NVIDIA Releases WQHL Forceware 178.13 Drivers

NVIDIA Releases WQHL Forceware 178.13 Drivers

Friday, September 26, 2008 - by Marco Chiappetta
NVIDIA has posted a fresh set of Forceware drivers for all of you GeForce owners out there. The new Forceware 178.13s are WHQL-certified drivers for GeForce 6-series, 7-series, 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series GPUs, including the recently released GeForce 9800 GTX+, 9800 GT, 9500 GT and 9400 GT GPUs.

In addition to a number of bug fixes, NVIDIA has updated support for PysX in these new drivers and they also allow for two- and three-way SLI configurations on the Skulltrail platform.

A number of performance enhancement are offered with the drivers as well, which include...
  • Single GPU increases up to 11% in 3DMark Vantage (performance preset)
  • Single GPU increases up to 11% in Assassin's Creed DX10
  • Single GPU increases up to 15% in Bioshock DX10
  • Single GPU increases up to 15% in Call of Duty 4
  • Single GPU increases up to 8% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
  • 2-way SLI increases up to 7% in Bioshock DX10
  • 2-way SLI increases up to 10% in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts DX10
  • 2-way SLI increases up to 12% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
  • 2-way SLI increases up to 10% in World in Conflict DX10
That's a healthy dose of "free" performance if those games are currently on your playlist. I have tried these drivers on my personal Vista 64-bit machine with a 9800 GX2 and on a Vista 32-bit tech machine with a handful of mid-range cards and so far all is well. Go grab 'em if you need 'em.
Via: NVIDIA | News Archive | Tags: Nvidia, drivers, drive, driver
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Comments

By 3vi1 on Sep 26, 2008

WTG nVidia!

I'm wondering if any of these increases will carry over into the Linux drivers. Looks like 177.76 is still the newest there.

By 3vi1 on Sep 26, 2008

Ironically, the same day: http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/604923/nvidia-settles-gpu-price-fixing-class-action-case.html

By recoveringknowitall on Sep 26, 2008

Collusion FTW!!! lol

By Der Meister on Sep 26, 2008

I am running them now and hope to see how stalker runs on them soon

By bob_on_the_cob on Sep 26, 2008

Der Meister:

I am running them now and hope to see how stalker runs on them soon

So is me lady. Seems to be running good on her 9600gt

By zombiemaster on Sep 27, 2008

I'll load 'em up this weekend

By warlord on Sep 26, 2008

All seems good so far for me with these.

By 3vi1 on Sep 26, 2008

Sweet. It would be nice to see HHW run through their own time-demos and post the results so that we can see how honest nVidia was in their estimates.

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge....

By recoveringknowitall on Sep 26, 2008

3vi1:
Sweet. It would be nice to see HHW run through their own time-demos and post the results so that we can see how honest nVidia was in their estimates.
I 2nd the notion.

By bob_on_the_cob on Sep 26, 2008

recoveringknowitall:

3vi1:
Sweet. It would be nice to see HHW run through their own time-demos and post the results so that we can see how honest nVidia was in their estimates.
I 2nd the notion.

3rd! I love to jump on the banwagonEmbarrassed

By Marco C on Sep 28, 2008

Heh...I'm working on an article that's due late Monday evening, so I can't jump on this right away, but I will right after...

By amdcrankitup on Sep 28, 2008

 I,ve downloaded the file will use it at the appropriate time.Hopefully when I get me a 8800 or 9800 on sale when I can afford it! Hey maybe since my daughter has moved back in here she can get it as a Christmas present / Birthday present! Hmmmmmmmmmm.

By bob_on_the_cob on Sep 28, 2008

amdcrankitup:

 I,ve downloaded the file will use it at the appropriate time.Hopefully when I get me a 8800 or 9800 on sale when I can afford it! Hey maybe since my daughter has moved back in here she can get it as a Christmas present / Birthday present! Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Better hit her up for it before the little one arrives. Babies cost a lot of money.Stick out tongue

 

By amdcrankitup on Sep 28, 2008

bob_on_the_cob:
Better hit her up for it before the little one arrives. Babies cost a lot of money.Stick out tongue
 

No doubt when my daughter was born my boy was still in diapers so I had two in them at once! Yikes I think Pampers stock jumped at that time!Everything bottles, formula evrything.Crying, colluck poopy diapers got it all! If I had any sence at that time I should have invested in anything kids because they will always be kids.DA!Super Angry I could have sold of a couple shares and bought me a 280 by now, and a few more toys for the ultimate Rig like RAID! Hm well there you are still poor! Of( financially challenged) sounds beter when I say it that way.Ill just wait for Raid to get rid of is video cards (LOL) on the Old! because he,ll build another one soon!

By mentaldisorder on Sep 28, 2008

Sounds like good stuff.  Impressive increases too.  Makes me wish my lappy had an nvidia gpu.

By Marco C on Oct 1, 2008

Well, I did some quick and dirty tests with the 9500 GT that was sitting in my test system and here's what I found...

3DMark Vantage (Performance Preset)

177.92 - 1729 (overall), GPU Test 1 - 3.69, GPU Test 2 - 4.11

178.13 - 1726 (overall), GPU Test 1 - 3.69, GPU Test 2 - 4.10

Enemry Territory Quake Wars

1680x1050 (4x AA + 16x aniso) 177.92 - 20.4, 178.13 - 20.5 = .5% Increase

1280x1024 (4x AA + 16x aniso) 177.92 - 27.1, 178.13 - 27.3 = .7% Increase

Against older drivers (older than 177.92), the increases in ETQW would probably be larger and Vantage would have some kind of delta. But if you're on top of things and use the beta drivers posted on nZone when they come out, these increases have probably come inrementally over the last few months.

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