Nvidia releases 306.97 WHQL with support for GTX 650 Ti

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Nvidia has released new WHQL-certified drivers backing the arrival of this week's budget-oriented GTX 650 Ti. The company notes that 306.97 is fully compatible with Windows 8, which launches on October 26, and it adds a handful of enhancements over last month's 306.23 WHQL release, including an improved SLI profile for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier and updated 3D Vision profiles for over a dozen titles such as F1 2012, Sleeping Dogs, Torchlight 2 and Doom 3: BFG Edition, which is now rated as "excellent":

• Check vs. Mate - Rated Excellent
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Rated Good
• Doom 3: BFG Edition - Rated Excellent
• English Country Tune - Rated Good
• F1 2012 - Rated Good
• Iron Brigade - Rated Fair
• Jagged Alliance: Crossfire - Rated Good
• Orcs Must Die 2! - Rated Good
• Planetside 2 - Rated Not Recommended
• Prototype 2 - Rated Poor
• Sleeping Dogs - Rated Good
• Spec Ops: The Line - Rated Good
• Tiny Troopers - Rated Fair
• Torchlight 2 - Rated Good
• Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - Rated Fair

Nvidia didn't cite any specific performance optimizations over 306.23, but the company notes that today's release is recommended for the best experience in new PC games such as Borderlands 2 and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. However, folks upgrading from pre-R304 drivers can expect a myriad of improvements. For instance, when jumping to from R302 to R304, the GTX 680 gains up to 18% more performance in Batman: Arkham city, 15% in Dragon Age II, 10% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and 60% in Total War: Shogun 2.

Download GeForce 306.97 WHQL (release notes)
Desktop: Windows Vista/7/8 32-bit | Windows Vista/7/8 64-bit (XP 32/64-bit users can download 306.81 WHQL)

Version 304.xx and 306.xx drivers also offer dozens of SLI and 3D Vision profile updates, as well as support for TXAA, a new film-style antialiasing technique, support for antialiasing and ambient occlusion via the Nvidia Control Panel in a handful of major titles, and three noteworthy bug fixes: one that caused vsync stuttering issues with the GTX 600 series, another that prevented some factory overclocked cards from running at their full speed, and a third that resolved performance issues in Total War: Shogun 2 (hence the 60% speed bump).

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/50458-nvidia-releases-30697-whql-with-support-for-gtx-650-ti.html

 

[hahahanoobs]

I wonder if this driver would have fixed the problem I had with an nVIDIA .dll (nvlkddm or something), that came with the MSI TF3 GTX 660 I bought and returned for a 7870 GHz Ed... *shrugs*

 

[amstech]

Someone went to a AMD Radeon from a Nvidia GTX because of a driver issue? Wow.
Normally its the other way around.

 

[Guest]

Seriously, I came from AMD to Nvidia because of a driver issue. Plus my GTX 690 is oh so sweet.

 

[lawfer]

I'm equally surprised. AMD's driver support sucks when compared to Nvidia.

And I still can't forget how cool it was when they gave me a free copy of Batman: Arkham City for buying a GTX 560 Ti last year. I had no idea the free game coupon came with the card, so it certainly was an unexpected (but welcome) bonus.

Maybe Batman is what has me a little biased, but I ain't going back!

 

[dividebyzero]

I wonder if this driver would have fixed the problem I had with an nVIDIA .dll (nvlkddm or something), that came with the MSI TF3 GTX 660 I bought and returned for a 7870 GHz Ed... *shrugs*

If the issue was a TDR (timeout detection and recovery) - usually a momentary black screen, reset, and message along the lines of "The Nvidia driver stopped working and was recovered", then the usual issue has been that an Adobe Flash update breaks the driver compatibility - IIRC most TDR's -including those that have the same effect on AMD cards, usually arise due to browser/Flash content. The other cause, which was remedied some time ago, was video playback with WMP/VLC.

 

[Per Hansson]

It would be nice with a fix for DisplayPort displays resiszing all currently open windows if I power off my monitor and then power it on the next day.

