32 Bit Vista and Win7
http://us.download.nvidia...international-beta.exe
 
64 Bit Vista and Win7
http://us.download.nvidia...international-beta.exe


XP 32 Bit
290.53-desktop-winxp-32bit-international-beta.exe
 
XP 64 bit
290.53-desktop-winxp-64bit-international-beta.exe
 
I'll add additional details as I find them
 
Full release notes:
 
http://us.download.nvidia...ktop-Release-Notes.pdf
 
Release Highlights

This is the second beta release from the R290 family of drivers. For more information, read the 290.53 driver article on GeForce.com.

This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs.

New in 290.53

Optimizations for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

    Increases performance by up to 25% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vs. 290.36 drivers (measured with GeForce GTX 560 at 19x10 Ultra – Indoor Scene). Results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and in-game location.
    Updates the NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to a higher performance profile.
    Added new 3D Vision laser sight /crosshair options to better match Skyrim crosshairs.
    For a full Skyrim tweak guide, visit GeForce.com.

NVIDIA SLI

    Adds SLI profiles for Trine 2, WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship 2011, and Afterfall: InSanity.

3D Vision

    Fixes issues with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 not launching into 3D Vision mode
    Added new 3D Vision laser sight /crosshair options to better match The Elder Scrolls Skyrim crosshairs
    Added or updated the following 3D Vision game profiles:
        AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome – rated Good
        The Adventures of Tintin: The Game – rated Excellent
        Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – rating changed to Fair
        Driver San Francisco – updated settings to work better in 3D Vision
        Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – updated in-game compatibility message
        Hard Reset – updated in-game compatibility message. FXAA x2 and x4 are now supported by the game
        Ignite – rated Good
        Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters – rated Fair
        Jurassic Park: The Game – rated Good
        Orcs Must Die! – rated Good
        PAYDAY The Heist – rated Poor
        PT Boats - Knights of the Sea – rated Good
        PT Boats - South Gambit – rated Good
        Race 07 – updated in-game compatibility message
        Race Room – rated Good
        Serious Sam 3: BFE – rated Poor
        SkyDrift – rated Good
        Star Wars: The Old Republic – rated Good
        Stronghold 3 – rated Good
        Take on Helicopters – rated Fair
        Trine 2 – rated 3D Vision Ready
        Waves – rated Excellent

Key Bug Fixes

    Fixes some random instances of triangular artifacts when playing Battlefield 3 (fix is now enabled for GeForce 400 and 500 series GPUs).
    Fixes a default panel resolution/ timing bug in 290.36.

Other Details

    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.


Supported Products
GeForce 500 Series
GeForce GTX 590, GeForce GTX 580, GeForce GTX 570, GeForce GTX 560 Ti, GeForce GTX 560, GeForce GTX 550 Ti, GeForce GT 545, GeForce GT 530, GeForce GT 520, GeForce 510

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

GeForce 300 Series
GeForce GT 340, GeForce GT 330, GeForce GT 320, GeForce 315, GeForce 310

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

GeForce 100 Series
GeForce GT 140, GeForce GT 130, GeForce GT 120, GeForce G100

GeForce 9 Series
GeForce 9800 GX2, GeForce 9800 GTX/GTX+, GeForce 9800 GT, GeForce 9600 GT, GeForce 9600 GSO, GeForce 9600 GSO 512, GeForce 9600 GS, GeForce 9500 GT, GeForce 9500 GS, GeForce 9400 GT, GeForce 9400, GeForce 9300 GS, GeForce 9300 GE, GeForce 9300 SE, GeForce 9300, GeForce 9200, GeForce 9100

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

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

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

Must have been taken down.  I cant find them.
 

chiptouz


Must have been taken down.  I cant find them.

My bad I had the link wrong. It works now.

Great, no updates for Battlefield 3 SLI profiles again.

Thx Man^^
Really looking forward to test it tonight
 

thx bud

Thank you for the post
 
a -very- extensive Release Notes was nice to see...
To bad the Frame Limiter is still missing
 
Got a tooth pulled today, no testing for me until tomorrow

Hemi is this the "before" the holidays driver we were promised or just a gap filler for a WHQL still to come.

This is still beta by the way.

http://www.geforce.com/Ne...-beta-drivers-released
 
says up to 25% increase in Skyrim performance, but from the charts this is just in indoor areas, outdoors doesn't change hardly at all.

so no improvements for bf3 in this beta?

The WHQL driver got pushed back so Nvidia in order to work on the widespread TDR issues.

Downloaded Hemi thanks.wont install now but later.

Will give this a try... thx

I heard the last 290 beta had issues with X58 motherboards?  Very interested in knowing if this has been resolved.
 

Fiko0
so no improvements for bf3 in this beta?

From the Key fixes section:

Fixes some random instances of triangular artifacts when playing Battlefield 3 (fix is now enabled for GeForce 400 and 500 series GPUs).

 

Just installed these drivers and NVCP won't let me enable 4-way SLI??!?
 
I just restarted the computer and went straight into NVCP to enable 4-way SLI in Surround and it only shows "SLI". Even pressing "Maximize 3D Performance" only brings up SLI.
 
Any ideas on how to fix this? I was on 285.62 WHQL before this. Uninstalled that with YourUninstaller 7 and shredded the NVIDIA folder after uninstalling the drivers. Then, I installed these new betas "as Administrator" and it extracted to the correct location. So, I'm not sure what went wrong.
 
The other thing was that when I installed these new beta drivers, there was no pop-up that asked me if I wanted to go ahead with the install (like it used to for all beta drivers). Is that strange?

rambler358


I heard the last 290 beta had issues with X58 motherboards?  Very interested in knowing if this has been resolved.

