Nvidia Unleashes 'Release 256' Graphics Drivers

Took long enough but funny that the first Geforce was a 256.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe [...] ce_256.jpg

Yawn.

GTX480 are all out of stock at $500, you have to pay at least a $50 premium for one.

In which case, a $600 Radeon 5970 still rapes the f**k out of the GTX480.

Cool my XFX GTX 285 will like it but I will wait for the WHQL driver, they are buggy enough even certified to not want the beta. That goes for ATI too.
And to the above post, man these cards are getting pricey, I thought $300 was over the top.

I wish they do something about the heat that is the real problem with the GTX480

It's not a problem, it's a feature!
There is an OC version planned called the "Aga Edition"
As well as playing games it can heat your home

Fermi is available from multiple stores. Pretty easy to find one for $500.

in what imaginary world do you live in that you've found 5970's for 600?

All these comments about the heat of Fermi is just as retarded as 'Can it play Crysis?'

GET OVER IT!

Has anyone even heard of a Fermi card failing due to heat?

Nope, my GTX470 sit's around 70-95C most of the time and it's running beautifully! Hoping to get another for SLi, absolutely rapes a 5970 (of course the 5970 being a single slot card owns all other single slot solutions..)

Ooooo... touched a raw nerve there methinks...

But a HD5970 eats less power and doesn't heat up as much as yours GTX470

Is this the unified laptop/desktop driver they announced a couple weeks ago? Can't find any info on that on their website.

AsianJetlag's fanboi goggles are in full effect it seems.

Actually every model of gtx480 is in stock on newegg for $500 and HD5970s cost $700 to $750.

Will this update be useful for 9400GT ?

Can it Play Crysis now? xP

Pay attention everyone... Yet ANOTHER person who isn't blinded by......

Yes it works with that card. "This is the first driver release from the Release 256 family of drivers (versions 256.xx to 259.xx). This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, and 400-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs."

Ive been using these drivers for a few days no problems so far.

How bout you wait a couple months and see? If I recall, all those nvidia chipset failures we saw a while back didn't happen the second you turned the computer on. No, heat damage is more than just instantaneous smoke, its stress to the solder joins, degradation of the silicon, etc...

Not saying its gonna happen, I'm just saying 90C has never been a healthy temp for integrated circuits, not in the long run. But I guess if you can afford another $500 card in 6 months, by all means.

If not fermi failing by the heat, what about the other components choking over fermi?

Grillforce 100: the way its meant to be grilled.

http://www.provantage.com/asus-eah [...] SU916V.htm

its backordered but it IS only $630ish

Give it some time and someone will make two GTX480's into a panini press.

The GTX480 "George Foreman" edition
Delivers a knockout punch
and
You can grill your dinner on it

Cool, I still have my 8800GT since 2 years ago and happy with it. Yes it plays Crysis fine (not highest res but I don't care about that) and Bad Company 2 very well.

To be CUDA or not to be lol

You are talking about temperature, not heat. Heat = higher power consumption, higher heat generation, higher temperature IN YOUR ROOM (it is a problem for me), higher electrical bill (do not forget if you need to include extra AC power spent to cool your room/house) and so on.

A friend of mine offered to trade me his 480 for my 5870. He said it sucks and his electric bill went way up (20% more KWH than last year's bill for the same month). He said he got better FPS on Crysis with the 5870 he used to have. So I told him he should have checked the benchmarks before he bought the piece of crap GeForce Grill, because he would have seen that the 5870 plays Crysis better, and it uses about 9000 watts less power, and produces 9000 degrees less heat. He said "will you trade or not?", so I told him that I was quite happy with my 5870 and he should just buy another one since he misses it so much.

True story

THIRTY TWO times AA? Holy smokes who the heck needs that?

Fermi FASTEST gpu ever.
Did you ATI fanboys miss the article about Nvidia offering the only Pc 3d solution, lol
5 series most talked about feature GSOD, Grey Screen of Death.
ATI's version of 3d is the grey screening, monitor flickering option.

How many generations of "HOT" cards will we have to go through before ppl stfu about heat. If you don't like the heat, buy an aftermarket cooler, it's what enthusiasts do, it's what I do, and it's what you should do if you don't like high numbers in Celcius.

Oh and by the way the grey screens are history bud, funny how fanboys from both sides try to act like their not the fanboys....

I can't wait til the performance on both sides start to shine better, especially in dx11.