Download Driver For nVidia ForceWare 158.18 beta

Yesterday nVidia released a new beta driver for Windows Vista. The driver has been assigned version number 158.18 and is suitable for all GeForce 6xxx, 7xxx and 8xxx model video cards. However, support for GeForce Go models is not available. nVidia recommends laptop users to harass their manufacturer for drivers for Windows Vista. Users with a GeForce FX are advised to continue using driver version 96.85. The changelog for this release shows the following changes:

New Features

• Adds support for GeForce 8600 GTS, GeForce 8600 GT, and GeForce 8500 GT, GeForce 8400 GS, and GeForce 8300 GS GPUs.
• Increased performance in 3D applications.
• Pure Video HD support.
• Add support for forcing Vertical Sync in DirectX applications.
• Updated nVidia Control Panel with improved user interface (Please see the Release Notes for more details).
• Numerous game and application compatibility fixes (see below for some of the top issues).

Key Bug Fixes

• Fixed numerous “Display driver has stopped responding” error messages.
• “This is not Vista” error message appears when installing Windows Vista 32-bit drivers on a Windows Vista 64-bit operating system. The error message did not indicate which operating system (32-bit or 64-bit) is installed. nVidia has fixed the installer error message to better tell the end user which version of Windows Vista drivers and operating system are running.
• Warhammer 40k Dawn of War (all versions) has driver error message and does not run.
• The gamma and brightness controls in the nVidia Control Panel Adjust Desktop Color Settings page do not function or affect the desktop appearance consistently.
• GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS, Windows Vista Ultimate Edition: Text in the Ultimate Game:Hold’em flashes at the start of the game.
• GeForce 8800 GTX: Elder Scrolls: Oblivion–nVidia Control Panel antialiasing does not work when HDR is enabled.
• GeForce 8800 GTX: Half Life 2–fog is broken or misapplied. This fix requires the user to update their Valve Source-based games to the latest versions of the game engines.
• GeForce 8800 GTX: Splinter Cell Double Agent–there is corruption in the game.
• GeForce 8800 SLI: The system does not resume from S3 mode when SLI mode is enabled.
• GeForce 8600/GeForce 7900 GTX SLI: “Display driver has stopped responding” error message appears when changing the resolution, or when resuming from Standby\Hibernate.
• GeForce 8800 GTX: The Windows Experience Index tool crashes when trying to refresh the system score in Windows Vista 64-bit.
• Please view the driver Release Notes for a list of all of the fixed issues in this driver release.

[break]The following downloads are available:
nVidia ForceWare 158.18 beta for Windows Vista (32-bit)
nVidia ForceWare 158.18 beta for Windows Vista (64-bit)[break]