Tuesday, December 4th 2012

NVIDIA Posts GeForce 310.70 Drivers

by
btarunr
 Discuss (74 Comments)
NVIDIA announced GeForce 310.70 WHQL driver suite. The change-log of the new stable drivers are little more than a cumulative of all the R310 series beta drivers launched over the past two months, which include some massive game-specific performance increases, notably up to 38 percent for FarCry 3, up to 27 percent in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, up to 18 percent in Assassins Creed III, and up to 16 percent in Battlefield 3, for GTX 680. A large number of games receive similar performance updates, NVIDIA 3D Vision profile updates, and SLI profile updates. The drivers include NVIDIA PhysX system software version 9.12.1031, and HDMI audio driver 1.3.18.0. For GeForce 400 series and later, an OpenGL 4.3 ICD is included.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 310.70 WHQL for Windows Vista/7/8 64-bit | Windows Vista/7/8 32-bit |Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit

Update: Although NVIDIA made song-and-dance about this release, and although GeForce.com misleadingly lists these drivers as stable, when you perform a manual search (where it should list stable drivers only), we found out these are in fact not WHQL-signed.

The change-log follows.

Performance Boost - Increases performance for GeForce 400/500/600 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 306.97 WHQL drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
GeForce GTX 680:
  • Up to 38% in Far Cry 3
  • Up to 26% in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
  • Up to 16% in Battlefield 3
  • Up to 18% in Assassin's Creed III
  • Up to 9% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Up to 6% in Medal of Honor: Warfighter
  • Up to 6% in StarCraft II
  • Up to 6% in Dragon Age II
  • Up to 6% in Batman: Arkham City
  • Up to 5% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
GeForce GTX 660:
  • Up to 24% in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
  • Up to 10% in Battlefield 3
  • Up to 7% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Up to 6% in Far Cry 3
  • Up to 5% in Dragon Age II
  • Up to 5% in Assassin's Creed III
  • Up to 4% in Batman: Arkham City
  • Up to 4% in Medal of Honor: Warfighter
NVIDIA SLI Technology - Adds or updates the following SLI profiles:
  • Far Cry 3 - updated SLI profile
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - updated SLI profile
  • Dirt: Showdown - updated SLI profile
  • Dota 2 - updated SLI profile
  • Dou Zhan Shen - updated SLI profile
  • F1 2012 - added SLI profile
  • FIFA 13 - added SLI profile
  • Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad - updated SLI profile
  • Hawken - added SLI profile
  • Hitman: Absolution - added SLI profile
  • Natural Selection 2 - added SLI profile
  • Primal Carnage - added SLI profile
NVIDIA 3D Vision - Adds or updates the following 3D Vision profiles:
  • 007 Legends - rated Fair
  • Assassin's Creed III - rated Not Recommended
  • Bloody Good Time - rated Good
  • Bullet Run - rated Fair
  • Bunch of Heroes - rated Good
  • CABAL2 - rated Good
  • Call of Duty Black Ops 2 - rated Good
  • Carrier Command: Gaea Mission - rated 3D Vision Ready
  • Dark Souls - rated Fair
  • Dishonored - rated Fair
  • Euro Truck Simulator 2 - rated Excellent
  • FIFA 13 - rated Good
  • Hawken - rated 3D Vision Ready
  • Hitman: Absolution - rated Fair
  • I Am Alive - rated Fair
  • Lucius - rated Fair
  • Mabinogi Heroes - rated Fair
  • Medal of Honor: Warfighter - rated Fair
  • Metro: Last Light - rated Good
  • MLB 2K12 - rated Fair
  • NBA 2K12 - rated Good
  • NBA 2K13 - rated Good
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted - rated Fair
  • Of Orcs and Men - rated Fair
  • Painkiller: Hell & Damnation - rated Fair
  • Planetside 2 - rated Not Recommended
  • Prepar3D - rated Good
  • Sniper Elite V2 - rated Poor
  • Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 - rated Poor
  • The Amazing Spider-Man - rated Not Recommended
  • Tiny Troopers - rated Fair
  • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD - rated Good
  • Total War Battles: SHOGUN - rated Good
  • Unmechanical - rated Good
  • War of the Roses rated Fair
  • World Rally Championship 3 rated Good
  • XCOM: Enemy Unknown rated Fair
Other Profile Updates
  • Updated NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Counter-strike: Global Offensive
  • Added NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Cross Fire
  • Updated NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Darksides 2
  • Added NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Dragon Nest
  • Updated NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Guild Wars 2
  • Updated NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Mechwarrrior Online
  • Added NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Meng San Guo
NVIDIA CUDA
Includes support for applications built using CUDA 5 or earlier version of the CUDA Toolkit. More information at developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit

