Ok, so today a new driver from Nvidia was released, it's a WHQL, and it says that boosts up to 45% more performance in Skyrim. Have you try it ?

Download for Windows 7 x64: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-295.73-whql-driver.html

I'm about to try it out, but keep in mind that this improvement was also present in the latest beta driver and it has been measured on a GTX 560, as Nvidia states here:

"Increases performance by up to 45% in http://www.geforce.com/GamesandApps/games/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/GPUanolyzer (measured with GeForce GTX 560 at 1080p Ultra settings in indoor scenes vs. 285.62)."

I will do a test in the next 15 mins... just downloading the drivers so need to uninstall old and install new. I will edit this post when done.

Before- (Standing on Dragonreach looking down on tree) - Ultra Settings, shadows on High, with 50+ texture mods. I turned off vsync for testing.

68-70 FPS
97-98% GPU usage

After -

75-76fps
97-99% GPU usage

So an extra 7 fps makes me happy.

After with Skyboost r5-

No improvement, I keep reloading the save I had to see and in many cases it was lowering my FPS down to anywhere between 71-74fps. I'm better off without it. I'm not really CPU limited with a i5-2500k at 4.3Ghz.

The 295 beta didn't play nice with Steam. It'd be nice if someone could confirm if the official release has had that fixed. The 290 betas are the ones with Skyrim improvements, not 295.

Friendly reminder: If you use Performance AO remember the new driver will reset this to Skyrim setting which will give you tons of flickering. If you can handle just a little bit less AO effect you should use: nvidiaInspector AO setting of: Call of Duty 6:Modern Warfare II.

You'll get almost no flickering and still some AO.

Thanks for the tip. I just used these settings and no flickering on foliage which is very distracting.

However, while running around I go from 62fps to 52fps up and down so I had to turn this off

Downloading it now and I will give it a try... Funny it does state a SLI profile for TESV?

Yeah enabling AO of any kind will incur a FPS drop, although switching between the "skyrim" and "cod:mw2" settings will not effect this. It is enabling it in the first place that causes the drop, and of course Quality setting looks best but that causes a very large fps drop not acceptable by most people even with very solid systems.

Will try this later. Thanks for notifying us!

I have finished testing the new driver and on my system it didnt make a lot of difference, so minimal it was not noticed. I tried in town and out of town viewing distant
landscapes looking for any flickering. I have the HD texture pack installed so when I have the AO enabled my frame rates hit the toilet. So I have turned off AO and will stick with the HD texture pack.
Conclusion: My video cards are to old to appreciate the new drivers, I will stay with the 285.xx drivers.

What's the best way to uninstall the old drivers? I usually use CCleaner to uninstall things, but looking at the list of things to uninstall for Nvidia, I had the following: (note I don't use 3D)

NVIDIA 3D Vision Controller Driver 295.51
NVIDIA 3D Vision Driver 295.51
NVIDIA Graphics Driver 295.51
NVIDIA HD Audio Driver 1.3.12.0
NVIDIA PhysX System Sogtware 9.12.0203
NVIDIA Update 1.7.9

Just uninstall everything? And if so, any particular order?

OK, back on earth...

That performance increase is if you are updating from last WHQL driver (285). Those performance increases have already been applied in the Beta drivers since. So if you are going from latest Beta to 295 WHQL, you likely won't see any increase. They don't claim otherwise, but the wording in the release notes may leave some to think there will be a boost since latest Beta. My benchmark tests show no increase with 295.17 over latest Beta.

Besides, the original performance increase numbers were "enthusiastic" (to be kind). These were under optimal situations that would most benefit from extra gpu punch (as opposed to more cpu senstive environs), not overall.

I follow this: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=169555
Except for the deletion of folders they talk about in the thread. That's overkill.

Thank you sir.

Feels maybe a little better on our desktop.

I wonder what version of Skyrim they tested the drivers on, if it was pre-code compiler optimisations which we got in the 1.4 patch (negating the need for skyboost/tesval) .. Then maybe the drivers would have had a bigger performance boost on the game for them than we are seeing with the 1.4 patch of the game.

My system:
Athlon II 240- Dual core @2.8Ghz
4GB of RAM
GTX 460 768MB
1680 X 1050 PX
Everything maxed out except shadows and decals are on High. FPS in towns ~45. Outside towns and in dungeons 60 FPS

There wasn't a stealth update from Bethesda, was there? With these drivers the glow around nirnroots seems to be totally gone.

Someone else gotta confirm this!

I cant remember to be sure, but wasn't an old fix to Nirnroot glow gained by using Ambient Occlusion (think I saw it mentioned in relation to nirnroots in one of those injector topics; I dont use them so cant be certain) - The new drivers have now improved this beyond the beta drivers.

This is a new game but I had picked that nirnroot before and had the glow, not as bad as my 130 hour game but it was still apparent. Just saw the post above this, I have always used AO, and that is improved in these drivers as well, don't get the fickering shadows on vegetation when I am walking now. Maybe the AO has something to do with it. AO enhancements are in the release highlights.

I just installed the new ones and it said it overwrote the old ones so I left it as that. Couldn't be bothered with going into safe mode etc lol

I find it hard to believe that Nvidia expects people to go through that entire process. I got a fps boost anyway with new drivers just using their uninstall process.

Performance with ultra shadows enabled it a lot better for me now, doesn't lag in the dungeons and such and it used to really lag.

Is that upgrading from the normal release or the last beta?

You don't have to follow such steps. You can just install the new drivers without uninstalling the previous ones. But that doesn't remove all files, and you might get some leftovers that can cause trouble in certain rare times.
Following such procedures is more sure to get things real 'clean' manually, and it doesn't really take much time, perhaps 15-20 minutes.

290.53 to 295.73.