This is a WHQL-certified release from the Release 256 family of drivers (versions 256.xx to 259.xx). This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, and 400-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs.  .

New in Release 258.96
- Adds support for GeForce GTX 460 .
- Adds support for NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround technology.
- Adds additional performance increases for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games (these improvements are in addition to the previously reported Release 256 improvements). The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured with GeForce GTX 480. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
- Up to 11% in Aliens vs. Predator (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
- Up to 7% in Crysis: Warhead (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Gamer)
- Up to 4% in H.A.W.X (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Very High)
- Up to 10% in Just Cause 2 (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF - Concrete Jungle)
- Up to 6% in Metro 2033 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
- Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
- Up to 10% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
- Up to 12% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
- Up to 4% in World in Conflict (SLI – 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
- Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0224.
- Upgrades HD Audio driver version 1.0.15.0 (for supported GPUs).
- Includes numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.
- Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver.

New in Release 256 Drivers
- Adds support for Blu-ray 3D with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.
- Increases performance for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games. The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured with GeForce GTX 480. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
- Up to 14% in Aliens vs. Predator (1920x1200 noAA/AF – Tessellation on)
- Up to 4% in Batman: Arkham Asylum (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF PhysX=High)
- Up to 5% in BattleForge (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Very High settings)
- Up to 5% in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
- Up to 4% in Crysis: Warhead (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Enthusiast setting)
- Up to 24% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (1920x1200 no AA/AF)
- Up to 9% in Far Cry 2 (2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF)
- Up to 25% in Just Cause 2 (2560x1600 no AA/AF - Concrete Jungle)
- Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1920x1200 no AA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
- Up to 40% in Metro 2033 with SLI ((1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
- Up to 8% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920x1200 no AA/AF – Day)
- Up to 110% in Stone Giant with SLI (2650x1600 – Tessellation on, DoF on)
- Up to 6% in The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena (2560x1600 no AA/AF)
- Up to 9% in Unigine: Tropics (2560x1600 no AA/AF – OpenGL)
- Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Performance and Extreme Presets)
- Up to 19% with Transparency AA (1920x1200 4xTrSS – measured in Crysis)
- Adds support for OpenGL 4.0 for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs.
- Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.1 which includes significant performance increases for double precision math operations. See CUDA Zone for more details.
- Adds support for new extreme Antialiasing modes for 3-way SLI PCs, including up to SLI48x AA for GeForce 200 series GPUs and up to SLI96x AA for GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs.
- Adds support for a new ‘Quality’ mode for NVIDIA’s Ambient Occlusion control panel feature.
- Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel setup page for SLI and PhysX for ultimate control over multi-gpu configurations.
- Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel feature for ultimate control over CUDA GPUs, allowing the user to effectively choose which GPU will power each CUDA application.

Additional Information:
- Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5 .
- Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash 10.1.
- Supports the new version of MotionDSP's video enhancement software, vReveal, which adds support for HD output. NVIDIA customers can download a free version of vReveal that supports up to SD output.
- Supports DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
- Supports OpenCL 1.0 ( Open Computing Language ) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
- Supports OpenGL 3.3 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
- Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.
- Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software .

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