NVIDIA Releases 358.50 Game Ready Drivers For Star Wars Battlefront

Due for wide release tomorrow is the Star Wars Battlefront Beta, a technical test for the game being run ahead of the game’s full launch in November. As is often the case for major game releases, NVIDIA is pushing out another Game Ready WHQL driver release for Battlefront, this time with version 358.50.

The big news in this release is of course improved support for the Battlefront beta. However as this is also the first driver release from the R358 branch, 358.50 also contains several other improvements. On the API side of matters, R358 adds support for the OpenGL ARB’s previously announced 2015 ARB extensions, as well as support for OpenGL ES 3.2. Furthermore NVIDIA has made some improvements to GameWorks VR, further knocking out bugs and improving VR SLI support.

Meanwhile on the Windows 10 front, this driver release finally resolves the issues utilizing SLI and the NVENC encoder at the same time, meaning ShadowPlay and GameStream now work with SLI setups. Support for stereo rendering under DirectX 12 with an SLI setup has also been added, making this the first time we’ve seen stereo rendering under DirectX 12 addressed. On the other hand Fermi owners hoping to find WDDM 2.0 support in this driver release will be disappointed, as a quick check finds that Fermi cards continue to use the WDDM 1.3 path under Windows 10.

Finally, NVIDIA’s release notes make an unusual mention of “Added controls for forcing the use of the integrated graphics processor or the NVIDIA GPU on Optimus notebooks.” Though at this point we’re a bit unsure why this note is in here since NVIDIA has offered Optimus GPU selection controls for some time now.

As usual, you can grab the drivers for all current desktop and mobile NVIDIA GPUs over at NVIDIA’s driver download page.

NVIDIA Launches “Bullets or Blades” Geforce Bundle – Assassin’s Creed Syndicate or Rainbow Six Siege

The beginning of last month concluded NVIDIA’s Summer GeForce Game Bundle. The months to come bring a rush of big budget games fighting to squeeze in before the holiday season. For many of us new games means a desire for new hardware to play those games on, and in traditional fashion NVIDIA has lined up a new game bundle to coincide with these new game releases.

Launching for the fall is NVIDIA’s “Bullets or Blades” bundle. This bundle gives gamers the choice between two of the major titles coming this fall season, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will be the latest iteration in the long running and acclaimed series, and this time features a pair of twins working their craft in the historic streets London, England during the industrial revolution.  Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege brings sieges into the classic Rainbow Six formula, allowing enemies to transform their environment into a modern stronghold, with the further addition of destructible environments to alter how players go about breaching defenses. Furthermore both games have received GameWorks enhancements, though NVIDIA hasn’t specified which effects libraries are being used in either game.

This bundle is available to purchasers of the GTX 970, GTX 980, GTX 980Ti and notebooks purchased with a GTX 970M or higher, which would include the GTX 980 for notebooks that we just covered a couple of weeks ago. Of note this bundle doesn’t include the GeForce GTX Titan X, and meanwhile NVIDIA’s existing Heroes of the Storm bundle for the GTX 960 and GTX 950 is unaffected.

Those wishing to participate are encouraged by NVIDIA to check the product description of the item they are purchasing to ensure that the seller is participating in the “Bullets or Blades” GeForce GTX bundle, as NVIDIA cannot provide codes and coupons for purchases made at non-participating retailers and e-tailers. Per the terms and conditions this bundle is valid in all regions excluding China and will be running from today (October 6th, 2015) until December 15th (or “while supplies last”) and the game codes will expire on December 31st. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will be coming to PC on November 19th and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege will be released on December 1st.

AMD Announces FirePro Mobile W7170M, W5170M, & W5130M

In what’s turning out to be a busy week for mobile workstation announcements, AMD is announcing this week that they are launching three new FirePro Mobile parts. This latest announcement roughly coincides with the announcement of new mobile work…