{"id":1703,"date":"2008-12-04T13:56:38","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T13:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=1703"},"modified":"2009-03-16T13:54:06","modified_gmt":"2009-03-16T13:54:06","slug":"nvidia-big-bang-driver-geforce-18048","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/nvidia-big-bang-driver-geforce-18048\/","title":{"rendered":"nVidia Big Bang Driver (GeForce 180.48)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--pagetitle:Introduction--><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong> <\/span> <\/span> <strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As I finished off part 2 of my GTX260+ review (image quality analysis), I decided to do a quick test of nVidia\u2019s recently released Big Bang driver (180.48). The Big Bang driver makes the GTX260+ more competitive with the 4870 in newer titles and nVidia claims performance gains of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Up to 10% performance increase in <em>3DMark Vantage<\/em> (performance preset). <\/li>\n<li>Up to 13% performance increase in <em>Assassin&#8217;s Creed.<\/em> <\/li>\n<li>Up to 13% performance increase in <em>BioShock.<\/em> <\/li>\n<li>Up to 15% performance increase in <em>Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.<\/em> <\/li>\n<li>Up to 10% performance increase in <em>Crysis Warhead.<\/em> <\/li>\n<li>Up to 25% performance increase in <em>Devil May Cry 4.<\/em> <\/li>\n<li>Up to 38% performance increase in <em>Far Cry 2.<\/em> <\/li>\n<li>Up to 18% performance increase in <em>Race Driver: GRID.<\/em> <\/li>\n<li>Up to 80% performance increase in <em>Lost Planet: Colonies.<\/em> <\/li>\n<li>Up to 18% performance increase in <em>World of Conflict.<\/em> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t test all of those games (in fact I only tested <em>Bioshock<\/em>), but I did test a range of other titles.<\/p>\n<p>The test setup is exactly the same as <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=1261\" target=\"_blank\">part 1 of\u00a0my GTX260+ review<\/a>, and I\u2019ve picked a selection of benchmarks that were done in that article and retested them with the 180.48 driver as a comparison.<\/p>\n<p>The color-coding in the text charts is as follows: <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">blue<\/span> <strong><\/strong> means 178.24 wins; <span style=\"color: #ffff99;\">yellow<\/span> <strong><\/strong> means the 180.48 driver wins.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--> <!--pagetitle:Direct3D (Current)-->\u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Direct3D (Current)<\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1699 aligncenter\" title=\"d3d-new-chart1\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-new-chart1.png?resize=280%2C323\" alt=\"\" title=\"d3d-new-chart1\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-new-chart1.png?resize=280%2C323 280w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-new-chart1-260x300.png 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1700\" title=\"d3d-new-graph1\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-new-graph1.png?resize=635%2C563\" alt=\"\" title=\"d3d-new-graph1\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-new-graph1.png?resize=635%2C563 635w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-new-graph1-300x265.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/> <br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">In <em>Bioshock<\/em> (one of nVidia\u2019s listed titles) the Big Bang driver delivers a nice <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">9.03%<\/span> <strong><\/strong> performance gain with 4xAA and a smaller performance gain when using 8xAA. I use 4xAA when I play <em>Bioshock<\/em> so that performance gain will be handy when I next replay the game. <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> also sees a small performance gain which again is handy, given it\u2019s a very demanding title. The rest of the tests have basically no change aside from <em>Stalker<\/em>, which sees a small performance drop.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also worth noting that when I was playing through <em>Call of Duty 4<\/em> with this driver, I noticed large triangle artifacts in the sky in one spot in the \u201cAll Ghillied Up\u201d level, near the church tower where you snipe the sniper. I tried to take a screenshot the next day but I couldn\u2019t replicate the problem, so it was probably random occurrence rather than a consistent driver glitch.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--> <!--pagetitle:Direct3D (Legacy)--><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Direct3D (Legacy)<\/strong> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1697\" title=\"d3d-legacy-chart1\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-legacy-chart1.png?resize=267%2C186\" alt=\"\" title=\"d3d-legacy-chart1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\">\u00a0\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1698\" title=\"d3d-legacy-graph1\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-legacy-graph1.png?resize=637%2C322\" alt=\"\" title=\"d3d-legacy-graph1\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-legacy-graph1.png?resize=637%2C322 637w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/d3d-legacy-graph1-300x151.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>With slightly older Direct3D games utilizing 8xMSAA, there is a large performance gain in <em>Serious Sam 2<\/em>. I wasn\u2019t expecting this so I was pleasantly surprised. The performance gain is substantial enough in actual gameplay that I can go from my previous setting of 16xCSAA to 8xMSAA when playing the game. There is also a slight performance gain in <em>Call of Duty 2<\/em>, while the other games were basically unchanged.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--> <!--pagetitle:OpenGL--><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">OpenGL<\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1701\" title=\"ogl-legacy-chart1\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/ogl-legacy-chart1.png?resize=265%2C221\" alt=\"\" title=\"ogl-legacy-chart1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/> \u00a0<br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\">\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1702\" title=\"ogl-legacy-graph\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/ogl-legacy-graph.png?resize=635%2C403\" alt=\"\" title=\"ogl-legacy-graph\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/ogl-legacy-graph.png?resize=635%2C403 635w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/ogl-legacy-graph-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I had hoped this driver would address the abysmal 8xMSAA performance in OpenGL, but clearly that isn\u2019t the case. The scores are virtually unchanged from the previous driver. If you\u2019re not sure what I\u2019m referring to, see the <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=1261&amp;page=6\" target=\"_blank\">OpenGL 8xMSAA tests<\/a> in part 1 of my GTX260+ review, where you\u2019ll see the 260+ is overall slower than the much\u00a0weaker 4850.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--> <!--pagetitle:Conclusion--><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Conclusion <\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d recommend installing the 180.48 driver. If you have a large gaming library and\/or you play any of the games on nVidia\u2019s list, you\u2019ll almost certainly get a free performance gain somewhere, and that\u2019ll add value to your hardware investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=1703\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=top title=\"Author: BFG10K\" src=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/article-image1.png\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7814,7],"tags":[245,281,244,282,123,121],"class_list":["post-1703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-technology","tag-245","tag-281","tag-big-bang","tag-forceware","tag-gtx260","tag-nvidia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}