New WHQL nVidia drivers out. 257.21

For those who weren't aware, nVidia has released a new set of WHQL drivers based on their 200 series.

I'll be testing these out over the next couple days. However, since they're WHQL, most of the really rough "Hey! I'm a guinea pig!" stuff should already be hammered out.

Link to nVidia Download Page.

Link to Release Notes

Release Highlights

This is the first driver release from the Release 256 family of drivers (versions 256.xx to 259.xx). This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, and 400-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs. Learn more about Release 256 drivers here .
New in Version 257.21

• Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0223.
• Adds support for OpenGL 4.0 for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs.
• Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.1 which includes significant performance increases for double precision math operations. See CUDA Zone for more details.
• Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel setup page for SLI and PhysX for ultimate control over multi-gpu configurations.
• Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel feature for ultimate control over CUDA GPUs, allowing the user to effectively choose which GPU will power each CUDA application.
• 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:

• Installs HD Audio driver version 1.0.9.1 (for supported GPUs).
• 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 OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all 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 and OpenGL.
• Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.

*Note: The following SLI features are only supported on Windows Vista and Windows 7: Quad SLI technology using GeForce 9800 GX2 or GeForce GTX 295, 3-way SLI technology, Hybrid SLI, and SLI multi-monitor support.



Supported Products

GeForce 400 series:
GTX 465, GTX 480, GTX 470

GeForce 300 series:
GT 340, GT 330, GT 320, 315, 310

GeForce 200 series:
GTX 275, GTX 280, GT 220, G210, 210, GT 240, GT 230, GTX 260, GTS 250, GTX 295, GTX 285, GTS 240, 205

GeForce 100 series:
GT 130, G 100, GT 140, GT 120

GeForce 9 series:
9600 GSO, 9500 GS, 9800 GX2, 9400 GT, 9600 GT, 9200, 9100, 9400, 9800 GT, 9300 GE, 9300, 9500 GT, 9600 GS, 9300 GS, 9800 GTX/GTX+

GeForce 8 series:
8300, 8800 Ultra, 8100 / nForce 720a, 8800 GTS 512, 8600 GT, 8500 GT, 8600 GS, 8800 GS, 8300 GS, 8400 SE, 8200, 8600 GTS, 8800 GTX, 8200 / nForce 730a, 8800 GT, 8400 GS, 8800 GTS, 8400

GeForce 7 series:
7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a, 7600 LE, 7800 GTX, 7500 LE, 7350 LE, 7950 GX2, 7900 GS, 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7300 LE, 7800 SLI, 7300 GT, 7300 SE / 7200 GS, 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 610i, 7300 GS, 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7550 LE, 7900 GT/GTO, 7100 GS, 7650 GS, 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 620i, 7600 GS, 7900 GTX, 7025 / NVIDIA nForce 630a, 7800 GS, 7950 GT, 7150 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7600 GT

GeForce 6 series:
6150SE nForce 430, 6800 GS, 6800 Ultra, 6200 LE, 6700 XL, 6200 A-LE, 6610 XL, 6100, 6100 nForce 420, 6150LE / Quadro NVS 210S, 6800 GS/XT, 6150 LE, 6200, 6200SE TurboCache, 6500, 6200 TurboCache, 6600 VE, 6150, 6600, 6600 LE, 6800, 6800 XT, 6800 XE, 6100 nForce 400, 6250, 6800 LE, 6800 GT, 6100 nForce 405, 6600 GT

ION series:
ION, ION LE

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Thanks for the info Hyperstrike! I'll have to give these a try.

@ElectroHawk: If I remember correctly the UltraMode features make use OpenGL 3.

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But still I fear and still I dare not laugh at the madman!

One man's "meh" is another man's "zomg". - Leatherneck

Procrastination meter coming soon.

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thanks for the heads up on that, gonna try these out as soon as I get home from work... so in about 45mins

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http://www.scene-and-heard.com/cov/covsig.jpg

I installed them, and all seems to be great even on my older puter. I seem to be getting a little better fps and everything is smooth and beautiful.
WinXP
7900GS
SP3

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�Many things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.�

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I also seem to be getting better fps, and no GUI flicker now when opening up windows (win7 Pro x64)

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http://www.scene-and-heard.com/cov/covsig.jpg

Haven't done any benchmarks yet, but the driver appears to be stable in Co*. Framerate seems to have increased slightly at the low end, and I'm dipping below 60 a bit less than previously, but again, I haven't gone to my test location yet (hill in Cimerora where i tweak settings to minimize framerate loss and test different changes. always get the lowest numbers there, for some reason).

Something else, too, but I'm not sure how to describe it, or exactly why it's changed. There's a difference in... clarity and depth. Flying around in zones, the buildings stand out a bit more from the background than they did with the previously released WHQL driver. The lighting in instances is also different, a bit more realistic. There are shadows in places where none existed previously, and it's not because I'm using a different setting for shadows in the game (no settings in game changed, already combed through twice to verify that. i had shadows set to Off with the last version, set to off now as well). Could be something internal to the driver, but with the pathetically limited access that the nVidia control panel offers, I'll need to load up Rivatuner to check the "hidden" stuff. I've already gone into the nCP to check and reset settings to the way I had them for the previous driver, so it's not anything immediately obvious.