I'm running the previous beta drivers on my system and I have an X58 board. I haven't experienced any problems. Everything seems to run fine. What problems were you hearing about?
 
On topic: Can't wait to get home and give these drivers a whirl.

TChittenden II
I'm running the previous beta drivers on my system and I have an X58 board. I haven't experienced any problems. Everything seems to run fine. What problems were you hearing about?

Something I had read from @maniacvvv in his BF3 or driver guide.  I'll be trying out these new drivers when I get home tonight as well.
 

I dunno. I've been playing BF3 religiously lately before and after the last set of BETA drivers and haven't noticed any real performance differences. I am going to go home after work and tweak BF3 a bit though since I just found maniac's BF3 guide

Cool, ima download it later. Thanks for the update

Updated, and ran 3DMark11
Not "Old enough" to link the scores, but here they come.
Results:
Previous driver 290.36
Graphics: 9670
Physics: 9621
Combined: 7967
Total: P9460
 
Current Driver 290.53
Graphics: 9665
Physics: 9616
Combined: 7964
Total: P9455
 
I'll game some, then update if some issues comes up
 

Anyone esle notice this? I posted this over on the driver bug thread on Nvidia's site
 
Seems they've changed the voltage reporting back to what it was several driver revisions ago. Afterburner and Precision now report the voltage I have set in the BIOS versus 1 step higher (1.075) in previous drivers.
Specifically, Afterburner/Precision now reads 1.063 which is the voltage I have set in the BIOS for my OC of 850mhz. 290.36, 285.79, 285.62, 285.38, 285.27, all reported 1.075 for high power 3D clocks. Even more odd is GPU-Z now reads VDDC as 1.050. I'll have to run some stress testing to see if this affects stability.

I havnt noticed anything because im downloading at 50kb's lol big demand for these drivers i guess jeeech.

Hmmmm.  Downloaded them but not yet installed.  I will wait to hear more from you guys.

MANIAC-VVV-'s 290.53 testing report
 
This driverset is a total fail for my x58 EVGA e760 and dual SLI 580's
 
After install I was completly unable to see or activate SLI
 
I tried all the known methods, every trick in my book and on a different OS install... nada.
 
It appeared the Nvidia installer (during multiple installs) had somekind of serious issue, as everytime the install took 3 times as long as normal.
 
I belive this is a bug releated to the x58 platfom for certain users, and I appear to be one of them.
*this "could" be due to the older BIOS (MB) I am running 
 
290.53 is a bork for my system
and I am back on 285.79 (everything is tested working normally) 
 
*As always, as long as you follow the correct uninstall and install methods..
There is never any reason not to try and test a driver and see how it works for your system.
Many users are reporting this BETA driver is working fine for them. I just happen to not be one of them. 
 
** While messing around trying to get 290.53 working, I did happen to see that the Frame Limiter is in this driver, its just not in the Control panel.

Works fine here. It does work better for Skyrim indoors, but indoor performance was never the issue with that game. Skyrim still plays like crap outdoors. 

I took the 290.53 for a spin late yesterday night.
A couple of quick gaming sessions.
Aliens vs Predators, and Front Mission Evolve.
Both ran flawless.
One thing though, when running Front Mission with 290.36, there was a big difference in GPU 1 and 2 temps and load.
The GPU2 could work at 99% load, while GPU1 could be at 10-30%
The temp on GPU1&2 would also differ pritty much.
I was actually planning to place a question about that.
However, with 290.53 the scenario was different.
Both GPU's was totally in synch, almost exact temp and load on both.
 I'm on the X58, and the 290.53 runs really sweet at my place
eh.... so far. 

maniacvvv


MANIAC-VVV-'s 290.53 testing report

This driverset is a total fail for my x58 EVGA e760 and dual SLI 580's

After install I was completly unable to see or activate SLI

I tried all the known methods, every trick in my book and on a different OS install... nada.

It appeared the Nvidia installer (during multiple installs) had somekind of serious issue, as everytime the install took 3 times as long as normal.

I belive this is a bug releated to the x58 platfom for certain users, and I appear to be one of them.
*this "could" be due to the older BIOS (MB) I am running 

290.53 is a bork for my system
and I am back on 285.79 (everything is tested working normally) 

*As always, as long as you follow the correct uninstall and install methods..
There is never any reason not to try and test a driver and see how it works for your system.
Many users are reporting this BETA driver is working fine for them. I just happen to not be one of them. 

** While messing around trying to get 290.53 working, I did happen to see that the Frame Limiter is in this driver, its just not in the Control panel.

Any reason you use 285.79 over 290.36? I've heard 285.79 gives more fps in BF3, can you confirm that? Thanks :)

maniacvvv


MANIAC-VVV-'s 290.53 testing report

This driverset is a total fail for my x58 EVGA e760 and dual SLI 580's

After install I was completly unable to see or activate SLI

I tried all the known methods, every trick in my book and on a different OS install... nada.

It appeared the Nvidia installer (during multiple installs) had somekind of serious issue, as everytime the install took 3 times as long as normal.

I belive this is a bug releated to the x58 platfom for certain users, and I appear to be one of them.
*this "could" be due to the older BIOS (MB) I am running 

290.53 is a bork for my system
and I am back on 285.79 (everything is tested working normally) 

*As always, as long as you follow the correct uninstall and install methods..
There is never any reason not to try and test a driver and see how it works for your system.
Many users are reporting this BETA driver is working fine for them. I just happen to not be one of them. 

** While messing around trying to get 290.53 working, I did happen to see that the Frame Limiter is in this driver, its just not in the Control panel.

Strange...What realtek nic driver are you using? The install and SLI worked fine for me....although it did mess with a couple of the notification icons...specifically sound and network. They both worked it just borked the icons to off. Fixed by disabling the re-enabling both.