Posts Tagged ‘drivers’
ATI Catalyst 9.2 WHQL Drivers Released
ATI released their newest set of Catalyst drivers, which brings the improvements listed below. You can read through the entire changelog (PDF) if you want more in-depth information. Also, be aware that there is a hotfix released for the HD2000 and HD3000 series, which you can download along with the drivers below.
- Crysis DirectX 10 performance gain up to 20%
- Crysis Warhead DirectX 10 performance gain up to 20%
- World in Conflict gains up to 5%
- There are also multiple bugs resolved, both in the CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and in various games like Call of Duty 4.
Download: ATI Catalyst 9.2 drivers
Download: ATI Catalyst 9.2 hotfix for HD2000 and HD3000 cards
nVidia 182.06 WHQL Drivers Released
nVidia released their latest set of drivers, 182.06, which come packed with improvements in many games and full OpenGL 3.0 support. These drivers work with GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, and 200-series cards. Here’s what comes with the download:
- Recommended for the best experience in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
- Boosts performance in several 3D applications. The following are examples of improvements measured with Release 182.06 WHQL drivers vs. Release 181.22 WHQL drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
- Up to 8% performance increase in Fallout 3 at high resolution and AA.
- Up to 10% performance increase in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
- Up to 9% performance increase in Half-Life 2 at high resolution with AA.
- Up to 11% performance increase in Left 4 Dead at high resolution with AA.
- Up to 10% performance increase in Race Driver: GRID at high resolution and AA
- Includes full support for OpenGL 3.0 on GeForce 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series GPUs.
- Automatically installs the new PhysX System Software version 9.09.0203.
Download : nVidia ForceWare 182.06 for Windows XP 32-bit
Download : nVidia ForceWare 182.06 for Windows XP 64-bit
nVidia Power Pack Brings New Drivers and Physics to Gamers
This week, nVidia released their first ever “Power Pack,” one of many planned to be released. This power pack comes with new drivers for the nVidia Geforce 8-series or newer, bringing nVidia PhysX to gamers around the world. Astute gamers will notice that Ageia is not developing PhysX anymore; this is because nVidia bought the company in February and began integrating the technology into their video cards. PhysX brings some really awesome features to gamers, such as:
- Explosions that cause dust and collateral debris
- Characters with complex, jointed geometries for more life-like motion and interaction
- Realistic weather effects, with forces such as tornadoes directly modifying the world
- Cloth that drapes and tears naturally
- Dense smoke & fog that billow around objects in motion
The Force Within Power Pack itself comes with a slew of games and programs to make use of the PhysX technology. From the Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX mod to Folding@Home, the pack will hopefully continue to be a showcase of ground-breaking games, mods, and programs. You can stay up-to-date on future nVidia news at The Pxl Lab.
nVidia 177.41 WHQL Drivers Released
nVidia has some new drivers, but note that if you already have the 175.16 WHQL Drivers, you are already up-to-date unless you just bought one of nVidia’s brand new 200 series cards.
Download : nVidia ForceWare 177.41 for Windows XP 32-bit (37.2 MB)
Download : nVidia ForceWare 177.41 for Windows XP 64-bit (48.1 MB)
Download : nVidia ForceWare 177.41 for Windows Vista 32-bit (35.5 MB)
Download : nVidia ForceWare 177.41 for Windows Vista 64-bit (49.5 MB)
The GeForce GTX 280 is the best graphics card to-date, and probably the best processor to-date too, with 240 processing cores! Most processors on the market today have 2 cores, with powerful processors utilizing 4. The amount of power availible in the 280 is almost unimaginable. The 280 is the world’s first graphics card that can run Crysis at a screen resolution of 1900×1280 with settings on high at 15 frames per second. The closest card to that can run it at only <1 frame per second. Overall, the GeForce GTX 280 is an insanely powerful graphics card that comes at the hefty price of $650.
ATI Catalyst 8.6 WHQL Drivers Released
The new 8.6 drivers were released by ATI, bringing along support for up to 4 ATI CrossfireX cards running at once and custom filters per application of anti-aliasing. The drivers support these cards:
- ATI Radeon™ X300 series and higher
- ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 series and higher
- ATI Radeon™ 9500 series and higher
Of course, any version of Windows XP and Vista are supported, too. The whole changelog and card support list details this with more depth.
ATI Catalyst 8.5 WHQL Drivers Released
ATI released their new Catalyst drivers, bringing in new features like 1080p HDTV support, Windows XP Service Pack 3 support, and improved HDMI Audio, among other things. Take a look over the changelog if you want to see all the specifics that the 8.5 drivers bring. The drivers are fully compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista 32 and 64 bit, and a reboot is required (what program doesn’t require a reboot?) after installation. So if you’re an ATI user on a Windows machine, download the update and get new features and bug fixes to make your computer a better machine.
Nvidia 175.16 WHQL Drivers Released
The newest drivers for nVidia were released today, the first drivers in 5 months to not be “beta.” This brought minor game performance improvements among other things. You can download the new drivers here.
I would like to point out to people reading this that I personally, and some others on the nVidia forums, aren’t having the best of times with these drivers. My speakers are putting out a really annoying static sound when they’re turned on. Others are reporting install issues in Windows Vista (i.e. they won’t install at all). One person recommends using the 174.74 drivers until the issues can be sorted out, but I haven’t tested these out myself yet. All in all, make sure that you are upgrading to the newest drivers for a good reason, otherwise stick with the ones you have that work.