Nvidia has released a new version of the 306 beta GeForce/Ion drivers. The drivers are suitable for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 and as usual there are separate downloads for 32bit and 64bit environments. The changelog mentions things we already saw in the 305 release, such as support for the GeForce GTX 660 Ti and TXAA, a new and better way of anti-aliasing, only supported by the GeForce 600 family. In addition, performance improvements over the 301.42 WHQL release are promised and several new or updated sli and 3d vision profiles are included.
GPU Support
- Supports the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti GPU.
- Legacy Support Notification: GeForce 6-series and GeForce 7-series GPUs will be moved to legacy support after GeForce R304 drivers. GeForce R310 drivers (the next major family of drivers) will not support these products.
Adds support for nVidia TXAA
- nVidia TXAA is new film-style anti-aliasing technique designed specifically to reduce temporal aliasing (crawling and flickering in motion) through a combination of hardware AA, custom CG film style AA resolve, and a temporal filter.
- The Secret World is the first game to support TXAA. Read about it on GeForce.com.
- TXAA is supported on GeForce GTX 600-series Kepler-based GPUs.
Performance Boost
Increases performance for GeForce 400/500/600 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 301.42 WHQL certified drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
GeForce GTX 680:
- Up to 18% in Batman: Arkham City
- Up to 15% in Dragon Age II
- Up to 10% in STALKER: Call of Pripyat
- Up to 60% in Total War: Shogun 2 (fixes performance issue with latest game patch)
GeForce GTX 560:
- Up to 14% in Batman: Arkham City
- Up to 5% in Battlefield 3 with SLI
- Up to 4% in Dragon Age II
- Up to 8% in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings with SLI
- Up to 7% in Lost Planet 2
Adds or updates the following SLI profiles:
- Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – added
- Borderlands 2 – added
- Darksiders 2 – added
- End of Nations – added
- F1 2011 – updated
- F1 2012 – added
- Final Fantasy XIV – Updated
- Nexuiz – added
- Orcs Must Die! 2 – added
- PlanetSide 2 – updated
- Saints Row: The Third – updated
- Shogun 2: Total War – Updated
- Sleeping Dogs – added
- Spec Ops: The Line – added
- The Secret World – updated
- Torchlight II – added
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier – added
- Tornado Force – added
- Tribes: Ascend – updated
Adds or updates the following 3D Vision profiles:
- Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – rated Not Recommended
- A New Dawn – rated Fair
- All Zombies Must Die! Scorepocalypse – rated Good
- ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead – Rated Fair
- Bang Bang Racing – rated Excellent
- Borderlands 2 – updated profile with new convergence settings
- Brave – rated 3D Vision Ready
- Devil May Cry 4-rated Fair
- Depth Hunter – updated rating to 3D Vision Ready
- Dishonored – rated Good
- End of Nations – rated Good
- London 2012 The Official Video Game – rated Fair
- Mad Doc Jr.’s Doom Rails – rated Excellent
- Mass Effect 3 – updated in-game compatibility message and profile to be more compatible with community 3D mods
- Max Payne 3 – updated rating to Excellent and updated in-game compatibility message to inform users to use DirectX 11, disable MSAA and use SSA0.
- Raiderz – rated Fair
- Roller Coaster Rampage – rated 3D Vision Ready
- SCANIA Truck Driving Simulator – Rated Fair
- Street Fighter X Tekken – rated 3D Vision Ready
- Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends – rated Good
- Tiger Woods PGA 12: The Masters – rated Good
- Tribes: Ascend – rated Fair
- The Secret World – rated Good
- The Walking Dead – Rating Good
Other Profile Updates
- Added nVidia Control Panel antialiasing support for Diablo III
- Added nVidia Control Panel antialiasing support for LA Noire
- Added nVidia Control Panel antialiasing support for Rayman Origins
- Added nVidia Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Added nVidia Control Panel ambient occlusion support Counter-strike: Global Offensive
- Added nVidia Control Panel ambient occlusion support MechWarrior Online
- Added nVidia Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Guild Wars 2
- Disabled FXAA for several Windows programs like Media Player and Movie Maker.
nVidia Surround
- Surround settings now persisted after new driver overinstall.
nVidia CUDA
- Includes support for applications built using CUDA 5 Preview or earlier version of the CUDA Toolkit. More information at
Key Fixes
- Fixes an intermittent vsync stuttering issue with GeForce GTX 600-series GPUs.
- Fixes an issue where some manufacturer’s factory overclocked cards default to and run at lower clocks.
- Fixes a performance issue in Total War: Shogun 2 with the latest game patch.
Additional Details
- Installs PhysX System Software v9.12.0604.
- Installs HD Audio v1.3.18.0.
- Supports OpenGL 4.3 for GeForce 400-series and later GPUs.
- Supports DisplayPort 1.2 for GeForce GTX 600 series GPUs.
- Supports multiple languages and APIs for GPU computing: CUDA C, CUDA C++, CUDA Fortran, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and Microsoft C++ AMP.
- 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 and AMD motherboards.
The following downloads are available:
nVidia ForceWare 306.02 beta for Windows XP (32bit)
nVidia ForceWare 306.02 beta for Windows XP / 2003 Server (64bit)
nVidia ForceWare 306.02 beta for Windows Vista / 7 / 8 (32bit)
nVidia ForceWare 306.02 beta for Windows Vista / 7 / 8 (64bit)
| Version number | 306.02 beta |
| Release status | beta |
| Operating systems | Windows 7, Windows 7 x64, Windows XP, Windows XP x64, Windows Vista, Windows Vista x64 |
| Website | nVidia |
| Download | |
| File sizes |
103.00MB – 175.00MB |
| License type | Freeware |