NVIDIA drivers 266.58 WHQL 1-18-11

[Elganja]

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

damn... i just did the "clean" install from the installer SLI worked for me

 

[apoppin]

So far, i have benched an unnamed card, GTX 570 and i'm almost done with GTX 580, each with all 32 benchmarks and both the GTX 580 and the 570 got very good performance increases (generally) over the previous driver set

i'm impressed with the solid and consistent performance increases for 500 series single-GPU video cards (i'll test with GTX 460 tonight; maybe GTX 480). It is SO good, you'd almost think Nvidia was going to launch an important new video card soon.
:whiste:

Next week, i will run the SLI benches with the new driver - GTX 480, GTX 570, GTX 580 and GTS 450; maybe another pair also.

 

[notty22]

damn... i just did the "clean" install from the installer SLI worked for me

I had done work-arounds to force sli in that bench, I had switched between driver builds, also tried beta's, and a quadro driver in the last 2 months. Sometimes things get left behind, now that I have no garbage left around, as long as I don't go outside the box. So thorough a routine will not be necessary.

 

[ZipSpeed]

I wonder if these solve the stability issues I was experiencing on my 2 x GTX 460 for Folding@home.

 

[mclaren777]

My 460 should be arriving later today and I'm curious which driver to use. Just the stock one that ships with the card or one of the newer versions (perhaps even this one)?

 

[nemesismk2]

I only update my drivers if I am having a problem which the driver fixes.

 

[tweakboy]

These are the solid most stable and performance IQ drivers ever from nVidia.

get em. I recommend

 

[taltamir]

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 .

from what i have read, there was an issue with some IR drivers. So starting with this version nvidia separated it into a different driver package that you only install if your current IR driver doesn't work, rather then rolling it into their regular driver package.

 

[notty22]

My 460 should be arriving later today and I'm curious which driver to use. Just the stock one that ships with the card or one of the newer versions (perhaps even this one)?

Install this new driver, its whql and gone through beta testing etc.

 

[SHAQ]

Do these allow forced AA in Hot Pursuit? Still waiting on that fix to update my drivers.

 

[Golgatha]

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."

Luckily I got the finish the final chapters of the game with this turned on. Really did improve the graphics quite a bit.

 

[Golgatha]

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.

Two more games are promised and there will inevitably be expansions for each of the main games as well. Given how popular this series is and the number of games still to come out, I wouldn't say it's a wasted effort.

 

[Sylvanas]

from what i have read, there was an issue with some IR drivers. So starting with this version nvidia separated it into a different driver package that you only install if your current IR driver doesn't work, rather then rolling it into their regular driver package.

Indeed, however there is an IR driver present in the 266 package which is out of date. According to what Keys posted earlier, with the release of the 260 driver Nvidia separated the IR driver and 3D vision driver. Now previous display/3D drivers would not work with a 260 IR driver and right now, the present driver does not work with the older 260 IR driver (despite Nvidia saying it probably won't need updating). Anyway many users seem to have fixed this by using the updated 266 IR driver I posted earlier.

 

[nitromullet]

As long as NVIDIA has been making drivers, why is it that new drivers always fail to detect Steam apps and World of Warcraft as being installed?

 

[Grooveriding]

So far, i have benched an unnamed card, GTX 570 and i'm almost done with GTX 580, each with all 32 benchmarks and both the GTX 580 and the 570 got very good performance increases (generally) over the previous driver set

i'm impressed with the solid and consistent performance increases for 500 series single-GPU video cards (i'll test with GTX 460 tonight; maybe GTX 480). It is SO good, you'd almost think Nvidia was going to launch an important new video card soon.
:whiste:

Next week, i will run the SLI benches with the new driver - GTX 480, GTX 570, GTX 580 and GTS 450; maybe another pair also.

I saw similar increases on my GTX 480s, not surprising as the 580 and 480 are basically the same card

 

[rogue74]

My framerates in WoW took a dive with this driver. I just bought a new 1920X1080 monitor and had tried WoW a few days ago running at that resolution at Ultra settings. I was getting in the frame rates high 50s. (I have a 460 1GB).

