GeForce 180 "Big Bang II" drivers launched

[kooldj]

HEXUS.net - News :: NVIDIA launches feature-packed GeForce 180 "Big Bang II" drivers : Page - 1/2

Cast your memory back and you'll recall that NVIDIA's first so-called "Big Bang" driver release signalled the arrival of its SLI technology.

Today, the graphics giant is following up with "Big Bang II" in the form of its GeForce 180.42 drivers, and there's a handful of very-useful additions - but is it enough to warrant the Big Bang alias?

Put simply, the GeForce 180 drivers offer three significant enhancements; improved performance, support for multi-display SLI, and the option for users to dedicate a specific GPU to PhysX calculations.

The improved performance - which we tend to see with most driver releases, be they Big Bangs or not - boasts gains of up to 40 per cent in titles such as Far Cry 2, but users should expect less than 10 per cent in most other games.

Multi-display SLI, which undoubtedly is the driver's key and long-overdue feature, finally allows users to configure two, four or six displays depending on their system hardware. There is, however, a caveat - should you have two or three SLI'd GPUs, only the first can be connected to monitors, theoretically limiting a user to two displays.

If more monitors are required, they can be connected to another GPU outside of the SLI configuration. Herein lies another problem, that extra GPU must be different to the GPUs found in the SLI setup. Confused? Here's the diagram:

HEXUS.net - News :: NVIDIA launches feature-packed GeForce 180 "Big Bang II" drivers : Page - 2/2

Another big feature to make the release is a PhysX configuration page in the NVIDIA control panel. The provided options allow PhysX acceleration to be enabled or disabled, and offloaded to a dedicated GPU. The idea is to allow users to add a reasonably-cheap GPU, say a GeForce 9600 GT, to an existing setup and use it solely for PhysX calculations. The performance boost, says NVIDIA, could be as much as 42 per cent.

The three upgrades are all useful, if perhaps not quite to Big Bang standards. NVIDIA, though, has managed to slip something else into the GeForce 180 drivers - support for Intel's upcoming X58 chipset, which will be taking advantage of Core i7 processors sometime next month.

NVIDIA assures us that SLI will be readily available on X58 offerings from all the big-name motherboard manufacturers except one; Intel. Native SLI configurations of two-slot x16 x16, three-slot x16, x8, x8 and four-slot x8, x8, x8, x8 will all be available at launch.

In addition, motherboards using NVIDIA's nForce 200 SLI bridging chip will raise the bar further with support for three-slot x16, x16, x16 and four slot x16, x16, x16, x16 - at a premium price, mind you.

The result, says NVIDIA, is AMD-spanking performance when it comes to multi-GPU scaling:

[Fookie]

Ahan...

SO like if I have a 9600GSO... I can buy a 9500GT and let it do the PhysX.

Provided I have an SLI mobo.

[Ali Tayyab]

u can use a ati card for display and hook up a nvidia card on a XF mobo for phys-x.
u dont necessarily even need a sli board to hook up this with 2 nvidia cards

[ThunderBird]

Originally Posted by alitayyab

u can use a ati card for display and hook up a nvidia card on a XF mobo for phys-x.
u dont necessarily even need a sli board to hook up this with 2 nvidia cards

Wow thats nice !

[Fookie]

Originally Posted by alitayyab

u can use a ati card for display and hook up a nvidia card on a XF mobo for phys-x.
u dont necessarily even need a sli board to hook up this with 2 nvidia cards

what!? r u sure absolutely sure?

[SiB]

Wow! Now that's what I call TECHNOLOGY!

nVIDIA is teh King when it comes to Driver Issues!

[runedrune]

wow. thats amazing.

[Ali Tayyab]

Originally Posted by Fookie

what!? r u sure absolutely sure?

yes this is possible UNLESS nvidia decides to lock it up later

However I do see an interesting option to use a GeForce card solely for PhysX, and maybe even a Radeon card to render the games. Unless NVIDIA will prevent this in it's drivers of course .. from my point of view, there is no obstruction for that construction

what is this pos-x???

[vX.DreDge]

Originally Posted by hpa

Wow! Now that's what I call TECHNOLOGY!

nVIDIA is teh King when it comes to Driver Issues!

Fanboi
fact of the matter is, ATI Simply owns Nvidia in every segment, be it midrange to elites, there is RED every where,

[SiB]

Originally Posted by vX.DreDge

Fanboi
fact of the matter is, ATI Simply owns Nvidia in every segment, be it midrange to elites, there is RED every where,

I'm not a fanboy.
Because I'm planning to buy a card from 48xx series (not even considering nVIDIA).

Just had to admire nVIDIA for their driver support. That's all.

[PAKI_LeGenD]

Originally Posted by vX.DreDge

Fanboi
fact of the matter is, ATI Simply owns Nvidia in every segment, be it midrange to elites, there is RED every where,

A typical "my gun is bigger than yours" like response!

The point here is that Nvidia is doing a fine job by ensuring excellent driver support for its products to satisfy the customers.

These new driver releases (Big Bang series) from Nvidia not just boost performance in various applications but also enable some previously unseen capabilities of the GeForce cards and this is called "progress."

[vX.DreDge]

Originally Posted by ****_LeGenD

A typical "my gun is bigger than yours" like response!

The point here is that Nvidia is doing a fine job by ensuring excellent driver support for its products to satisfy the customers.

These new driver releases (Big Bang series) from Nvidia not just boost performance in various applications but also enable some previously unseen capabilities of the GeForce cards and this is called "progress."

Excuse Me!, did i said any where that i own an ATI, i just said that they are better both interms of hardware and software, do not tell me that your shiny Geforce got offended, and started producing ten frames less

[PAKI_LeGenD]

Originally Posted by vX.DreDge

Excuse Me!, did i said any where that i own an ATI, i just said that they are better both interms of hardware and software, do not tell me that your shiny Geforce got offended, and started producing ten frames less

It is not about owning an ATI product, it is about degrading a company unnecessarily and turning a graphics card related thread in to a Nvidia vs ATI flame-war for no apparent reason. This thread is not about who is better than who actually.

ATI might be better than Nvidia in-terms of hardware this time, but it still lags behind in the case of software. Nvidia has a much better record in the case of ensuring and providing excellent driver support. The new "Big Bang driver releases" from Nvidia further solidifies this suggestion.

And ATI will not stay ahead for eternity. The cycle will be reversed after a while and so on. However the positive thing is that the pressure of the competition compels the companies to provide better services and products to customers, which is good.

[dany]

I just so wish that the existing Intel crossfire motherboards could accept a low profile card such as the 9500GT in their extra PCI-E slots. That would have allowed the secondary cards to be used as stand alone Physics accelerators.