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Nvidia Forceware 180 Series Preview
Ever since we got our hands on the 180.10 Forceware drivers, we were wondering whether it will be what Nvidia has been talking about, the "Big Bang II". "Big Bang II" drivers has thus far, rumoured to enable SLI with multi monitor support. Has it been implemented in this first set of 180 Forceware drivers? The answer is yes, they have but they are still limited, maybe due to its beta status. In this small article, we will zoom into what this driver will offer in terms of SLI with Multi monitor support and the performance effects of implementing multi monitor in SLI mode.
Test Bed:
- OS: Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 x64
- CPU: C2D E8600 @ 4.4GHz (440 x 10)
- GFX: ASUS EN280 x 2 @ SLI (602/1296/1107)
- MOBO: XFX 780i P08 Bios
- RAM: Gskill F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ 2x2GB KIT @ 1000MHz CL5-5-5-12 2T
- Sound: Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro
- HDD: Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB
SLI on single monitor
SLI on multi-monitor (clone)
As you can see, the performance hit in conjunction to clone mode is notable but negligible for 3DMark Vantage which is pretty acceptable as the average FPS drop is only about 3~4 frames, which amounts to about 5% of performance loss.
Conclusion
Although Nvidia was short on their promises on the supposed date of September for delivering the "Big Bang II" driver, at least for now, we are sure that their engineers are working on it. Hopefully, they can iron out the limitations and issues before the actual "Big Bang II" drivers are delivered. And also, lets hope that they can get it done before October ends. You can download the x64 driver from our ftp server here.
We have drivers for Vista 32 and XP users too and the link will be provided through our newsletter. Sign up as a member if you are not one yet.
