173.14.05 for Linux x86/x86-64 released

[AaronP]

Release Highlights:

• Added support for the following new GPUs:
  • Quadro FX 3600M
  • GeForce 9800 GX2
  • GeForce 9800 GTX
  • GeForce 9600 GT
  • GeForce 9600 GSO
  • GeForce 9600 GS
  • GeForce 9500M GS
  • GeForce 8400
  • GeForce 8400 GS
• Added support for Quadro FX 5600/4600 SDI and Quadro G-Sync II.
• Resolved a bug causing left and right eyes to be reversed in stereo mode on some Quadro FX GPUs.
• Fixed a problem that caused OpenGL to stop rendering to windows with origins at or beyond 4096 pixels (horizontally) on GeForce 8 and 9 GPUs.
• Fixed a bug causing some Quadro FX 4500 SDI configurations to take a long time to achieve synchronization.
• Added preliminary support for X.Org server 1.5.
• Addressed a problem causing visual corruption when using GeForce 8 GPUs to drive Chi Mei 56" displays.
• Addressed visual corruption when driving Cintiq 20WSX wide format tables with some GeForce 6 and 7 GPUs.
• Fixed OpenGL rendering corruption with textures compressed using the DXT5 compression algorithm.
• Fixed a regression that caused invalid EDIDs to be detected for the internal display device on some notebooks.
• Improved hotkey switching and power management support on some GeForce 8 notebooks.
• Fixed a regression causing some GeForce 6100/6150 systems to fail to restore the screen after DPMS cycles.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the console from being restored correctly in SLI mode on GeForce 6 and 7 GPUs.
• Fixed interlaced modes on GeForce 8 GPUs.
• Fixed a problem that caused the synchronization signal polarity to always be positive for DVI devices on GeForce 8 and 9 GPUs.
• Resolved a problem resulting in X startup to fail on some GeForce 8 and 9 systems without swap space.
• Fixed a bug resulting in X crashes when using GeForce 8 and 9 GPUs in SLI to drive X screens at depth 8.
• Fixed a problem that caused TV output on secondary TVs to be black and white on some GPUs.
• Restored compatibility with recent Linux 2.6 kernels.

The 173.14.05 NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for Linux/x86 is available for download via HTTP and FTP.
The 173.14.05 NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for Linux/x86-64 is available for download via HTTP and FTP.

Please see the README (x86, x86-64) for more information about this release.

Please note: This NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release supports GeForceFX and newer NVIDIA GPUs, GeForce4 and older GPUs are supported through the 96.43.xx and 71.86.xx NVIDIA legacy graphics drivers.

Please also note: If you encounter any problems with the 173.14.05 NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release, please start a new thread and include a detailed description of the problem, reproduction steps and generate/attach an nvidia-bug-report.log file (please see http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46678 for details).

[zander]

The attached patch allows the 173.14.05 NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release to be used with Linux 2.6.26 pre-release kernels. Please see http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=110088 for general patching instructions.

Please note: this patch is provided as-is and may not work on all systems/configurations; use it at your own risk.

[AaronP]

As was mentioned in the 173.08 beta release, 173.14.05 contains support for an experimental glyph cache on the GeForce 8 and 9 series that may improve anti-aliased font rendering performance. This support can be enabled by running nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 -a GlyphCache=1.

In addition, 173.14.05 added a new X config file option, PixmapCacheSize. This option, when combined with the InitialPixmapPlacement and GlyphCache options described above, is designed to improve performance in applications that rapidly allocate and free small pixmaps, such as gtkperf and Mozilla Firefox. Please see the README for details on exactly what this option does and how to use it.