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Using GeForce GTX 580 for 720p and 1080p Stereo 3D Gaming

Bloody — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:17:55 +0000

It has been over a month already since the official introduction of the GeFocre GTX 680 video card and the demand is still quite high, so that these models are still out of stock in most places and you can usually find them in places that sell them for more than the recommended end user price. It would be strange is Nvidia is still not able to provide enough supply a month after the initial launch, so I’m going to be benchmarking the GeForce GTX 580 here. The idea is to find how well the GTX 580 card performs in stereo 3D mode with the more recent games and if it really is already outdated or you can wait a few more months for better availability and pricing of the GTX 680, or maybe even skip the GTX 680 and go directly to GTX 685/690 or why not even 7xx…

I’ve started doing the following tests with the idea to see how well is the GTX 580 handling 720p resolution with 4xAA (Anti-Aliasing) in order to see if the card is still powerful enough for people using 3D-capable projectors or 3D HDTVs for gaming in stereoscopic 3D mode. You know that the 3D-capable TV sets and 3D-capable projectors limit you to 720p resolution with high-enough (50/60Hz) refresh rate for gaming in stereo 3D mode, unlike 3D monitors, most of which do support 1080p 3D mode with 60 fps. And in the process I’ve decided to also compare with 1080p mode using no AA as well as to give a stereoscopic 3D rating to the games I test with. And the list of games grew to 20 popular and more demanding game titles released roughly in the last 6-8 months, regardless of them being 3D ready or not. So in the end I’ve managed to do a few things, do some performance comparison using a single GTX 580 card in 720p and 1080p 3D mode and check the situation of the 3D support for some of the popular games released recently.

In the table above you can see the results from my testing that took quite a while more than I initially have planned, and I do plan to extend it even further in the next few weeks of time. Note that the fps listed in the table are the ones achieved in stereo 3D mode with 60 fps being the maximum (120 frames per second in total, 60 for each eye to get the 3D effect). The benchmarking at 1080p 3D mode is with the games running at high detail settings with no AA, unless the game does not allow you to completely turn it off. For 720p 3D mode the games were running again in high details, but with 4xAA applied in order to compensate for the more easily visible jagged edges that the lower resolution produces. Have in mind that some games had a frame caps and others needed to have the AA forced trough the Nvidia control panel in order for them to work, so have in mind this when you see the lower framerates with some games. The 3D Rating is something that I quickly devised based on my personal requirements for a good stereoscopic 3D experience, the things that I expect to see in a game, with the maximum rating being 10 points and the minimum 1. A game with a rating of 1 would be actually unplayable in stereoscopic 3D mode, a rating of 5 is on the edge of ensuring decent playability in stereo 3D mode with some tweaking of the settings in the game and a rating of 10 would mean perfect stereoscopic 3D experience. As you can see there are no tens, but there is a game with a rating of 1 and quite a few with 5 or less, but there are also a lot with higher ratings as well, meaning that things are not so bad when talking about stereoscopic 3D compatibility.

Have in mind that all the benchmarking has been done using the games with no tweaks, mods or fixes of any kind in order to give an idea about what experience the user can get out of the box when he gets a game and tries to play it in stereoscopic 3D mode. There are some annoying things and limitations that could easily be overridden like the 30 fps frame cap limits in Alice Madness Returns or L.A. Noire, or get a better experience in stereoscopic 3D mode using user mods like the ones available for Skyrim or Mass Effect 3 that can help in getting much better experience. Not to mention different performance tweaks and optimizations that can help you get better looking graphics, more details or even higher fps without sacrificing visual quality. But as I’ve said, the idea was to get an adequate overview of the situation with out of the box game compatibility and performance in stereoscopic 3D mode and I think I’ve managed to do it quite decently.

