Posted 11/20/08 at 12:30:55 PM by Paul Lilly

Nvidia has released new WHQL-certified videocard drivers for GeForce 200-series, 9-series, and 8800-series GPUs only (owners of older videocards need not apply). The approximately 73MB download enables finally brings to fruition a license agreement between Nvidia and Intel by enabling SLI on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards. The new driver also supports multi-monitor support in an SLI-configuration, which previously had only been available with beta drivers. PhysX acceleration is also enabled when installing the new driver.

On the gaming front, Nvidia claims double-digit percentage performance gains in a number of titles, including a giant 80 percent boost in Lost Planet: Colonies. Far Cry 2 is the other big beneficiary with a purported 38 percent performance gain. Devil May Cry 4, Assassin's Creed, BioShock, Comapny of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Crysis Warhead, Race Driver: GRID, and World of Conflict all receive performance gains ranging from 10 percent to 25 percent, according to Nvidia. And for you benchmarking gurus, 3DMark Vantage's performance preset should perform 10 percent better as well.

Vista 32-bit download
Vista 64-bit download
XP 32-bit download
XP 64-bit download

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29

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Software, nvidia, geforce, Drivers, Forceware, 180.48

Posted 10/17/08 at 09:38:38 AM by Paul Lilly

Nvidia this week has released new WHQL videocard drivers - version 178.24 - applicable for GeForce 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, and 200-series owners. The 85MB download sports a number of improvements, including PhysX acceleration on all GeForce 8-, 9-, and 200 series GPUs with at least 256MB of graphics memory. Intel X5400XS motherboard owners can now run up to 3-way SLI with the new driver package.

Gaming looks to get a sizable boost with the new drivers as well. Nvidia claims both Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock (DX10) will see a 15 percent gain by running 178.24, while Assassin's Creed (DX10) will get an 11 percent bump on a single card setup. For those sporting 2-way SLI, World in Conflict (DX10), Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (DX10) are said to run at least 10 percent faster.

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games, gaming, nvidia, Drivers, Videogames, cod4, Forceware, 178.24

Posted 09/30/08 at 09:06:56 AM by Paul Lilly

Nvidia has a new videcoard driver available for download, and for you poor saps on dial-up, it will come as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the 86.9MB download checks in at more than the twice the size of previously released drivers. But added bulk brings PhysX acceleration to the table for owners of Nvidia's GeForce 8, 9, and 200 series of videocards outfitted with a minimum of 256MB of video memory.

If you're anxious to see what potential lies in PhysX support, Nvidia offers a free GeForce Power Pack containing several demos, a full game (Warmonger), an Unreal Tournament 3 mod, and more.

The new driver also contains the usual assortment 3D application compatibility fixes, along with purported performance boosts in a handful of games. For example, Nvidia says single-GPU gamers can expect a 15 percent increase in Bioshock (DX10), 11 percent in Assassin's Creed (DX10), and 15 percent in Call of Duty 4, among other titles.

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graphics, videocard, nvidia, gpu, physx, Drivers

Posted 09/18/08 at 10:36:28 AM by Paul Lilly

Have better things to do than to surf your videocard maker's website every day to check for updated drivers? That's okay, because we've done the legwork for you and found new drivers, so go ahead an hightail it over to ATI.

The just released Catalyst 8.9 driver package applies to both Windows XP and Vista in 32- and 64-bit trim. Home theater buffs should be particularly interested in the new drivers, as 8.9 introduces a 1080P @ 50Hz custom display mode for HDTVs. On the extreme gaming front, ATI's OverDrive overclocking utility now supports quad CrossFireX configurations, giving gamers the ability to overclock each card using manual controls or via the auto-tuning option.

Other goodies include OpenGL 3.0 extension support and several bug fixes for a variety of games, including recent releases Age of Conan and Spore.

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9

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windows, Software, graphics, videocard, ati, Drivers, build a pc, catalyst

Posted 09/17/08 at 04:51:33 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

The Dog asked readers for their feedback regarding registry cleaners, and more specifically, RegCure, which the Dog took a hard look at in the July issue. The upshot? The handful of readers who use RegCure reported no serious issues with the application, but only one person felt that it actually improved system performance. While others thought that registry cleaners in general have nominal value as performance enhancers, some saw other reasons to use them.

Reasons? Once more into the jump, dear friends!

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Watchdog, Drivers, cleaning, registry, regcure

Posted 09/08/08 at 01:36:43 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

Some time ago I purchased a Dell E1705 laptop with almost all the options. I was very happy with the laptop and its GeForce 7900 GS. It allowed me to play just about any game on the market. Everything was great until I upgraded my machine to Vista, but I can’t find any Vista drivers for my 7900 GS.

I’ve been waiting for more than a year now, and there’s still nothing from nVidia or Dell. So I was wondering: Do you know how I can get my card to work right? I would even take homemade drivers at this point if I knew where to find some! 

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8

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vista, dell, nvidia, geforce, Drivers, ask the doctor, 7900, e1705

Posted 08/29/08 at 01:12:03 PM by Paul Lilly

Forget about daytime television, the real drama takes place in the tech industry. Intel and Nvidia's relationship can be described as rocky at best, and now the GPU maker has said it will make "a significant investment in optimizing software" for VIA's Nano processor. VIA's low power chip has already been spotted outperforming Intel's Atom CPU, making this latest announcement all the more interesting for anyone paying attention to the ultraportable market.

The announcement also puts to rest an earlier rumor alleging Nvidia of using its relationship with VIA as a bargaining chip with Intel. Recent speculation suggested Nvidia's motive all along was to convince Intel to let its Atom processor support  Nvidia's MCP73 IGP chipset, and in return, the GPU maker would terminate its alliance with VIA.

With the ultraportable market seemingly exploding as of late, should Intel be worried about a more solidfied relationship between Nvidia and VIA?

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mobile, notebook, laptop, nvidia, Drivers, VIA, ultraportable, nano

Posted 08/07/08 at 09:30:20 PM by Chris Moody

CrunchGear reports that the 177.79 Forceware driver release is going to have the drivers to activate PhysX on the GPU for GeForce 8000, 9000, and 200 series videocards. The estimated release date is August 12th, although these drivers are available in beta here. I was not able to verify this in the release documentation. No mention was made of PhysX support. The CrunchGear story is based on a TechReport article about the first look at on GPU PhysX acceleration. Unfortunately, I am limping along on my 7600GT, which is not supported for PhysX under CUDA yet.

Have any brave souls jumped into the beta drivers with a Geforce 8000 or better video card to test the PhysX waters? Tell me what you think about it below!

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nvidia, hardware, Drivers, rumor, Forceware, Physix