NVIDIA video card(s) owners read here!

[SASrecon 0]

@meade95

D'you have the latest ARMA 2 beta patch and NVIDIA driver installed? They really helped me , maybe you can get up to 2k vd :)

Also try 0 or 3 pre-rendered frames.

[nikiforos 450]

I thougt pre rendered frames should be put to 8.

Do you get better results with 3 or 0?

[Flash Thunder 10]

I thougt pre rendered frames should be put to 8.

Do you get better results with 3 or 0?

The higher the pre rendered frames are the more stress on your CPU, since its rendering the frame before hand, I did have mine on 6 but went back to 3 (default) much easier on my CPU and honestly didnt see any difference.

[SASrecon 0]

New Driver out!

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk

New in Version 257.21

* Adds support for Blu-ray 3D with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology. Learn more about the hardware and software requirements here .

* Increases performance for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games. The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured with GeForce GTX 480. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

o Up to 14% in Aliens vs. Predator (1920x1200 noAA/AF – Tessellation on)

o Up to 4% in Batman: Arkham Asylum (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF PhysX=High)

o Up to 5% in BattleForge (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Very High settings)

o Up to 5% in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)

o Up to 4% in Crysis: Warhead (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Enthusiast setting)

o Up to 24% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (1920x1200 no AA/AF)

o Up to 9% in Far Cry 2 (2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF)

o Up to 25% in Just Cause 2 (2560x1600 no AA/AF - Concrete Jungle)

o Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1920x1200 no AA/16xAF – Tessellation on)

o Up to 40% in Metro 2033 with SLI ((1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)

o Up to 8% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920x1200 no AA/AF – Day)

o Up to 110% in Stone Giant with SLI (2650x1600 – Tessellation on, DoF on)

o Up to 6% in The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena (2560x1600 no AA/AF)

o Up to 9% in Unigine: Tropics (2560x1600 no AA/AF – OpenGL)

o Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Performance and Extreme Presets)

o Up to 19% with Transparency AA (1920x1200 4xTrSS – measured in Crysis)

* Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0223.

* Adds support for OpenGL 4.0 for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs.

* Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.1 which includes significant performance increases for double precision math operations. See CUDA Zone for more details.

* Adds support for new extreme Antialiasing modes for 3-way SLI PCs, including up to SLI48x AA for GeForce 200 series GPUs and up to SLI96x AA for GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs.

* Adds support for a new ‘Quality’ mode for NVIDIA’s Ambient Occlusion control panel feature.

* Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel setup page for SLI and PhysX for ultimate control over multi-gpu configurations.

* Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel feature for ultimate control over CUDA GPUs, allowing the user to effectively choose which GPU will power each CUDA application.

* 3D Vision customers can download the v257.21 3D Vision drivers here.

* Includes numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.

Additional Information:

* Installs HD Audio driver version 1.0.9.1 (for supported GPUs).

* Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5.

* Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash 10.1. Learn more here.

* Supports the new version of MotionDSP's video enhancement software, vReveal, which adds support for HD output. NVIDIA customers can download a free version of vReveal that supports up to SD output here.

* Supports DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

* Supports OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

* Supports OpenGL 3.3 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

* Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.

* Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.

[nikiforos 450]

Silly question I know :) but should I first uninstall the old driver or can I download and install the newest without uninstalling the old`? :confused:

[Meanstreak 10]

Silly question I know :) but should I first uninstall the old driver or can I download and install the newest without uninstalling the old`? :confused:

I think that's the safest way to go, I do it religiously

[NeMeSiS 11]

I thougt pre rendered frames should be put to 8.

Do you get better results with 3 or 0?

I get slightly higher avarage FPS if i put it high, but i keep it on 1 anyways because i suffer from serious input lag if i put it too high.

[nikiforos 450]

I think that's the safest way to go, I do it religiously

Ehmm now I feel stupid :p how can I uninstall the driver I use today?

[ryguy 10]

You really don't need to uninstall the driver to update... won't be accomplishing much of anything.

[Rexxenexx 0]

Nikiforos do this The Proper way of installing new Nvidia Drivers

You don't need GPU-Z anymore since it's Nvidia made it easy to check the version.

