Nvidia Forceware 280.26 Driver Analysis

As we started to analyse AMD and their Catalyst drivers as they release them, in the hope that performance may be improved in each new release, we thought that it would only be fitting if we gave Nvidia and their Forceware drivers the same golden star treatment.Nvidia don't seem to have much of a release plan or schedule as of late, and simply release updated drivers as they are ready, which generally means that the majority of bugs are fixes have been ironed out, but obviously they can't guarantee this as with all new software, new bugs are spawned.It is worth noting that Nvidia do release beta drives to the public but we will only be focussing on official released drivers much like 280.26 which is said to offer a lot of new features and support for 3D Vision, Photoshop and much more, but for now we're going to take a look to see what improvements if any are noticeable in the set of benchmarks and games that we use on a day to day basis. Release notes[COLOR=#000000]This is the first WHQL-certified from the Release 280 family of drivers.You can read more about this family of drivers on GeForce.com.This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs. This driver package also includes the 3D Vision Controller driver.New in Release 280.26NVIDIA SLIEnables SLI technology on SLI-certified motherboards with AMD chipsets: 990FX, 990X, and 970.NVIDIA 3D VisionWith Release 280 drivers, the 3D Vision Controller driver is now included with all GPU driver installations. Users are no longer required to install a separate 3D Vision Controller driver or CD driver. This driver includes the 280.19 3D Vision Controller driver. For more information, please view this knowledgebase article for more information.Adds support for viewing 3DVisionLive.com and YouTube 3D with NVIDIA SLI PCs. Please view this knowledgebase article for more information on 3D Vision Window Mode.Adds support for new 3D Vision monitors: ViewSonic V3D245Adds support for Window mode for 3D Vision Video Player. This requires v1.7.2 or higher of the player.Adds support for new 3D Vision projectors: Acer X1111, BenQ W710ST, and NEC NP-V300WAdded the following 3D Vision game profiles:[LIST]Alice Madness ReturnsBack to the Future (Episodes 1-5)Call of Juarez: The CartelChuang Shi Xi You (创世西游)Dao Jian 2 刀剑2The Darkness 2Dead IslandDeep BlackDou Zhan Shen 斗战神Dragon Ball OnlineDungeons and Dragons: OnlineGods & Heroes: Rome RisingHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1L.A. NoireLeague of Legends 英雄联盟LEGO Pirates of the CaribbeanLord of the Rings Online: Shadows of AngmarThe Lord of the Rings: War in the NorthMarsMight & Magic Heroes VIMount & Blade: WarbandMount & Blade: With Fire and BladePROUNRAGERed Orchestra 2: Heroes of StalingradRise of the ImmortalsRusty HeartsSerious Sam 3: BFEVirtua Tennis 4Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine[*]Update the following 3D Vision game profilesCrysis 2 rating changed to Excellent. NVIDIA recommends using the v1.9 game patch.Deep Black rating change to 3D Vision ReadySuper Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition convergence changes and rating changed to 3D Vision Ready[/LIST]OtherInstalls HD Audio driver version 1.2.23.3Installs PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0514Supports playing back Blu-ray 3D discs when connecting your GPU to an HDMI 1.4 3D TV. Playback requires compatible software application from CyberLink, ArcSoft, Roxio, or Corel. For GPU and system requirements, visit the NVIDIA Blu-ray 3D website.Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe Creative Suite 5 including Photoshop CS5.Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash.Supports OpenGL 3.3 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.Supports OpenGL 4.1 on GeForce 400 series and later GPUs.Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology* on DirectX 9 and OpenGL.Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.[/COLOR]Test SystemThe test the performance of the drivers, we will be using Forceware 280.19 as well as as the latest 280.26 drivers and running each test three times to obtain a fair average set of results.Test System:Asus Maximus IV Extreme-ZIntel Core i7 2600k8GB Corsair Vengeance 1866MHzGigabyte GTX 580 Super OverclockCorsair Hydro H80Corsair HX1050WLian Li T60Kingston V+100 128GB SSDGames used:Batman: Arkham Asylum[LIST]1920x10808xMSAA16xAF[*]Dirt 21920x10804xMSAA16xAF[*]Dirt 31920x10804xMSAA16xAF[*]Just Cause 21920x10804xAA16xAF[*]Mafia II1920x1080AA On16xAF[*]Metro 20331920x10804xMSAA16xAF[/LIST]Software used:3DMark 11[LIST]Extreme Pre-set[*]3DMark VantagePerformance Pre-set[*]Unigine Heaven Benchmark1920x10804xAA16xAF[*]Windows 7 Professional 64-bit[/LIST]3DMark 113DMark 11 is the latest offering from Futuremark, taking full advantage of DirectX 11 by utilising tessellation features and volumetric lighting. It takes your graphics and CPU hardware to the edge to simulate the most extreme conditions whilst working as a stand point to compare results with other users online. No change was seen in 3DMark 11 between the two driver versions.3DMark Vantage3DMark Vantage is the industry standard performance benchmark for DirectX 10 gaming PCs. It includes two graphics tests, two CPU tests and six feature tests. