NVIDIA Releases the GeForce 301.24 Beta Driver

[Cristian_25H]

NVIDIA has today made available a new graphics drive, the beta-tagged GeForce 301.24 which includes support for the GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 Series cards, as well as for the GeForce GTX 680.

Download: Windows 7/Vista (32-bit) | Windows 7/Vista (64-bit) | Windows XP (32-bit) | Windows XP (64-bit)





GeForce 301.24 beta highlights


- New GPU Support - Adds support for the new GeForce GTX 680, the fastest, most efficient GPU ever built.

- Performance Boost - Increases performance for GeForce 400 Series and 500 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 296.10 WHQL-certified drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

GeForce GTX 570/580:

● Up to 23% in Just Cause 2 with SLI
● Up to 21% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
● Up to 17% in StarCraft II with SLI
● Up to 14% in Far Cry 2 with SLI
● Up to 9% in Bulletstorm
● Up to 7% in Civilization V
● Up to 6% in Deus Ex: Human Revolution with SLI
● Up to 6% in Dragon Age 2 with SLI
● Up to 5% in Metro 2033 with SLI
● Up to 5% in Total War: Shogun 2

GeForce GTX 560/560 Ti:

● Up to 20% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
● Up to 15% in Just Cause 2 with SLI
● Up to 13% in Far Cry 2 with SLI
● Up to 12% in Bulletstorm
● Up to 11% in Civilization V
● Up to 10% in StarCraft II with SLI
● Up to 9% in Batman: Arkham City
● Up to 4% in Deus Ex: Human Revolution with SLI
● Up to 4% in Dragon Age 2 with SLI
● Up to 4% in Metro 2033 with SLI
● Up to 4% in Total War: Shogun 2

- NVIDIA FXAA Technology - shader-based anti-aliasing technology available from the NVIDIA Control Panel that enables ultra-fast anti-aliasing in hundreds of PC games. FXAA delivers similar quality to 4x multi-sample antialiasing (MSAA) but is up to 60% faster, enabling substantially higher performance in games. FXAA is supported on all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs. Note: This feature is disabled for games that already have built-in support for FXAA.

- NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync - dynamically enables vertical sync based on your current frame rates for the smoothest gaming experience. Adaptive VSync is supported on all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

- NVIDIA Frame Rate Target - dynamically adjusts frame rate to a user specified target. Support for this feature is enabled via third party applications via NVAPI.

- NVIDIA Surround Technology - Adds the following new Surround capabilities.

● Add in a fourth accessory display to get access to your email, web, or other applications while you game.
● Maximize an application to a single physical display when in Surround mode (enabled by default).
● Confine the Windows Taskbar to the center display (enabled by default).
● Enable bezel peeking - a feature which enables users to temporarily 'peak' behind the monitor bezels using a hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + B). This feature is designed to be used in conjunction with bezel corrected resolutions.
● Add or remove resolutions from the list of Surround resolutions (only those selected will be available to applications).
● Full center display acceleration for single wide display modes (center display must be connected to the master GPU).

- NVIDIA SLI Technology - Adds or updates the following SLI profiles:

● Alan Wake
● Call of Juarez: The Cartel
● Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
● Deus Ex: Human Revolution - The Missing Link
● Left 4 Dead
● Orcs Must Die!
● Portal 2
● Risen 2: Dark Waters
● The Darkness II

- NVIDIA 3D Vision - Adds or updates the following 3D Vision profiles:

● All Zombies Must Die! - rated Fair
● Ghosts 'n Goblins Online - rated Good
● Oil Rush - rated 3D Vision Ready
● Postal III - rated Good
● Rayman Origins - rated Good
● SevenCore - rated Fair
● Stacking - rated Good
● Unigine Heaven Benchmark v3.0 - rated 3D Vision Ready
● Wargame: European Escalation - rated Good
● Warp - rated Good
● Wings of Prey - rated Fair
● Krater - rated Poor

Other Details

● Installs PhysX System Software v9.12.0213.
● Installs HD Audio v1.3.12.0.
● Supports OpenGL 4.2
● Supports DisplayPort 1.2 for GeForce GTX 680.
● 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.

[Sinzia]

Originally Posted by Cristian_25H

- NVIDIA Surround Technology - Adds the following new Surround capabilities.

Add in a fourth accessory display to get access to your email, web, or other applications while you game.
Maximize an application to a single physical display when in Surround mode (enabled by default).
Confine the Windows Taskbar to the center display (enabled by default).
Enable bezel peeking - a feature which enables users to temporarily 'peak' behind the monitor bezels using a hotkey (Ctrl Alt B). This feature is designed to be used in conjunction with bezel corrected resolutions.
Add or remove resolutions from the list of Surround resolutions (only those selected will be available to applications).
Full center display acceleration for single wide display modes (center display must be connected to the master GPU).

Thank god! I've been wanting to have the taskbar just be in the center!

[m1dg3t]

Would be nice if they released some card's to go along with the driver's

[Prima.Vera]

So, FXAA available for older GeForce cards also?? Like GTX 2xx, 4xx, 5xx,etc ?

[nv40pimp]

Originally Posted by Cristian_25H

FXAA is supported on all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

Looks like it! I'm gonna try that out tonight!

[v12dock]

FXAA now works on world of warcraft

and I can now easily enable it on GTAIV

The driver I have been waiting for thank you Nvidia

[newtekie1]

Finally an SLI profile for Alan Wake!

[MxPhenom 216]

looks like a nice driver. Ill wait for WHQL

[Nkd]

Funny how most improvements are for older cards. I guess Nvidia wants you to buy those more since gtx 680 seems to be hard to find, although I found mine at local frys and it was the only card sitting on the shelf.

