The new driver also adds a new and improved version of TXAA anti-aliasing to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Assassin’s Creed III, allowing GTX 600 Series users to maximize image quality and eliminate unsightly temporal aliasing in two of the year’s most popular games. Furthermore, there’s a new Sparse Grid Supersampling feature for all GeForce GTX users that improves image quality when using the advanced anti-aliasing technique, and for SLI users there are new Hawken, Hitman: Absolution, Natural Selection 2 and Primal Carnage profiles.

Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8 packages are available for desktop systems, and for notebooks there are Windows 7 and Windows 8 downloads that cover all non-legacy products.

Nvidia is improving performance by up to 26% in twenty games. Leading the charge in the 310.54 beta driver is a 26% boost for the upcoming and eagerly-anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which hits stores tomorrow, followed by an 18% boost for The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, a 17.8% boost for Assassin’s Creed III, which arrives in stores November 20th, and a 12.9% boost for Battlefield 3.

• Aliens vs. Predator: Performance increased by 3.4% at 1920x1080 when using max settings, tessellation, and Advanced Shadows.
• Assassin’s Creed III (Pre-Release Build): Performance increased by 17.8% at 1920x1080 when using max settings and Normal Anti-Aliasing, by 7.1% at 2560x1600 using the same settings, and by 9.8% at 1920x1080 when using max settings and Very High Anti-Aliasing.
• Batman: Arkham City: Performance increased by 7.6% at 1920x1080 when using Very High detail settings, Tessellation High, PhysX High and FXAA High. At 2560x1600, using 4xMSAA, performance increased by 5.2%.
• Battlefield 3: Performance increased by 13% at 1920x1080 when using Ultra settings in a single-player Paris benchmark; at 2560x1600 an improvement of 7.9% was recorded. Using High settings, an improvement of 15.3% was registered at 1920x1080.
• Borderlands 2: Performance increased by 5.3% at 2560x1600 when using max settings and PhysX High. At 1920x1080 performance increased by 3.3%.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2: Performance increased by 26% at 1920x1080 when using max settings and 8xMSAA. At 2560x1600 performance increased by 24.1%.
• Civilization V: Performance increased by 23.7% at 2560x1600 in a late-game benchmark using max DirectX 11 settings.
• DiRT 3: Performance increased by 4.3% at 1920x1080 when using Ultra DirectX 11 settings and 8xMSAA.
• Dragon Age 2: Performance increased by 8.5% at 2560x1600 when using max settings.
• Hard Reset: Performance increased by 3.6% at 1920x1080 when using Ultra settings and FXAA.
• Just Cause 2: Performance increased by 3.2% at 1920x1080 when using max DirectX 10 settings and 8xMSAA.
• Medal of Honor: Warfighter: Performance increased by 5.7% at 1920x1080 when using High settings.
• Metro 2033: Performance increased by 4.6% at 1680x1050 when using max DirectX 11 settings, Depth of Field, and Advanced PhysX.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat: Performance increased by 4.7% at 2560x1600 when using Extreme settings. At 1920x1080 performance increased by 4.2%.
• Shogun 2: Total War: Performance increased by 3.5% at 2560x1600 when using max DirectX 11 settings, and by 3.3% at 1920x1080.
• Sniper Elite V2: Performance increased by 3.5% at 2560x1600 when using max settings, AA High, and 2.5x Supersampling. Without Supersampling, performance increased by 3.8%.
• StarCraft II: Performance increased by 6.2% at 1920x1080 when using Ultra settings.
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena: Performance increased by 18% at 2560x1600 when using max settings.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Performance increased by 5% at 2560x1600 when using Ultra settings in an indoor scenario, and by 4.7% at 1920x1080.
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: Performance increased by 3% at 1680x1050 when using max settings and anti-aliasing. At 1920x1080 performance increased by 2.8%.
• Unigine Heaven 3.0: Performance increased by 3% at 1920x1080 when using max DirectX 11 settings and Extreme Tessellation. At lower settings and resolutions performance increased by up to 4%.

• Assassin’s Creed III (Pre-Release Build): Performance increased by 5% at 1920x1080 when using max settings and Normal Anti-Aliasing.
• Batman: Arkham City: Performance increased by 3.9% at 1920x1080 when using Very High detail settings, Tessellation High, and 4xMSAA.
• Battlefield 3: Performance increased by 9.8% at 1920x1080 when using High settings in a single-player Paris benchmark; at 1680x1050 an improvement of 10.3% was recorded. Using Ultra settings, improvements of 8.1% and 7.7% were recorded at 1680x1050 and 1920x1080, respectively.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2: Performance increased by 23.8% at 1920x1080 when using max settings and 8xMSAA. At 2560x1600 performance increased by 23.3%.
• DiRT 3: Performance increased by 3% at 1920x1080 when using Ultra DirectX 11 settings.
• Dragon Age 2: Performance increased by 4.7% at 1920x1080 when using max settings and 8xMSAA.
• Hard Reset: Performance increased by 4.5% at 1920x1080 when using Ultra settings.
• Medal of Honor: Warfighter: Performance increased by 4.3% at 1920x1080 when using High settings.
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena: Performance increased by 8.7% at 2560x1600 when using max settings.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Performance increased by 7.4% at 1920x1080 when using High settings in an outdoor scenario; at 2560x1600 an improvement of 7.3% was recorded. Using Ultra settings, improvements of 4.8% and 4.5% were recorded at 1920x1080 and 2560x1600, respectively.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 & Assassin’s Creed III TXAA Anti-Aliasing

Last March Nvidia announced a new form of advanced anti-aliasing called TXAA, exclusive to Kepler-based GTX 600 series video cards. Utilizing a custom anti-aliasing resolve, a temporal filter, and Multisample hardware anti-aliasing, TXAA is designed to remove almost all aliasing from a scene, and eliminate temporal aliasing, the distracting movement of aliased lines when the player’s viewpoint is in motion in-game.

With today’s 310.54 beta driver installed, Kepler GTX 600 series users will be able to enjoy the full in-game TXAA support of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Assassin’s Creed III.

NVIDIA Fullscene Sparse Grid Supersampling Anti-Aliasing Enhancement

Several years ago Fullscene Sparse Grid Supersampling Anti-Aliasing was added to the GeForce drivers as an advanced anti-aliasing option for those with high-end systems. When enabled and correctly configured, SGSSAA significantly increases the quality of Multisample Anti-Aliasing, helping remove aliasing that even 8xMSAA struggles with.

Configuring SGSSAA to reach this level of detail can at times be tricky due to the need to counteract texture blurring that occurs when using the technique. With a Negative LOD Bias, applied via NVIDIA Inspector, texture quality can be restored, but unfortunately the correct value can only be ascertained through trial and error. But with the latest drivers, users need only enable Sparse Grid Supersampling in the profile of a compatible game in NVIDIA Inspector, and the new feature will do the rest.

New SLI Profiles

• Hawken – Added SLI profile
• Hitman: Absolution – Added SLI profile
• Natural Selection 2 – Added SLI profile
• Primal Carnage – Added SLI profile

The GeForce 310.54 beta drivers also include a few new bug fixes, and a PhysX package compatible with older titles, such as Trine, Unreal Tournament III, and Metro 2033.