nVidia official 260.63 beta available all OS's

[FalseChristian]

Available now on nVidia driver download page. They work great. Many improvements. but, where is 'Extension limit'? We need it for older OpenGL games.


We already have a thread about the 260 drivers.

Super Moderator BFG10K.

 

[Sylvanas]

Downloading now. Release notes: Link

This is a beta release from the Release 260 family of drivers. This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, and 400-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs.

New in Release 260.63

New GPU Support

Adds support for the newly released GeForce GTS 450 GPU.
Performance

Increases performance for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. v258.96 WHQL drivers. The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured on Windows 7. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
GeForce GTX 480:

Up to 10% in StarCraft II (2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF Ultra)
Up to 14% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 16% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (SLI – 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 6% in Aliens vs. Predator (SLI – 1920x1200 noAA – Tessellation on)
GeForce GTX 460:

Up to 19% in StarCraft II (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF Ultra)
Up to 15% in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (SLI – 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 12% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (2560x1600 noAA)
Up to 9% in Aliens vs. Predator (1680x1050 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1680x1050 noAA – Tessellation on)
Up to 11% in Dirt 2 (SLI – 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 12% in Crysis:Warhead (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF Gamer)
Up to 13% in Far Cry 2 (2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 12% in H.A.W.X (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF SSAO Very High)
Up to 5% in Just Cause 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
Up to 22% in Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (1920x1200 noAA)
Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Extreme Preset)
Blu-ray 3D

Adds support for playing back Blu-ray 3D discs when connecting your GPU to an HDMI 1.4 3D TV. Playback requires compatible software application from CyberLink, ArcSoft, Roxio, or Corel. For more information, NVIDIA Blu-ray 3D website.
HD Audio

Adds lossless DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD audio bitstreaming support for compatible Blu-ray movies with GeForce GTX 460 GPUs*.
Adds high definition 24-bit, 96 and 192 KHz multi-channel audio sampling rate support for compatible Blu-ray movies with GeForce GTX 400 Series ,GT 240, GT 220 and 210 GPUs*.
Upgrades HD Audio driver to version 1.1.9.0.
*Note: A Blu-ray movie player update may be required to enable these new features; check with your movie players software manufacturers for more details.These features are only supported on Windows 7.

Installation

New driver installer with enhanced user interface and new Express and Custom installation options.
Express – fast and easy one-click installation
Custom – customized installation
Option to perform a clean installation (completely removes older drivers from your system prior to installing the new driver).
Option to choose which driver components (ie. PhysX or 3D Vision) to install.
Improved installation time for multi-GPU PCs.
NVIDIA Surround

Updated NVIDIA Surround setup wizard
After first setup, wizard allows users to jump to any setup step.
Improved display connection diagrams and tooltips.
Improved UI for setup and arrangement of displays.
Improved bezel correction setup experience.
Adds help page to highlight which in-game resolution to select (e.g. how to pick bezel corrected resolutions)
Option to dedicate an extra GPU to PhysX or to drive an additional display.
Allows for portrait or landscape setup directly from the setup wizard.
Updated 3D Vision Surround and NVIDIA Surround game support list. Please visit the 3D Vision Surround web page for a full list of supported games.
NVIDIA 3D Vision

With Release 260 drivers, the installation process for 3D Vision has changed. Please view this knowledgebase article for more information on the changes.
Adds NVIDIA 3D Vision streaming support for Firefox 4 and Google Chrome web browsers.
Adds support for Sony’s 3D Sweep Panorama picture format added to NVIDIA 3D Photo Viewer (Sony digital cameras that can capture 3D Sweep Panorama pictures include NEX-5/NEX-3, Alpha a560/a580 and Cyber-shot DSC-WX5/DSC-TX9/DSC-T99 models).
Adds support for new 3D Vision Desktop LCD monitors: BenQ X2410 and NEC F23W2A
Adds support for new 3D Vision projectors: Sanyo PDG-DWL2500 and ViewSonic PJD6251
Added the following 3D Vision game profiles:
Arcania: Gothic 4
Fallout: New Vegas
FIFA 11
Formula 1 Racing
Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark
Guild Wars 2
Kane & Lynch 2 – Dog Days
Lead and Gold
Lego Harry Potter
Live For Speed
Lost Planet 2
Moonbase Alpha
Serious Sam HD – The Second Encounter
Shrek Forever After
Singularity
Vitua Tennis 2009
Virtua Tennis 3
Update the following 3D Vision game profiles
Drakensang: The Dark Eye – updated in-game compatibility text
Mafia II – updated profile to properly for 3D Vision-Rating
StarCraft II – fixed profile to properly recognize the retail game executable name and match the 3D Vision rating of “Good”
Super Commander – fixed HUD elements
TRINE – new profiles fixes that allow the game to be rated “3D Vision-Ready” when used with the TRINE patch v1.08, available via Steam.
Other Improvements

Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0514.
Improves compatibility for older PC games (DirectX 7 to DirectX 9) running on Windows 7 (examples: Gothic, Gothic II, Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, Links 2003, Independence War II - Edge of Chaos, and X2: Wolverine's Revenge).
Adds drag and drop display arrangement support to the “Set up multiple displays” page.
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

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 DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
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, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.
Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.