And now for a bit of statistics. Out of 20 games that I’ve tested with 10 are with rating of 8 or 9 out of 10, meaning that they are looking very good in stereoscopic 3D mode and that is half of the titles that I’ve used and I did not specifically go for games that are being optimized for 3D, but instead for games that were released roughly in the last 6-8, are more popular and generally more demanding in terms of performance. There are some games that are on the edge with a rating of 5-6, but for some of them such as Mass Effect 3 using some user made modifications you can get much better stereoscopic 3D experience. There are also some games with very low rating that are practically unplayable in stereo 3D mode due to some serious issues and I’m actually quite disappointed, because sports simulators such as NBA or FIFA could benefit a lot from proper stereoscopic 3D support and that also goes for other sports games as well. Other games like Alan Wake for example started quite bad in terms of stereoscopic 3D support (although the developer of that particular one was claiming good S3D support), but they have been improving the situation a bit by bit with updates, so in a few more updates the game might actually movie among the titles with twice as high 3D rating than the one it currently has. Some other games have already walked this way, for example Dirt 3 and Hard Reset weren’t working very well in stereo 3D mode at first, when they were released, but with updates the experience in S3D mode that they now provide has been significantly improved.

And now back to the GTX 580, definitely still more than capable for stereoscopic 3D gaming and will be for quite a while actually. Have in mind that the results in the table above have been made on a system running Intel Core i5 2500K CPU on an Asus P67 motherboard and neither the processor, not the video card have been overclocked for the testing – they were running on stock speeds. So you can get even higher framerates after overclocking your hardware and if you already have a second GTX 580 in SLI, then unless you are using 3D Vision Surround setup, there is even less reason to upgrade at the moment. However if you are still using a GTX 480 or a slower card form the 400 or 500 series, then upgrading to GTX 680 or the upcoming slightly slower models might be a good idea, especially considering the fact that the latest GeForce 600 series GPUs are coming with some new useful features, along with the improved performance and the reduced power consumption.

Alienware Updates Its Gaming Laptops with GeForce 600M Graphics

Bloody — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:27:36 +0000

Alienware has updated its gaming laptops with the new Nvidia GeForce 600M series graphics, so now you can configure your Alienware M14x, Alienware M17x and Alienware M18x. Starting with GeForce GT 650M graphics available on Alienware M14x, GeForce GTX 660M or GTX 675M on Alienware M17x and Alienware M18x where you can also have a dual GeForce GTX 675M in SLI. Now, in theory this means higher performance, lower power consumption and less heat, however in practice this may not be exactly like that. Have in mind that the GTX 675M is based on a revised Fermi 40 nm architecture while the GTX 660M is currently the fastest mobile GPU based on the new Kepler 28 nm architecture, so in order to get less power consumption and heat you might want to go for the 660M instead of the 675M GPU as in terms of performance between the two the difference should not be that significant. You can check out the full specifications of the new series 600 mobile graphics from Nvidia to see what are the differences between the latest Nvidia mobile GPUs.

The important model from the Alienware product range is the Alienware M17x that has an option for stereoscopic 3D support using a 120Hz LCD panel and 3D Vision. Have in mind that that model also has an configurable option for AMD Radeon HD 7970M GPU and that does not include stereo 3D support. If you want to get the Alienware M17x laptop with a 120Hz LCD display and 3D capability you’d need to go for either the GeForce GTX 660M graphics and a basic stereo 3D-capable setup with that GPU will cost you at least $1899 USD. For a stereo 3D-capable Alienware M17x using the GeForce GTX 675M graphics the starting point is $2499 USD, that is with the minimum specs ensuring 3D Vision support for the system, you can go higher if you go for more extras and higher specs. If you want to get a 3D-capable gaming laptop with dual GeForce GTX 675M video cards in SLI you might want to check out Maingear Titan 17 3D gaming laptop as currently Alienware only offers such configuration in their bigger and non 3D-capable M18x model.

New GeForce 301.24 Beta Drivers Bring New Features to Old GPUs

Bloody — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:31:21 +0000

Nvidia has just released new R300 beta drivers in the form of 301.24 that bring most of the new features introduced with the GeForce GTX 680 GPUs to owners of older graphics hardware such as the GTX 580 or GTX 590 back to GeForce 8-series. This means you will get access to NVIDIA FXAA, NVIDIA Adaptive VSync, and NVIDIA Frame Rate Target and all NVIDIA Surround-capable GPUs now support the new NVIDIA Surround features, like the ability to use a fourth accessory display for example.

The new NVIDIA’s FXAA anti-aliasing technique can now be enabled for games that does not feature built-in support from the Nvidia Control Panel allowing better image quality at a reduced performance drop. FXAA can be up to 60% faster than 4xMSAA and provide similar or even better anti-aliasing, so definitely a better choice especially for more demanding games and especially when using AA in stereo 3D mode. It is of course not as good as what the latest TXAA technique can provide, but if you don’t have the latest GPUs, then even being able to enable FXAA is an improvement over the MSAA.