NVIDIA SSAA
Added negative LOD adjustments for NVIDIA's full-screen sparse grid supersampling mode to improve image sharpness.

Additional Details
  • Installs PhysX System Software 9.12.1031. This version fixes a bug that caused some applications including Unreal Tournament III, Trine, and Metro 2033 not to launch.
  • Installs HD Audio v1.3.18.0.
  • Supports OpenGL 4.3 for GeForce 400-series and later GPUs.
  • Supports DisplayPort 1.2 for GeForce GTX 600 series GPUs.
  • Supports multiple languages and APIs for GPU computing: CUDA C, CUDA C++, CUDA Fortran, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and Microsoft C++ AMP.
  • 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 and AMD motherboards.

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74 Comments on NVIDIA Posts GeForce 310.70 Drivers

#51
THE_EGG
Jesus, ANOTHER UPDATE?! Well at least Nvidia seems to be quickly fixing bugs with new drivers compared to what they used to do where it was almost 3 months on some occasions between update releases.
Posted on Reply
#52
LAN_deRf_HA
They say the WHQL version will be out next week. If you find bugs file reports (they read those,) don't just complain on forums. If you must complain on a forum do it on nvidia's and provide your system info and someone might file a report for you. This is how your bugs get fixed.
Posted on Reply
#53
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
LAN_deRf_HAThey say the WHQL version will be out next week. If you find bugs file reports (they read those,) don't just complain on forums. If you must complain on a forum do it on nvidia's and provide your system info and someone might file a report for you. This is how your bugs get fixed.
Exactly. The fact is that nVidia does the WHQL testing themselves and just submits the results to Microsoft for approval. If they are going WHQL next week, it must take at least a week for Microsoft to approve the reuslts, which obviously wasn't soon enough considering the performance improvements in this driver.
Posted on Reply
#54
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
newtekie1Exactly. The fact is that nVidia does the WHQL testing themselves and just submits the results to Microsoft for approval. If they are going WHQL next week, it must take at least a week for Microsoft to approve the reuslts, which obviously wasn't soon enough considering the performance improvements in this driver.
They are the exact same performance improvements as the 310.64 BETA drivers.
Posted on Reply
#55
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
MxPhenom 216They are the exact same performance improvements as the 310.64 BETA drivers.
Yes, but this is the version that will be WHQL certified.
Posted on Reply
#58
Ikaruga
FluffmeisterTech Spot Far Cry 3 Performance test using these drivers.

www.techspot.com/review/615-far-cry-3-performance/
Look at how the poor AMD-FX struggling with a game which is clearly GPU-limited with an IB CPU. All the money you save by going for a cheaper CPU is burned away in electricity bills and digested in the form of noise and heat.
I wish for a real competition on the CPU field, AMD please:shadedshu
Posted on Reply
#60
FYFI13
Crap DaddyThey are sure they'll get the WHQL approval from Windows so why wait? Today is launch day for Far Cry 3 in the US so I guess they're in a hurry.
^^This. Next week this driver will get WHQL certificate, then why wait? This driver finally have fixed BF3 crashing and it was released on same day with BF3 Aftermath DLC. Thank you Nvidia for doing so and i give no f*** if the file-name contains WHQL prefix or not.
Posted on Reply
#61
Hilux SSRG
I don't mind Nvidia outing a quick driver update to fix performance issues on a new release, I commend them for the support. Those WHQL drivers always looked shady to me, I'm a BETA man through and through. :pimp:
Posted on Reply
#62
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
IkarugaLook at how the poor AMD-FX struggling with a game which is clearly GPU-limited with an IB CPU. All the money you save by going for a cheaper CPU is burned away in electricity bills and digested in the form of noise and heat.
I wish for a real competition on the CPU field, AMD please:shadedshu
You have to realize that they were doing a straight clock for clock comparison. However, the FX-8350 is clocked much higher out of the box than the 3770k. If you compare stock clocks for both you are only loosing 6FPS by going with the FX-8350, it isn't exactly struggling behind a CPU that costs $100+ more. And heck, going with the FX-6300 would save $180 and you'd only loose 12FPS.
Posted on Reply
#63
Protagonist
The 310.70 have turned out to be worth something after all, those who have mixed reactions about it should reconsider, as it appears to be better in Far Cry 3 which is AMD's Gaming Evolved title i don't care for the game in fact i don't like that game at all but it's good to know the drivers are worth the update for those who were hesitant,

