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<\/a>This driver performance evaluation will give us a natural comparison of the driver performance improvements for the GTX 500 series including SLI over the last driver set.\u00a0 Representing the Nvidia cards, we will test the GTX 580 and the GTX 590 so as to give us a sampling of the highest performing cards including multi-GPU.<\/p>\nWe are using our overclocked Core i7-920 at 3.8 GHz and we use the same settings that we used for our Introducing the New Phenom II 980 BE vs. Core i7-920<\/a> article. This time we are testing with the GTX 590 which uses two downclocked GTX 580 cores in SLI. The percentage of change from upgrading the drivers should remain about the same for any capable CPU platform.<\/p>\n Nvidia is quite proud of these drivers as they bring a lot of new features to GeForce drivers including automatic updates. In fact, Nvidia released an introduction to the then beta 270.25 drivers (over v266.58) a couple of weeks ago where they tout some pretty impressive improvements from many of the same games that we are going to test for you now – in fact, all of their games are on our list, except that we are benching Left 4 Dead (1) <\/em>instead of Left for Dead 2<\/em>.:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get right to the test configuration, the driver’s release notes and the tests.<\/p>\n Test Configuration<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Test Configuration – Hardware <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Test Configuration – Software<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n The Benchmarks<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Please note that we are using the same settings that we used for our Introducing the New Phenom II 980 BE vs. Core i7-920<\/a> article last month except as noted. Three new games have been introduced to our benching suite since then including, Civilization 5, Shogun Total War II <\/em>and DiRT3<\/em>. As with all of our other games, in-game settings are maxed except where noted and levels of AA are noted on the performance summary charts; 2xAA for Shogun II <\/em>and Civilization 5<\/em> and 8xAA for DiRT 3<\/em>.\u00a0 The performance changes result solely from upgrading each driver from the previous one.<\/p>\n The other main changes we see in the new drivers are performance increases – not only with the GeForce 500 series in games, but extreme performance increases with 3D Vision and in 3D Vision Surround.\u00a0 We are going to cover 3D Vision in an upcoming evaluation this month but can let you know now that everything about 3D Vision has improved with their 275.33 driver release including ease of installation!<\/p>\n Lets look at some of the release notes from Nvidia regarding GeForce 275.33 before we head to performance testing.<\/p>\n Always check the .pdf release notes for specific issues and resolved and unresolved issues.<\/p>\n Release Notes (v275.33)<\/a><\/p>\n What follows are release note highlights<\/em> from Nvidia’s site. You may find them here<\/a> and it is also where to begin to download the GeForce drivers for your specific system.<\/p>\n This is the first WHQL-certified release from the Release 275<\/em> family of drivers (versions 275.xx to 279.xx). You can read more about this family of drivers on GeForce.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs. This driver package also includes the 3D Vision Controller driver.<\/p>\n New in Release 275.33<\/strong><\/p>\n GPU Support<\/strong><\/p>\n Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n GeForce GTX 580 <\/span>GeForce GTX 560:<\/span><\/ul>\n NVIDIA Update<\/strong><\/p>\n Desktop Scaling<\/strong><\/p>\n NVIDIA 3D Vision <\/strong><\/p>\n Other <\/strong><\/p>\n Let’s head to the charts and see if the promised performance improvements that Nvidia has made are realistic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Benchmarks & Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Here are our results of 33 benchmarks – 30 games and 3 synthetics – compared between GeForce 270.61 and 275.33 using the GTX 580 and the GTX 590.<\/p>\n “Wins” are in bold<\/strong>; if there is a tie, both results will be in bold type.<\/p>\n We have to also give our highest recommendation to the latest GeForce drivers. In most cases they provide excellent performance increases with no real negatives that we have encountered. We will be back to compare performance of\u00a0 the new GeForce WHQL drivers when they are (probably) released next month and we shall also cover AMD’s Catalyst 11-6 later on this month when it is released.\u00a0 We also have a new contest scheduled for June with great prizes!! Happy gaming!<\/p>\n Senior ABT Editor<\/p>\n Mark Poppin<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Please join us in our Forums<\/a><\/p>\n Become a Fan on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n For the latest updates from ABT, please join our RSS News Feed<\/a><\/p>\n Join our Distributed Computing teams<\/p>\n<\/a>We are going to test GeForce 275.33 using our current benchmark suite of 30 games plus three synthetic benchmarks, Heaven 2.5, 3DMark11 and Vantage.\u00a0 Our testing platform is Windows 7 64-bit using Intel Core i7-920 at 3.80 GHz, 6 GB DD3, and our Nvidia video cards are a GTX 580 and a GTX 590.\u00a0 All of the games are tested at two of these three resolutions: 2560×1600, 1920×1080, 1680×1050; with 16xAF, and we use DX11\/10\/10.1 whenever possible.<\/p>\n
\nTest Configuration & Driver Release Notes<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n
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New Features of GeForce 275.33<\/h2>\n
<\/a>First of all, Nvidia’s icon has again been returned to the Windows desktop as a tray icon for easy access to the Nvidia control panel.\u00a0 And automatic driver updates are welcomed beginning with the 270 driver series as the end user has complete flexibility to turn them off or modify the notifications and actions of the updater.<\/p>\nRelease Notes Highlights for GeForce 275.33<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\n<\/a>We note some real performance improvement with the new drivers in many games. Looking at Nvidia’s list, we find generally that we share similar improvements – but also with undocumented significant performance increases in Shogun II<\/em> and in DiRT 3<\/em>. \u00a0 We also noted that rendering is back to normal in Call of Pripyat<\/em> with the GTX 590.\u00a0 This is the first set of significant improvements involving multiple games that we have noticed from a driver release in several months. We also appreciated very useful features in Nvidia’s GeForce 275.33 over 270.61 and we recommend that you download and upgrade to the very latest drivers no matter which Nvidia video card that you have!<\/p>\n\n
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