nvidida releases Forceware 163.44 Video Card Drivers

[Apoptosis]

Just got this from the folks at NVIDIA....

On Monday we released a new set of beta drivers (v163.44) that offer improved support for the game BioShock and expand support for PureVideo in Windows XP and Vista. This email highlights the key changes and how it may affect your testing.

Driver Download
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downl ... river.html

Windows Vista Hot Fixes
Please note that Microsoft has released two hot fixes for DirectX 10 and Vista. When testing BioShock or other DirectX 10 titles in Windows Vista, it is important that you download and install these hotfixes. They improve stability and performance, especially at high resolutions.

The first hotfix improves multi-GPU performance and can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936710

The second hot fix improves stability for memory intensive DirectX 10 applications on graphics cards with greater than 512MB of memory:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105 (Download will become available on Thursday)

Please ensure both hot fixes are applied to all your Vista testing systems to ensure optimal stability and performance.

BioShock
BioShock has amazing graphics using advanced smoke, water and soft shadows. NVIDIA’s Developer Relations team has worked closely with the developer to ensure optimal performance and image quality. The new drivers ensure GPU compatibility and performance in BioShock for all GeForce GPUs.

How does the game perform? A single GeForce 8800 GTX runs at 30-40FPS at 2560 x 1600. Our popular GeForce 8600 GTS runs the game at 30-40FPS at 1280 x 1024, with maximum settings enabled.

SLI works great with BioShock. Gamers with SLI systems will enjoy a 40-50% speedup over single-card systems. Crossfire does not appear to scale with the game.

PureVideo
In Windows XP, the 163.44 driver adds support for HD playback acceleration on GeForce 8600, 8500 and 8400 GPUs. This allows smooth playback of Blu-ray and HD DVD movies using the GPU, freeing the CPU for other tasks. Users of PowerDVD Ultra will need to download the latest patch (3104a.1) from CyberLink’s website for HD acceleration support in WinXP: http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download ... 2_ENU.html

You can also download a pre-release build of PowerDVD Ultra (3215) from our FTP site. This build improves compatibility with recent titles. Please contact Rick Allen (riallen@nvidia.com) for access to our FTP.

In Windows Vista, the 163.44 driver adds support for HD video post-processing for GeForce 8500 GPUs. On the HQV HD test, GeForce 8500 GPUs should score 55 points. With this update, GeForce 8500–8800 GPUs are now all capable of HD post-processing in Windows Vista. HD video post-processing in WinXP will be supported in future drivers.

We hope you find the new drivers useful and please let us know if you have any feedback or questions. Please email James Wang for technical issues (jameswang@nvidia.com) or alternatively you can contact your local NVIDIA PR representative.

[Sparky]

I installed beta drivers earlier this evening and saw a performace gain in 3DMark06. So far no bugs.

[smokin_mitch]

gave them a try no good

started getting BSOD in batttlefield 2142 and BF2. changed back to 162.22 WHQL (no crashing in any of my games now)

*had to uninstall nforce 680i drivers as well and reinsatll video driver 1st then 680i drivers after otherwise nforce drivers not appeear in control panel/programs