Latest NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Drivers for Windows 8

[IownAmoneyPit]

NVIDIA's GTX 680 Intermittent VSYNC Stuttering Issue To Be Fixed In Next Driver - Legit Reviews

Unfortunately, there is a stuttering bug on the GTX 680 card (I have two in two different machines.) I have to stick to the beta 304.48 NVidia driver (which fixes the bug) as the Win8 driver release notes don't say a damn word about the bug.

The release notes for the 302.82 driver only claim stuttering with the GT 520 on certain settings but if you say you have two 680's installed on 2 different machines with stuttering issues I'll believe you before the release notes.

 

[johnpombrio]

Articles : New GeForce 304.48 Beta Driver Gets You Ready For Summer Gaming | GeForce

Here is the official word about the GTX 680 stuttering bug being fixed. Since the beta driver also improves gameplay (the only reason to have the card in the 1st place), then I will stick with the Win7 Beta driver.
I saw the stuttering bug once I THINK, but no reason to ignore a fix.
Funny thing is that I do not see a problem with any of the things that NVidia are saying that they "fixed" with the Win8 drivers. No reason to load them at all IMHO.

 

[Brink]

New NVIDIA 304.79 BETA drivers released for Windows 8. See first post for more details.

 

[Captain MDS]

I've got these new drivers freshly installed on my new installation of RP (I just added a SSD in my computer and some memory so I had to reinstall everything), and this is what WEI gives me :

On my previous installation (which was made on top of my old W7) I had something like 7.7 in both graphic scores.
3D games work fine though (Batman Arkham City tested and works nearly as it was on my old W7)

However I experience some recurring "small lags" from time to time in games (and since I switched for W8), even in low-demanding ones like Rayman Origins (2D plateformer), whereas it runs smoothly on my E-350-powered Netbook (!!) also running on the Release Preview.
And it seems like I can"t get GPU-acceleration in Adobe CS6 softwares like Premiere Pro or After Effects, the latter tells me CUDA (and OpenCL but I'm just guessing for that one) isn't available on my machine.

Any clues/infos about that ?

 

[Squuiid]

New NVIDIA 304.79 BETA drivers released for Windows 8. See first post for more details.

Yep, the 304.79 beta drivers are horrible, you'll get BSODs in games. Stick with the 302.82 WHQL drivers, they may say they're for Win8 RP but they work perfectly in RTM.

NVIDIA DRIVERS 302.82WHQL

 

[johnpombrio]

I have had ZERO problems with the 304.79 BETA driver for my GTX 680 on a bunch of games...

 

[Mustang]

I used NVIDIA online search to get the latest drivers for my video card for Win8. Originally I had 3 GTX video cards SLI linked, but removed two due to BSODs and error messages re video stopped working.

Even just using one card, and despite downloading and doing a clean install of the drivers recommended by NVIDIA, the screen would periodically go purple, and sometimes lock up, and I'd need to force reboot. Other times it would say video experienced a problem and stopped working, but has now restarted.

It seems to be OK for awhile, then the problem recurs for no apparent reason. I'm also using an Intel Extreme mobo and i7, 6 core, 12 thread extreme CPU and 12GB RAM.

 

[Squuiid]

I have had ZERO problems with the 304.79 BETA driver for my GTX 680 on a bunch of games...

If you own it, try Crysis Warhead for 10mins at max settings. Guaranteed BSOD on 304.79 on a GTX590 in Windows 8. Switch to 302.82 and no BSOD, I can play for hours.

 

[johnpombrio]

I have had ZERO problems with the 304.79 BETA driver for my GTX 680 on a bunch of games...

If you own it, try Crysis Warhead for 10mins at max settings. Guaranteed BSOD on 304.79 on a GTX590 in Windows 8. Switch to 302.82 and no BSOD, I can play for hours.

Google "crysis warhead bsod" Crysis is notorious for beating graphics cards to an inch of death! With a GTX590 hammer of a card with cooling a priority, I could certainly see the issues. But it's not just NVidia or one particular driver or card that has this problem if you start reading through the posts. Stick to what works for you. Eventually I will load Crysis 2 back up and see what happens.

 

[Squuiid]

Your post isn't really relevant. While I agree Crysis is system heavy, it is very clearly a driver issue and nothing more. If one driver works perfectly and the other BSODs then it has nothing to do with the system load or cooling and everything to do with the beta driver itself.

 

[Centurion86]

I can confirm I also have had lockups and automatic reboots caused by the latest WHQL driver. I have installed the latest beta to see if that helps in anyway.

 

[johnpombrio]

Latest Beta driver is out . GEForce 306.02 Beta . Includes Win8 in the driver name...
Drivers | GeForce

 

[Brink]

Thank you John. First post updated.

 

[davidvoyage]

Downloading the beta version now...
Do I need to uninstall the beta driver before updating to the final version when it'll become available?

**EDIT**
FYI, I'm using GT 335M geforce card. And the nvidia website recommend me to download the 302.80 driver instead. Should I download the 302.80 or the Beta version? (I'm using Windows 8 Pro MSDN)

 

[Brink]

Hello David,

Usually you can just install the new version to update your current one.

I'd say give the beta a try and see how it works for you. If you have any issues, then you could just uninstall it and install the 302.80 WHQL one.

 

[TheGrantFitz]

My experience with the beta drivers hasn't been bad, but lag on games such as Minecraft, on a solid state PC. One BSOD, but on windows 8, it's adorable!

 

[davidvoyage]

To my surprise, the newest beta driver(306.02) failed to install!
Error message before installation(During System Check phase): "The NVIDIA graphics driver is not compatible with this version of Windows."

 

[TheGrantFitz]

To my surprise, the newest beta driver(306.02) failed to install!
Error message before installation(During System Check phase): "The NVIDIA graphics driver is not compatible with this version of Windows."

are you sure you have the newest version of 8 and no system files are missing?

 

[davidvoyage]

To my surprise, the newest beta driver(306.02) failed to install!
Error message before installation(During System Check phase): "The NVIDIA graphics driver is not compatible with this version of Windows."

are you sure you have the newest version of 8 and no system files are missing?

Yes, my windows 8 Pro is from MSDNaa(Dreamspark Premium) and is fully activated.

System files missing? I don't know how to verify that...

I just installed the older version(302.80)and it works!
But the NVIDIA driver website cannot detect my driver version though...

 

[johnpombrio]

An ATTA boy for NVidia from a site testing the gaming performance of Win8:

In terms of driver quality, I have to commend NVIDIA for releasing a perfect-working, rock stable Windows 8 driver, even though it is still marked as beta. AMD's first Windows 8 WHQL certified driver doesn't do so well here. We spotted a significant performance loss in Crysis 2, limiting maximum FPS to 63 - no matter the resolution. Other games work fine though; this seems to be a limited issue.

Microsoft Windows 8 Gaming Performance Review | techPowerUp