Nvidia 196.75 WHQL Released

.Griff. · 2 Mar 2010 at 11:18

Windows XP 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_196.75_whql.html

Windows XP 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_196.75_whql.html

Windows 7/Vista 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_32bit_196.75_whql.htm

Windows 7/Vista 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_196.75_whql.htm

New in Version 196.75

* Adds support for Next Generation ION.
* Adds support for GeForce GT 320, GeForce GT 330, and GeForce GT 340.
* Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0129.
* Upgrades HD Audio driver to version 1.0.9.1 (for supported GPUs).
* Increases performance in several PC games from v196.21 WHQL. The following are examples of measured improvements. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

*
o Up to 13% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with a single GPU
o Up to 30% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with SLI technology
o Up to 13% performance increase in H.A.W.X with single GPU
o Up to 15% performance increase in H.A.W.X with SLI technology
o Up to 30% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with single GPU
o Up to 28% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with SLI technology

* Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for top new gaming titles including Assassin Creed II, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight, Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, Mass Effect 2, Napoleon: Total War, and Zombie Driver.
* Enhanced SLI support for World of Warcraft and Unigine.
* Adds Ambient Occlusion support for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Need for Speed: Shift, Resident Evil 5, RUSE, and Street Fighter IV.
* Adds override anti-aliasing support for Mass Effect 2.
* Includes numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.

RavenXXX2 · 2 Mar 2010 at 11:21

Them crysis improvements look very good indeed, be good if someone could confirm them.

wingnuttzz · 2 Mar 2010 at 11:26

Be good to hear how they compare the Quadro 191.87

Spazzfish · 2 Mar 2010 at 12:42

Does this fix that weird stutter glitch with AVP or is that a game issue that needs patching?

Stonedofmoo · 2 Mar 2010 at 12:53

30% extra in L4D

That's a big increase, not that L4D really needs it tbh.

bledd · 2 Mar 2010 at 13:00

Stonedofmoo said:
30% extra in L4D

That's a big increase, not that L4D really needs it tbh.

Yeah, probably like this..

200 fps, now 260fps

Can't believe how much extra performance the 8800gt has had since it was released. Really is an awesome card, I gave mine to my brother because I upgraded to a 1920x1080 screen. So replaced it with a 260gtx

Now he's using a 1920x1080 screen and thanks to the all the driver updates, the games that I upgraded for are playing fine on his machine!

GTA4 and Crysis are the two that it would struggle with I reckon

Leeroy123 · 2 Mar 2010 at 13:07

Just tried them, seem as bad as the other ones. Is there an update for sli too?

kitch9 · 2 Mar 2010 at 15:21

Don't use these for Physx if you have an ATI card in your system.

They work fine for 10-15 seconds then the driver shuts off for me. Thinking about it could anybody confirm that for me?

Rroff · 2 Mar 2010 at 15:33

wingnuttzz said:
Be good to hear how they compare the Quadro 191.87

I'm interested in that too - 191.87 is working sweet for me and I don't really wanna go through the hassle of updating just to find the same old 195 driver issues and have to roll back.

Rroff · 2 Mar 2010 at 16:16

Still buggy for me

crysis has the old AA bug again where trees are artifacting, heaven benchmark hangs on a blackscreen for a few seconds between scene changes, HL/source based games seem to have a memory leak or something and slowdown over time.

Neolink · 2 Mar 2010 at 16:18

Oh, my god. Nvidia scaling seems fixed?!

AWPC · 2 Mar 2010 at 17:04

This is why Nvidia rules as far as their drivers team are concerned

We all know ATI are ahead with hardware but without the decent drivers resource which Nvidia have its all pointless. Nvidia apparently have a team of 250 software engineers in their drivers team (which cost them in excess of $10M per year). They work with all the major developers to ensure that their cards run the latest PC games (sometimes with extra features!).

If ATI ever match this level of excellence Nvidia would go bust very quickly :eek:

Biffa · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:43

AWPC said:
This is why Nvidia rules as far as their drivers team are concerned

And yet the three people who have tried them in this thread said they aren't much chop???

Never had much of a problem with either NV or ATi drivers myself over the past 10 years or so.

marc512 · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:55

you think my 9800gt would be better than my 5770 ? im thinking of sticking with a low end single gpu until i get enough money for one high end card. (only have 2 dx11 games but i dont really care about graphics just aslong as its smooth)

Rroff · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:58

Biffa said:
And yet the three people who have tried them in this thread said they aren't much chop???

Never had much of a problem with either NV or ATi drivers myself over the past 10 years or so.

They seem to work ok on some systems, but other systems especially SLI ones have bad problems... its been this way since 195 ownwards.

deuse · 2 Mar 2010 at 23:34

Thanks for the heads up

TheRealDeal · 2 Mar 2010 at 23:56

marc512 said:
you think my 9800gt would be better than my 5770 ? im thinking of sticking with a low end single gpu until i get enough money for one high end card. (only have 2 dx11 games but i dont really care about graphics just aslong as its smooth)

No the 5770 is a good bit faster than the 9800gt.

kitch9 · 3 Mar 2010 at 08:26

AWPC said:
This is why Nvidia rules as far as their drivers team are concerned We all know ATI are ahead with hardware but without the decent drivers resource which Nvidia have its all pointless. Nvidia apparently have a team of 250 software engineers in their drivers team (which cost them in excess of $10M per year). They work with all the major developers to ensure that their cards run the latest PC games (sometimes with extra features!).

If ATI ever match this level of excellence Nvidia would go bust very quickly

The facepalm is strong with this one.....

mrk · 3 Mar 2010 at 10:23

Well I just did a test on previous drivers..installing new drivers now and will report back.

Left4Dead2, Single Player test.

BEFORE: (nvidia 185.20)
Average: 83.94FPS (1920x1200, 4xMSAA, 16xAF, Max all)

AFTER: (nvidia 196.75)
Average: 83.631

30% INCREASE AWEEEEEEEESOMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE!

Image Quality seems sharper though I guess.

titaniumx3 · 3 Mar 2010 at 10:43

It's probably under specific conditions such as 8xAA, very high resolution or possibly at very low settings. Also it could be mainly affecting the max or min fps.

Anyway who cares??? L4D2 runs practically the same as L4D1 and that runs well on pretty much anything.