Windows 7 users, Nvidia has something for you: a shiny new set of Microsoft-certified graphics drivers with support for DirectX 11 Compute Shader. The new drivers are available right now for both 32-bit versions and 64-bit versions of Windows 7.
Here’s the list of improvements and additions, in Nvidia’s words:
Adds WHQL support on Windows 7 for Microsoft’s new DirectX GPU Computing API: DirectCompute. Optimized for the latest PhysX gaming titles: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Darkest of Days. Installs PhysX System Software version 9.09.0814.
You can peruse detailed release notes here. In a press release announcing the new driver set, Nvidia also notes that Windows 7 users with SLI multi-GPU systems can expect a performance gain of as much as 14% over Vista in "top gaming titles." That might apply to the platform in general rather than this specific driver release, though.
Demos of DirectX 11 Compute Shader (or DirectCompute, as Nvidia calls it) in action are available through this page. In a way, DirectCompute is Microsoft’s answer to OpenCL—a vendor-agnostic programming interface for general-purpose computing on graphics hardware. There are differences between the two approaches, though, as we learned when talking to the Khronos Group’s president earlier this month.
umm…I’m getting a bit confused here. Isn’t compute shader a dx11-only feature?
Yes, ComputeShader is DX11-only. It does not require DX11-specific hardware, however, which might have been what you were trying to ask.
From Legitreviews’ summary of an AMD presentation:http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1001/1/<]§
q[
DirectCompute sounds like a logical name, but what will this accomplish (right now or whenever)?
Is there a list of applications you can expect something from, using this tech?
Its just an API for creating apps that run off the GPU.
You can also use it to calculate physics using the GPU in games(like physx), which seems to be its biggest feat.
So I guess this is Microsoft’s answer to things like CUDA and openCL, etc.
This is the GPGPU API race, lol.
I know what it is.
I believe you.
The internet is serious business.
In theory, Video transcoding could be greatly helped by a GPGPU performing certain calculations… If someone released PVR software that could do transcoding on the GPU I’d switch in a heartbeat; some days I just record too much crap to have it transcoded during down hours and I don’t want to pay for a new CPU. If the PVR App could balance things out right I could see this being used to handle transcoding while doing other tasks just fine.
That, and I’ve pondered switching from BeyondTV a few times now, just to see what else is out there…
It works for password crakers, makes unbreakable encryptions bruteforceable 😀
so does this have any practical implications on current gen games?
I’m guessing this could be used to make PhysX enabled titles run on any GPU regardless of vendor, but I doubt Nvidia would be too happy about that.
Just a WAG, but WDDM 1.1 might be to thank for the multi-GPU speedups. Lots of things were re-evaluated and re-implemented, generally to the positive.
I’ve been having troubles with these past few drivers from nvidia. I keep getting a ‘system has not been modified’ message. Only way to get the drivers to install is manually uninstall the older drivers then install the new ones. It’s a huge pain in the arse. Running Vista64 btw.
Nvidia explicitly directs you to manually uninstall the old drivers. Unless you mean uninstalling them through add/remove programs doesn’t work. Even then opening up device manager isn’t a big deal either. You should be happy you got by without any problems so far. I also use vista64 btw and I haven’t had any problems.
I’ve always installed over the old drivers. Last one that let me do that was I think 182.50
So you disregard the instructions then complain when it doesn’t work?
Yes, since the way I’ve been doing it has worked since my Ti4200 back in 2004. Which is installing new drivers over the old drivers without uninstalling them. Nvidia should cater to my needs.
Well it’s too bad it didn’t work for you in this case but I still don’t get complaining about it or why you don’t want to uninstall previous drivers. Which ‘needs’ exactly are they not catering to? Seem like it’s the need to be lazy to me 😀
That’s a *[
ATI says it’s fine.
It’s perfectly fine.
I’ve been doing it for 6 or 7 years and there hasn’t been a problem yet.
Worked just fine for me for 3 or 4 years too.
I know it’s evil, but I hate re-updating all the settings in NV cpl, it’s enough that icons are messed up every time.
Call it progress or whatever, but Windows 7 doesn’t even bother to notify you at all once you select to download the drivers. All you see is a couple of flashes while it installs them automatically. No restart either, just a small balloon saying “your updates were installed successfully”.
A couple driver revisions ago I tried the same thing with Vista 64 and it was a pain getting everything working properly again after it completely borked up the video driver. Conversely, with Windows 7, the nvidia uninstaller always crashes out, and manually uninstalling the video card in device manager prevents the new driver’s installer from working. Thankfully, just installing the new driver over the old one seems to work.
On one computer, I got that message too, but strangely enough the version was updated upon checking the nV Control Panel.
On my own computer it has always worked without as much as a shadow of a flaw.
You might be running OS in a not so common language profile(I have the same problem and I use EN W7 + Jap non-unicode + Litunainian regional settings)
The problem lies with drivers setup trying to run Physix setup. If you set everything to english-US that should solve the problem ..
Alternatively .. unpack drivers exe, rename Physix installer, run driver update .. it will install without Physix just fine,
And then run Physix setup .. its a problem that nvidia never got round to solving since 182+ smth (ok one version of 185 smth worked) at least thats what I observed on W7.
As for uninstalllin … you dont NEED to uninstall old versions (both ati and nvidia clamed so – no links sorry) and under W7 .. its not even possible in, an easy way atleast, since you uninstall, restart, and then W7 on next start up will install the latest driver from its repositpory (usually the same that you just uninstalled). You could delete the driver form the reposiutory but then again .. it would just install the default one (180.17 or smth).
There must be some kind of multi-GPU optimization in Windows 7 – ATi had a similar claim with their last release, too.
ya I’ve seen a few benchmarks with windows 7 and multi-gpus. Windows 7 shows a definitive performance advantage over Vista and xp with multi-gpus but not with single gpu configurations.
woot first again!! im kicking ass at this!!! also, i like 14% improvements on my win 7!