GeForce 290.53 Beta Drivers Improve Skyrim Performance

Just a quick update for ROG GeForce users: Nvidia recently announced its GeForce 290.53 beta drivers that improve Skyrim performance (GeForce.com has some comparative benchmarks) and add additional SLI and 3D Vision profiles for new releases like (the awesome) Trine 2. If you're still playing through the 300-odd hours of adventuring in Skyrim or bounding around the beautiful levels of Trine, then it's an update you'll certainly want to try. The full release notes are as follows:

Optimizations For The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

• Increases performance by up to 25% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vs. 290.36 drivers (measured with GeForce GTX 560 at 19x10 Ultra – Indoor Scene). Results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and in-game location.
• Updates the NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to a higher performance profile.
• Added new 3D Vision laser sight /crosshair options to better match Skyrim crosshairs.

NVIDIA SLI

Adds the following SLI profiles:

• Afterfall: InSanity
• Trine 2
• WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship 2011

3D Vision

Added or updated the following 3D Vision game profiles:

• The Adventures Of Tintin: The Game – Rated 3D Vision Ready
• Ignite – Rated Good
• Orcs Must Die! – Rated Good
• PT Boats: Knights Of The Sea – Rated Good
• PT Boats: South Gambit – Rated Good
• Stronghold 3 – Rated Good
• Trine 2 – Rated 3D Vision Ready

Key Bug Fixes

• Fixes some random instances of triangular artifacts when playing Battlefield 3 (fix is now enabled for GeForce 400 and 500 series GPUs).
• Fixes a default panel resolution-timing bug in 290.36.