There is definitely a difference, though. I'm not complaining, the game looks better than it ever has in the past. Considering that the average framerate appears to be up, I may just "forget" to go looking for the reason and take the gift horse without an oral inspection.

Oh. Specs.

GTS 250 @ stock, E7300 Core 2 Duo @ stock, 4GB PC6400 DDR2 @ stock and single channel.

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I think in the 'change log' and descriptions they improved the 3D graphics. I noticed the same things as you did, Luminara. If it can do that on my 'putersaurus, it must be even more noticable on a newer rig. I am a happy camper.

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�Many things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.�

You have made me exstatically happy, this has solved all the problems i've been experianceing trying to get the game to work,... THANK YOU Hyperstrike !

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Definitely liking these drivers.

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But still I fear and still I dare not laugh at the madman!

One man's "meh" is another man's "zomg". - Leatherneck

Procrastination meter coming soon.

Excellent. I just upgraded, and things are nice and smooth.

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Tryin these, but some issue maybe with advanced shadow settings not being applied correctly on my GTX 260.

If I enabled advanced settings for shadows, then lower some settings, apply, then back out of the menu, then open it again the "apply" is flashing and asking me to apply the settings again. Didn't have much time to work with this bug yet, but this was causing my system to stutter some.

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I have a GTX260 core216 and omg these drivers are AWESOME. not only did they fix an issue I was having with the previous ones, my performance must of jumped about 10fps!
go nVidia

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Combat Kangaroos, Justice Server. First 50's
Jirra Roo Plant/Storm/Stone/Musculature Controller
Combat Kangaroo Rifle/Energy/Mace/Spiritual Blaster
Kung Fu Kangaroo Martial Arts/Reflexes/Body/Spiritual Scrapper
Tribal Arc Shield/Elec/Mu/Spiritual Tanker

What is the recommendation for upgrading to the newer drivers on Windows 7 x64, should I uninstall the 197.45 and run driver sweeper before installing these new ones? ..or is it safe to just install over the current drivers?

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Story arcs:
The Golden Scepter: #9852 [Winner of American Legion's July 2011 AE Author Contest]

Let your voice be heard! Sign the petition to keep CoH alive.

I just uninstalled the previous version then installed the new ones - works fine

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http://www.scene-and-heard.com/cov/covsig.jpg

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After loading these I noticed I was getting a lot of lag. At first I wasn't sure what was causing it because I'd just made a new toon on Freedom where I hadn't played in a while so thought it might be server related. After a couple more play sessions I realized that the lag happened every time RivaTuner changed my fan speed. I had it set up to change the fan speed when it reached certain temps and if it hovered around one of the thresholds making the fan speed up and slow down repeatedly it would cause a lot of lag. Once I disabled the scheduler it runs smooth, I just have to adjust the fan speed manually. Just thought I'd mention it in case someone else had the same issue.

Also, it didn't fix the problem with black flashes resulting from frames frozen in memory when you alt+tab out either. :/

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Little bit of an update.

As stated, these drivers made my GTX260(core 216) scream. OMG im so pleased.

NOW...

I tried it on another machine with a much older 7900GS . OMG it works great! on the 7900GS at 1680x1050 I run simple shadows, slight ambient occlusion, maximum water detail and max environmental reflections, purrs along quite happily.

definetely good drivers.

Not sure if it is neccessary (never had an issue from nVidia.. EVER!!), but I uninstalled the old ones first. Also, I notice these drivers spinning up my fans a little quicker than before. I like that, keeping things cooler is always a plus!

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Combat Kangaroos, Justice Server. First 50's
Jirra Roo Plant/Storm/Stone/Musculature Controller
Combat Kangaroo Rifle/Energy/Mace/Spiritual Blaster
Kung Fu Kangaroo Martial Arts/Reflexes/Body/Spiritual Scrapper
Tribal Arc Shield/Elec/Mu/Spiritual Tanker

Been running these new drivers for a week now and whoa! I'm running alot smother now in alot zones and for the first time ever, I can run though Grandvillie with out lag. Nice.

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I'm guessing it has to be the OpenGL implementations. I ran benchmarks on the 197 drivers, then the 257 drivers on some of my more intensive DX-based games, and saw no real improvements on my GTX285.

People with GTX 4XX cards are seeing some real nice improvements, but that is expected considering the drivers are maturing for those cards. Any other cards I fully expect every ounce of performance to have been eeked out of the drivers years ago considering how long they have been out.

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Pinnacle server

just another random dude

all i get are crashes in something like nvopglvdx.dll or something like that - tried the whql and new betas.... running 470gtx

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Uninstall all the old drivers and try again the 257.21 drivers. I got that error the first time I install the drivers. Opps forgot to get rid of the old.

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