[15th Warlock]

Thanks for the heads up and the links, will download it when I get home.

Nice to see a lot of tweaks for previous gen cards, you rarely ever see that with new driver releases

[renz496]

i've been waiting for this. will download and test it right away when i got home

Originally Posted by Nkd

Funny how most improvements are for older cards. I guess Nvidia wants you to buy those more since gtx 680 seems to be hard to find, although I found mine at local frys and it was the only card sitting on the shelf.

isn't that nice? people with card one or two generation behind always complain when the latest driver didn't bring performance improvement like it did for the latest gen. XD

btw i'm really want to test out the fxaa via control panel and adaptive v-sync. will the older cards get get TXAA as well?

[Wrigleyvillain]

Originally Posted by Nkd

Funny how most improvements are for older cards. I guess Nvidia wants you to buy those more since gtx 680 seems to be hard to find, although I found mine at local frys and it was the only card sitting on the shelf.

Yeah...and why would would these not also affect GTX 480 and such? Isn't it essentially the same architecture?

[qubit]

I normally wait for the WHQL version, but I'm really keen on this one, so I'm installing it now. The Adaptive Vsync and frame rate limiter features I'm really interested in. It's not good to have the video card thrashing away at 1000fps+ when running an old game in a window, even for a short while.

[Vendor]

will it make my 8400gs play games in full hd at 100 fps?

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Originally Posted by qubit

I normally wait for the WHQL version, but I'm really keen on this one, so I'm installing it now. The Adaptive Vsync and frame rate limiter features I'm really interested in. It's not good to have the video card thrashing away at 1000fps+ when running an old game in a window, even for a short while.

Im using 310.10 WHQL for my GTX580 ever since it went out.. ini editted though . And yeah, adaptive vsync and fxaa can be enabled. I get some tearing on adaptive vsync with games capped at 60fps though (running on a 120hz monitor) which is pretty weird.

[xenocide]

Originally Posted by Wrigleyvillain

Yeah...and why would would these not also affect GTX 480 and such? Isn't it essentially the same architecture?

Uh, no. It says all the changes in terms of performance affect 4xx and 5xx series cards (Fermi) but 6xx series cards are Kepler, which while being similar, is a new architecture. Kepler is like the athlete the chubby middle school kid named Fermi wishes he was.

[mrthanhnguyen]

after install this driver, not fresh install. I got like 0-1 fps in BF3. Not sure what happened. I think I need fresh installation.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Bjorn_Of_Iceland

Im using 310.10 WHQL for my GTX580 ever since it went out.. ini editted though . And yeah, adaptive vsync and fxaa can be enabled. I get some tearing on adaptive vsync with games capped at 60fps though (running on a 120hz monitor) which is pretty weird.

I'll be interested to see how it behaves. I have a 120Hz monitor, so it'll be interesting to see the effect of capping the frame rate at 60Hz. It'll seem weird, I expect. I guess you can do that while turning vsync on? I'll soon find out.

[xenocide]

The next step should be allowing Adaptic Vsync based on monitor refresh rate instead of just statically at 60Hz. 120hz Monitors are making a big push in the coming years--with the advent of 3D--and it would be silly to not allow something like that.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by xenocide

The next step should be allowing Adaptic Vsync based on monitor refresh rate instead of just statically at 60Hz. 120hz Monitors are making a big push in the coming years--with the advent of 3D--and it would be silly to not allow something like that.

It is based on monitor refresh, not a static 60Hz. Check out the driver control panel and the GeForce website.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/art...ivers-released

[xenocide]

Originally Posted by qubit

It is based on monitor refresh, not a static 60Hz. Check out the driver control panel and the GeForce website.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/art...ivers-released

I was just basing that off what you said here;

I have a 120Hz monitor, so it'll be interesting to see the effect of capping the frame rate at 60Hz.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by xenocide

The next step should be allowing Adaptic Vsync based on monitor refresh rate instead of just statically at 60Hz. 120hz Monitors are making a big push in the coming years--with the advent of 3D--and it would be silly to not allow something like that.

I thought it was based on your actual refresh rate.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by xenocide

I was just basing that off what you said here;

Ok, fair enough, lol.

Tell you what, it works with a 60Hz monitor too. I just tried playing Unreal Tournament (the original one released in 1999) which would normally render at 800fps+ and it was capped at a solid 30fps! The game was horribly laggy and full of judder, as you might expect. It was ironically funny to see a modern, high spec PC like mine achieve a crappy 30fps on this old game!

[Wrigleyvillain]

Originally Posted by xenocide

Uh, no. It says all the changes in terms of performance affect 4xx and 5xx series cards (Fermi) but 6xx series cards are Kepler, which while being similar, is a new architecture. Kepler is like the athlete the chubby middle school kid named Fermi wishes he was.

I was talking about 480 and 580 being the "same"; nothing about 680. And as you say "Fermi" and not just 5xx like in OP above then great--that answers my question and addresses my confusion.

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Originally Posted by qubit

I'll be interested to see how it behaves. I have a 120Hz monitor, so it'll be interesting to see the effect of capping the frame rate at 60Hz. It'll seem weird, I expect. I guess you can do that while turning vsync on? I'll soon find out.

Turning vsync on in game? Afaik, the nvcp overrides the vsync option in the software.. played Rage (which was capped at 60fps), and I was having screen tearing even though fraps still reported 60fps. Sonic Generations as well exhibited the same symptom with adaptive vsync on. I'd like to see what result you get though..