nvidia-geforce posts

If you have been playing the PC version of Dragon Age 2 and have wanted the performance to be better, then you might want to pay attention to this. Graphics chip maker Nvidia has released some new GeForce beta drivers that, among other things, greatly increases the performance of BioWare's recent fantasy RPG.

The 270.51 drivers increase perfomance for that game by up to 516 percent with a GeForce GTX 580 graphics card and up to 461 percent with a GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics card. Many other PC games also get performance boosts with this driver update. It also includes the first appearance of Nvidia Update, a new and optional program that automatically scans your PC to see if you need a new driver update and then letting you know if a driver is available for download.

[Via Blue's News]

Do you want the most powerful graphics card for your gaming PC rig? Nvidia wants you to believe it has it with the newly announced GeForce GTX 590 graphics card. This massive dual GPU card (actually two GTX 580 chips in one) with 3 GB of RAM will set you back about $699.

But is it the fastest card you can buy? Well, our sister site Engadget has gathered up a list of reviews from various PC hardware sites. Their overall verdict is that rival AMD's recently launched dual GPU card the Radeon HD 6900 (also priced at $699) actually edges out the GeForce GTX 590 in terms of pure performance and benchmarks. Still if you can afford a graphics card that costs more than a lot of full featured PCs you likely won't care about one or two frames per second.

We thought that Nvidia might reveal its next high end PC graphics card at PAX 2011 but apparently it wasn't ready for prime time. That will apparently change on Thursday at 9 am Eastern time as Nvidia has released a teaser video (you can check it out after the jump) showing Nvidia's Tom Peterson showing a box labeled "Tom Secret".

While Nvidia is keeping to the company line, the internet rumors strongly suggest that this new graphics card will be called the GeForce GTX 590 with dual graphics chips and a very high price. The video also shows Crysis 2 running in the background which is ironic since the PC port of the just released first person shooter doesn't even run DirectX 11 level graphics (at least not yet).

[Via Engadget]

With the full version of Crysis 2 due out next week some PC gamers may be concerned that their gaming PC rig won't be able to run the sci-fi shooter very well. Now graphics chip maker Nvidia has decided to promote its newly announced budget graphics card, the $150 GeForce GTX 550 Ti, by using it as the graphics source to make a sub $600 gaming PC that can run Crysis 2.

The GeForce.com web site goes over all of the parts you will need to purchase to assemble the PC and shows Crysis 2 benchmarks for the finished system. The result was solid and playable frame rates for the system on high resolutions settings and "Advanced" graphics settings. The higher Hardcore graphics setting pushed the framerate down below 30 fps for the system but overclocking the graphics card pushed the framerate for Hardcore just above 30 fps at 1680x1050 resolution. Nvidia has listed a couple of sub-$600 gaming PCs that are already on sale that have similar hardware inside.

While there's been a lot of buzz about 3D gaming lately, especially this week with the launch date revealed for the 3D-enabled Nintendo 3DS console, the folks at PC graphics chip company Nvidia have been promoting the fact that it has enabled support for hundreds of PC games to have 3D support over the last few years with its 3D Vision tech. In its latest article, Eurogamer's Digital Foundry takes a close-up look at 3D Vision and compared how games that support the tech look next to its Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts.

In short, there was no comparison with the article saying, "These are console games radically transformed: they look better, they feel better to play, and they're getting us involved in the action in a way the console versions just can't match. This feels like the future of 3D." Nvidia's 3DTV Play support also allows PCs to hook up to 3D-enabled big-screen TVs for some living room PC gaming although if you turn up the resolution to the full 1080p frame rates suffer. Digital Foundry suggests dialing it down to 720p for TV-based 3D playing which still blows away the graphical looks of console games at that same resolution.

In summary, while a 3D Vision supported PC will still cost more than a PS3 or Xbox 360, Digital Foundry states, " .. the sheer power you're getting for that outlay is phenomenal, the games you're buying will be much cheaper and the available catalogue of 3D software outstrips any other platform."

Another day, another ice storm in the Northeast. Winter has just started and we are already pretty tired of it. We are already thinking about E3 in June ... nice and warm and (hopefully) sunny LA weather.

• Nvidia has released new reference graphics drivers (version 266.58) for its GeForce-based graphics cards.
• Paradox Interactive has released a new video interview with its CEO Fredrik Wester ahead of this week's big press event for the publisher.
• The mother of one of Dead Space 2's team members isn't scared by footage of the game.
• The wife of the late Brian Wood, one of the lead designers of Company of Heroes Online, talked about him again on the Today show and showed off their daughter for the first time.

Creating a PC gaming rig requires a lot of components, including finding a solid graphics card that can run all of your game titles. But what if you wanted to show off your games on a TV to your friends in a living room while you played in your home office or game room? If you are one of the very few people who want this kind of feature then perhaps the KFA2 Nvdia GeForce GTX 460 WHDI graphics card is for you.

The European-based KFA2 claims this product is "world's first wireless Graphics Card" and with the included receiver is designed to wirelessly send the graphics image to another monitor or TV screen. There's no word if this actually works as advertised but you have to admit it looks, well, odd.

Owners of gaming PCs with Nvidia GeForce-based graphics cards can now grab the first beta graphics drivers of 2011. The GeForce.com web site now has the downloads to the new 266.35 beta drivers for the GeForce family of graphics chips. The beta drivers support the newly launched GeForce GTX 580 and GeForce GTX 570 graphics chips.

The new drivers boost performance for the 400 and 500 family of GeForce-based cards in a number of PC games including Battlefield Bad Company 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and many others. In addition the new drivers add ambient occlusion support for StarCraft 2, allowing for more realistic lighting and shadows in the Blizzard RTS game. You can check out examples of how ambient occlusion looks in the game at the GeForce.com web site.

Finally the new drivers have some changes and additions for Nvidia's 3D Vision feature. The drivers now support seeing some PC games in 3D in a game window as opposed to just full screen support. More 3D Vision-supported games have been added including Medal of Honor, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit and DC Universe Online.

[Via Blue's News]

If you have an Nvidia GeForce-based graphics card there's a new driver update that you might want to grab. The new GeForce 260.99 reference drivers are now available over at the company's web site in Windows XP, Vista and 7 flavors. The drivers, among other things, boost performance for a number of PC games.

Fallout New Vegas players with Nvidia cards will now be able to enable antialiasing features in the game with this new driver version. It also improves performance for Fallout 3, Civilization V, Final Fantasy XIV and F1 2010. It also adds SLI profiles for Fallout New Vegas along with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II and the upcoming Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. It also adds 3D Vision support for Call of Duty: Black Ops and HAWX 2.

Today the PC graphics chip make Nvidia is releasing a new product, the GeForce GT 430 graphics card. The mainstream graphics card (it will be sold under $100 in most retailers) is also the occasion for a new GeForce desktop driver update.Nvidia has now released the 260.89 drivers in beta form.

The new beta drivers increase performance in certain games with PCs containing Nvidia 400-based graphics cards. Games like StarCraft II get up to a 19 percent performance with the beta drivers, depending on what graphics card is used. It also adds 3D Vision support for a new set of PC monitors and a number of games including Fallout New Vegas, Lost Planet 2, Arcania: Gothic 4 and more.

[Via Blue's News]