The PC Report

Nvidia has just pumped out a new iteration of drivers for their GeForce and ION graphics cards. Version 196.75 adds support for the next generation ION chipsets as well as the new GT 300-series OEM graphics cards (not to be confused with the upcoming GTX 400s), as well as SLI and multi-GPU support for many recently released and upcoming games. Oh, and there’s the usual game performance improvements and bug fixes.

Grab the new drivers straight from the Nvidia website. Full release notes below

Update: It has been reported that these latest Nvidia drivers (196.75) in some cases do not control the graphics card fans automatically and can cause your graphics card to fry. We advise you to roll-back your drivers to the previous version until this bug is fixed.

Update 2: Nvidia has pulled these drivers amid the complaints that it fries graphics cards.

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember that Windows 7 Activation Technologies update we mentioned a few weeks ago? Well, it’s now out for everyone as KB971033 via Windows Update marked as Important. Take it or leave it, it’s entirely up to you.

ATI has pumped out their latest drivers for their graphics cards, Catalyst 10.2, bringing a few big additions (unlike some of the last drivers). 10.2 packs a lot of new features for those who have a CrossFireX setup; application profiles are now supported, ATI PowerPlay power saving technology will now work if you have a CrossFireX setup with some HD 5000 series cards and ATI Eyefinity is supported as well on HD 5000 series CrossFireX setups.

In non-CrossFire news, DisplayPort audio is now supported as well as openSUSE 11.2. For the full list of benefits as well as what they do, check below. Otherwise go ahead and download the drivers from the usual source.

Read the rest of this entry »

A new Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7 is coming that is said to check for 70 known activation exploits. The update will be optional, but marked as Important in Windows Update when it is distributed later this month. You will also be able to get a copy via the Genuine Windows site starting from February 16th. The update is said to not jeopardise user’s privacy by giving Microsoft’s servers personal details.

If it turns out that you have used an activation exploit and it is found via the update, it will notify you that you have a non-genuine copy of Windows and change your desktop wallpaper to plain black. Periodically it will also remind you that your copy is pirated and you will be stuck with a permanent watermark on your desktop.

If you have an ATI graphics card then now is the time to update your drivers to 10.1 – the first batch of the year. Not much has been improved upon this time around except for the usual bug fixes, but production support for Ubuntu 9.10 has been added. To grab the drivers, head over to the AMD website as usual. Stay tuned, because the next few Catalyst updates are said to contain “major features.”

The latest graphics card drivers from Nvidia are out now for the taking. 196.21 packs SLI support for a large number of the latest games (including unreleased games such as Mass Effect 2) as well as the usual bug fixes. The drivers clock in at 98.4MB and are up for grabs via the Nvidia driver download page. Full release notes are below.

Read the rest of this entry »

The latest drivers for your ATI graphics cards have been released, version 9.12 – the last driver update for this year. Included in this update is support for the latest DirectCompute and OpenGL versions, as well as a huge heap of Catalyst Control Center changes for the Linux version. You can download the drivers here; check out the full list of updates below:

Read the rest of this entry »

The latest graphics card drivers for your Nvidia graphics cards, 195.62, is now available from the Nvidia website. The new drivers, like the most recent ATI drivers, include support for the Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta’s GPU-acceleration for smoother HD videos on the web. They also include the latest version of OpenCL (1.0) and support for SLI/multi-GPU cards in the latest games.

Read the rest of this entry »

You might have been enjoying the nice multi-touch feel of your Apple Magic Mouse on your Mac, however when trying the mouse out on a Windows machine you would have been disappointed to find that it didn’t work. Not any more, as it appears as though some hackers ripped the drivers straight out of the Bootcamp update for all to enjoy. The drivers work from Windows XP (32-bit) right up to Windows 7 and you can grab them now from UneasySilence.

As usual, the monthly updates for ATI graphics cards continues with the released of the ATI Catalyst 9.11 drivers for this month. The drivers mainly feature support for the Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta, which adds GPU hardware acceleration to H.264-encoded flash videos as well as some other video formats. You can grab the latest drivers from the ATI website right now.

Read the rest of this entry »