Nvidia drivers 197.45

[heat84]

Unless I'm blind I didn't see a thread for this already. I guess the usual people who post these driver update threads were too busy with the new patch to notice this. So...

Windows 7/Vista 64 Bit Version

 

 

This is a WHQL-certified driver for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, and 300-series desktop GPUs and ION desktop GPUs.

 

New in Version 197.45

 

    * Recommended for the best performance with the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5.

    * Adds support for the new version of MotionDSP's video enhancement software, vReveal.

    * Fixes a video playback issue in Media Player Classic.

 

Existing Support in Release 197 Drivers

 

    * Supports Next Generation ION.

    * Supports GeForce GT 320 , GeForce GT 330 , and GeForce GT 340 .

    * Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0129.

    * Upgrades HD Audio driver to version 1.0.9.1 (for supported GPUs).

    * Increases performance in several PC games from v196.21 WHQL. The following are examples of measured improvements. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

 

          o Up to 13% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with a single GPU

          o Up to 30% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with SLI technology

          o Up to 13% performance increase in H.A.W.X with single GPU

          o Up to 15% performance increase in H.A.W.X with SLI technology

          o Up to 30% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with single GPU

          o Up to 28% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with SLI technology

 

    * Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for top new gaming titles including Assassin Creed II, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight, Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, Mass Effect 2, Napoleon: Total War, and Zombie Driver.

    * Enhanced SLI support for Metro 2033, Supreme Commander 2, Unigine, and World of Warcraft.

    * Adds Ambient Occlusion support for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Need for Speed: Shift, Resident Evil 5, RUSE, and Street Fighter IV.

    * Adds override anti-aliasing support for Mass Effect 2.

    * 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 .

 

Other Support:

 

    * Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash 10.1. Learn more 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 3.2 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

    * Supports CUDA Toolkit 3.0 features and performance enhancements. See CUDA Zone for more details.

    * Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.

    * Supports NVIDIA PhysX acceleration on a dedicated GeForce graphics card. Use one card for graphics and dedicate a different card for PhysX processing for game-changing physical effects. Learn more here .

    * Download these FREE PhysX and CUDA applications now!

    * Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software .

With this driver version, I lost 1 FPS in the benchmark(25 to 24). Of course I've only done one post-driver-update benchmark so far, which is hardly scientific.

 

You see my specs below. All settings were maxed using the -no restrictions switch, and anisotropic is on 16x, definition is off. Oh, and I have patch 6 installed. I know I'm supposed to copy and paste from the benchmark log files. But as the British say, I can't be arsed to do it right now.

 

 

I'm hoping this will make OC'ing more stable(but I'm not betting on it). I was able to get 4 extra FPS with just a little OC(100MHZ on both RAM and core I think it was) with the 196.21 drivers. Even though it was only 4FPS, it was alot smoother. But not stable unless the GPU fan speed was at least 80%, which I had to do manually since the fan wasn't keeping up with the heat for some reason. Maybe these new drivers fixed that(not betting on this either).

 

I was getting over 35FPS with the last patch BTW. I don't blame R* for the 10FPS hit. I blame all you people complaining about shadows. Maybe I'm weird, but I was too busy playing the game to even notice the shadows(and lack of the moon too). When I did notice them, they seemed fine. What's more is I'm a little obsessive compulsive(3.5 on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say) which means I need lines to to be straight, and the shadows still didn't bother me. I think the missing moon was supposed to bother me too.

Edited April 15, 2010 by heat84

[Extortionate]

GTA is all about the detail and GTA IV has either left some of that detail out for no apparent reason or screwed it up. I've not seen a game where the shadows have been screwed up so much, fixed and than screwed up again.

 

I completed GTA IV a while back and it didn't bother me so much but the simple fact is, it shouldn't have happened like this.