NVIDIA Forceware 180: Big Bang II?

[nemowolf]

Ars Technica:

Quote:

The new release, properly called ForceWare release 180, is being referred to in NVIDIA documentation as "Big Bang 2." This name evokes an earlier driver launch, Big Bang, which first allowed multi-GPU support on the GeForce 6000 series. The name implies that this driver release will be similarly huge, and the declared feature list is pretty compelling. GPUCafe says ForceWare release 180 will bring the following features:

• Multimonitor support for SLI
• Display Port support
• OpenGL 3.0
• Hardware video transcoding
• GPU PhysX support
• Performance optimizations

I think SLI might just be the way to go if this is true ... Pending Benchmarking.

[Stevie Blaze]

Does anyone know when these are out? There supposed to be good improvments for 200 series cards. Hope its true.

[nemowolf]

From Tech Report:

Quote:

If GPU Cafe has its facts straight, you can expect to see the ForceWare 180 release pop onto Nvidia's site some time in September. (Thanks to VR-Zone for the tip.)

Still waiting ... i checked their Beta listing and its not there either.

[KarmaKiller]

A lot of times their newer drivers don't even show up on their beta list. The last couple sets of GPU drivers I've used have not come from Nvidia's site.

But this sounds interesting. I've been loving the GPU physics already, hopefully SLI will scale better now, and the multi monitor support is LONG over due..

[zulquar]

tried the 177.83 drivers , and it sucked , performance drop in every game , and even sli didnt seem to work properly :/

[KarmaKiller]

You should try the 177.92 drivers. That's what I've been running on for the last couple of weeks and they are the fastest drivers I've found for my card.

[Stevie Blaze]

Hey guys just though i'd let you know that there are some new drivers on Nvidia's website.

Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

Its not the 180 series drivers we were promised but 178. There ok, i've been using them all day and i've had no problems and i'm up a couple of fps in most games, not the 10% or w.e. in COD4 that the release notes claim, but at least it's some imporvement. I'm using a 260GTX btw.

[Lasher13]

Stevie Blaze: Wrote

Quote:

Hey guys just though i'd let you know that there are some new drivers on Nvidia's website.

Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

Its not the 180 series drivers we were promised but 178. There ok, i've been using them all day and i've had no problems and i'm up a couple of fps in most games, not the 10% or w.e. in COD4 that the release notes claim, but at least it's some imporvement. I'm using a 260GTX btw.

I'm very skeptical about using the newer drivers for my 8800 GT's, becuase they state on their Release highlights that 256MB of of graphics memory is dedicated to PhysX.

Well what if I don't want to play physx games? And
Well I already have an Ageia Physx card, why would I want more PhysX?

I'm very skeptical here, its just seems like an unwise choice for peeps in my shoes as well.

[zulquar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarmaKiller

You should try the 177.92 drivers. That's what I've been running on for the last couple of weeks and they are the fastest drivers I've found for my card.

Ummm im now using 178 they rock perf increase in all games sli scales 10 x better , was able to play crysis vhigh @1680x1050 2xaa 4xaf above 30 fps O_O , didnt expect this , b4 i used to play @ all vhigh except shaders abd shadow @ 1920 x1200 with aa and af disabled ..... and btw im using 8800 gt sli amp edition @ 750/1800/2000 core/shader/mem..so Im loving the new drivers was planning on buying a gtx 280 or 260 but im now gonna buy a xbox 360 and an 1080 p hd tv for gears of war 2 and halo 3 , and games are coming slowly for pc thats y m pissed .... but than again the online fun i have with pc is cool ....and eid mubarak to all of ya ...