NVIDIA GeForce 301.24 Beta Drivers

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For those of you that like to walk on the wild side, there are new GeForce 301.24 beta drivers posted today. According to the release notes, there are new and updated SLI profiles, 3D Vision profiles, NVIDIA Surround enhancements and they give you a performance boost in Skyrim as well.

  • Performance Boost – Increases performance for GeForce 400 Series and 500 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 296.10 WHQL-certified drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration.
  • NVIDIA FXAA Technology – shader-based anti-aliasing technology available from the NVIDIA Control Panel that enables ultra-fast anti-aliasing in hundreds of PC games. FXAA delivers similar quality to 4x multi-sample antialiasing (MSAA) but is up to 60% faster, enabling substantially higher performance in games. FXAA is supported on all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs. Note: This feature is disabled for games that already have built-in support for FXAA. Visit to learn more.
  • NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync – dynamically enables vertical sync based on your current frame rates for the smoothest gaming experience. Adaptive VSync is supported on all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs. Visit to learn more.
  • NVIDIA Frame Rate Target – dynamically adjusts frame rate to a user specified target. Support for this feature is enabled via third party applications via NVAPI. Visit to learn more.
  • NVIDIA Surround Technology
 
Vague statement about "performance boost" for 400/500 series, but...performance boosts are always nice!

Also, Adaptive Vsync for older cards, whoo!
 
No, I know, I'm just saying usually they put a list with things like "XX% boost in X application". Just wondering what exactly they changed.
 
The percent performance boosts for various cards are listed in the release notes:

GeForce GTX 570/580:
Up to 23% in Just Cause 2 with SLI
Up to 21% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Up to 17% in StarCraft II with SLI
Up to 14% in Far Cry 2 with SLI
Up to 9% in Bulletstorm
Up to 7% in Civilization V
Up to 6% in Deus Ex: Human Revolution with SLI
Up to 6% in Dragon Age 2 with SLI
Up to 5% in Metro 2033 with SLI
Up to 5% in Total War: Shogun 2

GeForce GTX 560/560 Ti:
Up to 20% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Up to 15% in Just Cause 2 with SLI
Up to 13% in Far Cry 2 with SLI
Up to 12% in Bulletstorm
Up to 11% in Civilization V
Up to 10% in StarCraft II with SLI
Up to 9% in Batman: Arkham City
Up to 4% in Deus Ex: Human Revolution with SLI
Up to 4% in Dragon Age 2 with SLI
Up to 4% in Metro 2033 with SLI
Up to 4% in Total War: Shogun 2
 
are thoughts numbers for single card? how are are they getting 20% better in skyrim o_O
 
I'd assume they're for single card configs unless stated to be SLI. Haven't tried these ones yet but a little later I'll give them a go and see if there's any difference in Skyrim on a 680, though it seems these are geared a little more to the previous gen video cards.
 
This is an impressive release. Kudos to NVIDIA for bringing features I thought would be exclusive to the 6-series to older cards.
 
Yeah pretty cool to see old cards getting new features. Nvidia is certainly fixing its image.
 
Doesn't this also mark the first unified driver release that supports 6xx cards, for those with mixed-card environments?
 
So I wonder if driver-level FXAA is better than the injector, in terms of both performance and image quality?
 
Oh nice, I've been waiting for this. Hope to god it fixes the Displayport issues with my s27a750d, this 60hz crap is terrible in this monitor.

Edit: Woohoo, it's fixed! Now I can properly enjoy my new card!
 
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Oh nice, I've been waiting for this. Hope to god it fixes the Displayport issues with my s27a750d, this 60hz crap is terrible in this monitor.

Got news from other forums that this beta driver does fix the displayport issues with the 750D :D
 
I can't wait to try these with my GTX 260. Sick of messing with VSYNC forced on + triple buffering all the time.
 
I can't wait to try these with my GTX 260. Sick of messing with VSYNC forced on + triple buffering all the time.

So you don't need triple buffering with Adaptive VSync? I'm not sure I fully understand how/why it wouldn't still need it for when VSync kicks on.
 
