The new NVIDIA GeForce 290.36 beta drivers are now available to download. Recommended for gamers diving into Batman: Arkham City , the drivers also add official support for Ambient Occlusion in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Furthermore, a Battlefield 3 fix is included to combat the random appearance of triangular artifacts, a SLI shadow bug is stamped out in Crysis 2, and Settlers 7 corruption is eliminated.

On the tech side, the 290.36 beta drivers enable NVIDIA Surround on newly-released X79 SLI-certified motherboards, and native 3D Vision DisplayPort 1.1 connections are now possible on BenQ XL2420T and BenQ XL2420TX monitors.

As mentioned, the 290.36 beta drivers now allow for the use of Ambient Occlusion directly through the control panel in the two most popular titles of the moment: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

If you're unfamiliar with Ambient Occlusion, it is most easily described as a way to make in-game shadowing more realistic, and therefore better. The effect can be enabled through the NVIDIA Control Panel. Of course, there will be a performance impact, depending on your hardware set up.

Release Notes In Full

NVIDIA Ambient Occlusion

• Adds NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
• Adds NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

NVIDIA PhysX

• Updates PhysX System Software to version 9.11.1107 for the best PhysX experience in Batman: Arkham City.

NVIDIA Surround

• Enables NVIDIA Surround support for Intel X79 SLI-certified motherboards.

NVIDIA SLI

• Added or updated SLI profiles for Crysis 2, Heroes and Generals, Inversion, Stronghold 3, and Syndicate.

3D Vision

• Adds support for 3D Vision over native DisplayPort 1.1 connection - available on BenQ XL2420T and BenQ XL2420TX monitors.
• Added or updated the following 3D Vision game profiles:
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Rated Good
• Cang Sheng – Rated Good
• Diablo 3 – Rated Good
• Fei fei – Rated Good
• Final Combat – Rated Good
• L.A. Noire – Updated Rating To 3D Vision Ready
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 – Rated Fair
• Qian Nv You Hun Online – Rated Good
• QQ Xi You – Rated Good
• Sonic Generations – Rated Good
• Xian Tu – Rated Good
• Yong Bing Tian Xia Online – Rated Good

HD Audio

• Updates HD Audio driver to version 1.3.9.0.

Bug Fixes

• Fixes random flickering as Windows boot logo is loading or fading away.
• Fixes corruption in Crysis 2 with SLI and lower quality shadow settings.
• Fixes ability to set Surround resolutions to 5760x1080 using custom resolutions.
• Fixes some random instances of triangular artifacts when playing Battlefield 3.
• Fixes corruption and flickering of some objects in Battlefield 3 in the New York single-player level when anti-aliasing is enabled.
• Fixes corruption seen in Settlers 7 with the NVIDIA 275.33 drivers.
• Fixes playback of videos or live TV using Window Media Center resulting in a black screen.
• Fixes the issue where 1920x1080 @60Hz PC resolution mode switched down to @59Hz.
• Fixes mouse cursor flickering and shaking in Crysis 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Deus Ex and Civilization V when SLI is enabled when using 3DTV Play.

Click here to download the GeForce 290.36 beta drivers.