I just copied & pasted from: http://en.expreview.com/2010/06/30/nvidia-geforce-258-69-beta-drivers-released/7644.html#more-7644

New in Release 256 Drivers

Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0223.

*Adds support for OpenGL 4.0 for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs.

*Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.1 which includes significant performance increases for double precision math operations. See CUDA Zone *for more details.

*Adds support for new extreme Antialiasing modes for 3-way SLI PCs, including up to SLI48x AA for GeForce 200 series GPUs and up to SLI96x *AA for GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs.

*Adds support for a new ‘Quality’ mode for NVIDIA’s Ambient Occlusion control panel feature.

*Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel setup page for SLI and PhysX for ultimate control over multi-gpu configurations.

*Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel feature for ultimate control over CUDA GPUs, allowing the user to effectively choose which GPU will power each CUDA application.

Additional Information:

*Installs HD Audio driver version 1.0.10.1 (for supported GPUs).

*Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5.

*Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash 10.1. Learn more here.

*Supports the new version of MotionDSP’s video enhancement software, vReveal, which adds support for HD output. NVIDIA customers can *download a free version of vReveal that supports up to SD output here.

*Supports DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

*Supports OpenCL 1.0 ( Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

*Supports OpenGL 3.3 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.

*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 X58-based motherboards.

*Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-258.69-beta-driver.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-32bit-258.69-beta-driver.html

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Another Beta is available - Version 26063 (Windows) bringing CUDA 3.2

NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 470 (driver version 26063, CUDA version 3020, compute capability 2.0, 1280MB, 1219 GFLOPS peak)

The new installation screen, with options, is much better; you could chose to keep your existing sound driver or do a clean install (remove settings - good if you are changing your card).

I expect this adds support for the latest Fermi cards (GTS450, and many OEM cards).

A quick look at the returns from a GTX480 suggests that all tasks are slightly faster:
Four different task types were faster by, 0.5%, 1.5%, 3.6% and 5.0%.

Is it safe to upgrade driver part way through a workuit? Currently using driver version 25721 (from Boinc message tab) going to upgrade to 258.96 released on 2010.07.19

As long as you stop the BOINC client before you do, & reboot before you restart the client, but if you want to be 100%, you'd better wait until it's finished (don't receive need WU's) & then update the driver. But I usually don't bother being that paranoid, as WU's can fail no matter what.

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As long as you stop the BOINC client before you do, & reboot before you restart the client, but if you want to be 100%, you'd better wait until it's finished (don't receive need WU's) & then update the driver. But I usually don't bother being that paranoid, as WU's can fail no matter what.

Shut Boinc down updated driver, everything was fine thanks for guidance.

As long as you stop the BOINC client before you do, & reboot before you restart the client, but if you want to be 100%, you'd better wait until it's finished (don't receive need WU's) & then update the driver. But I usually don't bother being that paranoid, as WU's can fail no matter what.

Shut Boinc down updated driver, everything was fine thanks for guidance.

Still use the 258.xx* drivers and CUDA 3.1, any paticular reason to switch inmediatly, speed INcrease, stability, which is already OK with the 258
drivers.
* forgot the exact number, but it's no bêta-driver.
Running on an QX9650, not OC'ed and have a GTX480 & 470 graphic 'AID', WIN XP64
Pro.BOINC 6.10.58(64BIT)
So, no need to UPDate, a.s.a.p. :)

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Knight Who Says Ni N!