NVIDIA Releases GeForce 257.21 WHQL Driver Suite

[btarunr]

NVIDIA today released GeForce 257.21 WHQL driver suite for GeForce series graphics cards and NVIDIA ION platforms, this is the first WHQL-signed driver in its 256 series of drivers, which archives two main goals as far as driver packaging goes: unifying desktop and mobile GeForce drivers; and unifying GeForce 400 series drivers with that which supports GeForce 6 thru GeForce 300 series into one package (NVIDIA initially had a separate package for GeForce 400 series). GeForce 257.21 also packs a boatload of changes, including a large number of game-specific performance increments, new technologies, updates key extra components, and fixes bugs.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 257.21 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit
A complete list of changes follows.

• Adds support for Blu-ray 3D with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology. Learn more about the hardware and software requirements here .
• Increases performance for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games. The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured with GeForce GTX 480. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
  o Up to 14% in Aliens vs. Predator (1920x1200 noAA/AF - Tessellation on)
  o Up to 4% in Batman: Arkham Asylum (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF PhysX=High)
  o Up to 5% in BattleForge (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF - Very High settings)
  o Up to 5% in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
  o Up to 4% in Crysis: Warhead (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF - Enthusiast setting)
  o Up to 24% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (1920x1200 no AA/AF)
  o Up to 9% in Far Cry 2 (2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF)
  o Up to 25% in Just Cause 2 (2560x1600 no AA/AF - Concrete Jungle)
  o Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1920x1200 no AA/16xAF - Tessellation on)
  o Up to 40% in Metro 2033 with SLI ((1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF - Tessellation on)
  o Up to 8% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920x1200 no AA/AF - Day)
  o Up to 110% in Stone Giant with SLI (2650x1600 - Tessellation on, DoF on)
  o Up to 6% in The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena (2560x1600 no AA/AF)
  o Up to 9% in Unigine: Tropics (2560x1600 no AA/AF - OpenGL)
  o Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Performance and Extreme Presets)
  o Up to 19% with Transparency AA (1920x1200 4xTrSS - measured in Crysis)
• Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0223.
• Adds support for OpenGL 4.0 for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs.
• Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.1 which includes significant performance increases for double precision math operations. See CUDA Zone for more details.
• Adds support for new extreme Antialiasing modes for 3-way SLI PCs, including up to SLI48x AA for GeForce 200 series GPUs and up to SLI96x AA for GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs.
• Adds support for a new 'Quality' mode for NVIDIA's Ambient Occlusion control panel feature.
• Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel setup page for SLI and PhysX for ultimate control over multi-gpu configurations.
• Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel feature for ultimate control over CUDA GPUs, allowing the user to effectively choose which GPU will power each CUDA application.
• 3D Vision customers can download the v257.21 3D Vision drivers here.
• Includes numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[erixx]

d-ling right now. Wil see if the random BC2 lock ups end with these.

 

[trt740]

d-ling right now. Wil see if the random BC2 lock ups end with these.

wow!!! some seriuos performance increases

 

[Mussels]

wow!!! some seriuos performance increases

remember that they're always exaggerated.

2FPS more at 2560x1600 with max settings can give quite a good 'percentage' boost to FPS (10FPS to 12FPS oh wow, 20% faster!)

 

[claylomax]

It's time to update, I've been using the drivers that came with the card since I installed it (197.03) LOL!

 

[Helper]

o Up to 19% with Transparency AA (1920x1200 4xTrSS – measured in Crysis)

That's for Fermi, right? If that applies to GT200, then it's AWESOME. My GRID performance in main menu goes from 170 to 90 FPS with 8X Transparency SS AA. (1920X1440) I also max out everything for highest quality. Why would they measure it in Crysis... whatever I WANT THAT %20!

[*]Adds support for a new ‘Quality’ mode for NVIDIA’s Ambient Occlusion control panel feature.

HELLYEAH better looking Ambient Occlusion. Nvidia had that driver which forbid GPU OC and other one that slowed down fan speeds in 190s. It seems like their driver improvements are much better now in 250s.

 

[LiveOrDie]

these drivers are a let down all runs are mine

 

[Fitseries3]

similar results here... i cant get 45k like i did with the betas

 

[LiveOrDie]

yer its abit of a let down the 257.29 beta was the same they must of changed some thing.

 

[erixx]

but BC2 with oc'ed processor seems to work now, been playing it for 2 hours

 

[LiveOrDie]

but BC2 with oc'ed processor seems to work now, been playing it for 2 hours

i never had a problem playing BC2 with my card overclocked

 

[erixx]

there is a bug, if you change something in the PhysX part, a window opens telling you to close "the following" programs, but there is none. You can't close anything and you can't 'apply' or 'continue'.
I have never submitted a bug to them and don't know how I could.

 

[trt740]

remember that they're always exaggerated.

2FPS more at 2560x1600 with max settings can give quite a good 'percentage' boost to FPS (10FPS to 12FPS oh wow, 20% faster!)

could be but in the newer reviews the geforce cards are starting to smoke the AMD cards. With the exception of the 5970.

 

[Gzero]

could be but in the newer reviews the geforce cards are starting to smoke the AMD cards. With the exception of the 5970.

"smoke", interesting choice of words to express your view
The prices of both side of the fence are bumped up too high for the performance gains at the moment, not to mention the farce that dx10 turned out to be, I wonder why people still clamber for first gen cards.