From Techspot: www.techspot.com/review/615-far-cry-3-performance/page7.html
Final Thoughts

Both AMD and Nvidia have been working hard to show their graphics cards in the best possible light when playing Far Cry 3, with both camps releasing many performance-related driver updates in recent weeks. Naturally, we used the most recent versions -- Catalyst 12.11 Beta 11 and GeForce 310.70 -- in our benchmarks.

Right now, with the latest drivers, it seems that Nvidia has a slight edge over AMD, and this was particularly evident when looking at the ultra quality results with 4xMSAA enabled. This is surprising given that Far Cry 3 is part of AMD's Gaming Evolved program and is featured in their latest Never Settle gaming bundle.

Considering that, it seems reasonable to assume AMD's drivers would already be quite mature, and the company has previously boasted that Far Cry 3 is optimized for Radeon graphics cards. With that being the case, it's embarrassing that Nvidia's second-best card managed to outpace AMD's flagship when playing on max.

Therefore, if you plan to play Far Cry 3 using the highest possible in-game quality settings, you'll likely want a GeForce card. We found this to be true across all three resolutions tested (1680x1050, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 if you skipped ahead), as the GTX 680 and 670 consistently beat both versions of the HD 7970 and 7950.

You'll find similar results as you move down the food chain. On ultra, the $230 GTX 660 matched the $250 HD 7870. Similarly, on very high quality, the GTX 660 Ti was much faster than the HD 7950 and 7870, while the GTX 660 beat the 7850. AMD clearly has work to do if it wants to claim the performance crown in Far Cry 3.
Posted on Reply
#64
Wrigleyvillain
PTFO or GTFO
FWIW works great here on my aging GTX 480 up from 306 something or other (though I don't have any benches).
Posted on Reply
#65
Arctucas
Since I do not use the nVIDIA updater, I could not care less...
Posted on Reply
#66
Ikaruga
Hey guys, is this for real?

"Negative LOD Bias Clamp: Negative LOD bias clamp for DirectX applications is not supported on Fermi-based GPUs and later." (chapter2-page7) :wtf:
Posted on Reply
#69
KissSh0t
Running Nvidia update from version 306.97 shows no new drivers are available : /
Posted on Reply
#70
xorbe
KissSh0tRunning Nvidia update from version 306.97 shows no new drivers are available : /
If only there was some place to manually download them.
Posted on Reply
#71
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
The WHQL has not released yet. If you look on Nvidias site and SEARCH ALL DRIVERS its still the 370.10 beta driver that shows up.
Posted on Reply
#72
TheMailMan78
Big Member
MxPhenom 216The WHQL has not released yet. If you look on Nvidias site and SEARCH ALL DRIVERS its still the 370.10 beta driver that shows up.
Um no. I just did a search and mine says 310.70 WHQL Dec. 17th. You must have a different interweb than me.
Posted on Reply
#73
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
Okay, Now its there showing as WHQL. Sweet updating now.
Posted on Reply
#74
KissSh0t
Otay.. Rerun Nvidia update now shows the new WHQL drivers~

TheMailMan78 is correct.. dated 17/12/2012
Posted on Reply
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