Nvidia GeForce 301.42 WHQL Download & Discussion

xavier2k5 · *Last edited by xavier2k5; 05-22-2012 at 12:13.*

Download:

Nvidia GeForce 301.42 WHQL WinVista 7 64bit

Nvidia GeForce 301.42 WHQL WinVista 7 32bit

Nvidia GeForce 301.42 WHQL WinXP 32bit

Nvidia GeForce 301.42 WHQL WinXP 64bit

WinXP Release Notes
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/301.42/301.42-winxp-desktop-release-notes.pdf

WinVista/7 Release Notes
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/301.42/301.42-win7-winvista-desktop-release-notes.pdf

This is the first WHQL-certified unified driver from the R300 family of drivers (versions 300.00 to 301.99).

GeForce R300 drivers are packed with new industry-leading, GeForce-exclusive features as well as some really nice performance increases in top games.

New in R300 Drivers:

New GPU Support:
GeForce GTX 690
GeForce GTX 680
GeForce GTX 670
GeForce GT 600-series GPUs
Performance Boost – Increases performance for GeForce 400 Series and 500 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 296.10 WHQL-certified drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

GeForce GTX 570/580:
Up to 23% in Just Cause 2 with SLI
Up to 21% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Up to 17% in StarCraft II with SLI
Up to 14% in Far Cry 2 with SLI
Up to 9% in Bulletstorm
Up to 7% in Civilization V
Up to 6% in Deus Ex: Human Revolution with SLI
Up to 6% in Dragon Age 2 with SLI
Up to 5% in Metro 2033 with SLI
Up to 5% in Total War: Shogun 2

GeForce GTX 560/560 Ti:
Up to 20% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Up to 15% in Just Cause 2 with SLI
Up to 13% in Far Cry 2 with SLI
Up to 12% in Bulletstorm
Up to 11% in Civilization V
Up to 10% in StarCraft II with SLI
Up to 9% in Batman: Arkham City
Up to 4% in Deus Ex: Human Revolution with SLI
Up to 4% in Dragon Age 2 with SLI
Up to 4% in Metro 2033 with SLI
Up to 4% in Total War: Shogun 2

NVIDIA FXAA Technology – shader-based anti-aliasing technology available from the NVIDIA Control Panel that enables ultra-fast anti-aliasing in hundreds of PC games. FXAA delivers similar quality to 4x multi-sample antialiasing (MSAA) but is up to 60% faster, enabling substantially higher performance in games. FXAA is supported on all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs. Note: This feature is disabled for games that already have built-in support for FXAA. Visit GeForce.com to learn more.

NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync – dynamically enables vertical sync based on your current frame rates for the smoothest gaming experience. Adaptive VSync is supported on all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs. Visit GeForce.com to learn more.

NVIDIA Frame Rate Target – dynamically adjusts frame rate to a user specified target. Support for this feature is enabled via third party applications via NVAPI. Visit GeForce.com to learn more.

NVIDIA Surround Technology – Adds the following new Surround capabilities.Visit GeForce.com to learn more.
Add in a fourth accessory display with GeForce GTX 600-series to get access to your email, web, or other applications while you game.
Maximize an application to a single physical display when in Surround mode (enabled by default).
Confine the Windows Taskbar to the center display (enabled by default).
Enable bezel peeking – a feature which enables users to temporarily peek behind the monitor bezels using a hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + B). This feature is designed to be used in conjunction with bezel corrected resolutions.
Add or remove resolutions from the list of Surround resolutions (only those selected will be available to applications).
Full center display acceleration for single wide display modes (center display must be connected to the master GPU).

NVIDIA SLI Technology – Adds or updates the following SLI profiles:
Alan Wake
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - The Missing Link
Left 4 Dead
Orcs Must Die!
Portal 2
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Risen 2: Dark Waters
The Darkness II
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Crusader Kings II
Max Payne 3
Sniper Elite V2
Street Fighter X Tekken

