Nvidia releases GeForce 257.15 beta driver

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Nvidia has released a new beta driver for GeForce 6 through 400-series and Ion desktop GPUs, bringing new features, bug fixes and performance improvements. Driver 257.15 beta is packaged with PhysX 9.10.0222 and adds Blu-ray 3D support for Nvidia 3D Vision technology, OpenGL 4.0 support for GeForce GTX 400-series GPUs, CUDA Toolkit 3.1, new AA modes for tri-SLI configurations, new Nvidia Control Panel features and more. Meanwhile, you can expect the following speed boosts:

• Up to 14% in Aliens vs. Predator (1920x1200 noAA/AF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 4% in Batman: Arkham Asylum (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF PhysX=High)
• Up to 5% in BattleForge (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Very High settings)
• Up to 5% in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
• Up to 4% in Crysis: Warhead (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Enthusiast setting)
• Up to 24% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (1920x1200 no AA/AF)
• Up to 9% in Far Cry 2 (2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF)
• Up to 25% in Just Cause 2 (2560x1600 no AA/AF - Concrete Jungle)
• Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1920x1200 no AA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 40% in Metro 2033 with SLI (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 8% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920x1200 no AA/AF – Day)
• Up to 110% in Stone Giant with SLI (2650x1600 – Tessellation on, DoF on)
• Up to 6% in The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena (2560x1600 no AA/AF)
• Up to 9% in Unigine: Tropics (2560x1600 no AA/AF – OpenGL)
• Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Performance and Extreme Presets)
• Up to 19% with Transparency AA (1920x1200 4xTrSS – measured in Crysis)

Download: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/39060-nvidia-releases-geforce-25715-beta-driver.html

 

[princeton]

Why the **** would they go from the 19x.xx series to the 25x.xx series. That makes no sense. I know the early drivers started at like 15x.xx but why not go to 20x.xx? It's just going to confuse people. When this was posted I thought I missed almost 100 driver releases.

 

[dividebyzero]

...It's just going to confuse people.

Only some people, for the rest there's this

When this was posted I thought I missed almost 100 driver releases.

Glad to hear you've awakened from your coma- hope the "nursing" staff didn't take too many liberties with your inert body while you were out to lunch.

 

[9Nails]

Now that's not called for dividebyzero. Be kind to others.

Aside from the confusing version numbering, what is Giant Stone, and what happened there?! Huge gains like that have me worried!

 

[princeton]

dividebyzero said:

...It's just going to confuse people.

Only some people, for the rest there's this

When this was posted I thought I missed almost 100 driver releases.

Glad to hear you've awakened from your coma- hope the "nursing" staff didn't take too many liberties with your inert body while you were out to lunch.

Ever heard of an OPINION? Sorry not everyone is a tech god who knows almost everything to do with computers in and out. Most users would be confused. Thats a fact. Most users are NOT very skilled with computers. And I know for a fact most users skilled or not don't uninstall drivers properly by rebooting into safe mode and using a driver cleaner. So how on earth would they just know Nvidia would just start at 25x.xx if they don't even uninstall their previous drivers right? Are you assuming most computer users build their computers themselves?

 

[dividebyzero]

1. The majority of computer users update drivers by clicking a supplied link in a tech site story entitled "New driver download", assuming they update at all. Probably fair to say that a lot of people never/seldom update unless they are either told to or are experiencing problems (see Techspot forum posts)
2. This same majority of people couldn't put a driver revision name to any driver they have.
3. The same majority of people are going to use the "if the number is higher, then it's newer" way of distinguishing drivers.
4.

And I know for a fact most users skilled or not don't uninstall drivers properly by rebooting into safe mode and using a driver cleaner.

So, going from 197.75 to say 198.00 would cure this problem ? Whereas 197.75 to 25x.xx doesn't ? Sloppy or uninformed software installation technique is hardly likely to be rectified by making the driver revision number more incremental.

