Introduction:Today we will be analysing the performance of both recently released sets of drivers from Nvidia, 182.50 WHQL and the 185.81 Beta set. These both promise gains in performance and bug fixes in the way of release notes. Nvidia recently has released these drivers in the usual tradition of a monthly fix at a minimum and these Beta sets are usually worth a quick peek.

Onwards.. 

New in Release 185.81:

• Adds support for the new GeForce GTX 275 GPU.
• Adds support for Ambient Occlusion – the newest NVIDIA Control Panel feature to offer enhanced 3D gaming realism exclusively to GeForce GPUs.
• Adds support for CUDA 2.2 for improved performance in GPU Computing applications. See www.nvidia.com/cuda for more details.

Accelerates performance in several 3D applications. The following are examples of improvements measured with Release 185 drivers vs. Release 182 drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):

• Up to 25% performance increase in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
• Up to 22% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with antialiasing enabled
• Up to 11% performance increase in Fallout 3 with antialiasing enabled
• Up to 14% performance increase in Far Cry 2
• Up to 30% performance increase in Half-Life 2 engine games with 3-way and 4-way SLI
• p to 45% performance increase in Mirror’s Edge with antialiasing enabled
• Automatically installs the new PhysX System Software version 9.09.0203.

New in Release 182.50:

• Optimized single GPU and SLI support for upcoming PC games.
• Numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release documentation notes.
• Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.
  
  

Performance enhancements with the release of 182 WHQL and up:

• Up to 8% performance increase in Fallout 3 at high resolution and AA.
• Up to 10% performance increase in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
• Up to 9% performance increase in Half-Life 2 at high resolution with AA.
• Up to 11% performance increase in Left 4 Dead at high resolution with AA.
• Up to 10% performance increase in Race Driver: GRID at high resolution and AA.
• Includes full support for OpenGL 3.0 on GeForce 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series GPUs.
• Automatically installs the new PhysX System Software version 9.09.0203.

Predicted performance increases (from 178.24 WHQL):

• Up to 10% performance increase in 3DMark Vantage (performance preset)
• Up to 13% performance increase in Assassin's Creed
• Up to 13% performance increase in BioShock
• Up to 15% performance increase in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
• Up to 10% performance increase in Crysis Warhead
• Up to 25% performance increase in Devil May Cry 4
• Up to 38% performance increase in Far Cry 2
• Up to 18% performance increase in Race Driver: GRID
• Up to 80% performance increase in Lost Planet: Colonies
• Up to 18% performance increase in World of Conflict 

Testing methods

Benchmarks used: 

• F.E.A.R (built in performance tester) - Maximum settings, no soft shadows.
• 3D Mark 06 and Vantage.
• Crysis War Head (benchmark application from here, using the ambush map).
• World In Conflict Standard test ran at "High Quality".
• S.T.AL.K.E.R Clear Sky - Used a custom time demo and recorded the frame rate (average frame rate given).
• Far Cry 2 - built in benchmarking tool.
• Mirrors Edge - Used a custom time demo and recorded the frame rate (average frame rate given).

 Hardware used:

• Intel Q6600 Overclocked to 3Ghz
• Abit IP-35 E
• 4GB of OCZ Plat at 667Mhz (CL4)
• Nvidia GeForce 9600GT
• Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music

 Software:

• Microsoft Windows Vista x64 Ultimate 
• Fraps, for screen captures.

Cards supported by this driver (included .inf):

GeForce GTX 295
GeForce GTX 285
GeForce GTX 280
GeForce GTX 260
GeForce 9800 GX2
GeForce 9800 GTX+
GeForce 9800 GTX
GeForce 9800 GT 
GeForce 9600 GT
GeForce 9600 GSO
GeForce 9500 GT
GeForce 9500 GS 
GeForce 9400 GT
GeForce 9400
GeForce 9300
GeForce 9200
GeForce 8800 Ultra
GeForce 8800 GTX
GeForce 8800 GTS 512
GeForce 8800 GTS
GeForce 8800 GT
GeForce 8800 GS