Nvidia 260.63 Beta Driver Offers Improved Install
A more friendly way to install drivers.
Along with the launch of the GeForce GTS 450, Nvidia also pushed out a new beta driver release.
While the key point of the new driver is that it supports the GTS 450, there are also some performance enhancements for the other members of the Fermi family.
Notably, the maximum gains over the v258.96 drivers are:
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)
Another new pleasing change is an overhauled install UI. As Nvidia explains on its blog:
"For over a year now, our installer team has been working on a complete redesign of the driver install experience and, with Release 260, we are excited to roll out the first phase of that redesign. Users will have the choice of a one-click express installation or a custom installation with new advanced capability. Specifically, the custom install options allow users to choose which driver components to install, including PhysX, 3D Vision and more. Also, for the advanced users that prefer to uninstall their older driver first, or rely on 3rd party driver cleaner software to completely remove older drivers, NVIDIA Install offers the choice of a clean install. During the clean install process, your older driver is completely removed from your system before seamlessly installing the new driver. Users will also notice that NVIDIA Install is faster, especially in the case of systems with multiple GPUs."
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Streamlining driver install is always nice!Though I'll get them when they release the final version.
This driver fixed GTA 4's flickering shadow problem when using SLI for me, also noticed a improvement in performance across the board in many games not even listed here.
ati has allowed you to customize for years
This may be so, but nvidia has never needed to install anything but the drivers for their hardware in conjunction with the control panel while ati insists on giving you the option to install useless junkware or free trials... the reason for them to need a "customized" install just so i can deselect said junk and audio drivers...
I really hope it's better, I had to revert to old driver since 258.96 caused so many dx9 crashes (480 card both on win7 and XP).
no GTX 470 love?
What? They finally made a driver package that removes the old drivers instead of screwing up your system? What year is it?
The express doesn't work well at all. My settings weren't saved like it says.
@stifle: How about YOU trying to make an installation package to overwrite the system's critical files without making a mess?? You should be more thankful that you have new drivers that install seamlessly most of the time and works.
The installer worked very well at removing some old driver remnants, though many were still left. I have a difficult time with installs since I Acronis universal restored to a new system, nvidia drivers were the worst. But since driver sweeper has not been updated in quite some time it is better than nothing. Of course, still need to safe mode install for best results.
Would there be performance increases on a 335M?
no GTX 470 love?
The GTX480/470 are very similar, in that they're both based on gf100. I would think that the GTX470 would experience similar performance gains.
What? They finally made a driver package that removes the old drivers instead of screwing up your system? What year is it?
They were not removing drivers from the system at all so they could not "screw up" the system. More over, I understand that technology purist would say "always uninstall old drivers first", but if you system does not have any problems, THERE IS NO NEED of doing that, not with NVIDIA drivers (not sure about ATI). I never had any issues just to run their drivers, they install quite fine without uninstalation of the old drivers. And judging by boards NVIDIA drivers are usually superior in quality and have less problems than ATI drivers.
I second that - have both... prefer nvidia polish. - i remember 10.6 or 7 catalyst actually stated in the readme that it causes the display not to function after install (for win7 64)... wtf ive never seen something like that in a PUBLIC release, sheesh (im still kinda pissed about that release - cant ya tell?)
yea.. this type of installer that always be dreamt of.. at least nvidia listened their customers voice.
That's some pretty nice theoretical performance boost, got to hand it to Nvidia when it comes to driver support they know what they're doing.
That's some pretty nice theoretical performance boost, got to hand it to Nvidia when it comes to driver support they know what they're doing.
A lot of similar (theoretical) performance increases were seen in the first few releases of ATI's 10.x drivers as well. When every new driver release somehow increases performance (again) by 5-15%, it starts to look a little odd.
Looks good. Although I am currently running ATI I can say I used to safe mode, remove old, reboot safe mode, install new. For the last 4 years I just install over the top and have had zero issues on a 7950gt, 8800gt, 4850, 5870. nvidia and ati both make good drivers imo, I used to say nvidia was more stable but the ati have been smooth for me the last two years at least.
Looks very similar to ATI.
Looks very similar to ATI.
That's hitting below the belt there given that ati's well known for having the worst driver support of..well pretty much any pc component.
no GTX 470 love?
Hell no 200 series love.
Now Steam can install you ATI drivers. How about that ?
Hell no 200 series love.
But at least it's not destroying the performance of the earlier series cards, my 8800's seem to be running exactly the same as before.
Now Steam can install you ATI drivers. How about that ?
Who cares?
W00t, needed some StarCraftII attention badly. For some reason my SLI 480s were having some trouble with the AA cranked up.... makes no sense.
Chip is an i7 920 at 4.3Ghz so dont get me started on bottlenecks...
They were not removing drivers from the system at all so they could not "screw up" the system. More over, I understand that technology purist would say "always uninstall old drivers first", but if you system does not have any problems, THERE IS NO NEED of doing that, not with NVIDIA drivers (not sure about ATI). I never had any issues just to run their drivers, they install quite fine without uninstalation of the old drivers. And judging by boards NVIDIA drivers are usually superior in quality and have less problems than ATI drivers.
Personally I've had the exact opposite with Nvidia drivers. I guess it's just me, as most people I know use Nvidia and have no issues. Not sure what's up with that, kind of weird.
As for ATI drivers, yep. No issues at all here without uninstalling drivers first. You end up with quite a large folder of unzipped drivers, as it doesn't seem to overwrite or anything, but that's easy enough to deal with.
After installing this driver GTA V EFLC keeps crashing (nvidia speciffic error). I have i7 720, ram dominator, mb rampage 2 extreme,nvidia gtx470.
What can be done here ?
After installing this driver GTA V EFLC keeps crashing (nvidia speciffic error). I have i7 720, ram dominator, mb rampage 2 extreme,nvidia gtx470.
What can be done here ?
As this is the comment section not the help section try asking in the Graphics forum.
W00t, needed some StarCraftII attention badly. For some reason my SLI 480s were having some trouble with the AA cranked up.... makes no sense.Chip is an i7 920 at 4.3Ghz so dont get me started on bottlenecks...
That does make no sense. I'm using GTX 470's in SLI maxing everything and I still end up with ridiculously high frame rates. Then again, this game is NOT demanding on the GPU, you can max out the settings with a 9000 series card.
I haven't gotten a driver update lately. I guess these don't support GTS 250?
I haven't gotten a driver update lately. I guess these don't support GTS 250?
I think you'll find that they do support the GTS250.