NVIDIA 3D Vision – Adds or updates the following 3D Vision profiles:
All Zombies Must Die! – rated Fair
Ghosts 'n Goblins Online – rated Good
Oil Rush – rated 3D Vision Ready
Postal III – rated Good
Rayman Origins – rated Good
SevenCore – rated Fair
Stacking – rated Good
Unigine Heaven Benchmark v3.0 – rated 3D Vision Ready
Wargame: European Escalation – rated Good
Warp – rated Good
Wings of Prey – rated Fair
Krater – rated Poor
Adam's Venture Episode 1- rated Poor
Blacklight: Retribution – rated Poor
The Darkness II – updated in-game recommended settings
Depth Hunter – updated profile
Dirt: Showdown – rated Good
Passion Leads Army Benchmark – rated 3D Vision Ready
Resident Evil: Operating Raccoon City – Rated Fair
rFactor 2 – changed rating to 3D Vision Ready
Trackmania 2: Canyon – rated Fair
Unigine 3.0 Heaven Benchmark – updated profile
World of Tanks – changed rating to Excellent.
Other Details

Installs PhysX System Software v9.12.0213.
Installs HD Audio v1.3.16.0.
Supports OpenGL 4.2
Supports DisplayPort 1.2 for GeForce GTX 600-series.
Supports multiple languages and APIs for GPU computing: CUDA C, CUDA C++, CUDA Fortran, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and Microsoft C++ AMP.
Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel and AMD motherboards.

GeForce 600 series:
GTX 690, GTX 680, GTX 670, GT 645, GT 640, GT 630, GT 620, GT 610, 605

GeForce 500 series:
GTX 590, GTX 580, GTX 570, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 560 SE, GTX 560, GTX 555, GTX 550 Ti, GT 545, GT 530, GT 520, 510

GeForce 400 series:
GTX 480, GTX 470, GTX 465, GTX 460 v2, GTX 460 SE v2, GTX 460 SE, GTX 460, GTS 450, GT 440, GT 430, GT 420, 405

GeForce 300 series:
GT 340, GT 330, GT 320, 315, 310

GeForce 200 series:
GTX 295, GTX 285, GTX 280, GTX 275, GTX 260, GTS 250, GTS 240, GT 240, GT 230, GT 220, G210, 210, 205

GeForce 100 series:
GT 140, GT 130, GT 120, G 100

GeForce 9 series:
9800 GX2, 9800 GTX/GTX+, 9800 GT, 9600 GT, 9600 GSO, 9600 GS, 9500 GT, 9500 GS, 9400 GT, 9400, 9300 GS, 9300 GE, 9300, 9200, 9100

GeForce 8 series:
8800 Ultra, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS 512, 8800 GTS, 8800 GT, 8800 GS, 8600 GTS, 8600 GT, 8600 GS, 8500 GT, 8400 SE, 8400 GS, 8400, 8300 GS, 8300, 8200 / nForce 730a, 8200, 8100 / nForce 720a

GeForce 7 series:
7950 GX2, 7950 GT, 7900 GTX, 7900 GT/GTO, 7900 GS, 7800 SLI, 7800 GTX, 7800 GT, 7800 GS, 7650 GS, 7600 LE, 7600 GT, 7600 GS, 7550 LE, 7500 LE, 7350 LE, 7300 SE / 7200 GS, 7300 LE, 7300 GT, 7300 GS, 7150 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7100 GS, 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 620i, 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a, 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 610i, 7025 / NVIDIA nForce 630a

GeForce 6 series:
6800 XT, 6800 XE, 6800 Ultra, 6800 Series GPU, 6800 LE, 6800 GT, 6800 GS/XT, 6800 GS, 6800, 6700 XL, 6610 XL, 6600 VE, 6600 LE, 6600 GT, 6600, 6500, 6250, 6200 TurboCache, 6200SE TurboCache, 6200 LE, 6200 A-LE, 6200, 6150SE nForce 430, 6150LE / Quadro NVS 210S, 6150 LE, 6150, 6100 nForce 420, 6100 nForce 405, 6100 nForce 400, 6100

ION series:
ION LE, ION

Darren Hodgson · 05-22-2012, 12:15 | posts: 9,732 | Location: England

I had a feeling these would be out today. Many thanks for the heads up.

Do we have links for the International Win Vista/7 64-bit drivers yet?

WhiteLightning · 05-22-2012, 12:18 | posts: 20,488 | Location: Netherlands

thanks for the share!

someone at nvidia needs to fix the link for the release note since it links to 301.24 lol

PhazeDelta1 · 05-22-2012, 12:18 | posts: 9,348 | Location: 90° N

Awesome. Testing this out now.