The issue is caused by the displayport disconnecting when it enters sleep mode, so if I turn the monitor back on again a few hours later. (When it has recieved the sleep signal aswell).
Then all my active windows are resized, it's really annoying.
If I remeber to move the mouse or press the keyboard before turning on the monitor then it's fine because that "wakes" the displayport connection

It's described in this MS KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2625567

 

[Guest]

Lol, times are so hard I am still using my nvidia 9800gt gpu.

maybe if the mayans are wrong about december 21, 2012 (or is it december 12, 2012?), I will be buying nvidia gtx650 by march 2013.

 

[Alpha Gamer]

I wonder if this driver would have fixed the problem I had with an nVIDIA .dll (nvlkddm or something), that came with the MSI TF3 GTX 660 I bought and returned for a 7870 GHz Ed... *shrugs*

If the issue was a TDR (timeout detection and recovery) - usually a momentary black screen, reset, and message along the lines of "The Nvidia driver stopped working and was recovered", then the usual issue has been that an Adobe Flash update breaks the driver compatibility - IIRC most TDR's -including those that have the same effect on AMD cards, usually arise due to browser/Flash content. The other cause, which was remedied some time ago, was video playback with WMP/VLC.

Can you point me to more information on this matter?

 

[Darth Shiv]

Personally I went from nvidia to amd because of a "driver issue"... namely that nvidia disabled physx when a non-nvidia card was present. Under the pretense of "support issues".

 

[dividebyzero]

Can you point me to more information on this matter?

No problem.
Nvidia's forums are down pending overhaul ( hacking attack) and I don't know offhand of another single source that has all the information collated. EVGA Forums might be the best bet since they are one of the few Nvidia only board partners.

Personally I went from nvidia to amd because of a "driver issue"... namely that nvidia disabled physx when a non-nvidia card was present. Under the pretense of "support issues".

Bulls___ . PhysX has been Nvidia's proprietry software since it debuted- it has never been supported with AMD/ATi cards, except by third party hack, and an instance where the one native driver allowed the same due to oversight...so your "supposed" cause-and-effect argument is nonsensical- more so since AMD (as ATi) predate Nvidia's existence.
I'd advise taking your trolling elsewhere...and it is trolling when the same hackneyed comment gets posted at near-every Nvidia thread - maybe start up a seperate thread- I'd suggest "AMD fans wail incessently about PhysX lockout, whilst never answering the question of why Nvidia should foot the R&D bill alone, or have to account for the compatibility with AMD's drivers".

Consider what follows as my first post in your new thread- I'll cut it from here when you start the new thread;
PhysX was developed as software for the professional market in addition to gaming, and even with the combined resources of Intel, AMD, and the open souce community (Bullet, Tokomak, ODE et al), PhysX remains the preeminant physics software for scientific calc. n-body/path prediction within gravitational fields, complex simulation in general, robotics, as well as the more normally (for this forum) associated - and ancillary-gaming uses. So even if AMD could get all its ducks in a row regarding ongoing compatibility, why would/should Nvidia give AMD a free ride into OpenCL based physics after pouring so much cash into developing physics ? Egalitarianism? Can you name one item AMD developed/proprietry tech (as opposed to a development from an open source spec) that AMD has given to anyone?

 

[Darth Shiv]

No problem.
Nvidia's forums are down pending overhaul ( hacking attack) and I don't know offhand of another single source that has all the information collated. EVGA Forums might be the best bet since they are one of the few Nvidia only board partners.

Bulls___ . PhysX has been Nvidia's proprietry software since it debuted- it has never been supported with AMD/ATi cards, except by third party hack, and an instance where the one native driver allowed the same due to oversight...so your "supposed" cause-and-effect argument is nonsensical- more so since AMD (as ATi) predate Nvidia's existence.
I'd advise taking your trolling elsewhere...and it is trolling when the same hackneyed comment gets posted at near-every Nvidia thread - maybe start up a seperate thread- I'd suggest "AMD fans wail incessently about PhysX lockout, whilst never answering the question of why Nvidia should foot the R&D bill alone, or have to account for the compatibility with AMD's drivers".

