23 replies to this topic

[Lord Sojar]

As stated in the topic, the 310.54 BETA driver now available does improve the GW2 situation slightly.

In my testing, I saw a 4-16% framerate increase in Lions Arch alone.  In some areas, that gain wasn't tangible at all, but in others still (Bloodtide Coast for example) I saw a nearly 20% boost.

You can download them here:

http://www.geforce.c...ers/beta-legacy

The drivers improve a TON of games by noticeable levels across the board.  These are nVidia's equivalents of the 12.11 drivers from AMD, and honestly, likely one of the last major Kepler GPU boosts you're going to see, at least of this scale.

I believe, and this is only at a glance, that this performance improvement comes from how the drivers are calling functions in the Direct3D API.  There was far more core saturation under both Fermi and Kepler architectures (particularly the latter) with these drivers.  That explains the substantial performance increases in Black OPS 2, as it's using a modified engine that calls on a few functions not as heavily used in newer DX11 games (despite BO2's DX11 status)  

I should also note that this performance increase is as of this current build.  Considering the strange build phenomena we've seen with GW2, there is absolutely no guarantee any performance gains will be maintained on the next build of the game.  Please keep that in mind when downloading ANY driver.

PS: This driver fixes the bluescreen issue in Windows 8 that the last 2 driver variants had.  

This is a beta driver.  You assume any and all risk by installing and utilizing this driver.  While I have tested this driver and found it to be quite stable across 3 different platforms, this is not a guarantee of stability or system integrity.

Please do a clean installation when installing these drivers and do not apply any performance tweaks until you have tested them with default settings.  

They should be quite stable, and I saw no erratic spikes in power use, temperatures, etc.  Overall, there was a 1-2% increase on VRM load and a 2% temperature variance when compared to non-BETA 306.97

[moriz]

the changelogs didn't mention GW2, so your mileage my vary.

[Lord Sojar]

moriz, on 12 November 2012 - 09:02 PM, said:

the changelogs didn't mention GW2, so your mileage my vary.

Correct.  It was a result of API call tweaks, nothing more.

I tested it under a single GTX 680, a 690, a single 580, dual 580s and triple 580s.  I then dropped clocks on the latter and saw similar performance gains given the decreases.  

I cannot attest to the non GK104 based GPUs or the non GF110 based GPUs.

[MisterSin]

I think Im going to wait until they release it out of beta
Currently running GTX 680 and only place i get bad fps is LA

[Lord Sojar]

Anyone else having good luck with these?  

I've noticed a definite reduction in camera swing lag with these as well.

[ZedFighter]

moriz, on 12 November 2012 - 09:02 PM, said:

the changelogs didn't mention GW2, so your mileage my vary.

• Other Profile Updates
  
  • Updated NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Guild Wars 2

[EarlZ088]

Dunno if its just me but I noticed a cleaner visuals with GW2 on this, havent really noticed any performance gains though... Using a GTX580.

[moriz]

ZedFighter, on 13 November 2012 - 08:53 PM, said:

• Other Profile Updates
  
  • Updated NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Guild Wars 2

...which is not a performance enchancement; more like performance penalty.

but fine, they did mention GW2.

[Lord Sojar]

EarlZ088, on 13 November 2012 - 08:58 PM, said:

Dunno if its just me but I noticed a cleaner visuals with GW2 on this, havent really noticed any performance gains though... Using a GTX580.

Performance gain with using a single 580 got me on the lower end of that scale.  Specifically, in Lions Arch, I gained 3fps when standing in my normal testing spot, which is with my back facing the mystic forge and looking out and over towards where the LA statue used to be.    That equated to a 6% fps gain.

[Baldur The Bold]

Lord Sojar, on 14 November 2012 - 12:04 AM, said:

Performance gain with using a single 580 got me on the lower end of that scale.  Specifically, in Lions Arch, I gained 3fps when standing in my normal testing spot, which is with my back facing the mystic forge and looking out and over towards where the LA statue used to be. That equated to a 6% fps gain.

GTX 680 Windforce OC I noticed a 6fps difference in LA by the forge as well.

[Ezendor]

I was wondering about the FPS increase too.  Since I installed the drivers, I never logged in to GW2 until right now with the new build and I'm getting 55-60 at LA near the Forge.  I'm also seeing all 4 cores at 75%> so could that have helped as well?

[Mr.Kotte]

I know nothing about Beta drivers. Are they "safe" to download? Is there any risk my hardware will take damage?

[The Comfy Chair]

If ambient occlusion finally works it'll make me happy.

Mr.Kotte, on 16 November 2012 - 11:38 AM, said:

I know nothing about Beta drivers. Are they "safe" to download? Is there any risk my hardware will take damage?

