NVIDIA GPU driver v191.03 released

Robert Hallock (Thrax) NVIDIA has kicked beta ForceWare version 191.03 into the public for testing.

September 28, 2009 11:07 AM ET in News, , , , , , ,

nvidiaNVIDIA has taken the wraps off of the newest driver revision for GeForce 100, 200, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000 GPUs. Weighing in at roughly 100MB, this beta Windows XP/Vista/7 driver delivers the following changes:

  • Adds support for OpenGL 3.2 for ION, GeForce 100, 200, 8000 and 9000-series GPUs.
  • Big anti-aliasing or SLI performance improvements for a handful of titles.
  • For graphics cards supporting multiple clock states, 3D clocks correctly return to 2D clocks after exiting a 3D application. This will have big power savings for impacted users.
  • Adds support for DirectX 11’s DirectCompute (Compute Shaders) API on GeForce 8000, 9000, 100 and 200 GPUs.
  • Added support for 3D Vision Discover, a feature to enable stereoscopic 3D for games.

This is a fairly important release, particularly due to the inclusion of the DirectCompute API. Note that this does not mean the compatible GPUs are DX11-ready; DirectCompute merely requires stream processors, and all recent GPUs have them. It can be expected that ATI will do the same thing with their next driver release.

Download

Windows Vista & 7 x86-32: Here
Windows Vista & 7 x86-64: Here
Windows XP x86-32: Here
Windows XP x86-64: Here

14 Comments:

  1. lordbean
    28 Sep '09, 3:11 pm

    Matter of time until the GPU2 client DLLs are changed to work with DirectCompute. May not happen immediately, but it has to be coming.

  2. GooD
    28 Sep '09, 3:47 pm

    What does the support for DX11 DirectCompute mean ? Or indirectly what is DirectCompute lol :P

    Does it mean that it will be able to run DX11 games even without a DX11 video card ? (with less performance i presume...)

  3. Thrax
    28 Sep '09, 3:59 pm

    The answers to your question are linked and/or described in the post.

  4. _k_
    28 Sep '09, 4:01 pm

    Side note: Leaving a second monitor attached to the second video card when turning on SLi in Win 7 will generate a BSOD.

  5. GooD
    28 Sep '09, 4:24 pm

    Oh, its the Compute Shaders Thankx

    I Hate it when people give several names for the same thing, that makes things more confusing. It's happening a lot those days.

  6. _k_
    28 Sep '09, 5:24 pm

    These are betas

  7. Thrax
    28 Sep '09, 5:29 pm
    ...Weighing in at roughly 100MB, this beta Windows XP/Vista/7 driver delivers...
  8. _k_
    28 Sep '09, 5:58 pm

    It just always seems a little misleading to me when you don't include that in the title because you use the same title scheme for betas and standard release drivers. I also think this thread illustrates how little some people pay attention to the details in the release notes when new drivers are released.

  9. Thrax
    28 Sep '09, 6:09 pm

    It's hardly misleading.

    NVIDIA uses one version number per compiled code base. If the beta driver passes the beta test (receives WHQL certification), it goes to production with the same version number; no code is changed between beta and live. It is the same download with a renamed executable.

    If NVIDIA alters the codebase to resolve issues detected in the beta, the version number is incremented and a new driver version is issued.

    This process makes the distinction between beta and live completely immaterial.

    For evidence, see: v182.06 vs. v182.08.

    Beyond that, it is not my responsibility to compel literacy.

  10. _k_
    28 Sep '09, 11:12 pm

    But if we are going to post links to beta drivers then why are they all not posted, for instance the 190.89 driver.

    EDIT: Alright, I guess what I am really asking is this. What is the definition for Icrontic posting as the a new Driver, anything that is for download from the main manufacturer's(ATI or NVidia) website or an available driver that originates from the main manufacturer?

  11. Thrax
    29 Sep '09, 12:41 am

    We don't post driver leaks.

    In the case of 190.89, it was a leaked driver, it used the 190.64 nv4disp.inf, contained no PhysX support, and cut the amount of supported GPUs in half.

    It was absurdly experimental.

  12. _k_
    29 Sep '09, 12:59 am

    Thank you.

  13. ardichoke
    2 Oct '09, 4:16 am

    Woohoo. Because the drivers Nvidia certifies as stable aren't buggy enough, lets go install one that they haven't put through their apparently not very exhaustive testing process yet.

  14. Thrax
    2 Oct '09, 4:32 am

    (ACtually, Microsoft certifies the drivers).

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