I was not referring to physx running ON the AMD card. If I buy an NVIDIA card for physx, I don't care. If I use an AMD for graphics and NVIDIA for physx, I want what I paid for. Not an artificial lockout. NVIDIA released a driver that suddenly stopped that configuration from working. It is not trolling. It is MY choice. I choose to not support NVIDIA locking the physx card to a pure NVIDIA system.

See http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-physx-ati-gpu-disable,8742.html

 

[dividebyzero]

The only people with a valid gripe imo are those that bought the original Ageia PhysX PPU- and they basically got kicked to the curb when the company got sold...and if you think thats tough, it is (as is ATI/AMD's leaving AIW owners out in the cold when the the TV Tuner/VIVO was basically jettisoned fwiw). It was pretty much well known that as soon as Nvidia bought Ageia in March 2008, and managed to integrate the SDK and PhysX software into the GeForce drivers (Sept) that Nvidia would lock out AMD and anyone else to protect their investment unless a licence was obtained (I.e. the exact duplicate of the SLI tech acquisition model).

Nowhere in Nvidia literature is there reference to the company maintaining a PhysX presence where an unlicenced (competitors) product was present- mainly because it was generally well known what was happening in the industry at the time.
A brief timeline
2006: ATI look into GPU accelerated physics using what would become Havok
2007: AMD look at buying Ageia
late-2007: After spurning Ageia for Havok, AMD get a kick in the nutz when Intel buys Havok
2008: Nvidia actually buys Ageia
mid- 2008: Heavily rumoured (and explored at the time) that Nvidia offered PhysX to AMD. AMD would have to pay for the licence and Nvidia would help AMD develop their own back end for the PhysX implementation. AMD refused, since PhysX is tied to CUDA, and AMD wanted to pursue OpenCL implementation ( CUDA is easily ported to OpenCL so why this was an issue I'm not sure). AMD promptly announces partnership with Havok. (Number of Havok FX OpenCL games produced in four years: Zero)
late-2008: Nvidia's CUDA GPGPU starts gaining traction. AMD publicly starts trashing PhysX at the expense of Havok
Q1 2009: Nvidia sever PhysX ties with AMD....Now who didn't see this coming ?
2009-Present: AMD considers PhysX irrelevant, and uses Neal Robison, Richard Huddy and Godfrey Cheng to chant the mantra as often as site editors allow. Mr Huddy was so good at AMD game dev relations that he's since started work at Intel.
Just as amusing aside...

Wrapping it up in a software layer (DirectX, DirectCompute) gives you safety and security,' says Huddy, 'but it unfortunately tends to rob you of quite a lot of the performance, and most importantly it robs you of the opportunity to innovate.'-Richard Huddy, AMD Developer Relations Manager 16th March, 2011

two days later...

The bottom line for us is that we support open standards, such as OpenCL and DirectCompute, we feel this to be a way to move the whole industry forward.- Neal Robison, AMD Senior Director of Content and Application Support -18th March,2011

 

[Alpha Gamer]

Thanks, dividebyzero.

 

[vinit22]

Is that driver supporting the the nvida gtx260 cards ?????

 

[hahahanoobs]

If the issue was a TDR (timeout detection and recovery) - usually a momentary black screen, reset, and message along the lines of "The Nvidia driver stopped working and was recovered", then the usual issue has been that an Adobe Flash update breaks the driver compatibility - IIRC most TDR's -including those that have the same effect on AMD cards, usually arise due to browser/Flash content. The other cause, which was remedied some time ago, was video playback with WMP/VLC.

I had it while playing Battlefield 3 and uninstalling GeForce drivers when trying different ones. Browsing and video were fine. I never had driver has stopped working messages. After each crash (display lost from monitor and power light flashing, I had to hold power button to shutdown), upon booting back up, I go into the event viewer and it's pointed to the nVIDIA dll file as the cause. nVIDIA forums and others had some things to try, but nothing worked for me. I came from an AMD card so that is the only thing I can think off. When I exchanged it for a 7870, I am/was (think I fixed it) getting crashes related to Microsoft Security Client OOBE again, only when playing Battlefield 3. Who knows where that came from after a video card upgrade. I had it a few months ago, but I couldn't see a reason for it returning then.