Nvidia have released a new driver Version 260.89, which is the first WHQL certified release from its 260 series driver.
This can be downloaded from www.Nvidia.com in preparation for when the GeForce GTX 460 competes against ATI’s latest offering the Radeon HD 6800 series later next week .
The new drivers are said to improve performance in the 400 Series GPU’s and will introduce official support for the GeForce GT 430.
The new driver version when tested increased performance with a boost of over 10 per cent in at least eight games including S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Dirt2 and Far Cry 2.
The new software released by Nvidia also introduces support for Blu-Ray 3D when connecting to a 3DTV with a HDMI 1.4 interface and lossless HD audio as well as a new driver installer and an updated surround setup wizard.
The driver adds 3D Vision streaming support for Firefox 4 and Google Chrome web browsers as well as adding support for 3D monitors and 3D projectors .
See below for a full list of changes in the new driver release
New in Release 260.89
New GPU Support
Adds support for the newly released GeForce GT 430 GPU.
Performance
Increases performance for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. v258.96 WHQL drivers. The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured on Windows 7. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
GeForce GTX 480:
Up to 10% in StarCraft II (2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF Ultra)
Up to 14% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 16% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (SLI 2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 6% in Aliens vs. Predator (SLI 1920×1200 noAA Tessellation on)
GeForce GTX 460:
Up to 19% in StarCraft II (SLI 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF Ultra)
Up to 15% in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (SLI 2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 12% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (2560×1600 noAA)
Up to 9% in Aliens vs. Predator (1680×1050 4xAA/16xAF Tessellation on)
Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1680×1050 noAA Tessellation on)
Up to 11% in Dirt 2 (SLI 2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 12% in Crysis:Warhead (SLI 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF Gamer)
Up to 13% in Far Cry 2 (2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 12% in H.A.W.X (SLI 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF SSAO Very High)
Up to 5% in Just Cause 2 (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 22% in Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (1920×1200 noAA)
Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Extreme Preset)
Blu-ray 3D
Adds support for 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 more information,NVIDIA Blu-ray 3D website.
HD Audio
Adds lossless DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD audio bitstreaming support for compatible Blu-ray movies with GeForce GTX 460 GPUs*.
Adds high definition 24-bit, 96 and 192 KHz multi-channel audio sampling rate support for compatible Blu-ray movies with GeForce GTX 400 Series ,GT 240, GT 220 and 210 GPUs*.
Upgrades HD Audio driver to version 1.1.9.0.
*Note: A Blu-ray movie player update may be required to enable these new features; check with your movie players software manufacturers for more details.These features are only supported on Windows 7.
Installation
New driver installer with enhanced user interface and new Express and Custom installation options.
Express fast and easy one-click installation
Custom customized installation
Option to perform a clean installation (completely removes older drivers from your system prior to installing the new driver).
Option to choose which driver components (ie. PhysX or 3D Vision) to install.
Improved installation time for multi-GPU PCs.
NVIDIA Surround
Updated NVIDIA Surround setup wizard
After first setup, wizard allows users to jump to any setup step.
Improved display connection diagrams and tooltips.
Improved UI for setup and arrangement of displays.
Improved bezel correction setup experience.
Adds help page to highlight which in-game resolution to select (e.g. how to pick bezel corrected resolutions)
Option to dedicate an extra GPU to PhysX or to drive an additional display.
Allows for portrait or landscape setup directly from the setup wizard.
Updated 3D Vision Surround and NVIDIA Surround game support list. Please visit the 3D Vision Surround web page for a full list of supported games.
NVIDIA 3D Vision
With Release 260 drivers, the installation process for 3D Vision has changed. Please view this knowledgebase article for more information on the changes.
Adds NVIDIA 3D Vision streaming support for Firefox 4 and Google Chrome web browsers.
Adds support for Sony’s 3D Sweep Panorama picture format added to NVIDIA 3D Photo Viewer (Sony digital cameras that can capture 3D Sweep Panorama pictures include NEX-5/NEX-3, Alpha a560/a580 and Cyber-shot DSC-WX5/DSC-TX9/DSC-T99 models).
Adds support for new 3D Vision Desktop LCD monitors: BenQ X2410 and NEC F23W2A
Adds support for new 3D Vision projectors: Sanyo PDG-DWL2500 and ViewSonic PJD6251
Drakensang: The Dark Eye updated in-game compatibility text
Mafia II updated profile to properly for 3D Vision-Rating
StarCraft II fixed profile to properly recognize the retail game executable name and match the 3D Vision rating of Good
Super Commander fixed HUD elements
TRINE new profiles fixes that allow the game to be rated 3D Vision-Ready when used with the TRINE patch v1.08, available via Steam.
NVIDIA SLI
Adds or enhances SLI profiles for the following PC games:
City of Heroes: Going Rogue
Alien Swarm
Dead Rising 2
Front Mission Evolved
Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days
LEGO: Harry Potter
Other Improvements
Adds support for OpenGL 4.1 for GeForce 400 series GPUs.
Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0514.
Improves compatibility for older PC games (DirectX 7 to DirectX 9) running on Windows 7 (examples: Gothic, Gothic II, Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, Links 2003, Independence War II – Edge of Chaos, and X2: Wolverine’s Revenge).
Adds drag and drop display arrangement support to the Set up multiple displays page.
Includes numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.
Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.
Additional Information
Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5.
Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash 10.1. Learn more here.
Supports the new version of MotionDSP’s video enhancement software, vReveal, which adds support for HD output. NVIDIA customers can download a free version of vReveal that supports up to SD output here.
Supports DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
Supports OpenGL 3.3 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
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 X58-based motherboards.
