| Thursday, January 8 2009 |
With new cards always comes a new driver. NVIDIA has just released GeForce Release 181.20 WHQL for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, and 200-series desktop GPUs. Here's what is new in this release and what has been added:
Blazing Fast Performance:
Boosts performance in numerous 3D applications. The following are some examples of improvements measured with Release 180 drivers vs. Release 178 drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
- Added support for GeForce GTX 295 and GeForce GTX 285
- Enables NVIDIA SLI technology on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards with all SLI-certified GPUs.
- Enables NVIDIA SLI Multi-monitor support, giving you the ability to use two monitors with your GeForce graphics cards in SLI mode. Now you can easily switch between multi-monitor desktop mode and full screen 3D gaming mode. Learn more here.
- Enables NVIDIA PhysX acceleration on a dedicated GeForce graphics card. Use one card for graphics and dedicate a different card for PhysX processing for game-changing physical effects. Learn more here. (Note: GPU PhysX is supported on all GeForce 8-series, 9-series and 200-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory. This driver package automatically installs PhysX System Software version 8.10.13).
- Supports GeForce Plus Power Pack #2.
- Added support for the new NVIDIA CUDA Video Encoder with H.264 optimization
Blazing Fast Performance:
Boosts performance in numerous 3D applications. The following are some examples of improvements measured with Release 180 drivers vs. Release 178 drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
- Up to 10% performance increase in 3DMark Vantage (performance preset)
- Up to 13% performance increase in Assassin's Creed
- Up to 13% performance increase in BioShock
- Up to 15% performance increase in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
- Up to 10% performance increase in Crysis Warhead
- Up to 25% performance increase in Devil May Cry 4
- Up to 38% performance increase in Far Cry 2
- Up to 18% performance increase in Race Driver: GRID
- Up to 80% performance increase in Lost Planet: Colonies
- Up to 18% performance increase in World of Conflict
- Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and OpenGL, including 3-way and Quad SLI technology.
- Supports CUDA.
- Supports Folding@home distributing computing application.
- Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.
- Includes numerous 3D application compatibility fixes. Please read the release notes for more information on product support, features, driver fixes and known compatibility issues.
- Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.
User comments
Does anybody know if this will allow you to use an NVIDIA card for PhysX along side a primary ATI card in Vista? I have a 4870x2 and want to make some use of my "old" 8800gt sitting around.
by: DuneripperIf your 8800gt is a core 92 and you download this along with the physx drivers you'll be all set.
Does anybody know if this will allow you to use an NVIDIA card for PhysX along side a primary ATI card in Vista? I have a 4870x2 and want to make some use of my "old" 8800gt sitting around.
by: Cold Stormnot really, it can't be done in vista. Only in Windows 7 and Xp can you have ati card with Nvidia card for physx
If your 8800gt is a core 92 and you download this along with the physx drivers you'll be all set.
by: wolf2009True, I forgot about that situation. Forget that Fit's made that clear in his thread also... lol... God I should remember never to post when I just wake up! lol
not really, it can't be done in vista. Only in Windows 7 and Xp can you have ati card with Nvidia card for physx
Windows 7 Public Beta here I come :)
One other question, is there any substantial difference in the speed of physx acceleration between high-end and low-end Nvidia 8X00/9X00 cards? It seems that the amount of Physx acceleration would be finite to a point and the rest would be up to your primary card to actually render the scene.
From what I've found out on Physx with two cards is that it halves the load... so instead of one card doing ALL of it, one card does 50% and the other does 50% also.. Does a small card like my 8400gs I was using help it, yes. But, if you have a high end card, there really won't see that big of a difference unless you bench...
181.20_geforce_winvista_64bit_english_whql.exe is only 4.70MB :/
I thought these were supposed to have occulation (can't remember what it was called, you know, the lighting thing) or something like that as well.
Did anyone see any performance increases?
I haven't used the official ones since I got this GTX card...
by: farlex85Ambient occlusion and no. The 185.20 drivers were alpha really, wayway in to the future as you can tell by the number. Once the release driver version number gets close to that you can expect it there.
I thought these were supposed to have occulation (can't remember what it was called, you know, the lighting thing) or something like that as well.
by: OnBoardYeah, it is far away, 181 was just released.
Ambient occlusion and no. The 185.20 drivers were alpha really, wayway in to the future as you can tell by the number. Once the release driver version number gets close to that you can expect it there.
Has anybody tried the latest Folding@Home GPU client with this new driver? With the previous WHQL 178.24 my CPU ran at ~ 100% load. With 181.20 SysInternal's Process Explorer shows that 3.03% will flash on and off every 5-10 seconds. nVidia and Stanford University have finally succeeded in offloading all the calculations to the GPU and that is seriously impressive!
you think they'll have another one out by tuesday when i get my cards?
My initial impressions are real good. All textures and AA seem better. I noticed a bit of a frame boost in COD4 and COD WAW. BF2142 plays real nice now, first time since 177.39 for me. And my temps for my cards are definitely cooler by 8 or 9c.
if i count last 4 drivers for nvidia i found
40% performance increase in crysis
130% performance increase in in far cry2
60% performance increase in 3d mark
and ...............
that is shit of lies
40% performance increase in crysis
130% performance increase in in far cry2
60% performance increase in 3d mark
and ...............
that is shit of lies
hayder.master: all the 180 drivers compare to the 178's, not previous 180 drivers. (but true they should have only mentioned it in the first WHQL drivers and then stopped)
by: hayder.master
if i count last 4 drivers for nvidia i found
40% performance increase in crysis
130% performance increase in in far cry2
60% performance increase in 3d mark
and ...............
that is shit of lies
performance not increase over the previous driver its does increase over 178 .... so you can't sum the % for every driver over the previous one ......... i wish i could ;)
by: NympHfinished downloading and its 95.1MB try UK instead of US or vice versa.
181.20_geforce_winvista_64bit_english_whql.exe is only 4.70MB :/
by: raptorithanx dude , you know me before i talk about ati too when new driver release , so did you try it
performance not increase over the previous driver its does increase over 178 .... so you can't sum the % for every driver over the previous one ......... i wish i could ;)