GeForce 301.42 WHQL packs performance gains, new features

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104
Staff

Nvidia's first GeForce R300 drivers have received Microsoft's approval, bringing a slew of new features and improvements, including some added since April's 301.24 beta. In case you missed that pre-WHQL update, it introduced various technologies such as FXAA, Adaptive VSync, Frame Rate Target as well as Surround support for all GeForce 8 series and later GPUs. Nvidia explains those features in detail.

The 301.24 beta also introduced various Surround improvements for multi-monitor users, such as the ability to enable a fourth "accessory display" for basic tasks like checking email and Web browsing, maximize applications to a single display when in Surround mode, "peek" behind monitor bezels to reveal obscured menus and game information, confine the Windows Taskbar to your center screen and more.

GeForce 301.42 WHQL contains and even tweaks some those features while improving support for GTX 600 cards (including GTX 670 4-way SLI) and half a dozen 3DTV displays, as well as fixing a plethora of single and multi-GPU bugs. You'll also find new or improved SLI and 3D Vision profiles for many games, especially new releases like Max Payne 3, Dirt: Showdown, Sniper Elite V2, and Street Fighter X Tekken.

Download GeForce 301.42 WHQL (release notes)
Desktop: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

On top of all that, folks coming from March's 296.10 WHQL build will see performance increases in various titles. Depending on your card and configuration, you can expect gains of up to 23% in Skyrim and Just Cause 2, 17% in StarCraft II, 14% in Far Cry 2, 12% in Bulletstorm, 11% in Civilization V, 9% in Batman: Arkham City, as well as 4 to 6% in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dragon Age II, Metro 2033, and Total War: Shogun 2. Those boosts were recorded with GTX 500 cards, often in SLI, so your mileage will vary.

Permalink to story.

 
Just installed these bad boys. Only tested one app and it definitely did get an SLI profile since my benchmark is about double what it was yesterday.
 
lol, after installing nvidia driver geforce 301.42 whql, my evga nvidia 9500gt gpu (air-cooled intel stock) temperature went to zero degree celsius from 46 degrees celsius, as monitored by speedfan and speccy.

a simple closure and re-opening of these programs "corrects" the wrong temperature measurement.
 
It is normal are you kidding me? It uninstalls the driver and the installs it again.
 
Well I must add I tryed the new driver and adaptive VSync with Crysis 2 MP so far, and the performance increase was huge on my 9800 GT, the minimum FPS registered with adaptive VSync went as low as 38 FPS (different matches, maps, game type, etc. for 1 hour) compared to the min FPS registered just before installing the latest drivers that went as low as 15 FPS when just loaded the map and the countdown for starting with V-Sync activated. I mean, the adaptive V-Sync gave me just the playable performance of V-Sync off plus 2-3 FPS more, the problem when I played with the 296 drivers without V-Sync my FPS would oscilate between 32-82 FPS depending on the scene, when my refresh rate is set to 75 Hz, so it was like accelerating, deaccelerating and stuttering all combined, but as you see activating V-Sync would low a lot my min and average FPS.

Good feature, I just got like a stutter once in a whole hour and besides that I could kill a lot more because of the more playable FPS, specially on melee duels.
 
Back