In May, we received several requests to look into a V-sync issue that a number of owners were seeing with Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 600-series graphics cards. We reached out to Nvidia for a response and we were told, "The fix requires extensive testing though, and will not be available until our next major driver release targeted for June (post-R300)".
With the release of its Beta driver, Nvidia has implemented the fix for the micro-stutter noted by some GeForce GTX 600-series users in games with v-sync enabled. In addition, the beta driver provides fixes for where some manufacturer’s factory overclocked cards default to and run at lower clocks, as well as a performance issue seen in Total War: Shogun 2.
The Beta driver includes game-specific performance improvements, which Nvidia claims has improved by as much as 18 percent. The improvements are tested with the GeForce GTX 680 and GeForce GTX 560, and are specific to game titles such as Batman Arkham City, Dragon Age 2, Lost Planet 2, STALKER: Call of Pripyat (see below charts). To see the performance increase with SLI enabled, you can visit the GeForce website to see first hand.
Detail Settings & Results:
- Batman: Arkham City: 2560x1600, Very High detail level, Tessellation High, PhysX Off, FXAA Very High. Performance increased by 17.6% (17.1% with Tessellation and PhysX disabled, 9.7% with PhysX High, and 7.5% with both Tessellation High and PhysX High enabled simultaneously).
- Dragon Age 2: 2560x1600, max settings, 4xMSAA anti-aliasing. Performance increased by 12.4%.
- Lost Planet 2: 1920x1080, DirectX 11, max settings, 4xMSAA anti-aliasing. Performance increased by 4%.
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat: 2560x1600, DirectX 11, Extreme settings, 4xMSAA anti-aliasing. Performance increased by 9.6%, and by 9.8% when anti-aliasing was disabled.
Detail Settings & Results:
- Batman: Arkham City:2560x1600, Very High detail level, Tessellation Off, PhysX Off, FXAA Very High. Performance increased by 14% (12% with Tessellation High, 8% with PhysX High, and 10.1% with both enabled simultaneously).
- Dragon Age 2: 1920x1080, max settings, no anti-aliasing. Performance increased by 2.8%, and by 5.5% at 2560x1600, using max settings and 4xMSAA anti-aliasing.
- Lost Planet 2: 1920x1080, DirectX 11, max settings, no anti-aliasing. Performance increased by 6.7%.
Additional Release Hightlights:
NVIDIA SLI Technology – Adds or updates the following SLI profiles:
- Spec Ops: The Line
- PlanetSide 2
- F1 2011 – updated profile
- Final Fantasy XIV – updated profile
- Saints Row: The Third – updated profile
- Torchlight II
- Tribes: Ascend
NVIDIA 3D Vision – Adds or updates the following 3D Vision profiles:
- Alan Wake's American Nightmare – rated Poor
- Borderlands 2 – updated profile with new convergence settings
- Depth Hunter – updated rating to 3D Vision Ready
- Mass Effect 3 – updated in-game compatibility message and profile to be more compatible with community 3D mods
- Max Payne 3 – updated rating to Excellent and updated in-game compatibility message to inform users to use DirectX 11, disable MSAA and use SSA0.
- Street Fighter X Tekken – rated 3D Vision Ready
- Tiger Woods PGA 12: The Masters – rated Good
- Tribes: Ascend – rated Fair
- The Walking Dead – rating Good
Other Profile Updates:
- Added NVIDIA Control Panel antialiasing support for Diablo III
- Added NVIDIA Control Panel antialiasing support for L.A. Noire
- Added NVIDIA Control Panel antialiasing support for Rayman Origins
- Added NVIDIA Control Panel antialiasing support The Secret World
- Added NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Disabled FXAA for several Windows programs like Media Player and Movie Maker.
NVIDIA Surround: Surround settings now persisted after new driver overinstall.
NVIDIA CUDA: Includes support for applications built using CUDA 5 Preview or earlier version of the CUDA Toolkit.
Additional Details:
- Installs PhysX System Software v9.12.0604.
- Installs HD Audio v1.3.17.0.
- Supports OpenGL 4.2
- Supports DisplayPort 1.2 for GeForce GTX 600 series GPUs.
- Supports multiple languages and APIs for GPU computing: CUDA C, CUDA C++, CUDA Fortran,
- OpenCL, DirectCompute, and Microsoft C++ AMP.
- 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 and AMD motherboards.