 

[TheOnlyHero]

How these drivers work on 9 Series ? somebady have tested them already ? is there any improvement on 9 series.

 

[Eva01Master]

Any noticeable improvement on GT200 series?

 

[Helper]

Any noticeable improvement on GT200 series?

What would you like to know? I can do a few tests on 257.15 then 257.21. I have to reinstall SLi profiles, applications for GPU, sweep drivers... any suggestions?

 

[crow1001]

could be but in the newer reviews the geforce cards are starting to smoke the AMD cards. With the exception of the 5970.

What like the below review, silly boy.

So two months later, both AMD and Nvidia have delivered new drivers for their current generation GPUs and very little has changed. The GeForce GTX 480 is still very fast, on the expensive side, and very power hungry. The Radeon HD 5870 on the other hand is almost as fast, it's a better value per dollar, and much more fuel efficient. For those reasons alone the Radeon HD 5870 still gets our seal of approval.

http://www.techspot.com/review/283-geforce-gtx-400-vs-radeon-hd-5800/

 

[Assimilator]

Adds support for new extreme Antialiasing modes for 3-way SLI PCs, including up to SLI48x AA for GeForce 200 series GPUs and up to SLI96x AA for GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs.

Holy crap... and I used to think SLI32x AA with two 7950 GX2s was awesome...

 

[trt740]

What like the below review, silly boy.


http://www.techspot.com/review/283-geforce-gtx-400-vs-radeon-hd-5800/

Maybe unoverclocked but when all the gpus are maxed oced the 480 gtx and 470 gtx are pulling away big time and since that review came out there have been driver updates. AMD is not the top value, a good value yes but the 5850 is starting to fall away from the 470 gtx and these drivers make even more so. This is comparing a 470 gtx with a 5870.

Like here silly boy http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1315/1/


Here is a small part of the review

NVIDIA has a monster on their hands, that is for sure. The preliminary reports from their beta 256 series drivers also hint at a lot of potential performance being unlocked as the drivers mature. I think people conveniently forget that AMD has been refining their HD 5870 drivers for six months. With a few revisions I imagine the GTX 470 will easily outperform the HD 5870 and quite possibly the super HD 5870 like the Gigabyte SuperOverclock and MSI Lightning. Only time will tell on this front but I'm confident performance will not degrade.

 

[crow1001]

that review you posted up is getting stick all over the net for being the most Nvidia bias review out there, the guy that did the review is quiting doing anymore reviews over it,

Well,

I just talked with Chris on AIM and he is going to throw in the hat after finishing up a motherboard review that he is working on.

in the end though I think this just showed that my heart isn't into reviewing anymore. Sorry about this. I thought I'd have some fun, turns out the unwashed masses would have rather had me repeat the same benchmarks from mid March. I'll wrap up the R3E, should be a pretty comprehensive review, and then I think I'm done. actually no, I'm done. Back to overclocking I go. I just don't have enough time to be writing anything that can be considered of decent quality. once again sorry about this Nate, didn't realize the backlash that would result from it.



Like everyone that has done reviews know they are not easy, time consuming and when you get busy or burnt out it shows in the reviews. I respect Chris for saying that his heart isn't into reviews any longer. Chris doesn't want to damage the respect Legit Reviews has earned over the years and I'm sure he'll still be around here on the forums and doing some crazy LN2 overclocking articles in the future.

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about28235.html

Now take a look at a " proper " review like the one I posted up.

 

[TheOnlyHero]

here is one quick benchmark compering the drivers 197.13 and the new one 257.21.
its W7 Dx10 -the details are set to ultra . i dont see any big difference. game-Dirt 2

 

[Helper]

Holy crap... and I used to think SLI32x AA with two 7950 GX2s was awesome...

It sounded awesome, but in practice hardware wasn't capable of running most intensive games of that time at those settings. I remember 7950 GX2 Quad-SLI getting 1 or 2 FPS in Oblivion at 2560X1600. (32X ?)

Same thing should apply to what we have now. You won't be able to play Metro 2033 totally maxed out at 96XAA or would you? Fits try it

But 32XQ SLi AA works very well in HL2 on my setup. I usually get over 100 FPS. I believe it only helps in older games. At that setting, first card renders the scene, others do AA only. Grestorn says that in nHancer, he says it's just useful in old games, to make use of unused SLi power. Makes sense, I get hundreds of frames in those games...

BTW these settings are new, they just came in latest drivers so you haven't missed anything at all.

 

[trt740]

You silly little fanboy, that review you posted up is getting stick all over the net for being the most Nvidia bias review out there, the guy that did the review is quiting doing anymore reviews over it,



http://forums.legitreviews.com/about28235.html

Now take a look at a " proper " review like the one I posted up.

looks to me like a bunch of people unfairly went after a guy for doing a review, because they didn't like it , however, back on topic these drivers appear to gain performance at higher resolutions. and not at 1680x1050 as hero shows. Why do I have to be a fanboy if I don't agree??? and one forum is hardly all over the net.

 

[crow1001]

Well I suppose him coming to the conclusion that a 470 will PWN even an overclocked 5870 based on two synthetic benchmarks and crappy hawx is just a wee bit biased lol.

With a few revisions I imagine the GTX 470 will easily outperform the HD 5870 and quite possibly the super HD 5870 like the Gigabyte SuperOverclock and MSI Lightning.

Even the site owner called it a bad review, it's one of the worst I and many others have read.