The disclaimers say there's a chance, because they're disclaimers. In reality, it doesn't really happen. You don't put out any kind of software which could kill your own hardware, even if it's beta.

Edited by The Comfy Chair, 16 November 2012 - 12:44 PM.

[typographie]

Mr.Kotte, on 16 November 2012 - 11:38 AM, said:

I know nothing about Beta drivers. Are they "safe" to download? Is there any risk my hardware will take damage?

I've been using Nvidia's beta drivers for years. Its been my understanding that the main difference is that Nvidia hasn't gone through Microsoft's WHQL compatibility testing for the "beta" drivers, which is largely a formality in my opinion, and as a result they must be labeled "beta."

As a result, Windows might give you a compatibility warning when you install, but they typically work just fine. Very little risk, if any.

The Comfy Chair, on 16 November 2012 - 12:42 PM, said:

If ambient occlusion finally works it'll make me happy.

I tried ambient occlusion (both "Performance" and "Quality" settings) with this new beta driver and I can't even tell that its on. I don't notice any performance difference, but I also don't notice any occlusion happening. In the last version I was using, 306.xx, ambient occlusion clearly worked but at a pretty massive FPS hit.

[Mif]

Anyone having occasional building textures in WvW coming up as all white?

[typographie]

Wow.. Ever since I logged in today I was trying to figure out why my framerates were barely even breaking 30 FPS, no matter where I was. I flipped every video setting, changed my settings in the driver, ripped out SweetFX, reset my video card/CPU stock settings. It was only when I rolled back to 306.97 that I got back to the framerates I'm used to. Has anyone else had this problem with 310.54?

[Lord Sojar]

typographie, on 17 November 2012 - 12:10 AM, said:

Wow.. Ever since I logged in today I was trying to figure out why my framerates were barely even breaking 30 FPS, no matter where I was. I flipped every video setting, changed my settings in the driver, ripped out SweetFX, reset my video card/CPU stock settings. It was only when I rolled back to 306.97 that I got back to the framerates I'm used to. Has anyone else had this problem with 310.54?

Nope, my framerates are better than ever with this revision.

[Juminator]

My review on the new 310.54 drivers + the latest game build.

FPS - Overall higher just a few more fps but i can tell the diference, in LA specific case, a world of diference, absolutly stable fps(40) now without ANY slowdowns and i can finally walk around the forge without watching a slide show

My current system setup is,  310.54 + Cuda Framework + Latest game build(with cuda switch) + sweetfx1.4

Overall im very happy with how thinghs are now, FPS got better, game stability got ALLOT better mainly in LA and im able to play with everything ingame near max + sweetfx1.4 making everything even more "shinny"

[Brazen_NL]

Juminator, on 18 November 2012 - 08:57 AM, said:

My current system setup is,  310.54 + Cuda Framework + Latest game build(with cuda switch) + sweetfx1.4

On the wiki, the cuda switch is listed under Non-functional command line arguments. Is that what you meant with "with cuda switch" or is there something else that can optimize the game for Cuda?

Edited by Brazen_NL, 18 November 2012 - 09:07 AM.

[Juminator]

Brazen_NL, on 18 November 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:

On the wiki, the cuda switch is listed under Non-functional command line arguments. Is that what you meant with "with cuda switch"?

i dont know if its functional or not, ive been using this for some time now and it did work, take into account you need the cuda framework up and running in your system for it to work( im talking about the real cuda dev tools not the driver cuda files that get installed with every driver update), or it used to be like this.

Anyway , working or not it dosent matter now, i just left the switch there ,the game is stable for me and faster after 310.54 and the newest game build.

Edited by Juminator, 18 November 2012 - 09:10 AM.

[Brazen_NL]

Juminator, on 18 November 2012 - 09:09 AM, said:

Anyway , working or not it dosent matter now, i just left the switch there ,the game is stable for me and faster after 310.54 and the newest game build.

Thanks for the confirmation.

[Ezendor]

typographie, on 17 November 2012 - 12:10 AM, said:

Wow.. Ever since I logged in today I was trying to figure out why my framerates were barely even breaking 30 FPS, no matter where I was. I flipped every video setting, changed my settings in the driver, ripped out SweetFX, reset my video card/CPU stock settings. It was only when I rolled back to 306.97 that I got back to the framerates I'm used to. Has anyone else had this problem with 310.54?

Been getting better than average performance so far.  Almost 60 fps at LA next to the forge!

[typographie]

I reinstalled 310.54 and now its working well again. /shrug.

Nope, happening again.

Edited by typographie, 19 November 2012 - 11:17 PM.

[Vysander]

Has anyone tried the 310.64 beta driver?

I'm doing a bit of an upgrade to my system and doing a fresh install of windows. I'm running a Geforce GX460 and have been running as good as my old system could be expected while using the 306.02 beta driver.