NVIDIA Verde to sync up desktop and laptop GPU driver releases, generate smiles galore

Good news, mobile gamers -- NVIDIA's looking out for you and yours, and if you're tired of lobbying to Congress about the inequities between driver releases for desktop GPUs and driver releases for mobile GPUs, you can finally move on to some other just cause. NVIDIA's Verde driver program has been a relative success over the years, but it's about to become a lot more gnarly when the company outs its 256 Series drivers in a few months. At that time, NVIDIA plans to "completely unify its GPU drivers, so mobile and desktop users will be able to get the latest releases simultaneously." Users won't find the desktop and laptop drivers in the same package, but we're sure each one will be clearly marked on the download page. It's worth noting, however, that these unified releases will only work with laptops featuring discrete GPUs, hybrid solutions utilizing NVIDIA-branded IGPs and Optimus-enabled machines; rigs with multi-vendor solutions (like the Alienware M11x, which uses an integrated set from Intel) won't be allowed to join the party.

In related news, the upcoming release of the 197.16 driver for laptops will bring along support for external displays with 3D Vision, enabling 3D Vision-ready laptops to pipe 3D content to 3D Vision-ready LCDs with ease. Good news all around, but you'll have to give those links below a visit if you're hungry for more.

[Quu Posted Apr 26th 2010 3:45PM]

It's about time.

[hdawggy Posted Apr 26th 2010 3:48PM]

Hmmm interesting concept....

[Decoy Posted Apr 26th 2010 3:48PM]

So one group waits more? Smiles all round.

[JeremyBenthem Posted Apr 26th 2010 3:48PM]

This has been possible for years on custom-made drivers, they even come in one package for all so nVIDIA is still behind

[One Love Posted Apr 26th 2010 3:49PM]

3D = NO.

[loocas Posted Apr 26th 2010 4:04PM]

@One Love Actually 3D == 61

[anexanhume Posted Apr 26th 2010 4:06PM]

@One Love Actually 3D = DDD

[JeremyBenthem Posted Apr 26th 2010 10:21PM]

@anexanhume
3D = B-(

[John Doe Posted Apr 26th 2010 3:53PM]

About fracking time. I was about to fly to Taiwan or where ever Nvidia is and beat someone. For the longest time I had to load up an old set of drivers when I wanted to play STO and then upgrade them when I wanted to play LFD2, etc. Then downgrade when I wanted to do STO again. Dang frame rate sucked butt on newer drivers.
All because the mobile GPU drivers hadn't reached parity with the desktop ones. GRRR.

[r3loaded Posted Apr 26th 2010 4:16PM]

The bit on 197.16 is old news, I've been running it for at least a month now.

[truthslayer Posted Apr 26th 2010 4:24PM]

Is my 7600 GO at all supported by Verde, or do I still need to look elsewhere?

[cdf74dc9 Posted Apr 26th 2010 4:28PM]

I'm still waiting for mobile 4xx series, and it better not be rebranded.

[Sogeking Posted Apr 26th 2010 5:13PM]

Meanwhile, ATi still redirects us to the laptop manufacturer's websites. With drivers that haven't been updated for years.

[Prevacator Posted Apr 26th 2010 6:39PM]

Me and my 240m are quite happy right now.

[HellFlyer Posted Apr 26th 2010 8:44PM]

Good , so now if there is another problem with desktop drivers that fry GPU's we will see fried laptops as well :D

[LANjackal Posted Apr 27th 2010 11:19AM]

Unless I'm mistaken, isn't this already the case for ATI? Nvidia's got some catching up to do, especially in the DirectX11 space.

[Adamv Posted Apr 27th 2010 1:31PM]

But my Samsung R580 running 310M doesn't even let me use the Nvidia.com drivers :(. I have to go to Samsung.com. Anyone got a work around? Sounds like my card won't even apply to this though because it can't even use the Flash 10.1 driver + plugin. Sad things about an otherwise AMAZING laptop.

[archkron Posted Apr 27th 2010 1:37PM]

I don't trust nVidia drivers now. Not after 196.75.

I don't want my video card on fire.