After installing the drivers yesterday, I boot up WoW and get 39fps. Only thing that has changed in my configuration is this driver. Odd. :'(

 

[Vette73]

My framerates in WoW took a dive with this driver. I just bought a new 1920X1080 monitor and had tried WoW a few days ago running at that resolution at Ultra settings. I was getting in the frame rates high 50s. (I have a 460 1GB).

After installing the drivers yesterday, I boot up WoW and get 39fps. Only thing that has changed in my configuration is this driver. Odd. :'(

You check AA or quality settings?

 

[rogue74]

You check AA or quality settings?

Are you talking about WoW or driver settings? I had not changed anything other than installing the new drivers. I didn't think to check to see if somehow the new drivers enabled AA as default for all games.

 

[Petey!]

Are you talking about WoW or driver settings? I had not changed anything other than installing the new drivers. I didn't think to check to see if somehow the new drivers enabled AA as default for all games.

settings in the nvidia control panel. Could be it turned on AA by default or something.

 

[rogue74]

settings in the nvidia control panel. Could be it turned on AA by default or something.

I'll check when I get home.

 

[imaheadcase]

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.

Uhh, looks just like adding more shadows to me. nothing amazing at all. Esp for the huge performance hit it gives. Like AA in games, nothing amazing change.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

How big are the increases on the 480?

 

[rogue74]

I finally got WoW working the way I want it. Rock solid 60 fps. First thing I did was enable the DirectX 11 code path by adding the line "SET gxApi "d3d11" to the config.wtf file.

This moved my frame rates up into the low to mid 50s. However, there were still sharp drops into the 40s, creating stuttering. I finally stopped being so stubborn and moved the slider from Ultra to High. Suddenly frame rates were a steady 60 fps. I further played around with the settings and increased some back to Ultra and still rock solid. Image quality is indistinguishable from what I had before. Have 8X AS and 4X AA as well.

My guess is that there is one graphical setting (that I haven't found yet - shadows maybe?) that is taxing my system too much if put at the highest setting at 1080p. I haven't found what it is but I don't care anymore. The game is finally running and looking great.

 

[monkeh624]

I finally got WoW working the way I want it. Rock solid 60 fps. First thing I did was enable the DirectX 11 code path by adding the line "SET gxApi "d3d11" to the config.wtf file.

This moved my frame rates up into the low to mid 50s. However, there were still sharp drops into the 40s, creating stuttering. I finally stopped being so stubborn and moved the slider from Ultra to High. Suddenly frame rates were a steady 60 fps. I further played around with the settings and increased some back to Ultra and still rock solid. Image quality is indistinguishable from what I had before. Have 8X AS and 4X AA as well.

My guess is that there is one graphical setting (that I haven't found yet - shadows maybe?) that is taxing my system too much if put at the highest setting at 1080p. I haven't found what it is but I don't care anymore. The game is finally running and looking great.

Yes, it is definitely shadows. Try setting everything to Ultra, then bring the shadow slider down 1 notch. There's only a slight visual difference between this and putting the slider up to ultra, you probably wont notice it.
These are the settings I use, which gives me 60fps in the vast majority of the game. Cities bring it down of course.
I also have a GTX 460 1Gb. If you feel like tweaking it a bit more, try enabling 16xCSAA and multisample Transparancy AA from the nvidia control panel.
This is done by setting AA to 16xQ and transparancy to multisample. If you want, you can even set transparancy to supersample, but this brings a very large performance hit. Looks nice though.
IMO, this gives better image quality than 4xMSAA (which is the setting I used to use) with about the same performance hit.
My res is only 1680x1050 though, so you may get more of a performance hit running at 1080p.

Does anyone know if ambient occlusion works with WoW?

 

[nitromullet]

Does anyone know if ambient occlusion works with WoW?

It does. You just enable it via the NV control panel. However, it's messed up. AO gets applied, but only at certain view angles it seems. The end result is that when you move around AO "blinks" in a out as you change your view angle. This is especially noticeable in the Northern Barrens where the AO gets applied around the tufts of grass. AO looks good when it's applied, but the blinking in and out is annoying and distracting, so I turned it back off.