nVidia Big Bang Driver (GeForce 180.48)
OpenGL
I had hoped this driver would address the abysmal 8xMSAA performance in OpenGL, but clearly that isn’t the case. The scores are virtually unchanged from the previous driver. If you’re not sure what I’m referring to, see the OpenGL 8xMSAA tests in part 1 of my GTX260+ review, where you’ll see the 260+ is overall slower than the much weaker 4850.
IMO, most of the results you found can be discarded as statiscally insignificant. Nvidia’s claims hold some truth, but only under very specific settings and/or resolutions. They brought more then just FPS gains though
True, but to be fair I only tested one game on nVidia’s list (Bioshock), and I observed a good performance gain there with 4xAA.
If you play the games on nVidia’s list, I have no doubt you could see some good performance gains.