Doesn't seem to have any performance increases for 680, I guess I will still upgrade :)
 
Wow......

in addition to the VSync thing, they also added some cool Surround features for all cards.......•NVIDIA Surround Technology – Adds the following new Surround capabilities. Visit to learn more.
◦Add in a fourth accessory display to get access to your email, web, or other applications while you game.
◦Maximize an application to a single physical display when in Surround mode (enabled by default).
◦Confine the Windows Taskbar to the center display (enabled by default).
◦Enable bezel peeking – a feature which enables users to temporarily ‘peak’ behind the monitor bezels using a hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + B). This feature is designed to be used in conjunction with bezel corrected resolutions.
◦Add or remove resolutions from the list of Surround resolutions (only those selected will be available to applications).
◦Full center display acceleration for single wide display modes (center display must be connected to the master GPU).
 
Yay, excited to try adapative V-Sync with my setup. Tearing in BF3 is driving me nuts but Vsync/TB on = way too low FPS.
 
Do these drivers fix the broken SSAO outdoors in Skyrim, or will we have to wait for Bethesda to fix that (if they'll even bother)?
 
I see how this works on my 480's SLI in Portrait Mode. Ill report back tomorrow.
 
This are probably okay for games but when I turn Antialiasing-FXAA on it causes dithering and blurring in my e-mail text. Is there a fix for that.
 
Yay, excited to try adapative V-Sync with my setup. Tearing in BF3 is driving me nuts but Vsync/TB on = way too low FPS.

do you limit your FPS? that seems to get most the tearing gone for me. I limit it to 118fps.
 
Hopefully the non-beta arrive at the same time my card does. Curious to see what kind of performance increase the tweaks + adaptive vsync + FXAA bring to my 560

It's great that this works all the way back to the 8 series.
 
do you limit your FPS? that seems to get most the tearing gone for me. I limit it to 118fps.

Limiting FPS alone doesn't eliminate tearing. I've tried 58, 57, etc on my 60 Hz setup, none of it actually eliminates tearing.

TBH I'm not really sure why that is, but that's what I've observed.
 
This are probably okay for games but when I turn Antialiasing-FXAA on it causes dithering and blurring in my e-mail text. Is there a fix for that.

Don't enable FXAA globally. Do it on a per-game basis in their respective profiles. It's not going to be perfect in every game, but it has minimal text blurring in World of Warcraft. On my desktop (GTX 560, 1680x1050) and my laptop (130M, 1366x768), FXAA is a clear winner.
 
Wow......

in addition to the VSync thing, they also added some cool Surround features for all cards.......•NVIDIA Surround Technology – Adds the following new Surround capabilities. Visit to learn more.
◦Add in a fourth accessory display to get access to your email, web, or other applications while you game.
◦Maximize an application to a single physical display when in Surround mode (enabled by default).
◦Confine the Windows Taskbar to the center display (enabled by default).
◦Enable bezel peeking – a feature which enables users to temporarily ‘peak’ behind the monitor bezels using a hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + B). This feature is designed to be used in conjunction with bezel corrected resolutions.
◦Add or remove resolutions from the list of Surround resolutions (only those selected will be available to applications).
◦Full center display acceleration for single wide display modes (center display must be connected to the master GPU).

Excellent, I think the value of my used 580s just went up :D
 
Could someone help elaborate further info regarding adaptive v-sync?

I'm still reading up on this new feature, but still confused as to whether this helps boost performance, and what happens when I disable/enable triple buffering, will anything change while having adaptive v-sync enabled? And is anybody still experiencing tearing past their monitors refresh rate?

I read this up on another forum and a gentleman mentioned this regarding adaptive v-sync:

"The NVidia guy at Webhallen told me that adaptive vsync should remove stuttering when the graphics suddenly becomes very demanding. Like if you run vsync like normally and the fps drops to below that there can be stuttering before it catches up again, and adaptive vsync should kick in to give it more power instantly without stuttering."

Is this correct?

