Final thoughts
NVIDIA states that revision 180 of its ForceWare driver will ensure performance boosts in a variety of 3D applications, and it does exactly that.
There's a healthy performance increase to be had on numerous titles, but we wouldn't go as far as to call it a Big Bang. Instead, it's more of a subtle spark that, when coupled with lower prices, makes products such as the 216-cored GeForce GTX 260 an increasingly tempting prospect.
Prospective buyers should be aware, of course, that prices fluctuate on a daily basis. Our suggested price of £193 for a 216-cored Palit GeForce GTX 260 from Scan.co.uk is currently available for pre-order only and pricing could therefore change.
It's also worth noting that NVIDIA's big bangs don't happen all too often. AMD, on the other hand, has Catalyst driver updates rolled out on a monthly basis - often packing performance boosts of its own.
Adding additional complication to the mix is increasingly-promising multi-GPU performance. Each driver release from either team appears to add a little something to CrossFire and SLI, putting us now at a stage where multi-GPU performance is such that a pair of reasonably low-cost cards are able to out-perform a single £200 option. Take for example the recently-reviewed dual Radeon HD 4830 setup - a £200 CrossFire solution that we feel would best NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 260 in most titles, regardless of ForceWare version.
Let's not get sidetracked, though. There are a great selection of graphics options currently available, many of which offer ample performance.
What NVIDIA has done is taken its existing offerings, added useful new software features, increased overall performance, and ultimately made its products all the more appealing.
If you're a user of NVIDIA's GeForce 200-series, 9-series, or 8800-series graphics cards, the latest ForceWare drivers are highly recommended and available to download from NVIDIA.com.
