Nvidia has just released the first beta release from the Release 290 family of drivers. The ForceWare 290.36 Beta support GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs, and come with lots of improvements, fixes and additions. SLI gamers will enjoy better support in Crysis 2, Heroes and Generals, Inversion, Stronghold 3, and -wait for it – Syndicate. Moreoever, the new ForceWare improve performance in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Here is the release notes of these latest ForceWare Beta Drivers:

New in R290 Drivers

NVIDIA Ambient Occlusion

Adds NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. See the comparison screenshots on GeForce.com.
Adds NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. See the comparison screenshots on GeForce.com.

NVIDIA PhysX

Updates PhysX System Software to version 9.11.11.07 for the best PhysX experience in Batman: Arkham City.

NVIDIA Surround

Enables NVIDIA Surround support for Intel X79 SLI-certified motherboards.

NVIDIA SLI

Added or updated SLI profiles for Crysis 2, Heroes and Generals, Inversion, Stronghold 3, and Syndicate.

3D Vision

Adds support for 3D Vision over native DisplayPort 1.1 connection – available on BenQ XL2420T and BenQ XL2420TX monitors.
Added or updated the following 3D Vision game profiles:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – rated Good
Cang Sheng (??) – rated Good
Diablo 3 – rated Good
Fei fei (??) – rated Good
Final Combat (???) – rated Good
L.A. Noire – updated rating to 3D Vision Ready
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 – rated Fair
Qian Nv You Hun Online (????Online) – rated Good
QQ Xi You (QQ??) – rated Good
Sonic Generations – rated Good
Xian Tu (??) – rated Good
Yong Bing Tian Xia Online (???? Online) – rated Good

Some Key Bug Fixes

• Fixes random flickering as Windows boot logo is loading or fading away.
• Fixes corruption in Crysis 2 with SLI and lower quality shadow settings.
• Fixes ability to set Surround resolutions to 5760×1080 (requires setting custom resolution).
• Fixes some random instances of triangular artifacts when playing Battlefield 3.
• Improved performance in Elders Scroll: Skyrim
• Fixes white dots appear in the edges of objects in NFS-ProStreet game with AA enabled
• Fixes blood is green color when AA is set to 4X or 8X from in-game video settings
• Fixes blank screen on certain Apple Macintosh computers running Windows
• Fixes negative SLI scaling in Anno 1404 with two-way, three-way or four-way SLI

Those interested can download the drivers from here.

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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