@9Nails
Stone Giant is a DX11 benchmark along the same lines as Heaven. Free download here. Since the benchmark has only been in release a short time, any optimization is likely to be significant, in percentage even if not in framerate. The same could be said for Just Cause 2.

 

[Guest]

Does somebody know when they plan to release the driver for Nvidia Verde cards? I read that they going to start to releasing drivers at the same time.

 

[Guest]

@dividebyzero

Man, you need a hug...

 

[dividebyzero]

@ Guest #1
Apparently Verde drivers are due out "early July" according to the Q&A following the PR release on the nVidia site (released quarterly)

 

[Steve]

I would comment on this news story but I am busy testing the new GeForce 257.15 beta drivers ... ohh wait.

 

[AfricanTech]

Hmm, I think I'll wait to see if it fries any motherboards...

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Most technologically "not smart" people don't know about the driver update...for the rest who know and care, well they can just learn its not too hard.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Heh, remember the recent news post about a customer getting a GTX 465 in a 470 box? Clicking on download, and 'supported products', shows that GTX 465 is supported.

 

[metalhead520]

ok for my setup on the new 257.15 control panel, the usual settings that i like are as follows. Keep in mind also that SLI and PhysX are both on as well because I have two 9600 GT cards.

Ambient Occlusion: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: Application Controlled
Antialiasing - Gamma Correction: On
Antialiasing - Mode: Application Controlled
Antialiasing - Setting: Application Controlled
Antialiasing - Transparency: Off
CUDA - GPUs: All
Extension Limit: Off
Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames: 3
Multi-Display/mixed-GPU acceleration: Single
SLI rendering mode: Force alt/ frame rendering 2
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
Texture Filtering: High quality
Threaded Optimization: Auto
Triple Buffering: On
Vertical sync: Use the 3D application setting.

Ok, now when I try to hit apply and go back into the Nvidia control panel the following options are changed, and I cant get them to stick.

Antialiasing - Gamma Correction: Off
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration: Multiple display performance mode
SLI rendering mode: Nvidia Recommended
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Allow
Texture filtering - Quality: Quality
Triple Buffering: Off

Im thinking there might be a bug in the new drivers or something because the options dont stick like they did with older drivers. Is anyone else having a problem with this or when i set them and they revert back is that the best settings for my system. I think the main thing im worried about is the SLI rendering mode being at nvidia recommended instead of force alternate frame rendering 2, to use my two cards. Any help on this would be great.

 

[metalhead520]

an addition to my last post above, i put on my SLI indicator to see if its active....they are but when i exit out and go back into the control panel it says that its unchecked...........soooooooooo when i go back into my games the damn sli indicator is there still, im ticked at these new drivers people

 

[princeton]

ok for my setup on the new 257.15 control panel, the usual settings that i like are as follows. Keep in mind also that SLI and PhysX are both on as well because I have two 9600 GT cards.

Ambient Occlusion: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: Application Controlled
Antialiasing - Gamma Correction: On
Antialiasing - Mode: Application Controlled
Antialiasing - Setting: Application Controlled
Antialiasing - Transparency: Off
CUDA - GPUs: All
Extension Limit: Off
Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames: 3
Multi-Display/mixed-GPU acceleration: Single
SLI rendering mode: Force alt/ frame rendering 2
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
Texture Filtering: High quality
Threaded Optimization: Auto
Triple Buffering: On
Vertical sync: Use the 3D application setting.

Ok, now when I try to hit apply and go back into the Nvidia control panel the following options are changed, and I cant get them to stick.

Antialiasing - Gamma Correction: Off
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration: Multiple display performance mode
SLI rendering mode: Nvidia Recommended
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Allow
Texture filtering - Quality: Quality
Triple Buffering: Off

Im thinking there might be a bug in the new drivers or something because the options dont stick like they did with older drivers. Is anyone else having a problem with this or when i set them and they revert back is that the best settings for my system. I think the main thing im worried about is the SLI rendering mode being at nvidia recommended instead of force alternate frame rendering 2, to use my two cards. Any help on this would be great.

It's a bug. Don't worry the nvidia guys know about it.