nVidia 185.85 Driver Test

Direct3D (4xAA)

At 4xAA, we see another title show a large performance gain: Call of Juarez. Like Far Cry 2, this title was tested several times to ensure repeatability. A free performance gain of 10.59% from just a driver update is quite welcome indeed, especially since it’s with the DX9 path in a three year old game.

Speaking of Call of Juarez, there has also been an improvement in image quality when running transparency super-sampling in this title. Previously only the vegetation near ground level was smoothed, but tree tops still shimmered. With 185.85 tree tops now receive AA; you’ll see a performance hit when running TrSS with the new driver, but that’s because image quality has improved overall.

Additionally, Bioshock, Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty 5 all see small performance gains, while Fear 2 sees a small performance drop.