Driver Update: Nvidia GeForce/ION 190.56/190.18.03 Beta

Spread the love

Nvidia developers have released a new beta version of their GeForce/ION drivers, which are identified by version number 190.56 for Windows and 190.18.03 for Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. These drivers support video cards with a GeForce 8, 9, 100 and 200 series GPU or an ION GPU, in combination with Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris or Windows XP, Vista or 7 in both 32bit and 64bit performances. The list of changes looks like this:

NVIDIA OpenGL 3.0/3.1/3.2 Support for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris

Windows drivers version 190.56 and Linux drivers version 190.18.03 provide beta support for OpenGL 3.2 and GLSL 1.50 (as well as full OpenGL 3.0/3.1 and GLSL 1.30/1.40 support). The driver download links are at the bottom of this page.

OpenGL 3.2 Driver Release Notes

You will need one of the following graphics cards to get access to the OpenGL 3.2 and GLSL 1.50 functionality:

desktop:

    Quadro FX 370, 570, 1700, 3700, 4600, 4700×2, 4800, 5600, 5800, Quadro VX200, Quadro CX
    GeForce 8000 series or higher; Geforce G100, GT120, 130, 220, GTS 150, Geforce GTS 250, GeForce GTX 260, 280, 285 and 295, any ION based products.

notebook:

    Quadro FX 360M, 370M, 570M, 770M, 1600M, 1700M, 2700M, 3600M, 3700M
    GeForce 8000 series or higher

This driver supports all of OpenGL 3.2 and GLSL 1.50, except for the following:

  • Geometry shaders as part of the core. You can use the ARB_geometry_shader extension instead
  • glXCreateContextAttribsARB() does not yet support the GLX_CONTEXT_PROFILE_MASK_ARB attribute value. In order to create a Core profile context, call glXCreateContextAttribsARB(), request OpenGL 3.2 as the version, and leave the GLX_CONTEXT_PROFILE_MASK_ARB attribute out. In order to create an OpenGL 3.2 Compatibility profile context, call the “old” glXCreateContext() entrypoint. Note: wglCreateContextAttribsARB() does support WGL_CONTEXT_PROFILE_MASK_ARB.

This driver exposes the following new extensions:

For OpenGL 2.1 capable hardware:

  • ARB_fragment_coord_conventions
  • ARB_provoking_vertex
  • ARB_vertex_array_bgra
  • ARB_depth_clamp

For OpenGL 3 capable hardware:

  • WGL_ARB_create_context (updated to create profiles)
  • GLX_ARB_create_context (updated to create profiles)
  • GL_EXT_separate_shader_objects
  • GL_NV_parameter_buffer_object2
  • GL_NV_copy_image.txt

The OpenGL 3.2 and GLSL 1.50 specifications, as well as the extension specifications, can be downloaded here.

For any bugs or issues, please file a bug through the developer site.

Version number 190.56 beta
Release status beta
Operating systems Windows 7, Linux, BSD, Windows XP, Solaris, Windows XP x64, Windows Vista, Windows Vista x64
Website Nvidia
Download http://developer.nvidia.com/object/opengl_3_driver.html#dl
License type Freeware
You might also like