New Nvidia 331.40 BETA Drivers Released (BF4 Beta Ready)

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ay-driver-feedback-thread-released-9-30-13-/1

 

You beat me to it!

I will however say this:

Desktop:
XP 32bit: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/331.40/331.40-desktop-winxp-32bit-english-beta.exe
XP 64bit: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/331.40/331.40-desktop-winxp-64bit-english-beta.exe

Windows 8/Vista/7 32bit: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windo...top-win8-win7-winvista-32bit-english-beta.exe
Windows 8/Vista/7 64bit: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windo...n8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-beta.exe

Notebook:
Windows 8/7 32bit: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/331.40/331.40-notebook-win8-win7-32bit-international-beta.exe
Windows 8/7 64bit: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/331.40/331.40-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-beta.exe

Release Notes:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/331.40/331.40-win8-win7-winvista-desktop-release-notes.pdf

 

i dont post the desktop anymore as all you get is a few shout the driver has crashed their lappy and it turns out they didnt read and downloaded the desktop driver instead.

 

this driver messes up when sli is enabled. Wont allow you to boot to desktop. Something about enabling CSM in the bios fixes it. Beware if you have sli that once you enable it you may have to boot into safe mode and wipe the drivers to fix it.

 

Just installed them, gave me an error on the first install after the reboot for clean install option, but installed fine the second try. Will try a few games a bit later after finishing some work.

 

compared to whql 314.22

3dmark06 dropped 639
vantage dropped 628
3dmark11 dropped 11
ice storm dropped dramatically from 92907 to 86176 -6731
cloud gate dropped 341
fire strike went up wahoo 84

this doesnt look good.

 

I guess their motto for this driver was, "BF4 and screw everything else." Still, I try to avoid BETA drivers.

 

first beta ive loaded on this year old lappy. will revert back if readings are the same tomorrow if i get a chance to run them. think i might be in game instead.

 

SLI issues try Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) V7.7.1


"Bugs for 331.40

1379957 - TDR in SLI mode with UEFI enabled upon reboot/driver install (will be fixed in next beta release. Disable UEFI as temporary workaround)"

 

a link to the post where that comes from - https://forums.geforce.com/default/...hread-released-9-30-13-/post/3957733/#3957733

how does one disable UEFI anyways? I don't even know what it is >_<

 

Spent a bit of time playing BF3 with these this afternoon knocking off some rust before BF4 beta, all seemed well, no issues. Can't comment on absolute performance as I limit framerate to 60fps, but things stayed totally smooth and load/temps seemed normal, could be better, not sure, but no worse than 327. Seemed stable, played three matches without issue.

 

Nvidia did some kind of magic with this driver, as FPS increased by almost 20% in BF3 for me and GPU usage went way up. Components are running a little hotter now but I'm not worried about that. I now get almost 100% SLI scaling in the custom single player timedemo (accurate within +/- 0.5 FPS) I use to bench, whereas before I was only getting around 80%. Oh yeah, no issues with SLI and UEFI here. Hopefully, these optimizations continue during BF4's lifespan, but what they've already shown with this single driver update is extremely promising.

 

So, anyone got performance values for BF4? Interested in seeing if my 680m will be able to beat out possible PS4 performance.

 

bf4 2013 10 01 14 08 10 46 - YouTube will be available in about 20 mins, when it finishes uploading.

Latest beta drivers, config in signature, fraps settings (capture @ 30 fps). Strange hiccups as can be seen. GPU @ stock clocks.

 

Huh, Neogaf thread on BF4 apparently suggesting that the new Beta drivers are significantly worse for BF4. Most are saying to revert back to the last set, pre 331.

 

My SLI works fine, but this is the first driver ever installed on this computer. Also, there's a LOT of flickering in my games. Like, not natural. Some games break entirely and black screen me for 10-20 seconds before recovering. I am gonna assume it's the driver, as it's happened on just about every game I tried except Terraria (Borderlands 2, Paranautical Activity, Black Ops 1 SP, BO1 MP, BO1 zombies, Trine 2, sleeping dogs, Beat hazard). I think I'll try a downgrade soon, because it's not very nice T-T.

