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.

Related News

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74 Comments on NVIDIA Posts GeForce 310.70 Drivers

#27
aayman_farzand
I don't really care, brings big changes and can only help things. If there are any crashes then I'll definitely revert back, but Beta or WHQL tags don't mean anything to me. They are all equally "dangerous".
Posted on Reply
#28
renz496
honestly i don't care much about the driver being WHQL or beta because from my personal experience even WHQL one can have problem. remember 301.24?
Posted on Reply
#29
Zakin
I agree, on both sides of the fence ATI and Nvidia had equal problems with beta and WHQL. If it says I should have a performance increase I'll give it a shot.
Posted on Reply
#30
...PACMAN...
Do I just uninstall my current drivers, reboot and install these? Excuse my ignorance, I'm new to all this :)
Posted on Reply
#31
TheMailMan78
Big Member
...PACMAN...Do I just uninstall my current drivers, reboot and install these? Excuse my ignorance, I'm new to all this :)
Nope. Just run the installer and when you do select "clean install" and that will replace everything including the registry entries.

Edit: Just so you know these are not WHQL drivers. These are betas. Keep that in mind.
Posted on Reply
#32
fredz77
Not add sli profile for far cry3, fail nvidia:banghead:
Posted on Reply
#36
Protagonist
Already on them, fine by me. I always install latest drivers be it WHQL, BETA or any other, I even go as far as using the once with modified inf specific to particular cards and the drivers always work very well even with the modified inf.
Posted on Reply
#37
PLAfiller
Wow, I downloaded them in the morning, went out, I just got home and I see what's going on here. I did not see that one coming. So do I install them now or not>? I am on 306.97. I guess it doesn't matter that much- my card is 630M, so they don't say anything about it, except for the new version of the PhysiX software and some ambient occlusion profiles. Whatever :)

Addon: As I watch the POll, most people don't have a problem with this practice. The 2nd and the 3rd answer pretty much mean we are OK with it.
Posted on Reply
#38
xorbe
They've also had great beta drivers and disastrous whql drivers ... the label means little, except for certain environments where on whql is "allowed". Whql is just an approved beta driver.
Posted on Reply
#39
KissSh0t
These are not WHQL?? I was all ready to get them.. damn..

I've been waiting for WHQL for a reason, and Nvidia tries sneaking BETA's through as certified.. uuughhh//
Posted on Reply
#41
SIGSEGV
this driver version is so LOL for me.. :roll:
Posted on Reply
#42
TheMailMan78
Big Member
Small update. NVIDIA has since removed them from the auto updater in the application.
Posted on Reply
#43
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
btarunrTo add to that, unsuspecting people with WHQL drivers are being prompted to update to a beta (by definition unstable) drivers by NV Update. NVIDIA is deliberately pushing unstable software by polluting its stable release channel.
Beta does not mean unstable by definition. Beta means nothing more than a feature complete version that isn't considered a full release version. Furthermore this would be considered a "Release Candidate", which is still a Beta, but considered the final version unless a significant bug is found. In this case it just means it isn't WHQL certified.

There have been Betas that were more stable than WHQL releases, and vice versa. WHQL is nothing more than an idiotic label. It is made even more idiotic when you realize that nVidia does their own WHQL testing on their drivers(so they basically already know it passed). They just submit the logs to Microsoft for final approval, which takes time, and probably why nVidia pushed this driver out before it was WHQL certified, because they wanted it out with FarCry 3, and they haven't gotten a response from Microsoft yet.
TheMailMan78Nope. Just run the installer and when you do select "clean install" and that will replace everything including the registry entries.
Clean install doesn't replace every registry entry, all it does is delete the different profiles you have setup in the control panel for different games.

At this point I just install the drivers over the old ones, their drivers do a great job of not stepping on toes.
Posted on Reply
#44
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
newtekie1Beta does not mean unstable by definition. Beta means nothing more than a feature complete version that isn't considered a full release version. Furthermore this would be considered a "Release Candidate", which is still a Beta, but considered the final version unless a significant bug is found. In this case it just means it isn't WHQL certified.

There have been Betas that were more stable than WHQL releases, and vice versa. WHQL is nothing more than an idiotic label. It is made even more idiotic when you realize that nVidia does their own WHQL testing on their drivers(so they basically already know it passed). They just submit the logs to Microsoft for final approval, which takes time, and probably why nVidia pushed this driver out before it was WHQL certified, because they wanted it out with FarCry 3, and they haven't gotten a response from Microsoft yet.



Clean install doesn't replace every registry entry, all it does is delete the different profiles you have setup in the control panel for different games.

At this point I just install the drivers over the old ones, their drivers do a great job of not stepping on toes.
Nope, Wrong. Go watch the video on how it works on the nvdia site.
Posted on Reply
#46
...PACMAN...
Installed and so far seem fine on everything apart from FIFA 13 which now CTD when loading. Will check more to see if it is just an issue my end. BF3 had about a 2-3fps increase in single player, I haven't even played multiplayer yet so couldn't comment.
Posted on Reply
#47
Ikaruga
This pretty much messed up the timing of every single custom and standard resolution on my secondary CRT:shadedshu
Posted on Reply
#48
ThunderStorm
It's beta now but the fact that nvidia had put up the driver as WHQL still remain evident. It is a basic business ethic and nVIDIA failed to show that for couple of times. Overall increase in performance is still welcome though.
Posted on Reply
#49
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
MxPhenom 216Nope, Wrong. Go watch the video on how it works on the nvdia site.
I'm not sure what video you are talking about, but I've monitored the driver install, it doesn't delete all the registry values, it only deletes the values related to nview settings. The rest are overwritten like a standard driver install.
ThunderStormIt's beta now but the fact that nvidia had put up the driver as WHQL still remain evident. It is a basic business ethic and nVIDIA failed to show that for couple of times. Over increase in performance is still welcome though.
They never labelled it as a WHQL driver. The closest they got was calling it a WHQL-Release Candidate in their blog post. And just because it shows up in the updater doesn't mean it is WHQL either, you find that the updater makes no mention that every driver it suggests will be WHQL. There is a checkbox to include/exclude beta drivers, but when this driver was originally released they obviously didn't consider it a Beta.
Posted on Reply
#50
aayman_farzand
I got the notification through the panel and it said Beta. And ManuelG confirmed in G3D that this is going WHQL next week.
Posted on Reply
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