The new NVIDIA Adaptive VSync feature is an automated technique that disables VSync (Vertical Synchronization) when frame rates fall below the locked rate (60 or 120 for example), and re-enables it when they return to the locked rate resulting in significant reduction of stuttering whilst still preventing tearing. This means that you are going to be getting much less noticeable stuttering when the framerate drops while using Adaptive VSync, although it will not be completely gone, it will be much better than when using traditional VSync where the framerate might be constantly jumping between 30 and 60 fps trying to stay for as much as possible at one of these values resulting in micro stuttering.

The new NVIDIA Frame Rate Target will allow you to limit a game’s frame rate to a specific value and the video card will try to keep up that framerate, not trying to go over it. This feature requires some extra software such as EVGA Precision X and using it can help you resolve problems when playing old games by keeping them maxed out at a lower framerate than they may try to achieve, or even as an alternative to VSync by locking the maximum framerate to 60 or 120 fps (depending on your monitor) preventing tearing. The ideas behind this feature is that there is not much point for the GPU to render let’s say 2000 fps at a game’s menu or trying to achieve a higher framerate than you need – having some power and lowering the heat and noise level of the video card when there is no need for it to be maxed out for full performance. The owners of GeForce GTX 680 can benefit more as this function also takes advantage of the GPU Boost technology to dynamically overclock and underclock the GPU based on the performance level currently required.

The new NVIDIA Surround Enhancements features include: the ability to use of a fourth “Accessory Display”, the ability to maximize applications to a single physical display, the ability to have the Windows Taskbar to stay only on the center display, the ability to “Peek” behind monitor bezels, the ability to play single-screen games with full acceleration on Surround setups and the add or remove some of the extra Surround resolutions that you may or may not need. Of course on older generations of GPUs before GTX 680 you would still need to have either a multi-GPU video card or at least two cards in SLI in order to drive a Surround setup with three displays, only on the GTX 680 you can do it with a single card.

There are also some SLI profile updates as well as new and updated 3D Vision profiles included in the GeForce 301.24 beta drivers in order to get you better performance and thus an experience when playing in stereoscopic 3D mode:

- All Zombies Must Die! – Rated Fair
- Ghosts ‘n Goblins Online – Rated Good
- Krater – Rated Poor
- Oil Rush – Rated 3D Vision Ready
- Postal III – Rated Good
- Rayman Origins – Rated Good
- SevenCore – Rated Fair
- Stacking – Rated Good
- Unigine Heaven Benchmark v3.0 – Rated 3D Vision Ready
- Wargame: European Escalation – Rated Good
- Warp – Rated Good
- Wings of Prey – Rated Fair

Thanks Nvidia, now I have even less reason to upgrade my dual GTX 580 SLI setup to GTX 680s… ;)

- To download and try the new GeForce 301.24 Beta drivers with all the new features…

YouTube Expands Its 2D to 3D Autoconversion Beta Features

Bloody — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:42:43 +0000

Last year YouTube has introduced a new function allowing users to upload 2D videos and then have them autoconverted from 2D to 3D by YouTube and today this beta functionality has been further expanded. Now every user can select to see an automatic 2D to 3D conversion for short-form videos uploaded in 1080p resolutions, there is no more need for the owner of the clip to select that he wants it autoconverted.

You can activate the 2D-to-3D autoconversion feature by clicking on the Options icon (the one with a gear) in the player and then clicking on the 3D button that will appear on the left. When you activate the 3D autoconversion feature of YouTube you will be able to select from less available resolutions up to 720p. It seems that the 3D button does not yet appear on all 1080p videos, so it may take some time, but you can test with the embedded YouTube video above – it already works. It is a quite different thing however how good the autoconversion to 3D is, it may work well on some videos and not that good on others, so if you are interested you can experiment with multiple videos.