I've only been able to test Dota 2 with these new drivers and it could be the placebo effect, but I'm definitely noticing a reduced amount of stuttering during heavy gameplay, everything seems to just run smoother. this is with adaptive v-sync and triple buffering enabled btw.
 
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This are probably okay for games but when I turn Antialiasing-FXAA on it causes dithering and blurring in my e-mail text. Is there a fix for that.
No. The driver has no idea when to apply FXAA as a post-process to ensure that GUI elements aren't subjected to it.

Limiting FPS alone doesn't eliminate tearing. I've tried 58, 57, etc on my 60 Hz setup, none of it actually eliminates tearing. TBH I'm not really sure why that is, but that's what I've observed.
Because frames aren't being dispatched in accordance with the display's swap interval — the GPU needs to be "jam-synced" with the display. The only way to eliminate tearing is with vsync.
 
I'm still reading up on this new feature, but still confused as to whether this helps boost performance performance, and what happens when I disable/enable triple buffering, will anything change? And is anybody still experiencing tearing past their monitors refresh rate?
Adaptive vsync (swap-tear) basically means the GPU will sync with the display whenever each frame rendered finishes in time for the display's swap interval. If a frame misses the swap, it will simply draw whatever is available (a partial frame), and thus you'll see a tear line.

Essentially: if your frame rate is greater than or equal to the refresh rate, you're vsync'ed. Otherwise, you aren't.
 
Adaptive vsync (swap-tear) basically means the GPU will sync with the display whenever each frame rendered finishes in time for the display's swap interval. If a frame misses the swap, it will simply draw whatever is available (a partial frame), and thus you'll see a tear line.

Essentially: if your frame rate is greater than or equal to the refresh rate, you're vsync'ed. Otherwise, you aren't.

Do you know anything about whether or not there is input lag associated with Adaptive VSync when not forcing Triple Buffering? I haven't really seen any solid info on this yet.
 
Do you know anything about whether or not there is input lag associated with Adaptive VSync when not forcing Triple Buffering? I haven't really seen any solid info on this yet.

I was just going to follow up with that very same question, because there is mentioning of input lag associated with adaptive on.
 
Well if I get a chance I will install these drivers tonight and see if I can find out.
 
Do you know anything about whether or not there is input lag associated with Adaptive VSync when not forcing Triple Buffering? I haven't really seen any solid info on this yet.

I couldn't find a definitive answer anywhere I looked either. I tried it last night on BF3 and it does work as advertised, keeping a solid 60 fps when above and dropping down normally below (although I had to really up the settings to get it to drop below - this 680 is a monster). I didn't feel any input lag, but I had a terrible run in BF3 with it on (something like 2-12 K/D and couldn't seem to hit anybody) so I turned it back off. I plan to try it again on some other games though, like Dirt 3. Really helps keep the card temps and fan noise down.
 
Wow......

in addition to the VSync thing, they also added some cool Surround features for all cards.......•NVIDIA Surround Technology – Adds the following new Surround capabilities. Visit to learn more.
◦Add in a fourth accessory display to get access to your email, web, or other applications while you game.
◦Maximize an application to a single physical display when in Surround mode (enabled by default).
◦Confine the Windows Taskbar to the center display (enabled by default).
◦Enable bezel peeking – a feature which enables users to temporarily ‘peak’ behind the monitor bezels using a hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + B). This feature is designed to be used in conjunction with bezel corrected resolutions.
◦Add or remove resolutions from the list of Surround resolutions (only those selected will be available to applications).
◦Full center display acceleration for single wide display modes (center display must be connected to the master GPU).

thats pretty cool wonder why they just did all that now
 
Just intalled and MSI afterburner is reporting that I am using 4904504mb of vram on gpu2. Cool!

Anyone want a 560 4904504mb? $700!
 
Just intalled and MSI afterburner is reporting that I am using 4904504mb of vram on gpu2. Cool!

Anyone want a 560 4904504mb? $700!

i had an issue like that with the eVGA tool as well a reboot usually fixes it
 
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