SC2, but the addition of AO does look pretty good:

http://www.geforce.com/#/News/articles/starcraft2ao/

of course, "Ambient occlusion is a fairly graphically intense operation. Expect a 30-35% performance hit. We recommend using it only when you have a good deal of performance headroom."

 

[96Firebird]

Downloading now, hopefully get a chance to try them out tonight.

 

[Hauk]

Good, one driver for 580 + 450 PhysX

 

[lavaheadache]

Good, one driver for 580 + 450 PhysX

yeah, i have a 460 and 580 so this driver would have been the shiznit however 3d is broken in this driver as well as in the latest beta. had to revert back to using 2 seperate drivers... what gives Nvidia? I want to use your latest tech but you are making it a pain in the ass for me to do so !!

 

[taltamir]

I don't play SC2, but the addition of AO does look pretty good:

http://www.geforce.com/#/News/articles/starcraft2ao/

of course, "Ambient occlusion is a fairly graphically intense operation. Expect a 30-35% performance hit. We recommend using it only when you have a good deal of performance headroom."

AO is utterly amazing there, you really can't see it from the small side by side pictures (well, you can see it, but its not stunning), but if you click on one it will show picture of the entire screen and switch between it being on and off and then the full impact of it is felt. Its truly amazing technology.

but nvidia taking all that time to write specific code to improve one single game? seems like misused effort.

 

[notty22]

SLI is FINALLY fixed for MOST of 3d mark 11. All but the last test, run 'perfect' and fast. Before, there was massive flickering with the work arounds. Now , smooth and fast.
EXCEPT, the last test is borked with sli enabled on my rig, giving about max 7fps which 1/2 as slow or more than single gpu.
Will work on things , if I read success from others.

 

[taltamir]

SLI is FINALLY fixed for MOST of 3d mark 11. All but the last test, run 'perfect' and fast. Before, there was massive flickering with the work arounds. Now , smooth and fast.
EXCEPT, the last test is borked with sli enabled on my rig, giving about max 7fps which 1/2 as slow or more than single gpu.
Will work on things , if I read success from others.

so... they only now finally fixed it for a big benchmark that makes people decide whether to buy a card or not?
what does that mean for its state in normal games?

 

[MentalIlness]

I sure hope these are better than the 260.99 . They were nothing but problems, causing video to stutter for 3 seconds at a time. Watch an hour video, and 10 minutes or so "different parts" would stutter and pause on the 9800GTX system.

 

[BathroomFeeling]

I was having BSODs and blank screens after running my new system, which increased my pulse rate dramatically. I narrowed it down to the video but assumed the card dun goofed. After accidentally noticing nothing was happening in Safe Mode, I clued in to the 263 drivers. Fortunately the 266 drivers came in last night, which the graphic uber gods sent in just for me. Close one this, as I was about to decide whether to RMA the thing. Now I'm looking at this beast next to me & I haven't even tried any powerful games.

 

[lavaheadache]

apparently you need to install the beta 266.35 ir emitter drivers along with this driver in order for 3d vision to work. I just wasted around 4 hours trying to figure this out.

 

[FalseChristian]

At least nVidia fixed my BSOD for me.

 

[BFG10K]

SLI is FINALLY fixed for MOST of 3d mark 11. All but the last test, run 'perfect' and fast. Before, there was massive flickering with the work arounds. Now , smooth and fast.
EXCEPT, the last test is borked with sli enabled on my rig, giving about max 7fps which 1/2 as slow or more than single gpu.
Will work on things , if I read success from others.

You spend all that time and effort worrying about synthetic benchmark which means nothing in the real world?

 

[Keysplayr]

apparently you need to install the beta 266.35 ir emitter drivers along with this driver in order for 3d vision to work. I just wasted around 4 hours trying to figure this out.

Have you seen this?

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2765

If so, and it did not help, please let me know.

 

[Rifter]

hmmm my 460 SLI setup is running fine on 260.99, should i update?

 

[Keysplayr]

hmmm my 460 SLI setup is running fine on 260.99, should i update?

I'm for the "If it aint broke" crowd. I only update for new hardware and only occasionally otherwise.

 

[Sylvanas]

I can also confirm problems with 3D vision. I have tried the IR Emitter driver present in the 266.58 package and the one downloaded from Nvidia's website. I have tried installing them separately then installing the 266 driver but to no avail. My IR Emitter is recognised and Device manager says it's working normally but the green light does not come on. I will try some more messing about tomorrow but I hope this problem is fixed soon.

Edit: And I read your link Keys. I think the problem is that the new driver is not properly enabling or initiating the IR emitter as both components work fine individually (that is, the IR emitter is present in Windows and acting fine and yet the Display driver and 3D vision driver are also present and accounted for but they are not playing nicely together).

From what I understand, Nvidia intends to keep using the old 260 series IR emitter driver and just updating the Display, 3D profiles and PhysX drivers separately and just 'hooking into' the functionality of the IR Emitter with future updates- thus needing no update of the IR emitter driver itself.

 

[Keysplayr]

I can also confirm problems with 3D vision. I have tried the IR Emitter driver present in the 266.58 package and the one downloaded from Nvidia's website. I have tried installing them separately then installing the 266 driver but to no avail. My IR Emitter is recognised and Device manager says it's working normally but the green light does not come on. I will try some more messing about tomorrow but I hope this problem is fixed soon.

Edit: And I read your link Keys. I think the problem is that the new driver is not properly enabling or initiating the IR emitter as both components work fine individually (that is, the IR emitter is present in Windows and acting fine and yet the Display driver and 3D vision driver are also present and accounted for but they are not playing nicely together).

From what I understand, Nvidia intends to keep using the old 260 series IR emitter driver and just updating the Display, 3D profiles and PhysX drivers separately and just 'hooking into' the functionality of the IR Emitter with future updates- thus needing no update of the IR emitter driver itself.

Thanks Sylvanas. I'm forwarding this to Nvidia.

 

[Sylvanas]

Solved!

Ah ha! So after some Google searching it appeared that a few others were having the same problems, it appears Nvidia didn't include the correct IR emitter driver or it wasn't installing properly in the 266 package. Anyway, I found that using this IR emitter driver fixes the problem. You have to search Beta and Archived drivers then select 3D vision- Geforce - and it should be there.

3D detected and ran through the setup wizard no problem with the Green light now on as it should .

 

[Sulaco]

Will be downloading and trying with my 570.

 

[notty22]

Uninstalled driver, sweeper-ed , re-installed 3dmark11, deleted all prior custom profiles. 3dmark11 sli now works correctly.
Scored 7001 with rig in sig.
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/460847