- For more information about the new 2D to 3D autoconversion beta feature…

Maingear Titan 17 is a New 3D Vision-Ready Gaming Laptop

Bloody — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:06:10 +0000

Maingear is the next company to announce a high-end 17-inch 3D-capable gaming laptop with support for 3D Vision that you can customize, similar to what Origin PC has recently done with their EON17-X3D 3D Vision Gaming Laptop. And much like the Origin PC’s solution, Maingear also uses the same bulky desktop replacement chassis made by Clevo – the Clevo P270WM, but the new thing here is that you can build the system to use the recently announced GeForce GTX 675M GPU – single or dual cards in SLI. Have in mind though that the GTX 675M is not based on the new Nvidia Kepler architecture and is not produced using the 28nm process, it is just a new revision of the Fermi architecture and the basic specifications are pretty much the same as the ones of GTX 580M. Alternatively you can go for a NVIDIA Quadro 5010M, but that will add quite a lot to the price and it is not an available option for the 3D model. You can of course decide if you want to get the 120Hz 3D-capable Full HD display or stick with a 60Hz model, the 120Hz is required if you plan on being able to play games in stereo 3D mode though and you can add a pair of 3D Vision 2 glasses. The minimum price you’d have to pay for a 3D-capable Maingear Titan 17 system with a pair of 3D vision glasses is $2878 USD with a single GTX 675M and the estimated shipping date is currently set for 4/29/2012 if you order it now.

- For more information about the 3D Vision Ready Maingear Titan 17 gaming laptop…

Now You Can Upload and Share Your 3D Videos at 3DVisionLive.com

Bloody — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:44:50 +0000

Nvidia has added the new functionality to upload not only user made stereo 3D photos, but also user made 3D videos in the 3DVisionLive community without needing to have your own channel or having your videos pre-approved by Nvidia. There are of course some rules you will need to comply with when uploading your videos, so check them out here, and you can upload videos with a maximum size of 1024MB (1GB) or 5 minutes in length. They need to be in MP4 file format. Have in mind though that there are separate registrations required for uploading 3D photos and 3D videos on the 3DVisionLive, so you may have to make a new registration if you were only uploading 3D photos so far.

I did a quick test uploading a short 3D Video shot with the LG Optimus 3D smartphone – 720p Side by Side with half horizontal resolution and it was ready and available, although it seems I’m having some trouble playing it. The user uploaded videos use a different player than the standard 3D videos already available, and currently I seem to be getting only black screen with it, while the other 3D videos are playing just fine. The player does have an option to play the video in Anaglyph, Side by Side or 3D Vision mode, so you may be able to watch videos even on 3D HDTV or a normal PC without 3D Vision on it. And if you don’t like the end result after the video is available online you have the option to delete it, so go ahead and try uploading your 3D videos now.

- Go to 3DVisionLive to try out the new stereo 3D video uploading feature….

The New Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 (Kepler) Finally Making an Appearance

Bloody — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:05:30 +0000

Nvidia has just officially announced their new flagship GPU, the GeForce GTX 680 based on the new Kepler architecture and manufactured using 28nm process. The video cards based on the new graphics processors offer increased performance over the previous generation of Fermi and the flagship GTX 580 as well as numerous improvements and new features. Below I’ve prepared a short list of thee specifications of the new GTX 680 GPU as compared to the previous GTX 580 single GPU flagship from Nvidia, so you can easily compare what has changed.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 Specifications:

Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 680 2GB
Graphics Processing Clusters: 4
Streaming Multiprocessors: 8 ^-8
CUDA Cores: 1536 ⁺¹⁰²⁴
Texture Units: 128 ⁺⁶⁴
ROP Units: 32 ^-16
Graphics Clock: 1006 MHz ⁺²³⁴
GPU Boost Clock: 1058 MHz
Memory Clock (Data rate): 6008 MHz ⁺²⁰⁰⁰
L2 Cache Size: 512KB ^-256
Total Video Memory: 2048MB GDDR5 ⁺⁵¹²
Memory Interface: 256-bit ^-128
Total Memory Bandwidth: 192.26 GB/s ^-0.14
Texture Filtering Rate (Bilinear): 128.8 GigaTexels/sec ^+79.4
Fabrication Process: 28 nm
Transistor Count: 3.54 Billion ^+0.54
Connectors: Dual-Link DVI-I, Dual-Link DVI-D, HDMI 1.4 High Speed, DisplayPort 1.2
Form Factor: Dual Slot
Power Connectors: 2x 6-pin
Thermal Design Power (TDP): 195 Watts ^-49
Thermal Threshold: 98 degrees C
Bus Interface: PCI Express 3.0

* The superscript numbers in green and red show the change as compared to the specs of GTX 580.