[nikiforos 450]

Ok I will try the above , thanks:)

PS

I still use driver version 196.21 and I feel its time to move on

Edited June 16, 2010 by Nikiforos

[EDcase 87]

You really don't need to uninstall the driver to update... won't be accomplishing much of anything.

Actually you should.

Since its recommended by NVidia themselves then it must be because there are potential issues they have come across if you don't.

The best way I have come accross is to uninstall all NVidia drivers from windows and reboot into safe mode.

Then run Driver Cleaner or Driver Sweeper to clean out the left over files.

Then reboot normally and install new drivers.

Edited June 16, 2010 by EDcase

[MJK-Ranger 0]

Anyone tested the new nVIDIA drivers? version 257.21 ?

Any improvement in performance between 197.45 to 257.21?

Cheers

[Fraggle 10]

Driver 257.21

GeForce 400 Series

ïµ GeForce 400 Series: Arma2–there is corruption in the game, along with a drop in

performance. [667575]

They still havent fixed it from 257.15

Going to be a while befor i get to play ARMA again without issue.

[Alex72 1]

Tested the 257.21 slightly yesterday and to me the performance looked great. I didnt even notice any big FPS drop from 2000VD to 5000VD+. This is on GTX275 however and for this card the new drivers so far feels top notch.

Will test this with the latest beta when i get home.

[KTN 10]

It's been awhile since I have played. I'm wondering if they ever came out with a patch to run SLI?

I was playing last night and noticed only one card was running. I am running the latest patch.

[USSRSpetsnaza 10]

I got a 9500 GT LE and it worked nicely, my comp specs are:

Processor speed: 3.46 Ghz

RAM: 2.98(3) Gigabytes DDR2

VCard: NVIDEA EVGA 9500 GT GEFORCE LE

Game settings ArmA 2:

Visibility:1616

Interface Resolution: 1024x768x32

3D Resolution: 1024x768 I get about 19-28 FPS on 1280x960 13 FPS

Texture Detail: High

Anisotropic Filtering: Very High

Antialiasing:Normal

Terrain Detail: High

Object Detail: Normal

Shadow Detail: Very High

Post Processing: Very High

Before FRAPS:

10-16 FPS

After FRAPS:

19-38 FPS

[Tankbuster 1746]

Since its recommended by NVidia themselves then it must be because there are potential issues they have come across if you don't.

From http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/drivers_faq_uk.html

Q: Do I need to uninstall my older driver first?

A: No. It used to be the case that an uninstall was first required. Today the recommended method is to overinstall the newer driver on top of your older driver. This will allow you to maintain any current NVIDIA Control Panel settings or profiles.

[EDcase 87]

Oh wow, thanks Tankbuster,

This is one time I'm actually glad to be wrong :D

Shows how old school I was ;)

[Tankbuster 1746]

Nothing wrong with being old school, mate. Provided you don't spell it 'skool' of course! :D

[AnimalMother92 10]

Wow, that's news to me, certainly saves some hassle. Thanks for the skooling Tankbuster ;)

[jpinard 10]

Driver 257.21

GeForce 400 Series

ïµ GeForce 400 Series: Arma2–there is corruption in the game, along with a drop in

performance. [667575]

They still havent fixed it from 257.15

Going to be a while befor i get to play ARMA again without issue.

What kind of corruption are they talking about? And what kind of performance problems?

[nikiforos 450]

Nice news Tankbuster , I was considering not to install the new drivers because of the process.

Any news about the performance of the new drivers?

[bangtail 0]

What kind of corruption are they talking about? And what kind of performance problems?

I personally have not experienced this (yet). 258.49 (New Quadro drivers) busted Splinter Cell : Conviction in SLI but I've yet to see problems with A2.

257.21 (official WHQL) seem fine for A2 and everything else :D

Of course, this is the price you pay with new cards, always the teething problems vis a vis drivers :(

Edited June 20, 2010 by BangTail

[todayskiller 10]

I got a weird Driver Has stopped Working, Or something like that yeseterday...(not playing Arma 2, but another game)...I have the 257.21 or w/e, Newest Patch...I though it was quite odd.