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark Vantage is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 10 under game-like loads. 3DMark Vantage saw quite a slight increase, but nothing that would make you write home about.Unigine HeavenHeaven 2.1 is regarded to be one of the most intensive Benchmarking utilities about at the moment along with the likes of 3DMark. It makes use of highly comprehensive tessellation technology, advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion) and a highly defined light algorithm to produce ever changing light conditions amongst other items. Heaven saw no change in the updated Forceware drivers.Batman: Arkham AsylumBatman: Arkham Asylum is an action-adventure stealth game that uses the Unreal Engine 3. It relies heavily on nVidia's PhsyX engine to give improved physics throughout if available. and uses lots of textures and polygons to build the character. Batman: Arkham Asylum saw no change in the different driver versions.Dirt 2The physics engine from within Dirt 2 is a good test of a card and it's rendering capabilities with fine details such as dust trailing from the rear of the car. There is also the aspect of light and reflections from the cars bodywork and the ability to work with the in game physics and damage rendering engines to produce a realistic gaming experience. Dirt 2 saw no real change by updating the drivers.Dirt 3Dirt 3 was released in May 2011 and is the third in the Dirt series offering a complete overhaul in terms of graphics for the DirectX 11 platform which extreme lighting effects and reflections as well as showcasing fast moving graphics and using in game physics to bring the most extreme quality in terms of video rendering. Dirt 3 saw a very minimal frame-rate increase by updating the drivers.Just Cause 2Just Cause 2 is an open world action-adventure video game that was released at the beginning of 2010. The game uses the Avalanche Engine 2.0 and runs on DirectX 10. Several graphics effects and features are used to give a thorough workout to new and even older graphics cards. No change was evident by updating to Forceware 280.26 drivers.Mafia IIMafia II is an older game and therefore it does have older graphics engines, however this is is still a good all-round in game benchmark that combines the terrain and explosion rendering of Crysis with the dust and dirt particle rendering test of Dirt 2. It also takes into account the changing light conditions albeit not in quite the same detail as the others, but none-the-less still proves a cards capabilities on slightly older games. Mafia II saw no increase in performance.Metro 2033Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter game based in the Russian metro system. Metro 2033 is very similar to the much loved game STALKER as it is developed by the same programmers. The game utilises DirectX 11 and relies heavily on tessellation features and is considered to be one of the most graphics intense games on the market. No performance increase was found in Metro 2033.Final ThoughtsThe release notes for the Nvidia Forceware 280.26 drivers looked promising but mainly see some new features in terms of 3D Vision support and doesn't really seem to focus on game improvements or fixes in games which is where we believe, matters the most.Our gaming and benchmark tests put the drivers into action but sadly saw no real performance increase in any of the tests, apart from a VERY slight change with 3DMark Vantage.Being the first Forceware analysis, we were hoping for a lot more, but it just seems that Nvidia had a different target audience when they released these drivers and it most certainly wasn't to have game performance increases in mind, much to our sadness.Getting to the bottom of it, we can't see why you would need to update your drivers to 280.26 unless you are using 3D Vision and need the extra game support that's on offer from it. If you a typical gamer much like myself, you'll find no real benefit between the drivers. Attached files 3dmark11.png (22.5 KB) 3dmarkvantage.png (24.3 KB) batman.png (24.6 KB) dirt 2.png (20.8 KB) just cause 2.png (22.3 KB) mafia II.png (21.2 KB) metro.png (22.7 KB) nvidia-forceware.jpg (31.9 KB)