NVIDIA’s most significant GPU drivers in ages: the 256-series ForceWare

Robert Hallock 24 May, 2010 at 6:59pm ET Article published in Tech

Not long after the official introduction of a new architecture, NVIDIA frequently retreats to its mysterious bunker to work overtime on new GPU drivers designed to wring additional performance out of their new silicon. Thanks to the company’s unified driver architecture, however, some or all of these performance advantages trickle down through older cards as well. This very scenario has played out today with NVIDIA’s unveiling of the 256-series drivers, which starts with the 257.15 beta and will conclude with the 259.xx drivers.

Performance

Gaming performance is the heart and soul of any enthusiast GPU. NVIDIA knows that, and the 256-series ForceWare drivers capably demonstrate this fact. The drivers exhibit a performance boost between 4% and 25%, depending on the title in question. Benchmarks and anti-aliasing performance, too, have been given a kick in the pants.

3D Blu-ray

Whatever your opinion on 3D home theater, NVIDIA has been a major proponent of the technology and a driving force behind its availability to PC users. In this respect, today’s driver is the culmination of months of effort. Users armed with the 256-series driver, a compatible GPU, an NVIDIA 3D Vision kit and a 120Hz LCD can start watching 3D Blu-ray content when movies begin hitting the shelves this June.

SLI enhancements

As a special perk for NVIDIA’s SLI customers, the 256-series offers several improvements to the performance and image quality of these configurations. Three-way SLI owners, for example, can enable an outrageous 48x anti-aliasing mode. GTX 400-series customers can kick that dial higher to a whopping 96x. SLI users can also get their hands on better occlusion settings, which should work to punch up the accuracy and quality of a game’s lighting.

As the crowning achievement, multi-GPU owners can finally dictate exactly which GPU runs CUDA applications or serves as the system’s dedicated PhysX PPU. These users also have one-touch access to maximum performance settings, which gangs the GPUs together and sends them on their way.

Final thoughts

From notebook-wielding road warriors to tri-SLI GTX 480 fanboys, and the many types of enthusiasts in between, there’s a little love for every NVIDIA customer in today’s release of the ForceWare 257.15 beta.

Users can grab the appropriate release for their OS starting today. Windows XP notebook owners, meanwhile, might want to start considering an upgrade, as NVIDIA has finally left you behind.

Windows XP: ForceWare 257.15 BETA
Windows XP 64-bit: ForceWare 257.15 BETA
Windows Vista/7: ForceWare 257.15 BETA
Windows Vista/7 64-bit: ForceWare 257.15 BETA
Windows Vista/7: ForceWare 257.15 BETA (Notebooks)
Windows Vista/7 64-bit: ForceWare 257.15 BETA (Notebooks)

Comments

25 May 2010 ~ 1:46am Sledgehammer70 Boosted my Vantage score by 4000 points!
25 May 2010 ~ 3:05am ardichoke These performance increases are all well and good but can anyone explain to me the Nvidia drive numbering scheme? 196 to 257, what?
25 May 2010 ~ 11:50pm Sledgehammer70 Maybe it is the sum of all the driver updates they needed to do but didn't so they just jumped ahead anyways?
26 May 2010 ~ 12:50am mirage Considering the recent troubles with beta 19X drivers, I am not brave enough to test these drivers with older 2XX GPUs. I might try in the weekend.
26 May 2010 ~ 5:30am Sledgehammer70 It was 196.75 that caused issues... I am running the new 257.15 on my system with no issues outside of beyond epic benchmark scores but that is not much of an issue is it...
26 May 2010 ~ 6:13am ardichoke Woohoo... overinflated numbers in my synthetic number-producing software that has next to no real-world bearing! Look at my e-peen... LOOK AT IT!
26 May 2010 ~ 9:56am mirage

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

It was 196.75 that caused issues... I am running the new 257.15 on my system with no issues outside of beyond epic benchmark scores but that is not much of an issue is it...

Do you think it will make any difference with a GTX260?
26 May 2010 ~ 1:41pm Tim They call these the 256 series drivers, yet the numbers start with 257..... makes perfect sense for Nvidia.
26 May 2010 ~ 1:42pm Thrax (Probably because the first internal betas started with 256.xx. Crazy, I know.)
26 May 2010 ~ 4:15pm coldalarm We'll see. I think I'll hold off until I hear a few reports of how they function with 9800GTs.
26 May 2010 ~ 4:17pm Thrax I've installed them on my 8800GT (a 65nm 9800GT), and they're working well. You should give 'em a try, Coldalarm.
26 May 2010 ~ 4:35pm coldalarm Are they still Beta? If so, I'll give 'em a miss for now.
26 May 2010 ~ 4:42pm Thrax Yep, beta.
26 May 2010 ~ 4:44pm coldalarm I'll wait for release, then. I don't trust nVidia drivers as it is (until the latest release, I seemed to have no end of troubles with 19x series), especially with Fallout 3.

But they sound like they could be good.
26 May 2010 ~ 4:50pm _k Well the issue with Fallout 3 is the game not the drivers.
26 May 2010 ~ 5:10pm coldalarm Fallout 3's buggy, yeah, but an nv4_disp.dll BSOD points straight to nVidia drivers.
26 May 2010 ~ 5:19pm mirage Fallout 3 was working butter smooth with 18X drivers. Whatever has happened with 19X added stuttering and occasional driver crashes. I am not sure if this is entirely due to the game but it is the only game I know having this problem.
26 May 2010 ~ 5:26pm _k I bought Fallout 3 and could never get it to run for more than 45 minutes. I played that game for probably 5 hours and never got past about 2 hours. I have tried drivers from 180 to 190 with 88s and GX2s but everything always gave the same symptoms, this is across XP and 7. After talking at least a dozen people who had the same set of problems I stopped and said it was a waste of time and money...should of bought fc2 and left FO3 alone.
26 May 2010 ~ 5:56pm coldalarm

mirage wrote:

Fallout 3 was working butter smooth with 18X drivers. Whatever has happened with 19X added stuttering and occasional driver crashes. I am not sure if this is entirely due to the game but it is the only game I know having this problem.

That's what I found, too. I had very few problems with anything at all on 18X, but as soon as I used any but the most recent 19X, FO3 would blue screen and so would the other occasional game.

@_k_; They're both good FC2 is incredibly underrated.
26 May 2010 ~ 6:14pm _k They needed to add a taxi service to that game because having to run the same checkpoints and just jump out and RPG jeeps that t-bone you gets annoying after 3 hours.
26 May 2010 ~ 6:16pm coldalarm Aye. The bus routes were too far apart as well, among a few other flaws.

Loved it to pieces, and many of its flaws were minor at best. Did have a problem with a promo code that wouldn't work, but I wasn't too bothered about that.
26 May 2010 ~ 7:03pm Leonardo

Considering the recent troubles with beta 19X drivers, I am not brave enough to test these drivers with older 2XX GPUs.

I'm running the 257.15 beta drivers on GTX 295s, 9800GX2s, and a GTX 275 Co-op without any problems.

Woohoo... overinflated numbers in my synthetic number-producing software that has next to no real-world bearing! Look at my e-peen... LOOK AT IT!

Be fair, OK? He didn't post any numbers - just saying he was enjoying it. Benchmarking is fun, even though in the abstract it often doesn't mean much.