I don’t want to go too much into detail about changes in the new Kepler architecture, as I’m sure not a lot of people are actually interested too much into such technical details. I just want to mention a few things and then will go to the more interesting part, namely the new features that the GTX 680 offers over the previous generation. There has been a significant change in the basic modules that build-up the GPU in the Kepler and as a result you get more CUDA cores and there is no more a separate shader clock available, there is just one clock frequency for the GPU, although there are changes in how it functions as well. And while the number of CUDA cores has been essentially tripled you should not expect to get three times the performance of a GTX 580 with a single GTX 680, as there are other important things that are responsible for the overall performance that a video card can provide… there are the Texture and ROP units as well, and then there is the memory frequency and bandwidth. Looking at the specs of the new GTX 680 you may notice that the operating frequency of the memory chips has been increased significantly, but the width of the memory bus has been reduced, so essentially the memory bandwidth remains pretty much the same as it was with the GTX 580. So instead of tripling the performance you should expect something more like 1.5x up to 2x the performance of the previous generations of GPU, depending on the usage scenario of course, although that would require some extra testing to confirm, especially when using in stereo 3D mode.

And now a it for some of the new features. One interesting thing is the GPU Boost functionality that is supposed to control in real time the operating frequency of your graphics processor, so that it can maximize the performance you get whenever you need it. Automatically increasing the working frequency of the GPU when a certain application is not optimally loading the graphics card, so you can squeeze some more performance. And since the GPU Boost cannot be disabled by the user, it will ultimately change the way you overclock the video card, especially considering that there are no more two different frequencies for the GPU anymore. And while you cannot disable the GPU Boost, you can control how it works, making you get the most out of your video card in terms of performance even when you overclock it. But thanks to the GPU Boost function and the extra electronics used to monitor the current utilization, temperature and power consumption of the GTX 680 you also get some neat new extras such as the ability to limit the maximum framerate in a 3D application to lets say 60 or 120 fps (NVIDIA Frame Rate Target). So you can look at the GPU Boost as not only something that can help you get the most out of your GPU, but also a function that can help you save power and resources when you actually don’t need them. Because when you limit the maximum framerate there is usually no need for the video card to use all of its processing power to maintain that framerate and thus it will run cooler and more silent.

Another new thing is the improvement in the Anti-Aliasing modes that you get at your disposal in order to get rid of the jaggies and get smoother looking image in games. Aside from the FXAA mode that is also supported, the new GTX 680s introduce the two new TXAA modes that bring better quality AA than MSAA with less performance hit. Another interesting new feature is the Adaptive VSync that can help you smooth out the transitions when the framerate drops below a certain level, something that with no VSync or with normal VSync usually leads to tearing of the image. And while Adaptive VSync may not be able to completely eliminate the tearing when framerate drops significantly it can help reduce it greatly making it not so apparent and even hardly noticeable if you are not paying special attention in most of the cases. So another good thing if you are a gamer and going for GTX 680 if you are not a gamer may seem like something a bit pointless to do.

And here comes another very interesting new feature – the Single GPU 3D Vision Surround. Since the GeForce GTX 680 is now capable of driving four independent monitors at the same time you are now able to create a 3D Vision Surround with just a single video card, no more need of at least two GPUs in SLI to drive the 3D Vision Surround. Have in mind though that the GTX 680 has Dual-Link DVI-I, Dual-Link DVI-D, DisplayPort 1.2 a HDMI 1.4 High Speed interfaces. Obviously you can’t use the HDMI 1.4 HS interface for a 3D Vision Surround setup, so the third display needs to be connected either through the DisplayPort or with a DP to DL-DVI adapter. The HDMI 1.4 High Speed interface should be capable of providing more than the 1080p 24Hz 3D mode that the normal HDMI 1.4 interface currently supports, however you would also require a 3D monitor supporting it and there are still no such consumer products available apparently. There are also some improvements in the Surround support, for example you can use a fourth accessory display together with the surround for showing your email for example or something else while playing, although switching to that monitor can be a bit tricky. Also you finally get the taskbar displayed only on the center display when using a Surround setup, and the ability to maximize windows only in a single display and not on all three (user selectable) and these are apart of software improvements actually, so you should be getting them available on older hardware as well. There is also a new Bezel Peek function to allow you to briefly see in-game menus or objects that may appear hidden due to the use of bezel correction by using a hotkey, there is also faster display acceleration when using only a single display in a surround setup as well as an improvement in the list of resolutions you get active when using a Surround setup, so you will not be bothered by a huge list resolutions that you need to go through. One thing that I’ve almost missed is the DirectX 11.1 support, but should you actually care that it is supported by the hardware, not really at the moment as it is nothing major for now.

