Edit:  
 
*******Do NOT Download************ 
 
Causing overheating in some games:  http://www.techpowerup.com/116797/GeForce_196.75_Drivers_Overheat_GPUs_on_Some_Applications.html. Stick with older drivers for now. 
 
 /edit
 
 

 
Usually nothing too special about driver updates, but I felt this one provided some rather significant performance boosts to popular games, and you guys would benefit in knowing: 
 

• Up to 13% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with a single GPU
• Up to 30% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with SLI technology
• Up to 13% performance increase in H.A.W.X with single GPU
• Up to 15% performance increase in H.A.W.X with SLI technology
• Up to 30% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with single GPU
• Up to 28% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with SLI technology

Yeah I'm installing it right now.  I saw something about Bad Company 2 so I figured I should get it. 

Sometimes I don't even notice much of a difference at all tbh.

When dealing with less powerful gaming computers, this kinda stuff tends to help out. It's just always effing hard to find the right ones. That's kinda what I don't like about nVidia.

thanks for posting, I just got a 9800 GT this weekend and was looking at getting some games, if I get a boost on Crysis I will order it tonight.

I am going to get this one after coming back from class. Thanks for the update.

Oh damn. Maybe the SLI will finally do some good for warhead. Thanks for the heads-up.

Thanks indeed for the heads up, I usually miss driver updates for months.

/cry
my second video card died recently so no SLI :(

is the crysis multiplayer community still active? i might reinstall.

I am thinking about revisiting warhead myself.

Is it just me or do these drivers decrease performance in BC2? I updated to these drivers and online play has been stuttery as hell.

Anything on improving WoW performance?! :P.

Blizzard are now recomending that people that use this driver to downgrade to the older version, apperantly it can cause overheating.

I want to warn all of our visitors who are participating in the StarCraft II Beta and play World of WarCraft to refrain from installing the latest NVIDIA WHQL 196.75 WHQL-certified drivers. If you already installed it, uninstall it and downgrade to the previous version. Yeah, it's that serious. Many players are reporting their PCs or graphic card have died. It also affects all Blizzard games, so heed the call and safe your hardware's life.

According to Blizzard's Tech Support the latest NVIDIA drivers are causing fan control to not work correctly and causes massive overheat. StarCraft II Beta might kill your PC or card literally. A fix is already in the works. Stay tuned for further updates.

	Blizzard Quote:
	We're getting reports where users are getting intermittent low FPS after installing these drivers. It seems that it is related to the fan control included in these drivers not working correctly and is causing the video card to overheat on 3D applications. This will affect Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 Beta. Please uninstall the drivers and revert back to the older ones. Windows XP: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_196.21_whql.html Windows XP 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_196.21_whql.html Windows Vista/7 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_32bit_196.21_whql.html Windows Vista/7 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_196.21_whql.html More information can be found on threads such as these: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=161525 http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=161503

 

Did they fix the bug that didn't allow for overclocking in the last release, or was that a "feature"?
 
I'm still going to stick with some old beta drivers until I find out. Those performance enhancements won't be enough to offset the crippling of my card.

Yeah there's definitely a driver bug with the fan control, specifically in Blizzard games for some reason.  http://www.techpowerup.com/116797/GeForce_196.75_Drivers_Overheat_GPUs_on_Some_Applications.html. This may lead to overheating of your graphics card, resulting in poor performance or even damage. 
 
Sorry guys, I wasn't aware at all of this bug on release. I suggest you revert to one of their older drivers if you are being affected by this bug. 

197.13 beta drivers are out, it has all of the changes in the 196.75 ones, without the overheating problem. Although I suppose it can't hurt to wait a couple days to see how it turns out.