RoadKillNL · 05-22-2012, 12:18 | posts: 2,549 | Location: The Netherlands

I just installed 302.59 damnit! :@

Darren Hodgson · 05-22-2012, 12:23 | posts: 9,732 | Location: England

International Vista/Win7 64-bit drivers: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-...driver-uk.html

Darren Hodgson · 05-22-2012, 12:24 | posts: 9,732 | Location: England

Interesting to see the release notes list improvements for the 500 series and no mention of any for the newer 600 ones.

kcuestag · 05-22-2012, 12:26 | posts: 539 | Location: Spain

Should try these out lets see if they bring any improvements on GTX680 SLI.

Spets · 05-22-2012, 12:31 | posts: 1,439

Might wait for the release notes, who knows how long these were sitting in Ms's lab

WhiteLightning · 05-22-2012, 12:43 | posts: 20,488 | Location: Netherlands

got less points in vantage and hickups with diablo 3 when forcing aa. im gonna reinstall the 302.59 again.

Darren Hodgson · 05-22-2012, 12:45 | posts: 9,732 | Location: England

@ Spets - These are very likely certified versions of the v301.40 beta drivers going by the small increase in version number. As such I doubt they'll contain any significant tweaks or improvements beyond those seen in the v301.40 beta drivers. These should contain the Bully and F1 2010 DX11 fixes found in said v301.40 betas but not in the (older) v302.59 development drivers.

Xelorx · 05-22-2012, 12:51 | posts: 2 | Location: TN, US

Nice, WHQL drivers the day I get my laptop. Only thing is I need the laptop-version if anyone has them, unless nvidia provides this on their site.

Noisiv · **Memory**: 4GB OCZ 5-4-4-4-12

Notebook 301.42 WHQL (Win 7/Vista 64-bit)

http://www.nvidia.com/object/noteboo...ql-driver.html

ricardonuno1980 · *Last edited by ricardonuno1980; 05-22-2012 at 13:03.*

For Win7 x64:
fixed 60Hz and more than 85Hz missed in any resolution by default - remember 301.24beta???

Xelorx · 05-22-2012, 12:58 | posts: 2 | Location: TN, US

Much thanks!

Darren Hodgson · 05-22-2012, 12:59 | posts: 9,732 | Location: England

Has anyone found a link to the correct v301.42 release notes yet as both the XP and Vista/Win links load the v301.24 release notes. Seems the person who uploaded them has dyslexia or something...

ricardonuno1980 · 05-22-2012, 13:04 | posts: 3,576 | Location: Carvalhos (Gaia)

Sorry for forget OS - read again my previous post.

Violentum · 05-22-2012, 13:06 | posts: 16

Downloading now thank you!

ThEcLiT · 05-22-2012, 13:14 | posts: 411 | Location: Where you live

Thanks alot for the links. I will test and feedback here.

(anyone knows what is branch numbers "like r300_XX-XXX" for 300.83 pls? thanks)

nakquada · 05-22-2012, 13:38 | posts: 194 | Location: Kildare, Ireland

Sweet, cheers for these

ViperXtreme · 05-22-2012, 13:49 | posts: 2,701 | Location: Philippines

does this fix the missing forced AO in Skyrim? D:

sapo_joe · 05-22-2012, 13:50 | posts: 172 | Location: Brazil

I'm not downgrading now... I'll wait for the one after 302.59 series... WHQL doesn't mean anything BTW...

Year · 05-22-2012, 13:53 | posts: 11,660 | Location: ♫

even though the release note says 301.42, it's actually same release note of 301.24 whql.

and the drivers offer absolutely nothing new, except including support for all 600 series in one set of drivers, instead of having to use 301.24 for 680, 301.35 for 690 etc

they only had to change the last 2 numbers, infact if you think about it, you'll find 301.24 = 301.42 (the 24 reversed).

this is proven by the fact the drivers are not even offered on the US nvidia website, only europe.

Odellot · 05-22-2012, 13:53 | posts: 140 | Location: Philippines

Does this fix V-sync stuttering?

Darren Hodgson · 05-22-2012, 13:54 | posts: 9,732 | Location: England

Quote:

Originally Posted by sapo_joe

I'm not downgrading now... I'll wait for the one after 302.59 series... WHQL doesn't mean anything BTW...

These drivers are actually newer despite having a lower version number as the v302.59 are from a different branch. I know that the v302.59 drivers do not contain the fixes for Bully and F1 2010 DX11 for example that were included in the v301.40 betas. There are bound to be other improvements too which will eventually be merged into the next v302 beta/official release next month.