The new GeForce GTX 680 from Nvidia is definitely a good improvement not only in terms of performance, but also in terms of new features that can help you get the most out of your gaming experience, including in stereoscopic 3D mode as well. It is more powerful and more energy efficient as compared to the previous generation and brings some new useful features that are surely going to be interesting for gamers. The new GeForce GTX 680 should be available with a price of about $499 USD already and I hope to be able to soon get the card to test and provide you with some benchmarks of the 680 in stereoscopic 3D mode, so stay tuned for more about that…

Toshiba Qosmio X870 3D-capable Gaming Laptop Coming Soon

Bloody — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:48:12 +0000

Toshiba has announced an upcoming 17.3-inch gaming laptop in the form of Qosmio X870 that will be equipped with a 120Hz LCD panel and support Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology. What is interesting about this announcement is the fact that Toshiba does not yet announce what kind of GPU the laptop will have inside, they just say “Next generation NVIDIA GPUs”, neither they say what will be the CPU inside, just “Latest Intel processors”. This information, along with the fact that the Toshiba Qosmio X870 should be available from Q2 2012 means just one thing, this laptop should most likely be getting the much anticipated and rumored a lot mobile Kepler graphics along with Intel’s new Ivy Bridge mobile platform…

Toshiba Qosmio X870 details:

- Latest Intel processors
- Next generation NVIDIA GPUs
- 17.3″ (43.9cm) TruBrite Full HD screen with LED backlighting (1920x1080p, 16:9, 5ms response time)
- Up to 2TB hard drive or hybrid drive SSD option
- Optional Blu-ray ROM or DVD SuperMulti drives
- Resolution+ upscaling technology
- 4x USB 3.0 including 2x Sleep-and-Charge USB
- HDMI, RGB connectivity
- Gigabit Ethernet LAN
- Bluetooth 4.0
- Dedicated headphone port & microphone port with Sleep-and-Music
- Full HD web camera with Face Recognition
- Red backlit tiled keyboard
- Large clickpad with multi-touch control
- Harman Kardon stereo speakers with Slip Stream technology, SRS Premium Sound 3D

And apart from using a 120Hz Full HD LCD panel, bundles with 3D Vision active shutter glasses, the new mobile gaming solution from Toshiba should also come with HDMI 1.4 support for use with 3D HDTVs and 2D to 3D conversion functionality for DVD movies. It has not been yet revealed if the Toshiba Qosmio X870 laptop will feature a second generation of 3D Vision glasses and if the display will be supporting the 3D Lightboost technology. And considering the fact that Toshiba did not actually have a lot to say about the most important specs of the laptop you’d think that they should’ve at least used the opportunity to talk about these features. So we’ll have to wait for the official release of the laptop to get the full details and meanwhile I’m still wondering what did Toshiba tell us all with this announcement, aside from the fact that they plan to release a new 3D Vision-ready gaming laptop… not much actually.

New GeForce Beta Driver 296.17 for Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Bloody — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:01:53 +0000

About two weeks ago Microsoft has made available the Windows 8 Consumer Preview for download, so that everyone interested can test the early preview version of the OS and now Nvidia has just released a full set of drivers for all of their GPUs. The just released GeForce Beta Driver 296.17 are available for both GeForce and Quadro GPU-based desktops and notebooks on Nvidia’s website as well as on Microsoft’s Windows Update. Windows 7, vista and Windows XP users aren’t left out either. An equivalent driver, version 296.10 (WHQL-certified) is also available from today with it and the Windows 8 version being a quick refresh in terms of features and support from the recently released version GeForce 295.73 drivers. The new GeForce version 296.10 drivers add 3D Vision support for the following games: Dear Esther – Rated Good and Deep Black: Reloaded – Rated 3D Vision Ready.

