Nvidia posts

Windows 7 is now set for release on October 22 and with that release come DirectX11, the next version of Microsoft's 3D graphics API. So it's not a shock to learn that AMD (via their ATI brand) and Nvidia are prepping to launch their next major PC graphics cards this fall that will support DirectX11 features.

VentureBeat reports that AMD's director of software developer relations Neal Robison stated that AMD will be ready this fall with DirectX11 supported graphics chips. However, rumors that Nvidia's team are behind in their next-gen graphics tech are dismissed by anaylst Jon Peddie who believes the company will also have DirectX11 chips ready by this fall. Nvidia itself won't comment on their future plans. Intel is also developing their own high end graphics chips under the code name Larabee but it's now expected that it won't be ready for launch until next year.

Nvidia first launched their 3D Vision glasses product at CES in January and this week the graphics chip maker announced a new driver release that adds even more game support to the glasses. The GeForce 185.85 driver supports both Windows Vista and the new release candidate version of Windows 7

25 new PC games now support the 3D effects that can be seen with the 3D Vision glasses. The new games include Demigod, EVE Online, Stormrise and the upcoming PC port of Street Fighter IV. In addition the new drivers add support for the visuals to be see on all of Mitsubishi's new 2009 Home Theater TVs.

Nvidia sneaked out some new beta drivers for their GeForce line of graphics chips earlier this week and the beta driver have quite a few performance improvements for a number of recent games. The 185.81 version drivers can be downloaded in both Windows XP and Vista flavors (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, naturally).

Here's the list of performance improvements for various games:

• Up to 25 percent performance increase in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
• Up to 22 percent performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with antialiasing enabled
• Up to 11 percent performance increase in Fallout 3 with antialiasing enabled
• Up to 14 percent performance increase in Far Cry 2
• Up to 30 percent performance increase in Half-Life 2 engine games with 3-way and 4-way SLI
• Up to 45 percent performance increase in Mirror's Edge with antialiasing enabled

In addition the drivers have a number of bug fixes, the new versions of their PhysX game physics drivers and new support for ambient occlusion for various PC games. In summary, titles that allow for ambient occlusion effects to be turned on will have more realistic lighting and shadows in the games. You can get more info on the feature and a list of games that support it at Nvidia's Nzone web site.

While there have been lots of hints and rumors about a PC release of Resident Evil 5, publisher Capcom has kept saying the survival horror game was only announced for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. Until today, that is. In a new press release, Capcom has finally admitted that a PC port of their best selling game is in the works after all.

While Capcom is still keeping specific release dates on the down low, saying only it's coming " later in the year" they did say there will be online co-op support in the PC version. It will also support Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision glasses giving gamers who want that sort of thing a way to play the game with 3D effects.

As mentioned earlier this morning, Nvidia announced more game support for PhysX technology, which uses hardware acceleration via drivers for their GeForce GPU graphics card chips to improve the look of games. Last week Nvidia held conference calls with three of the four development teams that will be using PhysX in upcoming PC game games. The only developer that did not attend was Biart, which is currently developing the shooter U-Wars.

Developer GRIN has had a busy year. It have already released Wanted: Weapons of Fate two more games will be released next month. The first is Capcom's Bionic Commando revamp which has already announced its support of PhysX. The other is Terminator: Salvation, the movie based shooter that Nvidia has now confirmed for PhysX support.

Download the U-Wars Nvidia PhysX Demonstration (17 MB)

A little over a year ago, PC graphics chip maker Nvidia announced it was buying Ageia, a company that was selling a hardware chip add-on for PCs and software tools specifically for improving game physics effects. Since then, Nvidia has incorporated Ageia's technology, known as PhysX, into its driver updates for the GeForce graphics chips. Today Nvidia announced that four upcoming games will incorporate PhysX support. In addition, Nvidia also announced that game publisher Sega has licensed the PhysX tech for all of its worldwide studios.

The four new PhysX enabled PC games are Terminator Salvation from developer GRIN, Dark Void from developer Airtight Games and publisher Capcom, Darkest of Days from developer 8monkey Labs and U-Wars from developer Biart Studios. Stay tuned as Big Download will have a feature article later this morning that will have more info on how these games will use PhysX.

Ardent fans of this column will doubtless have noticed that BI has been a little, shall we say, thin on the ground of late. There are two main reasons for this -- one, BI's biennial sojourn to the other side of the country for a week of testosterone poisoning, and, two, a multi-week stint with a rather demanding guest around the house.

The guest in question, however, wasn't an unemployed former college buddy, a surprise visit from the in-laws, or a couch-surfing second cousin. It was, rather, a sixty pound, gloss-black obelisk -- Alienware's top-of-the-line gaming system, the Area-51 X58, tricked out by them with damn near every bell, whistle, and go-fast toy in their arsenal. And BI had their blessing to, and we quote this with great relish, "Send it back as a smoking pile of slag. But, seriously, watch Iron Man on the Blu-Ray drive first."

We were skeptical. Surely, entrusting someone of BI's questionable restraint with a valuable piece of equipment would carry more stringent usage guidelines than, "Give it back when we ask for it." They were adamant -- this was the third such system released to the wild, and they wanted it to be abused.

Fortunately, the conference call ended before our mad laughter began.

It used to be having a PC or laptop with intergrated graphics was pretty much a death sentence for most PC games that were run on those systems. Now Acer has announced their new and tiny desktop PC that they claim supports DirectX10 and will play games like Spore, Call of Duty 4 and "Sim City 5" (we assume they mean Sim City Societies unless they have inside word from EA that such a game is in the works).

The Acer AspireRevo is able to have much more graphical power thanks to Nvidia's ION intergrated graphics chip. Acer's press release states that their PC is the first to use the new chip and makes the AspireRevo have "performance that is 5-10 times faster than traditional PCs with integrated graphics." Pricing and a release date for the new PC have yet to be revealed.

This big patch for Sacred 2: Fallen Angel includes a list of bug fixes and game enhancements, the most prominent being Nvidia PhysX support. The incremental patch updates the game from v2.34 while the full patch includes improvements from all previous updates to be used on fresh installs. Steam customers are encouraged to wait for the auto-update before considering use of the manual patch. Continue reading after the jump for full patch notes.

Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [US] (201 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [UK] (200 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [DE] (201 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [FR] (187 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [ES] (187 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [IT] (187 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [CZ] (187 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [HU] (188 MB)

Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [US] (817 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [UK] (816 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [DE] (1.02 GB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [FR] (1 GB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [ES] (1.01 GB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [IT] (1.01 GB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [CZ] (803 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [HU] (1.01 GB)

As is customary with the launch of a new graphics card from Nvidia, this week the company released new GeForce graphics card drivers that update the version to support the newly released card. In this case it was the mainstream Geforce GTX 275 product that gets the treatment.

As usual the new drivers (labeled as version number 182.50) come in Windows XP and Vista flavors, each with 32-bit and 64-bit ports. The release notes go into more detail as to what's new, changed and fixed. It's always a wise move to have the latest and greatest graphics drivers installed for your PC. Most notable is word that the new drivers have "Optimized single GPU and SLI support for upcoming PC games."