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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

nVidia releases the long waited driver that fixes GTX600 series microstuttering madness - GeForce 304.48 Beta Drivers

nvidiaThe web was infested with the stuttering issues the GTX600 cards were getting when Adaptive V-Sync was turned on (some were getting problems with even the regular V-Sync). I too experienced it when I tried Crysis 2 with my brand new GTX670. It was unbelievably stuttery. Much worse than what you would get from multiGPU setups. You were literally getting pauses of few milliseconds.

Here’s what they are talking about:

GTX 680 VSync Stuttering Issue Mass Effect 3
GTX 680 VSync Stuttering Issue Skyrim
GTX 680 Vsync stutter Rage

If you disabled V-Sync or used Frame Rate Target of EVGA PrecisionX, you could keep frame rate capped at 60FPS. however, image tearing was noticeable. So it wasn’t a proper alternative to V-Sync.

Frame Rate Target

nVidia had promised that they would release an updated driver in the June timeframe, and that day finally dawned. However, it is still a beta driver. No WHQL certificated driver yet. No idea when one will be available either.

You can download the driver here.

In addition to fixing that problem, nVidia have introduced some cool performance tweaks as well. (I believe, GTX670 is also seeing them similar to GTX680).

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Check here for more info.

Here are the full release notes.

Performance Boost – Increases performance for GeForce 400/500/600 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 301.42 WHQL-certified drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

  • GeForce GTX 680:o Up to 18% in Batman: Arkham City
    o Up to 15% in Dragon Age II
    o Up to 10% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
    o Up to 60% in Total War: Shogun 2 (fixes performance issue with latest game patch)
  • GeForce GTX 560:o Up to 14% in Batman: Arkham City
    o Up to 5% in Battlefield 3 with SLI
    o Up to 4% in Dragon Age II
    o Up to 8% in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings with SLI
    o Up to 7% in Lost Planet 2
Key Fixes
  • Fixes an intermittent vsync stuttering issue with GeForce GTX 600-series GPUs.
  • Fixes an issue where some manufacturer’s factory overclocked cards default to and run at lower clocks.
  • Fixes a performance issue in Total War: Shogun 2 with the latest game patch.
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.

Even though I haven’t spoken much about my GTX670, about overclocking to be precise, I wonder if these drivers improve overclockability.

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