Very impressed with the continual improvements for Fermi and Nv's other proprietary technology. BFG might want to look at

Improves compatibility for older PC games (DirectX 7 to DirectX 9) running on Windows 7

 

[taltamir]

very nice... time to test drive those drivers.

 

[Sylvanas]

Wow that was easy. I like the new Installer, when I read about it the last few days it seemed like it was just a copy of AMD's install wizard but this one is better. For starters, there is an option for a 'clean install' which basically removes all driver related files (3D driver, PhysX and 3D vision) and does a 'fresh' install on a clean state. No more need for Driversweeper:thumbsup:

It's also very quick and pain free. I also note that the dynamic tiling feature is not present in the Nvidia control panel- it must be Fermi specific, GTS250 showing it's age .

Also not on their front page :

Windows Vista/Windows 7 64-bit Issues
Fixed Single-GPU Issues
 3D Vision: Glasses lose sync with the 3D Vision IR emitter, resulting in excess flicker
and loss of stereoscopic 3D effect.
 NvAPI_GPU_GetCoolerSettings() is slower on Release 256 drivers compared to
Release 195 drivers. [692045]
 Gothic 1/Gothic 2 –there is corruption and the game crashes. [621170]
 GeForce 400 Series: Final Fantasy XI–lagging and poor performance when playing the
game.
 GeForce GT 240M: The Dualview primary display assignment is switched from the
LVDS to the external HDMI after changing the display resolution

Fixed Multi-GPU Issues
 [SLI], GeForce 400 series, 3D Vision Surround gaming: When enabling Surround, the
display refresh rate switches to 120Hz. [700874]

[SLI], GeForce 8800M: After rolling back the driver (to 195.62), the Set SLI and PhysX
configuration page is missing. [665439]

Another Gem from the pdf:

Hybrid Power
Support for Hybrid Power, a Hybrid SLI technology, is discontinued and not available
with this driver.

That came from nowhere, granted it never gained any traction and was pretty useless but the idea of powering off a discrete GPU and using the onboard GPU is definitely worth pursuing. I guess this comes in the wake of Nvidia also discontinuing their motherboard chipset/GPU line.

 

[TheUnk]

How well do they work with Aero? Wonderfully?

 

[happy medium]

NO wonder that driver took a little longer. Thats alot of sh*t.

 

[railven]

Square or nVIdia has to address the craptacular performance of FFXIV on nVidia hardware. That game runs disgustingly slow on the GF's rig.

I saw the 3D profile update, but I'd be scarred of running that game in 3D.

 

[FalseChristian]

I love these new drivers. My 3DMark03 score went up over 7,000 points and my older Open GL
games such as TomazQuake, Quake2, and Soldier of Fortune now run without the necessity of having 'Extension limit' in the profiles. I can finally exit QBasic properly without having to restart my computer.

 

[Outrage]

That came from nowhere, granted it never gained any traction and was pretty useless but the idea of powering off a discrete GPU and using the onboard GPU is definitely worth pursuing. I guess this comes in the wake of Nvidia also discontinuing their motherboard chipset/GPU line.

It's called optimus now. a good reason to go with nvidia for the laptop

 

[taltamir]

It's called optimus now. a good reason to go with nvidia for the laptop

pah, a laptop is a mobile work tool... it has no proper keyboard, you don't want to carry a proper mouse, no proper monitor, no proper audio system, and no proper high end hardware...
Games is done on the desktop.

Optimus should have been one the desktop, AMD and nVidia have been promising it since ~2006 and neither delivered. I WILL buy whichever one of them gives me optimus for desktop, I will not saddle myself with an expensive and useless discrete GPU on my laptop...

For the curious... my laptop:
http://itspc.info/acer-aspire-timelinex-as3820t-5246-13-3-inch-hd-laptop-black-brushed-aluminum
Weight: 3.97 pounds

 

[taltamir]

It's called optimus now. a good reason to go with nvidia for the laptop

pah, a laptop is a mobile work tool... it has no proper keyboard, you don't want to carry a proper mouse, no proper monitor, no proper audio system, and no proper high end video card, cpu, cpu cooling, ram, etc etc...
Gaming is done on the desktop, maybe a console... but not on a laptop.

Optimus should have been one the desktop, AMD and nVidia have been promising it since ~2006 and neither delivered. I WILL buy whichever one of them gives me optimus for desktop, I will not saddle myself with an expensive and useless discrete GPU on my laptop...

For the curious... my laptop:
http://itspc.info/acer-aspire-timelinex-as3820t-5246-13-3-inch-hd-laptop-black-brushed-aluminum
Weight: 3.97 pounds

 

[Tempered81]

I've been reading about these drivers on a few messageboards. They seem to be really great, and that's coming from an ATi user. heh.

 

[BFG10K]

We already have a thread about the 260 drivers.

Super Moderator BFG10K.