GeForce 310.33 beta boosts speed by up to 15%, adds profiles

Matthew DeCarlo

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Not to be outdone by AMD, Nvidia has published a fresh beta driver of its own, offering up to 15% more performance on certain hardware and software setups as well as new and updated profiles.

Download GeForce 310.33 beta (release notes)
Desktop: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7/8 32-bit | Windows Vista/7/8 64-bit
Mobile: Windows Vista/7/8 32-bit | Windows Vista/7/8 64-bit

Compared to the GeForce 306.89 WHQL released earlier this month, the new 310.33 beta offers 2% to 7.5% more frames in Batman: Arkham City, Civilization V, Dirt 3, Dragon Age 2, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when running on a GTX 660 with very high to maximum settings Nvidia touts similar gains on the GTX 680, which runs 3.2% to 10.9% better in many of the aforementioned titles as well as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, F1 2011 and StarCraft II. Check out the charts:

306.89 WHQL vs 310.33 beta (click for full size)

In addition to those performance enhancements, the 310.33 beta drivers pack new or improved ambient occlusion support for Cross Fire, Dragon Nest, Meng San Guo, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Darksiders 2, and MechWarrior Online. You'll also find new or updated SLI and 3D Vision profiles for many recently released and upcoming titles, including Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Dishonored, FIFA 13, Hitman: Absolution, Need for Speed: Most Wanted XCOM: Enemy Unknown and more.

Today's update also carries a handful of bug fixes, including two that were specific to Windows 8: one caused a forced reboot on pre-release versions of the operating system, and another produced a "Hardware Test Failed" error when running the 3D Vision Setup Wizard using a Mitsubishi WD-6039 display. Vista and 7 fixes include an antialiasing bug in Diablo III, speed issues in Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3, quad-SLI surround problems with the GTX 690 in WoW, graphical distortion with flash videos and a few others.

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Just FYI, Doom 3 BFG Edition doesn't need an Nvidia profile for Nvidia 3D Vision. The profile is built in, just enable stereoscopic quad-buffering mode from the in-game settings and it's perfect. It's also the only OpenGL game I have ever seen work with 3D Vision. Anyway, just wanted to let people know the new Doom 3 BFG edition DOES work with Nvidia 3D Vision and it's excellent.
 
The one thing I didn't like about my CrossfireX 5770's, 5870 and 6970 was it seemed like every 2 weeks there was a new driver suite to fix issues. It's always felt like I waited years before I need to update my GTX drivers in comparison. Overall the GTX 280, 570 and 670 have been smoother, quieter cards from my experience but I only play at 1080p/1600p.
 
The one thing I didn't like about my CrossfireX 5770's, 5870 and 6970 was it seemed like every 2 weeks there was a new driver suite to fix issues. It's always felt like I waited years before I need to update my GTX drivers in comparison. Overall the GTX 280, 570 and 670 have been smoother, quieter cards from my experience but I only play at 1080p/1600p.

That's strange because AMD and Nvidia both aim to deliver updated drivers on a monthly basis.
 
Suddenly, they offer performance for free, like they're Santa Clauses...

Where do you see 15%? 15% performance might offer the next series ( e.g. 780GTX ) of the Nvidia cards... Are we talking for one card ( 680 and perhaps 670 ) and in a specific instance that was bugged or fully unoptimised before? I don't understand... It seems they easily create headlines wrapped with fanfares.

I'm currently trying my Nvidia card ( 560Ti ) and I don't see any performance increase. The other day, when AMD released its buggy 12.11 version, I truly saw on BF3 a serious increase ( on my 7950 ), to be honest. Not as much on other games. Some guys are talking about heavier power draw, though. I'd really like an in-depth, intense scrutiny on 12.11.
 
I'm currently trying my Nvidia card ( 560Ti ) and I don't see any performance increase. The other day, when AMD released its buggy 12.11 version, I truly saw on BF3 a serious increase ( on my 7950 ), to be honest. Not as much on other games. Some guys are talking about heavier power draw, though. I'd really like an in-depth, intense scrutiny on 12.11.
Heavier power draw? More utilisation then? Or faster clock?
 
Heavier power draw? More utilisation then? Or faster clock?
500M core/ 1375M memory in 2D mode for reference 7970's (or at least 7970's with reference clocks) 12.11beta 4 came out today -same problem. Apparently AMD are aware of the problem.
 
@dividebyzero, that's a known bug. AMD knows about it. It happens on 12.11 beta and unfortunately, even on 12.10 WHQL.

I was talking about something else, though. Some sites say this performance increase comes with no additional power-consumption cost, but some other reports say otherwise... That's why I'd like an in-depth analysis by TechReport.
 
I thought that the power consumption increase was pretty standard/well known considering that the driver was optimizing for GCN core stalls (which is why HD5000/6000 cards aren't seeing performance increases- VLIW 5, 4). From what I've read it doesn't seem overly excessive (Legit Reviews for example). Anyhow, this discussion should really be taking place in the AMD Catalyst thread.
 
I'm currently trying my Nvidia card ( 560Ti ) and I don't see any performance increase. The other day, when AMD released its buggy 12.11 version, I truly saw on BF3 a serious increase ( on my 7950 ), to be honest. Not as much on other games. Some guys are talking about heavier power draw, though. I'd really like an in-depth, intense scrutiny on 12.11.

I havent tried this beta update yet but I have a GTX 560 Ti as well. So results for a performance increase for the 500 series of cards would be useful to me.
 
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