 

You need to disable UEFI as a temporary workaround to get rid of the TDR's in SLI. This is a known bug of this driver and will be fixed in the next update. Otherwise, I'm sticking with this for the time being as a 20% increase in BF3 performance is nothing to sneeze at. The game feels incredible right now, much more fluid than before. I haven't had time to fire up the BF4 beta yet.

 

Yeah I'm underwhelmed by this latest driver branch. I was hoping for more improvements in other games or maybe some new features but it seems that Battlefield 4 was their only priority. Shame, as I have no interest in multi-player only games despite how pretty it looks. Guess I'll have to wait for the next driver branch, which probably won't arrive until December

 

Well given how popular bf4 is, I'm just glad they were able to release a driver in time for the beta. I agree it sucks for other games, but keep in mind that a TON of people will be playing the beta (premium itself had over 2 million total, and the open beta starts in a few days). So while it isn't for everyone, it's for a lot haha.

 

No good for me (Lenovo y500 with a single GT 750m)
Games run fine, but when my laptop is connected to a external monitor, it hangs on bootup for 1-2 minutes before getting to desktop. Works fine without external monitor and works fine when I reinstalled the 327.23 drivers.

 

BF4 crashes before level load

BF3 does the same

How ironic lel

 

Actually, I have to negate my previous post about SLI. I used svl7's bios for my cards and I get NO problems in any game I've tried it with, regardless of windowed mode, fullscreen, borderless, etc. No artifacting at all. Even fixed my keyboard backlighting being broken too. However now that I can run it, 327.23 has an issue in BF4 for me where it drops my gpu to 5-10% load for about 3 seconds or so, causing a dip to 5fps then a jump back up to about 50-60.

Also, the game REALLY does not want to go above 70-80% gpu utilization. In windowed mode, it'll use 50 and give me the same 50-60 fps. I don't get it. I won't be using the 331.40 drivers anymore due to this one working better in almost all cases (even without the bios flash, that driver was... weird to me) but I will check out any later ones they have, that aren't rushed. I have no dying need to play that game. It's a lot improved from BF3, but it could do with some fine-tuning on how fast people die compared to how slow and deliberate every other movement and action is in the game. But otherwise the netcode and everything are really good. I'm legitimately surprised.

 

Using these drivers and svl7's vBIOS on my single 780m and get steady 90-99% GPU utilization. Guess your utilization is SLI related?

 

Driver working fine for me, no issues. Although no improvement in frame rates for the built in benchmarks within the following games: Metro Last Light, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, Batman Arkham City, F1 2012, Hitman Absolution. Frame rates exactly the same as the last whql driver.

 

I've experienced some crashes with BF4, but I don't know what it is related to. And I seem to be able to only join certain servers, not all of them, which may be a "punkbuster" bug or something. As for other games: I ran the Tomb Raider benchmark and averaged 39~ FPS with everything maxed out at stock speeds/clocks. I haven't been able to test anything else except BF4 and Tomb Raider, but both run smooth. This weekend I plan to install Crysis 3 and some other GPU/CPU intensive games to see how it turns out.

 

485M here - I installed these and my screen went white. They suck pretty bad.

Also, 327.23 seems to cause .mkv, mp4 etc. video files to stutter, more so when I'm multitasking. Any ideas?

 

Are you ticking the clean install checkbox?

 

Yep. I did.

I wonder if I have to do the real clean install (ie. uninstall/reboot safemode/sweep/etc.)

 

I may not mess with it though while its in beta....got any ideas on why video would stutter when hooking up to my TV via HDMI?

 

I'm having problems with running some games with these drivers. Specifically, Resident evil 5, launched from steam. The game will run for about 20 or so seconds and then lock up. I tried reinstalling the drivers, no luck. I have an m18x r2 680m sli. If someone else has this game, can they see if these drivers work for them for this game?

 

Some games do it, some games do not. I would assume so, however once I pass 50% on each card I supersede what I get on a single card... though I could OC a single card far more than dual. I'll say once I can pass 60% on each card I surpass what I get with one. Most games do pass 60%, so that isn't an issue.

Also, weirdly enough, Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition seems to enjoy using more of my slave video card than my primary video card. I will never understand this about it.

 

Also do keep in mind that any sort of multi-GPU technology is going to have some CPU overhead, which should be obvious if you understand how it works.