The new Nvidia Windows 8 video drivers support all the features of the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) v1.2 and also support the 3D Vision and 3DTV Play products, allowing you to play more than 600 games, watch Blu-ray movies and view photos in 3D. With Windows 8′s new built-in stereoscopic 3D support in DirectX 11, 3D Vision is poised to provide users the best platform for games and applications according to Nvidia.

And now for some more details about what features are supports and what not in the new Windows 8 Consumer Preview drivers from Nvidia based on the information available form Nvidia:

What 3D Vision features are available right now on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview?
Currently all fullscreen 3D Vision and 3DTV Play functionality is available on Windows 8 Consumer Preview. This include games, 3D Vision Photo Viewer, 3D Vision Video Player, and Blu-ray 3D. 3DVisionLive.com and 3D Vision window mode support will be available at a later date.

I read that Windows 8 now natively supports stereoscopic 3D. What applications can I use to test that?
Please use the samples from MSDN to test Windows 8 native 3D support: Direct3D stereoscopic 3D sample

I noticed Microsoft now has a stereoscopic 3D option on their display properties control panel. How do I enable 3D Vision on Windows 8 Consumer Preview?
Please use the traditional NVIDIA Control Panel > Set up stereoscopic 3D options to enable 3D Vision and 3DTV Play.

What 3D Vision features are enabled on Windows 8 Metro user interface?
The current NVIDIA Windows 8 Consumer Preview drivers do not support these products. We are working on drivers to support these products later this year. The feature support will include 3D Vision Photo and Video Player applications and also 3D applications.

Is NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround supported on Windows 8 Consumer Preview with the current 3D Vision drivers?
Yes, 3D Vision Surround is fully supported with the latest drivers.

Are “Optimized for GeForce” products such as glasses free 3D notebooks and passive 3D monitors supported on Windows 8?
The current NVIDIA drivers for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview do not support these products. We are working on drivers to support these products later this year.

Are 3D Vision DLP HDTVs 3DTV Play supported in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview?
The current NVIDIA Windows 8 Consumer Preview drivers do not support these products. We are working on drivers to support these products later this year.

I do not see a checkbox for stereoscopic 3D in the Microsoft Control Panel. How do I enable it in Windows 8?
After a clean install of the NVIDIA drivers, please reboot the system and the checkbox should show up.

I updated to Windows 8 and I can no longer play Blu-ray 3D movies. How can I fix this?
Blu-ray 3D players – such as Cyberlink, Roxio, and ArcSoft – need to be updated to support Blu-ray 3D playback on Windows 8. Please consult your software manufacturer to ensure you are using a version that supports Windows 8.

- You can download the latest Nvidia GeForce video drivers form here…

The Unigine Heaven Benchmark Now With 3D Vision Surround Support

Bloody — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:34:02 +0000

Unigine has released a new version of their popular DirectX 11 benchmarking software called Heaven, a piece of software that can put significant load on your hardware, no matter how powerful it is. The Heaven benchmark is one of the best looking benchmarks that can also take advantage of the latest graphics technologies such as tessellation and stereoscopic 3D support. The newest version of the benchmark builds on top of that and ads some new features among which is an enhanced 3D Vision support (already introduced a while ago) as well as an improved support for multi-monitor configurations including the introduction of support for the Nvidia 3D Vision Surround setups (multi-monitor stereoscopic 3D). Of course the Heaven benchmark also supports multiple other stereo 3D modes besides 3D Vision, it can already work in anaglyph 3D mode or Side by Side, even iZ3D monitors are supported. There is a free basic edition of Unigine’s Heaven benchmark that you can download and use and the commercial pro version of the software only adds some extras that might be of interest to professionals using Heaven for serious benchmarking. It is interesting to note that the Heaven DX11 Benchmark software is based on the company’s Unigine graphical engine, meaning that all that you see in the benchmark can be realized in an actual game with the game engine, including stereoscopic 3D support. And quite recently Unigine have also released a game of their own based on that engine that also supports stereo 3D, the game is called Oil Rush. If you haven’t seen it already you are welcome to try it out, it comes with a very good stereoscopic 3D support and although there are some minor things needed to be fixed the game still looks very nice.

- To download the new version of the Unigine Heaven Benchmark software…

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